My eyes squeezed tight as my ears twitched. I struggled to get my eyes open while pushing myself up to sit. When I do sit and open my eyes, I saw myself in a cell. The walls were solid silver, the ground made of some kind of concrete material. I raised my hands, I was chained. I frantically looked at my legs. My fingers went up to my neck, a shackle laid there comfortably.
The girls were right.
At first, when my three best friends mentioned their theory of me being used and my wolf locked inside me intentionally, I didn't believe. Why would the ladies protecting me stop my wolf from coming out? From what I was told all my life, the moon goddess forbade me from shifting because my wolf was a devil and was too dangerous to others. If I should ever shift, she would go on rampage and destroy everything. It made sense, my hair, eyes and powers justified to that. But again, why do Lady Ursula always tell me that I'm more than good for them than I am in here? Why? Why would they keep me here against my will? Surely, my parents knew what was happening.
According to my friends, every year on the moon, they heard a howl, a very loud howl that always caused an earthquake. The ladies told them it was the combined shouts of the wolves below that causes it, but April, my friend with the power to manipulate nature and animals said the howl sounded familiar, like it belonged to someone she knew. She said it always felt like the wolf was calling out to her and it caused her extreme pain every time she didn't reply.
"What if it's you, Xyra? What if the power of the moon is so strong it causes you to shift, but the ladies don't want you to shift, so they tie you down?" She had asked. And she was right.
"The wolf's howl is filled with sadness, loneliness, anger, and so much hatred. Whenever I hear it, it breaks my heart and tear me apart. I just couldn't make sense of it."
They were all right.
Why didn't I always remember this after I leave? The one thing I always feel like I'm forgetting. Did The ladies remove my memory of this place? If they did, now my friends already planted the idea, I knew they would remind me. I did as Moira instructed, I reached into my mouth and touch the tracker twice. It was to assure them that I was fine and yes, they were right.
I screamed as a sudden wave of pain vibrated through my brain. The charge of currents flowing into my head put everything on hold and made me hold my head. My fangs scurry out of it depths and push hard against my lips.
Images displayed itself in my head. At first, it was a rush, but then it slowed down. It was a stream, a small stream. A little girl was hopping from rock to rock as she held the hem of her dress. She was singing a song, a nursery rhyme, as she hopped. She jumped on the bank of the stream and clapped with a giggle.
I watched her skip on, swinging her dress and pigtails bouncing behind her. She looked familiar, very familiar. Her hair was dark brown and swishing from left to right. I looked at her face, so familiar… Mum! Mum! She looks exactly like mum! I wondered if it meant she was mum when she was younger. Then I remembered, mother had buff hair and hazel brown eyes, not grey.
I was still wondering what it was as I ponder over it. She stopped walking and gasped. I could hear howls, loud howls, coming from the woods. The girl panicked and ran, her little feet rushing off deeper into the forest. I could feel her fear, I could hear her start to cry as the beasts chased her.
"Mummy! Daddy!" She screamed. She was just six, or seven. She tripped over a fallen branch and cried harder. The girl, the girl… my head hurts, as if trying to tell me something about the girl, who she was. She scrambled to a tree, sobbing as the wolves surrounded her, seven werewolves. They were rogues, I could almost taste their smell at the tip of my tongue.
The leader shifted back to human while laughing. "Well, well, well, look what we have got here, it's a little stray wolf. What happened? Your family abandoned you?" He mocked. She shook her head. "She's from Crescent pack, I can smell them all over her. Whose daughter are you?" When she raised her terrified eyes to meet the tall guy, my trance world froze.
My sister!
The kid was my sister, she was my sister. I started panicking for her, started screaming inwardly with fear because I couldn't do anything to help her. The rogue leader screamed after sniffing her.
"She's a Crescent! His daughter! Look at the birthmark on the back of her palm!" And just like that, he shifted back into his savage beast and launched himself at the girl. I screamed with horror and blocked out the vision. He killed her! That was the girl I saw before, that was the girl in the rogue's mouth.
My body raked with sobs, my sister was going to die very soon. I was lost, confuse, sad. I wanted Majesty to comfort me, but she was always silence before the moon. I opened my eyes. I blinked away the tears from my eyelids as I continue to sob. I wasn't in the prison any more. I was somewhere else, a peaceful and quiet pack house.
The children were playing hopscotch, parents, and adults carrying out their normal duties. A man stood in front of the pack house, barking angry instructions at some men. His dark locks curled at his forehead and neck, his eyes were flickering from his wolf's iron grey to his smoke grey eyes. He looked terrible, and it seemed as if he had been crying with the bags under his eyes.
My father, my darling father.
His shoulders sag as he sighed sadly, "I can't lose another daughter, please, find her," he sounded beaten, defeated, like he was going to break down.
Another daughter?
"We are trying," one said, "but we can't—"
"No!!!" A scream came from inside the house. Dad stood up straight and looked into the house. But before he could move, mother burst out of the house, her hair a mess and face swollen from tears. She threw herself on father as she broke into an uncontrollable wail.
"Eleanor, what happened?" Dad asked as he tried not to panic.
"She's dead, they killed her, she's dead. I felt it, I felt it. They have taken another daughter from me! They took her just the way they took Xyra! They have taken my Lulana!" Dad's face fell as the news pierce into his heart. The men in front of him bowed their heads in sorrow.
Some bunch of rogues burst into the pack, a sudden war enfolded the place. I was lost in the cries and battle, lost in the fire. My mother died before the battle even started, and my father was too weak to fight, having to deal with two deaths. And when that rogue leader came with my sister in his mouth, he snapped completely and went completely feral. I watched as my father attacked every wolf, including his own. He killed and ruin everything until a younger version of mum, another sister of mine, jumped on his back and buried a spear into his skull. She had no choice, she had no other option.
The battle was over, but my pack was ruined. Crescent Pack would be destroyed. The vision ended with me on my knees, crying my eyes out as everything registered. One information stuck to me more than any other, the one thing I needed.
The ladies told my parents I was dead.
