1: Prologue
*Dacian*
I am shaken from my happy slumber, hearing my mother’s scared whisper.
“Dacian, wake up”. I stir in my sleep, not really wanting to wake up.
“Wake up my strong boy, you need to get away”.
“Mommy ?!” I yawn and look at my beautiful mother, the Luna of the Pine River pack. She looks scared.
She gives me a nervous smile. “Here, put this on…”. She hands me some clothes and I take it, feeling confused, but I start to get dressed. Apparently I am not fast enough, as my mother pulls it from me. “Let me help”.
I look out the window. “It’s dark mom.. why do I need to get up ?”
“You need to run Dacian… you need to get away”. She is frantically dressing me. “Seek out the humans, tell them you have no parents and need a home”.
“Mom, these are girl's clothes”. I look down at myself. What she just said is too much for me to take in, so I focus on something more comprehensible. “Why are you putting me in girl's clothes ?”
She grabs my shoulders and looks into my eyes. “Some other wolves… bad ones. They…want to hurt all the Alphas ... like your father and you… so we are playing make-believe, hiding you so you can get away easier”.
“Okay mom”. I don’t know what to say, but I trust my mother and if she says I need to get away it is true, because mom loves me the most, she tells me every day.
I hear howling in the forest and people yelling outside, and for some reason this scares me, even if I am used to hearing the sound of wolves.
“Come Dacian.. we need to go”. She grabs my hand, pulling me along.
I rip my hand free, running back towards the bed.
“Dacian, no... you need to come here”. My mother grabs my arm, trying to pull me off again.
I reach for the bed, crying. “Wulfie... mom... Wulfie !”
“Of course”. She reaches down to pick up my plushie wolf, then she sweeps me up on her arm and hands it to me.
She carries me outside, there are people calling orders, growling, wolves running past and in the distance sounds of fighting and screams. There is a weird smell hanging in the air, something heavy.. like when my father let me help wash down an old rusty fence before it was painted. I hide my face on my mom's shoulder, as she carries me off.
“Dad ? Where is dad ?” I ask, scared we will leave him. My father is Alpha Conri Pugh, the strongest wolf in the world if you ask four-year-old me.
“Your father is out there protecting us.. and the rest of the pack”. Her voice is breaking slightly as she says it.
But just before we reach the cover of the trees, there is a growl behind us, too close and my mom almost throws me into the bushes, whispering. “Run Dacian, run”.
I hide under the bushes, hugging Wulfie in my arms as I watch the huge golden wolf approach my mom and then turn into a beautiful but stern looking Young woman with hair shining like sunbeams.
“Alpha Ciday.. why are you doing this ?” My mother asks.
“Luna Jahzara… what a waste… you could have been Alpha of your own pack but you gave it all up to be second to a man”. She says the last word as if it is something nasty.
My mother shakes her head. “No, I gave it up for love, for my family”.
“Talking about family, where is that darling little boy of yours”. Even from here, I can see that her smile is not a friendly one at all.
“You stay away from him”. My mother sneer and her wolf Calliope burst free, throwing herself at the other woman.
I turn running into the forest as fast as my little legs can carry me, leaving the sounds and smells of battle behind, replacing them with silence and the scent of damp earth and rotting leaves.
I am stumbling along and crying as I clutch Wulfie in my arms and I mumble feverishly. “Mommy… mommy”.
After what feels like forever, but in reality it might just be five minutes, my legs heavy and my lungs burning, my foot catches a tree root. I cry out as the ground comes crashing towards me, a sharp pain as my head hits the tree, then nothing.
