Chapter 1 - Holly

I had to run.

My heart was pounding in my ears and my legs were screaming from the effort, but I couldn't stop. I'd spent my whole life unable to fully feel the small, shy wolf inside me, but in that moment I could. I felt her fear, her despair. The silent plea not to stop running. Not to look back.

Death itself was following us. I didn't know what its face looked like, but I could feel it.

I gasped as my feet suddenly tripped over something, sending me straight to the ground. I hadn't even realized I was in the forest until I felt the earth beneath me. With my breath caught in my throat, I hurried to try and get up before it was too late…

Until my fingers touched something warm, making me realize that I hadn't tripped over something. But over someone.

Slowly, I looked down at my damp fingers, but not from water. Something red was staining my hands. A scarlet trail leading from the body I had stumbled upon. From the young wolf lying prone before me, its face partially covered in dirt.

“Louis?” a sob escaped me when I caught a glimpse of my brother’s blue eyes “Louis?!” I crawled over to him, pressing my trembling hands against his cold face “Louis, talk to me! Please!” I shook him, but all I got was a terrible choking sound, as if his throat had been ripped open “Hold on! I… I’ll get you out of here! You’ll be okay, I promise…!”

“They… Ambush…” his voice was an unrecognizable murmur “You… Run away…”

"They...?!" I gasped, and only then did the sounds of the forest around us reach me.

Cries of pain, pleas for mercy, laments of agony. I could hear them and, now, I could see them too. Bodies scattered throughout the dark forest, covered in blood, just like Louis. Some in their wolf forms, others in human form. All warriors of our pack.

All massacred.

“Run.” Louis murmured again, and the way he said it, as if he were putting all his strength into producing that sigh, made my panic increase.

“No! I’m not leaving without you!” I tried to put my hands under his body, gathering all my strength to try and drag him away “Please, please, keep your eyes open! I’ll get you out of here, Louis, I promise…”

I didn't feel the pain, but I felt the impact. The sharp blade entering my back and piercing my stomach. I could see someone's shadow behind me, but at that moment, I could only focus on the tip of that sword. Covered in blood, appearing through me. I heard an angry growl as my killer slammed his boot into my back, pushing my almost lifeless body towards my brother…

I gasped as my body hit the ground, my eyes snapping open. But there was no sky above me. Only the crumbling basement roof, with the cracks that I knew as my own fingerprints.

Gasping, I ran my cold hands across my chest, hoping to find the wound… But there was nothing. Nothing but my trembling body and the sound of the wind seeping through the cracks in the walls, chilling everything around.

"It was... Just a dream..." I murmured to myself, desperately trying to make the terror inside me go away "Just a dream."

It wasn't just a dream, though. It was the dream.

The same one that had been haunting me again and again for over two weeks, ever since my brother Louis had joined the Alpha Guard.

It was only natural. Most of the boys in the pack wanted to become warriors when they came of age, and with Louis it was no different.

But knowing that he was somewhere on the borders, at the mercy of war and an enemy attack at any moment…

I shuddered again when I remembered the image of his mangled body, but I tried not to let it fill me with panic. It was always a bad omen when I had the same dream repeatedly, but Louis had promised me he would be careful. He promised me he would be alright.

That, for the first time, one of my nightmares wouldn't come true.

And, Holy Moon, all I wanted was for him to be right.

“Holly!” an angry scream cut through the air and, before I could even get up from the floor, the basement door was flung open “You!” I saw my mother appear out of the darkness, still dressed in her nightgown and with a furious expression “This is all your fault!”

"Mom?" I swallowed hard, shrinking back as I watched her approach "What...?"

But I didn't have time to finish the sentence, because her hand had already found my face with a slap that would certainly leave a mark.

“You damned bitch! You did it again!” she screamed, her face bright red “You brought misfortune upon our family with your damned dreams! Now your brother is ruined!”

“Louis?” I asked, my heart clenching “What… What happened to him?” I felt tears welling up in my eyes. “Please, Mom… Tell me he didn’t… Didn’t…”

“That he’s not dead?” she growled disdainfully “The Moon knows it was better that he were! There was an attack on one of the camps on the border, just like you once woke up screaming that it would happen! Louis wasn’t among the dead, but one of the wolves from the Nightmoor pack tore his arm beyond repair. They had to rip it off.”

"But... He's alive, isn't he?"

“And you still dare to look relieved?!” She took a step closer to me, making me flinch “Do you realize what this means for our family? Your brother could have brought us honor and prestige by becoming one of Alpha’s trusted warriors. But now, he’ll just be a good-for-nothing who spends the rest of his life in this house, being supported by us…!”

“Where… Where is he?” I murmured “I… I can take care of him. I promise he won’t be a burden…”

“Shut your mouth before I make you shut it!” she threatened “The Moon knows that Louis could have lost all his limbs and still wouldn’t be as much of a burden as you! Cursed be the day you managed to escape that fire! We wouldn’t be condemned to suffer your curse if you had simply died that day!”

"Mom..." I tried to say through the lump in my throat, but, as always, that only made things worse.

“Don’t you dare open your mouth…!” she raised her hand towards me again, but this time, someone interrupted her before she could hit me again.

“Wait, Mom.” a very calm voice pleaded, and the next instant I saw my sister Violet walk toward our mother “I know you’re angry. I am too,” she sighed, placing her hands on Mother’s shoulders and staring at me with disgust “But we can’t ruin her face any further. Not while there’s still a chance she can be useful.”

“I doubt her face could become any more grotesque than it already is now.” mother grunted, but at least lowered her hand “But you’re right. We can’t ruin her only chance to do something good for this family.”

"What... What are you talking about?" I asked fearfully, but all I got was a disdainful look from them.

“Get out of bed and go chop wood!” Mother ordered, starting to walk away “Quick. This house is starting to freeze.”

"But... The sun still hasn't come out...!" The only response I received to my words was the basement door slamming shut, making the wood creak.

Well, it wasn't like complaining made any difference. I had no choice.

I never had.

So I just got up, grabbed the only patched-up coat I had in my closet, and sneaked out of the house. There was no sign of Louis being around, so I didn't want to risk staying there any longer and getting another slap. Or worse, Dad deciding to grab his belt.

The forest around our house was covered in snow, and the sky was a deep shade of blue, with no sign yet of when the sun would rise. But despite the biting cold, I would be safer there, with our old rusty axe in my hands, than inside the house. So I simply strode through the trees, searching for a log I could try to break without breaking an arm. Or worse, breaking the axe.

Well, at least a small part of me was focusing on that. The other part, however, could only think about my little brother. Nobody liked having the cursed Moonjoy pup roaming the pack's main streets, but I needed to find him. I needed to see with my own eyes that he was alright. That he hadn't become the mangled corpse of my dreams…

My blood ran cold when, amidst the memories of the dream, I stumbled. In the middle of the dark forest, alone. Just like I seemed to have stumbled over my brother's body earlier. But this time, I didn't wake up in my basement room again. I even tried to close my eyes tightly to try and make it go away, but it was no use. When I opened them again, it was still there.

A man lay in the snow, his body soaked in blood.