Chapter 1: A Nightmare Just Like The Others

Skylar’s POV

********Her nightmare begins **********

The pounding of my feet and the rush of blood in my ears are in sync with the thumping of my heart. My legs feel weak but I can’t stop running because my life depends on it.

The thought of the pack of wolves not so far behind me is what keeps me going as the trees keep whooshing passed me.

I try running as fast as I can, jumping over tree stumps and fallen logs. Even though I can’t transform, I can tell that the pack of wolves are not so far from me and they will get to me any moment now. I have to survive, there's no other way.

By the time I reach a clearing in the woods, suddenly the wind is knocked out of me as a massive body crashes into me and knocks me to the ground. I groan and try to get up but I’m unable to, the pain in my body is unbearable.

Through the massive ring in my head, I can hear the sound of a growl somewhere around me, along with the sound of multiple steps not so far from me and their equally ferocious growls.

The sound of bones snapping fills the air.

“Did you really think that a no good peasant like you can ruin the happiness of the next alpha of the Crescent pack? Or for a moment you thought that you can be something more than what you are?” The nasal voice of Dave says, sounding as arrogant and hateful as ever.

When I didn’t respond to his questions, I felt a hard kick to my right thigh. I groan in response and fold into a fetal position to protect my stomach facing my back to him in case he starts getting ideas.

I’m still unable to think clearly due to the ringing in my head. He keeps shouting more questions at me and landing hard kicks on areas of my back and legs when I don’t answer.

The only coherent thing I can do is beg for him to stop as silently as I can. I try opening my eyes to look around me and I can notice the other wolves sitting around on their hunches.

There’s no sound of crickets and it seems every living thing in the forest is paralyzed by the fear of what they are about to witness, the only movement in the darkness is the shaking of the trees along with the cold night wind.

“You are nothing more than a disgrace to this pack. You should have been taken far into the forest and left to rot and die the minute you were born. You disgraceful peasant…” He keeps delivering kicks after kicks with more and more insults.

Realizing that he might kill me, one of the other wolves tackles him to the ground. He shifts and pins Dave to the ground. “That’s enough. You weren’t even supposed to beat her up. Our orders are to bring her back alive.” The wolf that tackled Dave says. I can’t remember his name.

I can hear the distinct sound of a river flowing not so far off. As a last minute ditch effort I decide to roll towards it maybe I can move with the current and hopefully wash up somewhere far away or better still drown in it to end this torture I call a life.

I can hear the other guy let Dave go, while giving orders for one of them to take me back to the pack. They instantly look towards where I am now.

Then the guy whose name I finally recall is Stefan shouts for me to stop but I ignore him and decide to move faster. He rushes towards me while saying, “Skylar, stop! You’re going to —“ He didn’t get to finish his statement as I dropped off the cliff with a scream.

Unable to bring myself to look, I close my eyes expecting the painful impact of the ground but instead I plunge into a body of freezing cold water. The initial shock of entering the water passes and I gasp for breath…

**********Her nightmare ends**********

My eyes immediately open as I gasp for breath still feeling like I was submerged in water. Realizing it’s a nightmare — just like all the other ones I usually have for the past five years, only this time feels so much more real than before and the water I was feeling, was the sweat soaking my body and my nightwear.

I can’t shake off the feeling that my dreams always have a meaning. It always points to something about to happen especially bad things, like the day our pack seer died I had a dream that she was being cremated which is a custom carried out when a werewolf chooses it or when the person’s family chooses it, or the time some of our pack warriors were killed when they went hunting, I can go on and on.

Although I’ve never talked to anyone about it, I keep wondering if I should. I have never been open with anyone because most people around me don’t like me, even my own father says he would have preferred I died instead of my mother.

He even treats me worse than he treats the lowest ranking members of our pack.

My eyes wander to my bedside table and the time is 6:25am. I realize that I’m late for practice again and I forgot to set my alarm before sleeping off last night. My dad will be beyond pissed.

This is the third time this week and it’s not even Thursday yet. I decide to skip the shower, then just brush my teeth and change into my training clothes.

While brushing my teeth I try not to over think about the dream I had. By the time I am done wearing my training clothes, which consists of a black trouser, black shirt and a black pair of boots.

I decide to leave my hair in a bun to avoid it getting in the way during training. I check the time again and it’s already 6:45am. I know I’ll be running laps around the training grounds for sure and that doesn’t sound in the least bit pleasant.

On cue, there is a knock on the door followed by my twin sister’s voice muffled by the closed door. “Sky! Are you up?!” She shouts pounding on the door.

“Yeah! I’m about coming out. I overslept a bit!” I shout back to make sure she hears me. While responding to her, I start making my way towards the door.

“Why aren’t you out? Dad’s going nuts already. I’m coming in.” She opens the door and almost bumps into me.

“Woah! Calm down.” I say taking a step back to avoid the door and my sister.

“Sorry. Are you okay?” She says rushing to me.

“Yeah, I am. I’m so sorry, Scarlet. I forgot to set my alarm and—” I start explaining but she interrupts me mid sentence while pulling me out the door. “Now is not the time. We have to go. You look good by the way.” She says.

“Oh! Thank you. You look great though.” I say blushing slightly.

“Don’t flatter me. I know I look like shit you don’t have to be nice.” She says while laughing.

We start walking quickly out of the house, through the back. We take a shorter route to the training arena on the other side of our pack grounds.

People don’t usually pass these routes, so we don’t meet much people on the way. The few people we see on the way usually just pay respect to my sister and give me a half-hearted acknowledgment, my sister equally ignores them since they don’t acknowledge me properly.

She continues out of the blue, “Although you smell horrible—” I gasp in response. “—but don’t worry nobody will notice. There are so many stinky guys there, I’m sure their smells are already percolating the air.” She says still laughing. “Wow…thank you so much,Scarlet. That makes me feel so much better.” I reply laughing along with her but my voice dripping heavily with sarcasm.

We talk about other random stuffs. Until we reached the fenced training arena — my least favorite place in the whole wide world.

We composed ourselves and our facial expressions before walking into the arena. We make our way to the sparring mats, where my dad is watching some of the warriors train along with a small group of spectators.

He is instructing those sparring on the best forms to take and those watching, the things to learn (apparently, they are newbies). At least my reprimanding will not come yet, or so I thought.

While I was watching those around me, I suddenly felt a slap that knocked me to the ground…