Chapter 3 - The survivors

We all sat in the simply built hall, eating our food in almost silence, apart from the occasional whispers or coughing, we all looked so defeated and empty. The room was bare, with just a few lamps on the white painted walls and mahogany tables set around the room, though only few of us filled them.

There was only one hundred of us here, which felt like nothing compared to the five hundred we had been used to mingling and living with every day on our pack. We didn’t know if they were all dead or if more got out but ran for the nearest human town instead of here, we didn’t even know what would become of us, where our future lay and if we’d ever be able to set foot on our old pack lands again. Everything had been ripped away in the blink of an eye and we had more questions than answers

Aunty Emma, Uncle Max and a few others kept suggesting we moved on, and at first I felt the same way. We could use our blending ability to our benefit and live within human territory. But it wasn’t as easy as it sounds, if we move, we have to cut off our wolves. No more shifting, no more running through a forest or laying out under the sun in our wolf form. We’d have to act and live without ever freeing that part of us, which was half of who we were, and we’d be slowly letting our wolves spirits die inside of us, seizing their existence. Our wolves would feel the pain and so would we. Not to mention, the chance of finding your fated mate were gone, nada, nothing! If we ever wanted to find love, we’d have to find it with a human and never reveal what we were and where we came from, and we knew right now, there was no one here that was fated to each other, apart from the few couples we had.

I had to act as Luna, although I felt far from deserving that title, in fact, it was never given to me, I’m technically only Luna if my father died along with my mother. My stomach would churn at that very thought, and I hoped with every ounce of my body that he was still alive! But without knowing for definite I had to try and establish some sort of rule here, some order if we were to stay, if we leave, then soon enough I would become nothing to them as we all lead our separate lives.

“You’re so lost In your head”. Lacey whispered next to me. “You’ve barely eaten!”. She pointed out, looking at the untouched food on my plate.

“I am lost!”. I admitted quietly back to her.

“I think we all are”. She replied with the same glum and disheartened look we all had. In all our years of friendship, even when a guy had broken her heart she never looked as crushed as she did the last week we’d been here. “Why don’t we get some air!”. She suggested and I nodded as we got up from our seats and left the hall.

She put her arm through mine as we walked around the village that felt too quiet and almost desolate with not enough people to fill it. We seemed to see more cows and sheep in our fields than people.

“What are you frowning so hard about?”. She asked in a quiet voice as both of my brows were harshly furrowed.

“Just thinking about what to do now”.

“Do you still think we should leave?”

“Well, either option is pretty bleak”. I sighed. “Too much is at stake either way”.

“That’s true”. She agreed

“If we stay, I’m worried that it’s only a matter of time until they find the doorway to the tunnels and they come after us, I don’t think we’d ever feel safe here. But if we leave….”

“We leave a lot behind”. She finished my sentence for me as she gave me an understanding look.

I know Lacey was grateful that her mother was still with her, but her father was one of our guards and just like the others, he was left behind. We only had seven guards with us, the only ones that were shoving people into the tunnels to get as many out as possible, carrying any injured and protecting us all the way in case we were followed. Unfortunately her dad was one of the guards that charged along with my father and his beta, and we knew deep down it was futile hoping that they survived.

“If we leave, Lacey, we leave everything! We’d have to live the rest of our lives pretending that our past didn’t exist, and once we lose our wolves, I think we would start to really forget. At least here, we can still be us, and in a way it makes me feel like we’re still connected to sun pack”.

“I know what you mean, and could we even be happy that way? Living with humans?”

“Well, that’s the problem isn’t it. Would we be happy or just surviving? But surviving isn’t really living is it”.

“I just wish things would go back to the way they were!”. She exhaled dejectedly.

“Me too”. I agreed as flashes of me laughing by the river in the sun with other pack members came flooding back. “I have to decide something, and I have to decide soon! We can’t live as we are with so much uncertainty, I’m just so glad my grandfather left plenty of provisions stored here”.

“Yes, although I can’t say I’m too keen on whoever chose the clothes!”. She chuckled as she picked at her baggy grey top.

“I don’t think any of us are going to look glam any time soon”. I giggled with her as I squeezed her arm in mine, so thankful that she managed to rise a smile out of me. But it also placed fear in my chest, the thought of us being found and something happening to her.

We had both decided to spend the night in the house she was staying in with her mum. I had told her about my constant nightmares, and she confided in me about her crying every night. She didn’t want to leave her mum alone, so we sat on her bed and played an old game of cards that we used to play when we were kids, keeping each other company hoping tonight we’d both actually sleep.