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Joyce Feather...

I stared at the two suitcases left in front of my bed, my eyes watering at the thought of the end of my life.

My sniffles were the only audible sound in my childhood room, the only place I had for myself.

I'd lived the last twenty years of my life here, dreaming of having a future in the human world, only to wake up yesterday and have my entire world flipped upside down.

Everything I knew was nothing more than a wasted dream now, packed in the two suitcases owned by my older sister.

I buried my face in my hands, my palms instantly wetting with tears I'd been shedding since the moment I learned that I was sacrificed by my parents, my family, and my entire pack.

"Joyce?"

I didn't dare look up as my sister entered my room, too scared that I would hate her for resulting the turns of events in my life.

"Joyce, please talk to me." She whispered as she sat down at the edge of the bed next to me.

I wiped my tears away, hating how bad they made me look.

"I need time alone, Jenny." I replied, looking at the empty nightstand next to me just to avoid looking at her.

"You've been alone since yesterday." She commented, reaching out to touch my hand, but I moved it away, feeling repulsed at the entire situation.

"I wish I could change things, Joyce. I wish I could go instead of you. But..." She stopped.

"But what? You're too scared he might kill you?" I asked, fear twisting my guts as the words spilled out of my lips.

"You have a real chance of surviving this, but I'm the one getting sent away because I'm more valuable as a sacrifice than anything else." I answered my own question, tears filling my eyes once more.

"I am so sorry, Joyce." My sister whispered, and while I believed her, it didn't change anything.

A letter came from the Winter Snow Pack asking for my sisters hand, and instead, I was the one being sent. Because everyone knew that the letter was basically an invitation of death.

"You'll be okay..." She started, but I'd had enough.

I pushed myself to my feet, walking away from her and her lies.

"Just leave me alone." I mumbled, crossing my arms over my chest to stop the shiver from making my body shake.

"Okay." I heard Jenny whisper. "But I have to give you this first."

I forced myself to glance at her over my shoulder. She was holding a bracket in her hand, one made from black and blue gemstones that caught the ray of the sun peeking through the curtains.

"You have to wear it. Matilda said it will help concil..." She stopped herself from saying more, probably thinking that saying it out loud would only manage to make me more upset.

"Will it even matter?" I asked, reaching for the bracelet. "I'm not going to make it past a day, anyway."

"Don't say that." Jenny whispered as she watched me put the bracelet on my wrist, sealing my fate for the final time.

Bracelet or not, I knew I was right. The second my feet hits the grounds of the Winter Snow Pack, I'm a dead woman, and all that dream and hope I had will be nothing but a wish list in the journal of a dead woman.

I felt slight relief as Jenny walked out of my room. She made sure to remind me that they were ready for me before she closed the door behind her.

My eyes felt swollen and raw, but I couldn't stop them from tearing up again.

Is this truly the end?

Am I truly being forced to save my sister?

Is everyone really choosing her over me again?

The answer to all of those questions was yes.

I didn't contain the sob that escaped my lips anymore, letting it free without worrying that someone might hear me. They should hear me mourn my own death.

By the time I finally forced myself to grab the suitcases and pulled them out, I was sporting a massive headache, and my wolf was uncomfortably shifting in my chest.

She'd been silent since my father and Mather broke it down to me that I was going to be sent to mate with the Alpha of the Winter Snow Pack in my sisters stead.

I made my way outside to find a black car parked in front of the main pack house, with a single warrior standing to the side of it..

My mother and father, along with my older sister Jenny and the beta and gamma of the pack, were waiting for me to step out of the house.

The beta, who was a close friend of my sister, took the suitcases out of my hands and rolled them over to the black car to throw them in the back.

I shoved my trembling hands into the pockets of my jacket and followed after him with my eyes planted on the ground.

"Joyce?" My mother called out as she stepped in front of me.

I glanced to where she was standing first and caught sight of Jenny tucked to my father's side, as if he was trying to protect her still.

"Joyce?" My mother called out again, pulling my attention back to her.

"My baby girl." She whispered as she reached for my hands, forcing them out of pockets to thumb the bracelet.

"You are the bravest girl I have ever met, Joyce. The bravest. You are not just saving your sisters life. You're saving the entire pack. You have the elements to survive hard times, but your sister doesn't. You are..."

I pulled my hands out of hers, unable to stand being told lies before the slaughter. It was as if she was trying hard to convince herself that what she was doing wasn't wrong, that she wasn't choosing my older sister over me, that this wasn't going to be the last time we see each other.

I walked around her, feeling sick to my stomach when I realized that not a single person from the pack came to see me off.

What a joke my life was.

I hopped into the back seat of the car and slammed the door shut, already feeling my eyes well with tears again.

The driver, one of the warriors of the pack, fired up the engine. My eyes stayed on the three members of my family as the car pulled away from the main pack house, my heart bleeding.

I leaned my head against the window as I watched the houses fade away. The drive took hours, and while I was exhausted and sleep deprived, I couldn't get myself to rest my eyes.

I watched each turn we took with heavy hearts, each road that disappeared behind us. The silence in the car was heavy , but the silence within me was even more deafening. My wolf was hiding from me, making me feel even more lonley than I already did.

I have heard a lot of horror stories about The Winter Snow Pack, so much so that my skin crawled and my spine straightened the second the car entered the territory.

There was a certain shift that made me shiver. I felt cold even in the car, my body shivering from the chill as I looked out.

It was dark, the moon barely showing above us. The land looked cold, no flower in sight. It should be a hot time of the year, the time when different colors of flowers would be seen. But there was none here. Instead, any form of plants looked dead, as if they were burned to crisp.

It got more and more unease the more we drove further into their territory.

I could feel my heart thundering in my chest, my entire body shivering, my blood stilling and draining from my face.

"What the heck?" I heard the driver whisper, forcing my eyes to the windshield.

He forcefully stopped the car.

"There is something out there." He mumbled, squinting his eyes at the windshield.

I followed his line of sight, but all I saw was an extension of the cold, dead land that stretched into a dark forest. I saw nothing else. No houses, no lights, and certainly no people.

"You have to get out." He commented, opening the car door to rush to the back and take the two suitcases out.

"You're not leaving me out here, are you?" I asked, a bone-chilling fesr enveloping me as he pulled open my door and grabbed me by the arm.

"I'm sorry, Joyce. But this is as far as I can go." He said, closing the door behind me so I wouldn't jump back into the car.

"Wait... Please, I can't go all the way by myself. It's dark and I can barely see..."

I tried begging, needing to have the few moments of peace I deserved in the car until we reach the main pack house, but the man had made up his mind, because whatever he sensed out there scared him enough to abandon me in the middle of nowhere.

"I'm sorry." He whispered, glancing around as he rushed around the front of the car and hopped into the driver's seat.

I took a step back as he aggressively made a turn and drove off like there was a monster chasing after him.

I stood still, frozen until the tail lights disappeared, swallowed by the darkness before I turned around.

I reached out for the suitcases but stopped mid-air when I heard voices whispering around me.

A loud gasp of surprise escaped my lips as I turned from side to side, front and back, trying to figure out who was whispering, but I only managed to make it worse.

The whispers felt like they were in my head and all around me at the same time. They made me sweat. My vision blurred.

I didn't even realize I had started running, abandoning my suitcases, to escape the whispers until I tripped on a fallen branch and fell face first on the ground.

A groan escaped my lips as the impact to the ground mostly happened to my head, knees, and hands.

My vision darkened for a few seconds. When I managed to get my vision back, the first thing I saw were men's combat boots standing a few feet away from me.

My heart nearly leaped up my throat as I followed the boots upto dark trousers and an even darker sweatshirt to a scarred face looming over me.