TWO—A Silent Promise.

When I look up, I gasp in surprise at the sight before me. Dead wolves litter the ground. They look like ragged dolls viciously torn to shreds by some kind of blade.

The surrounding ground is soaked in red. My feet are covered in red. My white dress is dripping with red. There’s so much red, so much blood, it seems like all I can see.

I look towards the trees, where wolves are emerging, with a little boy leading the way. There is another human amongst them holding a staff—a sage.

The wolves fully emerge into the clearing; five of them in total. They are Gigantic, with thick furs and exposed teeth, eyes glinting with anger. These must be betas.

When they see the scattered remains on the ground, they let out sorrowful howls that rattle me to my bones. I hear my teeth chattering and realize that I’m shivering.

The little boy who looks to be around my age steps forward, eyes brimming with tears.

“She’s the one,” he screams, eyes bulging.

The fury in his voice surprises me. How can a child harbour so much anger within him? Did he watch everything happen? I wonder. 

A beta I recognize from my father’s pack snarls at me, teeth bared. The wolf crouches, ready to pounce.

“Wait. I sense a strange aura in the air.” The sage steps forward, looking concerned.

“Dark magic like no other. We must proceed with caution.” Her voice rings with warning.

That’s when it happens.

I’m hit with a terrible aura…so strong, it makes me fall to my knees and gasp for breath.

A wolf leaps forward from behind a tree. It is huge, with golden eyes and thick white fur. The ground shudders from the impact of its landing.

This is no ordinary wolf, it is a lunar, the strongest in all of the six realms.

When she sees the carcasses on the ground before me, she lets out a wretched howl.

One that shakes the forest to its core.

The howling is so loud, I can feel vibrations in the earth.

This is a woman that cannot be consoled.

The other wolves step back from her, even the sage gives her some distance.

A chill runs down my spine. I am going to die here today.

Before anyone can react, she bounds across the clearing and lunges for me, paws raised and claws glinting in the moonlight.

I can’t even move or defend myself.

The moment the tips of her claws touch my face, a blue light glows around me.

I watch, as if in a nightmare, as invincible blades rip her to pieces. Blood sprays my face, warm and sticky, and the entrails of the lunar splatter across the ground and all over me—some sticking to my hair, others to my face. 

An eerie silence envelops the forest; it seems every living creature has gone silent. 

The sage and wolves stare at me with matching looks of horror and anger, and I stare back in shock, trembling from fear. What happened to the luna? What was the blue light that flowed around me?

The sage stumbles backward in disbelief. “Impossible. Nothing could touch Cleopat.” she gapes in horror.

The little boy steps forward, eyes darting across the scattered carcass on the ground.

“Mother,” he whispers. Then he lifts his gaze to mine.

“I told you she did it,” he points at me.

“I told you. If you try to touch her, she’d kill you.” He screams.

A switch turns on in my brain, and I begin to feel angry. That luna just tried to kill me, and there they stand…looking at me like I’m the monster.

My mother wouldn’t have died if it weren’t for them. She would still be here if they hadn’t come for me. I feel anger build up in me as I rise to my feet and level the boy with a look equal to the fury etched across his face. 

“Your mother would be alive if she hadn’t tried to kill me. Nobody would have died if they had just left me alone,” I scream at him.

I feel tears brimming behind my eyes despite the anger. If they’d all just left me alone, nobody would be dead. I suddenly remember something my mother would do when she wanted people to do her bidding. 

I calm my racing heart and clench my trembling fists in fear. I lock eyes first with the sage, then with each of the wolves, and finally the boy.

“You do not know me. You would let me walk away from here because you do not know me. And when you awaken from this trance, you won’t remember what I look like.”

I take a step back, testing to see if they’ll come after me.

But the wolves and sage remain in place, jaws slack and eyes looking vacant. I return my gaze to the boy. Though he remains standing in place, his eyes blaze with burning hatred. 

I feel it in my core. This boy would hunt me to the depths of hell. I spare a glance at the thing that was once my mother’s body, then I turn around and sprint for my life.

Silence follows me, and I know whatever hypnosis I have cast on them is working. My little feet carry me as I continue running, panting for breath but refusing to stop as sweat runs down my face and back. The eyes of the little boy haunt me, causing me to increase my speed.

Soon, I’m out of the forest. 

I bend over to catch my breath, hands on my knees as I pant. 

That’s when I hear it.

A blood curdling scream that splits the air. It is unlike anything I have ever heard. I thought the luna’s howling was scary, but this is worse.

I can hear the intense pain and torture behind it. Like a dangerous beast having its heart violently ripped out of its chest.  

I whip my head around in terror, trying to locate the source of the sound. It’s coming from deep within the forest…and I know with a chilling certainty that the little boy has broken free of the hypnosis.

My blood runs cold in my vein.

Without thinking, my body moves. My legs sprint in the opposite direction, desperate to put as much distance between me and that haunting scream. 

As I flee, terrified and utterly alone, I realize with a feeling of foreboding that one wolf had come at me during my mother’s spell. In that clearing, while the Alphas were torn to pieces by that ancient power, one wolf had successfully broken through that evil pressure and managed to hurt me, even if for a moment.

I push the thought to the back of my mind as I continue running with no destination in mind.

The wind whips past, and a shudder runs through me, but it’s not from the cold.