Buildings crumbled into themselves all around me. Sheer terror and thick smoke constricted my throat while I ran through the streets of the pack's village where I had lived my entire life. The screams of my pack members rang in my ears— they hadn't stopped since we all felt the life force of our Alpha, my father, end abruptly. Tears stung my eyes and my heart clenched, still reeling from the loss.
What felt like mere minutes ago I had been a mostly normal teenage girl, mostly normal because the firstborn child of the Alpha is groomed their entire life to succeed their father or mother. My upbringing was very different from a regular werewolf pup. Always training. Always studying.
I was in a sparring lesson at the edge of the forest. We were just finishing as dusk turned into night on the horizon. Suddenly, my father's Beta, or second in command, had linked me through the pack bond in a panic. 'Eris, we're under attack. You need to return to the packhouse and find your mother.' The warrior I was training with had received a similar message and we sprinted back towards home together.
Just before we crested the small hill into the valley where our pack lived, I smelled the smoke. My mother's soothing voice linked me, 'Eris, your sister is at Holly's, please find her and return to me.'
I picked up my pace. Holly was a girl the same age as my sister Enid. The warrior peeled away towards the West forest where most of the fighting must've been happening. The fight against who or what I did not yet understand. I also did not understand how the entire town seemed to already be engulfed in flames. How was everything set on fire so quickly? I entered the chaos and tried to sniff through the smoke. Confusingly, I did not smell or see any rogue wolves. Who was attacking us?
I attempted to link Holly's mother but received no reply. Enid was still a young pup, only eleven years old, and would not be able to mind-link until she was fifteen. I turned down the street to Holly's home and gasped in horror when I saw the building completely engulfed in flame. I squinted through the smoke and saw a small figure standing at the front gate. Enid.
I ran to my sister, "Where is Holly?!"
Her eyes were wide as saucers as she pointed a shaking finger at the wreckage behind me. I turned and felt an intense heatwave as the roof caved in and crashed through both levels of the home. No one could've survived. I grabbed Enid's hand and started to run again towards the pack house, dragging her roughly behind me.
Suddenly, a pain ripped through my chest and I howled, dropping to my knees. The wolves around me all stopped their mad scurry and did the same, howling and wailing in agony. My sister sobbed loudly and cried for our mother.
Next to us a woman cried out, "The Alpha is dead! Moon Goddess help us all!"
No—it wasn't possible. I felt for my father through the pack bond and found a black void where his energy should be. I was trying to compose myself and remain calm when the screams around me turned from agony to fear and horror. At the same moment, the metallic scent of blood invaded my nostrils accompanied by the smell of rot and decay. I turned to look down the street and from the direction I had just travelled, I finally saw our attackers.
I'd never actually been in their presence, but I immediately recognized them as vampires. Besides their pallid skin and elongated claws they did not look very different from a werewolf in human form. They snarled and ripped at the throats of those around them, drinking and laughing giddily in the bloodbath. In a one-on-one battle, a vampire could not stand against even the most average werewolf. But this was a hoard, crawling and clawing over each other to get to the murdered wolves and fight for even a small drink of blood. Inhuman strength and agility allowed some of them to crawl like insects along the sides of any buildings that weren't on fire.
Panic rose in my chest and I scooped my sister into my arms and ran, but I already knew we weren't going to make it. We would not escape the hoard descending upon us. I wished I could shift to my wolf, but I still had two months until my eighteenth birthday when I would mature into an adult. A sob finally escaped my stubborn lips as I felt the others running close to us being pulled back and the subsequent sounds of the slaughter behind me. I braced myself for the fiends to grab me, but the hands never came. Instead, a vicious growl sounded and a large dark brown wolf leapt into the fray. It was Thad, my mother's personal guard. He was a fierce warrior and had been a constant in my life since I was a little girl. Mother must have sent him to aid our escape.
He turned and his eyes locked with mine. 'Run little wolf', he linked me before throwing back his giant head and howling. Other adults, although not warriors, rallied to his call and shifted into their wolves. They began to battle the hoard, tearing limbs and heads off of the vampires. Despite their bravery, I could see that they would all be killed; the disparity in numbers was too great.
'RUN!' Thad linked again, more urgently this time. I spun on my heel and did as I was told. My throat was tight with the grief and the awareness that he was dying for our chance to survive.
I could see the pack house just ahead and focused on it, running as fast as my legs would carry. Enid's weight tested my strength, but I refused to stop or put her down. I clutched her tightly and she buried her sobbing face into my chest.
'Mother?!' I linked urgently.
'To the stables now. Hurry Eris.'
Our pack was one of the few left that was too stubborn to embrace the new technology that leaked over the borders of the realm from the human world. Although I'd seen pictures, we did not travel with vehicles. The horses were seldom used because adult wolves were faster in wolf form. But, my mother loved horses so my father kept them and insisted every child learned to ride in case they ever needed to travel long distances.
I rounded the corner into the stables and saw my mother adjusting the saddle on my favorite bay gelding, Ollie. She turned and opened her arms for me and I dove into them sobbing loudly.
"Mother! Father, he-," I choked on the words.
Mother stroked my hair and soothed me, "I know, dear. I know." Her voice was also broken by tears. Losing a true mate was the most painful experience a werewolf could endure. I felt that only her instinct to protect her pups was driving her past the grief.
She held us tightly for a moment before she pushed me away from her and looked into my eyes. "You need to take your sister and ride, Eris. Go and don't look back. I have to stay. I am the Luna, the mother of this pack. I cannot abandon them."
"No, no. Please mother, don't make us go." I begged. I wanted to stay and help. I was the future Alpha of this pack after all. Instinctively, I felt through the pack bond and realized with horror that there was hardly anyone left alive. I could sense a few flickering life forces but was mostly greeted by the black void.
She opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted by a loud noise that sounded like something huge dropping from the sky. The ground shook slightly beneath our feet. My mothers eyes grew wide with fear and she stepped protectively in front of us. I braced for a large creature to enter the stables and was shocked when a smiling man rounded the corner instead. He was close to seven feet tall, the largest man I'd ever seen. I could tell immediately he wasn't a werewolf.
His hair was the color of fire, reds and oranges that seemed to dance just like a flame atop his head. His yellow eyes had black slits for pupils and they immediately set on my mother. He stalked towards her with a vile smirk. She turned to us and threw my sister up in the saddle, forcing me up behind her.
Tears spilled out of her eyes and ran down her soft cheeks as she spoke to us one last time, "Never forget that I love you both more than anything else in this world. Be strong, okay? Take care of each other."
My sister wailed loudly and I tried to argue but she slapped Ollie's haunch and he took off, exiting the stable away from the red-haired man. I handed the reins to my sister and turned in time to see my mother shift into her beautiful white wolf. A color so rare we currently didn't know of another in any of the packs we associated with. The red-haired man cackled and I lost sight of them as we ascended a hill into the forest. My sister stopped the horse and we both looked back once more.
The man with red hair stepped out of the stable holding my mother in her wolf form by her neck. She struggled in his grasp and I couldn't understand how he could restrain her in his human form, it shouldn't be possible. We both screamed in agony when he violently grabbed her scruff and ripped her head from her body as if she were a paper doll. With the Alpha and Luna gone, the pack bond dissolved. Our pack was officially eliminated. I turned my sister into my chest and my stomach churned while I watched him lift her body and begin to drink her blood.
"RIDE!" I screamed to Ollie, my voice hoarse and painful.
We rode in a sprint as long as Ollie could last, both of us sobbing the entire way. We were orphans now, lost and afraid.
