Prologue

    I can feel the heat surrounding us. I am not old enough to have a wolf so my skin is nipped sharply by the flames. My mother and father surround me in their wolf forms. Just then, my father nuzzles me up onto mother’s back and urges her forward, jumping across the line of fire. Papa follows suit. 

    As we eye our escape and fresh air ahead, a band of rogue male wolves block our path. Father sideswipes them and clears the way for my mother to lurch forward at full speed. She stops and turns to find her mate. 

    They make painful eye contact as my father is attacked from all sides. They’re mind linking which I cannot hear and just then my mother starts to walk backwards, halting to take one more look at her mate and then turns to run for our lives.

    She runs for what feels like forever until we find a peaceful stream. Mom’s wolf, Eve, laps at the water almost choking at the desperation of her thirst. I sit quietly by the stream, not quite understanding the events that unfolded through the night. I am only five. 

    Feeling vulnerable, I watch Eve’s expression. She lays with her head between her velvet paws and whimpers. She lost her mate. My father is gone. He saved us, that much I do understand. The hardest part is not fully knowing how it ended, who ended it and what became of him. Both of our hearts silently break. 

   As it nears dawn, Eve urges me onto her back once more and she takes off toward an unknown destination. We go until she cannot anymore. Shifting into human form, my mother collapses in exhaustion. There is no food or shelter in sight. Just then, I hear a noise rustling in the brush. We jolt up and take defensive stances; mom too weak to shift.