Chapter 1

 NEW YORK CITY...

  Police siren blew all over the vicinity, gunshots was heard from a distance. The whole city was in chaos as people ran Helter-skelter seeking coverage. 

It was them again. The deadly Mafia group that operates in the city causing chaos and taking the lives of people. 

A young lady of about 23 years was seen running alongside the freeing crowd. Heels on her tails.

She glanced side to side and on making sure no eyes was focused on her, she started dipping hands into pockets taking out purses, phones, and money.

She opened her bag, pouring in the contents hastily whilst running along side the crowd. 

When she was sure she had picked enough, she diverted to a secluded dilapidated building where she stopped, breathing in air.

Taking off her shoulder bag, she poured out the contents on the floor, wearing a gluesome smile. 

Happy that she picked enough things she could sell to feed her mother and younger sister, she pocketed the money and rearranged the bag leaving the dilapidated building.

The once disoriented vicinity was now calm as the gunshot had subsided. People had started moving about as though nothing happened minutes ago.

The girl stopped at a local market going straight to where she normally sells her stolen stuff.

"You are here again today" a fat dirty blonde man smiled showing off his dirty incomplete teeth.

"Yeah today was wonderful" the girl returned the smile pouring out the many phones she picked.

"Woah I can see that here" the blonde man laughed pointing at the phones.

The man took time to examine the phones and when he was done, he brought out a stack of money, counted it, and gave the girl who collected them with smiles.

Leaving the mobile shop, she trotted towards the bus station where she boarded a bus back to the slums.

****IN THE SLUMS***

"Aurora when did you leave the house?" A shabbily dressed woman called out to the girl as she walked into the shabby-looking house where she lived with her mom and younger sister. 

"Early enough, Good morning mama" she greeted the woman and walked into the house.

"Such a smooth day" she whistled, climbing the almost worn-out stairs that led to the rooftop where she used as a room.

 In the tiny spaced room which was small, her foam mattress with a worn-out spread lay at the corner of the room. 

Her clothes were packed in a sack bag and a few hanging on a rope just above the bed. 

There was nothing else in the room apart from her clothes which are very few and a bed. She took off her leather jacket then collapsed on the bed breathing heavily.

"Sis Rora" she heard and looked up to see her kid sister peeping by the door. "Maya come in and stop peeping" she scolded the little girl of about 8 years who sauntered into the room.

"How are you doing? Had something to eat?" She asked and the girl shook her head yawning.

"Why haven't you eaten," Aurora traveled her eyes down her sister's body and her little sister came closer to her then bent and whispered into her ear.

"Tsk, tsk!!, Here, go give this money to Mama and tell her not to question where it's coming from" she said and the little girl nodded running out of the room.

Aurora sighed and stare at the closed door. She would do anything in her capacity to make sure her kid sister was fed well and start school just like her mates.

She brought out the money she made from selling those items and counted it. "Quite good" she muttered and stood up, climbing a little stool, she stretched her hands and shifted the side of the ceiling, brought down a piggybank then folded the money, throwing it into the box from the small hole made at the top of the piggy.

She returned the piggy and made sure to cover the ceiling well before climbing down and falling back on her bed.

It's been 9 years since her father died. No one knew her father was involved with a mafia group till the rival of that group came to their house one faithful night and shot him dead.

They were once rich and living comfortably in the city before the death of her father. Then her mother was five months pregnant with her kid sister Maya.

That night, she had gone to her mother's boutique as her mother had gone to the hospital late in the evening and was yet to return.

When her mother finally returned, they went back home together only to see her father laying on the floor in his pool of blood, a bullet hole on his forehead.

"No one messes with the boss" was boldly written on a paper with his blood. That night was the worst night of their lives as everything came shattering.

After the burial of her father, all his properties were confiscated and taken away by the group that murdered him. Her mother had nothing and feeding became difficult. 

Luckily she has graduated before his death and used her certificate to search around for jobs but couldn't find one even to the lowest of a cleaning job, she didn't get. 

Her mother had wanted them to return home to their pack but Aurora vehemently refused, she hated the fact that she wasn't a human but some kind of creature her mother calls a werewolf and the fact that she has some wolf in her which often pops up to talk to her irritates her even more. 

She hated to share her privacy with the so-called wolf but couldn't do anything other than yell at the wolf who said her name was Aliya anytime she talks to her.

She had never gone to the pack and wasn't planning to do so anytime soon so she would rather stay and die of hunger rather than return to where she believed wasn't a good place.

Since her mother loved her so much that she wouldn't want to force her to go where she doesn't like, they had to relocate to the slums at the end of the city where they started feeding by farming on people's land.