Chapter 1

The last thing I remembered before I went unconscious was the fire. I could vaguely hear screams but my ears were ringing too much for me to pinpoint where they were coming from exactly. It was all around me. The fire was vivid. I also remembered that was the same fire that killed my entire family.

I saw that last haunting look in my mom's eyes as the light sucked from her eyes. She died trying to reach out to me. Then, I slipped into unconsciousness.

                   

 "I think she's waking up" I heard a voice say. I tried opening my eyes, but it felt as if the tissues in my eyelid were being torn apart by that simple action, so I just groaned instead. That must have alerted the people in the room with me.

 "Rose? Rose, can you hear me?" The same voice asked. I finally got control of my eyes and opened one slowly, it was very bright, almost white. When my eyes adapted to the light, I could see three people in front of me. Two men and a woman.

 "Yeah, I can" I can barely recognize my voice, cracky and raspy, like I hadn't had a cup of water in weeks.

"Great, I'm going to run some tests on you to make sure you're fine" The man had a white coat on, so he must be the doctor. I looked toward the other two people in the room, they were sitting together. They were looking at me with hope...?

I'm not sure I've seen them before though the woman seems kind of familiar. I nodded to the doctor, who went out and came back a few minutes later with some types of equipment and whatnot. During his absence, neither I nor the couple said anything to each other. The doctor took the tests, pronounced me fine, and said I could go home in a few days. Home? Where might that be for me now? The only home I know has been destroyed.

 "Thank you, Doctor. We'll come and pick her up when you discharge her". The man spoke up.

 "Excuse me", I said from where I was lying down " I don't know you. I can't go anywhere with you"

 "Oh, Rose" The woman walked over to my side and sat down beside my bed "I'm sorry we haven't met before this. I'm Melinda, your mother's sister. And Jack's my husband. We're the Alpha and Luna of the MoonBear pack. We heard about the unfortunate incident with your pack and we came as soon as we could, but we were too late to save anyone else but you. And since I'm the only living relative of either of your parents, I'm to take you as my ward, which I'm delighted to". She stroked my hair as she said this.

 "What day is this?" I had to know.

"It's Monday" She replied. That's three full days after the attack. I was with my family on Friday evening when we heard the warning howl. Though we were never ready, this attack took us by surprise and thus left us terribly at a disadvantage. Before we could access the situation, most of our pack has been killed off and it came down to my family. My mom, dad and I were faced by a pack of wolves, led by a silver wolf with a brown streak across his back. I knew that wolf anywhere. He was the Alpha of our rival pack, Kenneth Jones. He hates our family and always wants our territory for himself. We had managed to fend him and his pack off for a while but it isn't working tonight. My parents had the same realization at the same time as me and we all shifted into our wolf forms. Since they didn't come in human bodies, we have to fight them as wolves. Unfortunately, we were outnumbered. My parents were slashed by many of them, same as me, but they must have overlooked me and left me to die. Then they set our home on fire. I could only watch weakly as the fire spread.

I jolted out of my reverie to find a palm on my face, I didn't realize I had started crying and Melinda was wiping my tears.

She took me into her arms and allowed me to process my feelings. When I had collected myself, she disengaged from me and held my face in her palms.

 "I'm really sorry about your family. But, my family is now your family too. We'll make sure you lack nothing. I know we can't replace your parents but we'll try our best to do as much as they would have done". I nodded because I didn't trust myself to speak without sobbing. She hugged me one more time and then they left.

The doctor came back in to run more tests. And then I slept.

                      A WEEK LATER

I was discharged in the morning from the hospital and the doctor placed me on house rest even though I assured him I was fine several times. I was told not to train or do anything rigorous for at least two weeks. My inner wolf, Bessie, whined at that. She hates not being able to run and train, but, a doctor's order is a doctor's order.

 We're pulling up at the gate of my aunt's home now, and I must admit, it's quite beautiful. I'll try as much as possible to enjoy my time here. I'm not planning on staying forever. Once I turn 21 in 4 months, I plan on leaving, maybe to the human world, I don't know yet. A lot could happen in 4 months.

"Welcome home, honey" My aunt smiled at me as she looked at me taking in my surroundings. " Please do make yourself as comfortable as you need, the kids will join you soon but let me first show you to your room" The kids are her children. Four of them. Two of them are adopted, but the way she talks about all of her kids, you'd think she birthed them herself. I guess I'm part of the kids now.

I was shown to a room with pale cream walls. It was furnished just enough.

"I don't know your taste but I'll just let you do the rest of the decorating yourself. You can tell any of the help to assist you with it or you can come to me and I'll do what I can for you. Is that ok?" 

"Yes, Aunt. Thank you. I'll do that" I was grateful that at least, it looks like I might be in good hands.

 "The kids will be back soon and lunch will be ready in a while, so freshen up and I'll call you to come" She walked out the door and shut it behind her.  

I sat down on the bed and then fell on my back looking up at the ceiling. It has one of those murals that looks like you're looking somewhere else instead of the roof. After a moment of lying down like that, I stood up and went to the bathroom connected to the room to bath.

Within thirty minutes, I heard my aunt call up to me. "Food is ready, Rose"

 "Coming" I answered back. I'm sure she can hear me even though my voice is low as we wolves have an excellent hearing within a certain radius. I was well rested already so I just headed out to where I heard the sound of her voice come from.

I seem to be the last person to arrive. Around the table sat my aunt, her husband, and four kids. I guess it's just the immediate family here unlike with my parents, where almost all the high-ranking pack members are with us.

 "Come sit" A young girl who looks to be no more than 15 patted the empty seat next to her, between her and her brother. She seems to be the youngest. I sat down and was immediately bombarded with questions from the girl. She seems to be talkative of the family.

 "Are you ok?" " Do you need anything?" "Is the chair comfortable enough?" "Are you —"  She was interrupted by one of her brothers

"She's spent less than a day here and you're already going to send her packing with your questions. Back down, Jo" He then turned to me. " Sorry about that. I think she's just really excited to have a new sister being the only girl around"

 I smiled to show that I wasn't offended. " It's fine. I don't mind it" Jo beamed beside me.

My aunt spoke up. " Let me introduce you to everybody. You've met my husband, Jack. These are my kids. Beside you on your left there is Josephine, Jo, as we call her, my youngest, she's 15 and will annoy you to bits with her talks. On your right is her immediate older brother Jaden, 17. Directly across from you is John, 19. And beside him is my eldest, James, your age, only older than you by a few months". Wow, what's with all the J initials? Almost as if he read my mind, Jack spoke up " We wanted some form of orderliness"

 "Don't worry, you'll get used to it soon. Or we could wear name tags till you figure it out" The one across from me, John, joked. I relaxed a bit, they seem to like me. That's good. I wouldn't want to live somewhere where I'm not wanted.

As the food greatly diminished, I've heard stories about all of their childhoods, including the adoption of James and Jo. All of them except James were open to conversation. He was more of the sullen type. Barely talks and all that.

"Don't mind James, that's just how he is, nothing personal to you" Either my aunt and her husband read minds or they must be extremely observant. The person in question just looked up at me and slightly smiled. Not a smile technically, more of a grimace to show his family that he acknowledges that I'm here.

"So, Rose, are you excited?" I could tell that Jo has been waiting for a long time to ask me a question, one which I'm confused about.

"Excited about?" 

"Your mate bonding of course. Since you're younger than James by just a few months, and he's just had his, yours must be coming soon" Oh, I have forgotten about that. Once I'm 21, I'll be "assigned" a mate. I just hope I get a good one and not one of those idiots.

"Oh, I haven't quite thought about that yet" I answered Jo.

"What?! But it's like, the rest of your life. Whomever you're bonded with will be your partner forever" she looked like I have said something terrible.

"Yeah, I know. I'll give it more thought from now on". That seemed to appease her.

"So, since James has obviously had his, where is she? His mate?" I whispered my question to the girl beside me.

"Oh, he has. It's one of the reasons he's like this. His mate doesn't like him. Though she hasn't outright rejected him, this has made him extremely sad". The subject seems to be a touchy one.

"What will happen if she rejects him?" I had to ask.

"Well, I don't know exactly, but I've heard a bit from my parents and also from reading up on stuff like that. Apparently, you'll be in a great deal of pain for a long time and eventually die" Yikes. I hope my mate is someone who'd like me. I can't imagine that happening to me.

Since we were all done, I excused myself and went back to my room. I lay down and thought. My birthday is in 4 months, so that should give me enough time to get used to the idea that this is my life now. I really hope my mate will be someone cool that I can have my own family with.

With that last thought, I drifted off to dreamland.