Chapter One

Lucy

"LUCY RUN!" My heart pounds at hearing my dad's words, but I don't do what he asks; instead, I stand frozen on the spot, unable to move, unable to breathe. "LUCY!" My head shoots to my left as his voice gets louder, and that's when I realize that he is heading my way and fast. "BEHIND YOU, LUCY!" I turn just in time to see a huge wolf heading for me, and I instantly know that whoever this wolf is, he doesn't belong to our pack.

I manage to move just in time to avoid him, but instead of attacking me, he collides with my dad, who wastes no time in tearing out his throat. My dad is the Alpha of the Woodland pack and one of the best fighters I have ever seen, but this fight is never-ending, and while our pack members seem to be dying quickly, the pack we are fighting somehow seems only to multiply.

Where are they all coming from? We've taken down more of their pack members than they have us, and seeing how we have the bigger pack, we should be out-numbering them pretty easily, but we're not, not even close. They could have two or three members to one of ours and still have spare fighters; it just doesn't make sense.

"Lucy, concentrate!" I bring my attention back to the present, only to find my mom's face right in front of me. "Mom, there are too many of them... we can't... we won't survive this." She tries to cover her worry, but she's not quick enough. I can see the horror in her eyes, which only confirms that my words are true.

"We're going to be ok, baby, but I want you to go and get into the safe room with the women and children." I shake my head before she even finishes talking. "Not happening, Mom. I train for a reason, and I'm not going to run and hide when I'm needed here. Wait, why aren't you in the safe room?" I know my dad had her taken there when this started, so why is she here?

"You know, don't you? You know we can't survive this, and that's why you're out here. You're here to try and protect us. You're out here to fight to the end with us because you know that you are going to lose all of us." She doesn't confirm my words, but she doesn't need to; I can see it in her eyes. My mother is one of the strongest women I know, and I've seen her face many fears in her life, but I've never seen the look of fear that she has now. It's haunting and breaking my heart.

"I love you, sweetheart," She pulls me in for a quick hug before kissing my cheek and running away from me without saying another word. "I love you too, Mom." My words are a whisper in the wind, a whisper she doesn't hear. I see her head for my oldest brother, Joseph, the future Alpha of our pack, and then it hits me. She's out here so that she can say goodbye to all of her children before these wolves end us.

A loud roar drags my attention away from my hugging mom and brother, a bittersweet sight that is quickly replaced with a sight of pure horror. Our pack Beta, my uncle Roger, is being torn apart by two wolves while his mate, my aunt Emy, tries to fight them off. I mind link her, begging her to stop before they kill her too, but it's no use; she won't stop. She can't stop; that's her mate, and she's protecting him with all she has until her last breath, even if it's a losing battle like it is now.

I take a step to head her way in the hopes of getting her away when her pain-filled growl roars through the air as my uncle's head is torn from his body. Oh, my goddess no! My step quickly turns into a run, but it's too late; it's all over before I've even taken a full step, as the wolf that was holding my uncle is now tearing out her throat and getting way too much enjoyment out of it.

I keep running until I'm standing next to their bodies, and I launch my ass at one of the wolves. The sensible side of me knows that this is wrong. These wolves have just taken down a Beta and a Beta female, and while I may be an Alpha's daughter and a bloody good fighter, I'm nowhere near as good as them and have properly just picked the wolf that will end my life, but I'm so angry and heartbroken that I don't care. I'm going to die either way, so I may as well get some revenge first.

I quickly let my wolf, Nala, take over and watch as she latches onto the asshole who did the worst damage, then hear a yelp as the wolf next to him is taken down to the ground by our pack's Gamma, Peter and by some miracle, we both manage to take them down and come out in pretty good condition. Peter's Wolf Zumba nods my way before running back into the fight, while Nala and I just stand frozen as we watch everyone we know and love slowly get taken away from us.

"Lucy girl, follow me." Joseph's mindlink is quick as he runs past me. There's no time to link him back, so I just do as he says and follow him through the thick of the fight and into the forest. He runs behind a tree and reappears just seconds later in a pair of shorts. "Go shift." He points at the tree behind me, and once again I do what he says. "What are we going to do, Lucy?" Nala's voice is sad; she sounds like she's on the verge of giving up, and it's breaking my heart, but what can I do? I wish I knew what to say to her to make her feel better, but I just don't.

Hurry up, Lucy girl!" I speed up my movements and quickly make it back to my brother in just seconds. Only now he has a large backpack in his left hand that I know he didn't have there before. "Here, I need you to take this and head south. If you stick to the borderline of our pack and use that as a guide, it will lead you to the Harlow pack. Their Alpha is called Leo, and he knows that you are coming. It will take you around two days to get there, sis, but I have packed you enough supplies. You need to rest as little as possible so that you're never still for long. It will be hard for you, but I promise you can do this."

I don't understand what's going on. Yes, I'm taking in his words, but I'm struggling to make sense of them, struggling to figure out what's going on. Everything is such a mess, and above all else, I'm scared. I go to speak, but Joseph stops me as he steps up close to me, and before I even know what's going on, he's put the backpack on my back, and he's holding my face in the palms of his hands. "You're not dying today, Lucy girl." He's always called me Lucy girl, but hearing him say it today hits differently, hits painfully, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that after today, things will never be the same again.