Chapter 1: Murder and chains

Mima's POV

The dining room was filled with laughter, the clinking of plates, and the faint melody of my mother humming as she set down another dish.

The table was laid out perfectly, just like she always did, even for small family dinners. Except this one wasn’t a small family dinner, It was my birthday.

“Nineteen,” my father said, his deep voice with a mix of pride as he poured himself a glass of wine. “Hard to believe you’re not a pup anymore.”

“I haven’t been a pup for years, dad,” I replied, grinning at him as I reached for another slice of cake.

“You’ll always be my pup,” he said, ruffling my hair before taking a seat at the head of the table.

I rolled my eyes at him, stuffing my face with cake.

Beside me, my brother, Damon stuffed his face with a cinnamon roll, ignoring the amused look my mother shot him. “If you’re going to eat like that,” my mother teased, “you might as well shift into your wolf. At least then you’d have an excuse.”

Damon swallowed with a grin “The food’s too good, mum. The whole pack is missing out on this, maybe you should run the big kitchen for the whole pack.”

My mother laughed softly, shaking her head. “Not a chance. This is just for us.” Her smile widened.

My dad, Alpha Asher, chuckled. This was my family. My dad was the Alpha of our pack, red claws pack. My mum, she was Luna. My thirteen year old annoying younger brother, Damon.

And I, Mima, the first child and daughter of my parents was so happy that I was finally 19. Zahra, my best friend and I would talk about meeting my mate for hours when she had sleepovers. Zahra had already found hers months ago after her birthday and I was ecstatic and eager to find mine.

My dad was about to reach for the bottle of wine again when the smile on his face fell “I can't feel them…” my dad murmured.

“Sorry? Dear, what did you say?” My mum asked as she put her hands on his shoulder.

“I can't feel some of our members' bond. It's like… it's like they're… how could I explain this… it's like they're being cut out, one by one.” He said a little louder.

In haste my father stood up and went to the home phone, dialing his Beta and best friend, Beta Jaxon.

My mum walked towards my brother and I and put her hands on our shoulders trying to comfort us but from what exactly? Is something going on?

“Jaxon, can you figure out what is going on in the pack? I seem to be losing contact with our members' ” my dad said into the phone.

‘okay Alpha, I will do that right now but do wish your daugh— Arghh” Beta Jaxon's sound of cry terrified my father. The line went dead after that.

My father was shook and decided to go out on his own to figure out what was going on.

“Elara, stay with the kids. Something is wrong somewhere” my dad walked towards the door carrying his sword. He had opened the door by a slit when a spear tore through his chest, protruded from his back and he fell backwards to the ground, groaning as he looked down to see blood spilling from his midsection.

“Elara! Take the kids and hide” my father shouted, getting up from the floor to face whoever had thrown the spear at him, as he pulled it out.

My mother stood frozen, staring at the large wound on my father's back.

“Now!” He yelled at her and she immediately recovered herself and pushed my brother and I to go upstairs to hide, with her behind us.

She pushed us into a room and stepped out, staring at us.

“Mum?” I called out to her but she just bent down and kissed my forehead before doing the same to Damon.

“I need to help your father.” She muttered.

“Mum, no. Dad said you should hide with us.” I said to her, tears running down my eyes.

She wouldn't dare to leave us all alone up here right? She doesn't even know what she's fighting.

She pushed me further in and closed the door. I scrambled to my feet after falling backwards and began to bang the door, hard.

“No, mum. Come back. Come back!” But she didn't.

“We need to get out of here Damon. We need to save mum.” I shook my brother repeatedly. He also had tears streaming down his cheeks.

He nodded and I took out a pin from my hair. Zahra and I had done this many times when we wanted to leave to go attend parties without our parents knowing so in no time, I had the door opened.

Damon and I crawled out of the room so as to not make any sound and although my tears blurred my vision, I still pushed on.

I finally got to the top of the stairs and pushed Damon to hide behind the bars while I went down.

The sight I saw made me freeze where I stood.

Dad had multiple wounds on his body and he was still fighting the man with the spear and mum… she was also fighting for her life.

She was pinned down to the ground by another masked man who had a dagger and the dagger was raised above her heart.

“Stay away from my mate!” My dad yelled and pushed the man that he was struggling with away, rushing to the one who had my mother pinned down.

He pushed him off her and punched him in the face.

“Dad, behind you.” I yelled and when he turned to look at me, his eyes filled with disbelief and warning that I should have hid and stayed still, a spear was struck in his midsection again and this time… my dad fell to the floor with his eyes open and not moving.

I heard a scream but I couldn't focus on whose it was, all I could see was my father's lifeless body on the floor.

I couldn't stop staring.

“Asher… Asher get up.” My mum started to mutter.

“Asher, stop playing these games!” She yelled, shaking my father's body.

She placed her head on his chest and started crying profusely, forgetting about the two assailants in the room.

Everything was suddenly blocked out. The screams and shouts from outside, my brother's nearby sniffles, my mother crying on my father's chest… everything.

The one with the dagger raised his hand to attack my mother but my feet moved me to the scene, stepping in between them and punching him in his stomach.

He fell to his knees, grabbing his stomach. I didn't think that would have much effect. His partner rushed to him to help him up and while they were distracted, I dragged my mother off my father against her will, up the stairs.

Damon was a crying mess when I got to him. I was too and I didn't know what I was doing but I wanted to save my family at all cost.

I tugged on my brother's hands and dragged him up the stairs into our store room. We barely used it so it was the last place they would check.

Right?!

We were at the door when my mother pushed me away from her and getting to her feet.

“Mum…” she looked at me with distant eyes and I couldn't tell if she was still my mother. Her eyes flickered to Damon and I and she knelt in front of us.

“Damon, protect your sister.” She turned to face me. “Mima, protect your brother. I love you both so much.” She kissed us on our forehead and turned to walk away.

Damon ran after her but I caught his hand and shook my head while trying to hold back my tears.

I didn't want her to make that decision. She could have hid with us. We would have found a way to escape…

I opened the store room and dragged him inside.

We both hid in a large cupboard and had our hands over our mouths, silently crying.

The room was silent for a minute but then I heard a scream of agony reverberate through the whole building and I knew whose it was…

My mother. I held back another round of tears and held my brother close.

The house went quiet again.

I was starting to think they had left when the cupboard door suddenly opened and a masked man came into view.

I let out a scream and held Damon's hand tighter, thinking up many ways to escape.

His spear in his right hand dripped with blood. He moved quickly and tried to stab my brother but Damon was quick to tackle him.

My gut twisted and I just knew how much of a bad idea that was…

Damon was able to get the spear off the guy's hand but the intruder held Damon by his neck and squeezed hard. Damon began to gasp for air and his face turned red, I couldn't take it anymore. I got up and tried to save him.

I tried pushing, biting, kicking the killer, but his focus was on my brother.

I tried punching him again but I got forcefully kicked aside, hitting my back to the walk and a loud crack filled the room.

No… no… this can't be happening. I have to save Damon. I have to.

I crawled forward, trying my best to get to his discarded weapon on the floor.

I turned to get the spear but before I could, I heard a cracking sound. I looked up, my mind thinking up different scenarios especially the one I chose not to believe… only to see my brother's lifeless body on the floor staring at the ceiling.

He was gone.

He killed my brother.

I crumpled to the floor and held my brother's body close. “Kill me too” I whispered.

“Kill me too.”

“Kill me too.” I kept saying over and over again, hugging my brother's body and rocking back and forth.

All the masked man did was shake his head and drag me out of the building with me kicking, yelling and screaming for him to leave me to die with my family.

He didn't listen.

When we got outside my house, I realised that the whole pack was in disarray. The floors were littered with bodies and houses were set ablaze.

Ahead, where the masked man dragged me to, I saw some of my pack mates… including my best friend, chained and in a long line. I was roughly tossed and cuffed with them.

We the captured people were thrown into the back of a vehicle and as the vehicle drove away, I stared at my burning house and fallen pack.

That was the end of the red claws pack, my pack.

“ Happy birthday to me” I muttered under my breath as more tears streamed down my face.