~Ellie's Point of View~
I had been running for so long my lungs felt like they were on fire. My throat burned and my legs stung with an intense aching. I had been running now for two and a half days, stopping only at a couple streams to drink water and look for berries.
I was on high alert, running from those who would be tracking me down. I did everything possible to run in weird patterns that made no sense, running in all directions. I had no clue where I was going, and I didn’t care, as long as it was away from them.
I didn’t want my scent to be in any one spot, I tried to spread it out. The Alpha had skilled trackers, and I was probably a fool to think I could trick them, but I had to try.
It was getting really cold at night and I wasn’t sure how much further I could go. But I had no choice, there was no going back.
I was promised to the Alpha’s son ... a blood pact I was forced to make at only eight years old. My supposed “mate,” Tyson, was obsessed with me, he rarely let me out of his sight. I had plotted my escape for years, but I never believed I stood a chance.
I had a bag packed and ready to go, ready for me to run… but it sat waiting, waiting for the day I might catch a break.
This was my only chance, I had to try. I had to try and get as far away from the Blood Claw pack as I possibly could.
My name is Ellie, and that’s all I have ever known. I was never told my last name, and I was never told my birthday. The last time I remembered celebrating my birthday, I was eight. But it wasn’t like I had access to a calendar, or even knew what month it was currently. Back then I was too young to know really what months and years even were. There was no real way to know how old I was now. With everything that happened right after my birthday, it was like time stood still in some ways, but passed by in a flash in others.
Young werewolves are called pups and they become full adult wolves when they shift for the first time on their 17th birthday. Since I wasn’t exactly sure how old I was, I had no clue when that might happen. I felt as if it would be any day now. I knew so little about myself really, since my parents were killed in an attack when I was just a few weeks past my eighth birthday.
Once orphaned, I was taken in by Alpha Gunner from a neighboring pack, Blood Claw. The Alpha had a son, who was around a year younger than me. In exchange for taking me in, I was forced to agree to mate Tyson when he came of age.
I have always questioned how an eight year old could be forced to decide their fate in that way, but it was a blood oath I made nonetheless. If either of us had a mate, the oath would force us to reject them immediately.
There are two absolute sacred rules that werewolves abide by. A blood oath must be honored and if you are killed before it can be fulfilled, the immediate next of kin is required to honor if it is something they are capable of doing.
Secondly, you absolutely can NOT ever mark or mate a pup. A pup must be claimed by their wolf first, before they can be claimed by a mate.
The punishment for marking or mating with a pup is having your canines ripped out and your manhood removed. So needless to say, that was one rule that all werewolves abided by.
The only way to be released from a blood oath is to have the person who ordered it release you of it. So basically, I had to get Alpha Gunner to release me of this oath, or find a way to never shift and get my wolf … and neither option seemed likely.
Alpha Gunner had made it clear that if I ever ran away, he would find me, track me to the ends of the earth, so that I would mate Tyson and be his Luna. I didn't want to be Luna, I didn't know how to help run a pack. I also refused to bear his children, that was only for my fated mate. I’d rather die than let him touch me, mate me and basically make me his slave.
I believed, as most wolves did, that only the Moon Goddess alone can choose our mate, and that bond is absolute and unbreakable. I knew if my mate was out there, he would save me, help me. I had to believe that, it was all I had to hold onto.
Unfortunately, being a pup still, I wouldn’t know my mate if he was standing in front of me, and it was likely he might not know me either.
Alpha Gunner did everything possible to keep me from being educated, and ensured that I only learned how to cook, clean and properly be a mate. I was taught all of Tyson's favorite meals and how to prepare them exactly to his liking. Only I was permitted to do his laundry and clean his room. Any other servants were not allowed to. Tyson wanted my scent to be all over everything he touched, often insisting that I wear his shirts underneath my own clothes before he wore them.
I hated to leave the two friends I had at the only pack I really knew, but since I didn’t know when I would shift for the first time, I couldn’t wait around.
I didn’t have access to maps, but I did watch a lot of training. I learned a lot while I was trying to play dumb and act like I wasn’t interested or didn’t understand. Before my parents died, I was enrolled in the pack’s school and I did very well. I loved reading and writing, and tried to do it as much as possible when I was alone. The Alpha did not allow me to do it though, and one time Tyson found a book in my room and burned it right on the spot.
I bided my time and waited for the right opportunity, and one summer day, it finally came. There was a great battle brewing and close to erupting.
Blood Claw was going to war with two neighboring packs over territory and hunting grounds. I had one chance, a small window where nobody would be paying attention to me, and I took it.
I packed enough food for two to three days, not being sure how soon I might be able to find somewhere safe. I could also supplement my food with anything I could find in the wild, to make it last. I learned from school how to spot poisonous foods.
I had just enough practical things to make it, but I had a lot of hope. Either I would wander off and starve to death, or stay in Blood Claw and be forced to mate someone I hated. I would take my chances on my own.
~Ellie's Point of View~ I came to a clearing and sighed, desperate to rest. Just when I almost keeled over from exhaustion, I heard the sound of pups laughing. A second wind of energy washed through me and I followed the beautiful sound. I came to a family playing in a lake and washing clothes. As I began to approach the woman and her two pups, I collapsed in the grass. “Oh my goddess, pup are you okay,” she asked. My eyes were heavy, I was keen to sleep for a few days but I was also starving. I gathered what strength I had, and made a desperate pitch to her. “My family was killed in an attack, I’ve been running for a long time, will you take me in,” I asked in a small whisper. I wasn’t above stretching the truth at this point, I was desperate as could be. A pup came with a small bowl of water from the lake, and I took it, chugging it down and panting. The woman nodded and the second pup brought more water as she started to clean my legs. I leaned down to see a horrible fright
~Ellie's Point of View~ I desperately wanted to ask where he was sending them, but I didn’t think he would tell me anyhow. He said it could be anywhere from a few hours to three days before they could send a response. I shuddered at that, hoping that I was wrong, hoping that I was just being dramatic. However, the look on Beta Hank’s face told me he not only believed me, but he believed it was likely. I was also curious what exactly a “response” was, who it was. Would we have vampires here, witches? What would they do exactly? The obvious answer was that they would kill everyone, but that only made me terrified that innocents could be slaughtered. The Alpha and Beta immediately began barking orders to every single pack member, directing them where to hide the rations and how to board up their homes. One of the biggest fears with any invasion … is fire. It is the easiest thing for the enemy to do … burn down everyone’s homes. And well, Gunner was known for leaving nothing in his w
~Ellie's Point of View~ I silently cursed myself for a second and now I was afraid I would pee my pants. The wolves started spreading out but thankfully none were coming anywhere near me … for now. I worked on steadying my heartbeat, but I didn’t know if that was even possible given the insane situation I would myself in. I cursed Tyson, I cursed all of them. But really, I knew this was my fault. I led them here, surely I did. Now this peaceful pack would suffer, all because they were kind enough to take me in. I had to fight, if I even took one of them out, at least I tried. Hopefully no one would expect me to have a knife, and maybe I could slit their throat. A couple wolves shrieked and howled as they stepped on the silver spikes trying to go into houses, and I suppressed a snicker. None of our pack made a move, and I was dying to know why, or what their strategy was supposed to be. Then I suddenly heard a couple wolves cry out, and I saw arrows being shot out of trees, surel
~Hunter’s Point of View~ I was enjoying my nice, quiet day off soaking in my huge tub. It had been a long week and my brothers and I rotated being on active duty and on call. I was aching for my week off. They were few and far between anymore since it seemed like everyday someone else was being a menace, being difficult. My brothers and I were Shadow Warriors, a coalition of various supernatural beings that keep the peace between each other and between our own kind. It’s a damn hard job, but someone has to do it. I had the little apartment at headquarters to myself since Skyler was out on patrol and it was River’s week to be on assignment. We all traveled constantly, but since our work took us to all corners of the world, usually a vampire would either fly us there, or a witch would teleport us. Getting along and having all these crazy egos around was a constant battle, but we were all dedicated to the big picture and had to remember that. I finished off a nice cold beer, crawled
~Hunter’s Point of View~ My wolf immediately began howling, jumping up and down in my subconscious. He wanted to take over, and started demanding to shift. Our scouts said there were no she-wolves out here, did they miss her? How could you miss that scent?! It was what I had been waiting my entire life for, and I wasted no time following it. My wolf was not able to communicate with any she-wolf nearby, confusing me even more. Even though I wouldn’t be able to mind-link her, they would sense each other, feel the other’s presence. I came to an old shed that was caved in, and I heard it … a faint heartbeat that almost sounded human. There’s no way there is a human out here, that can’t be right! I frantically began ripping away pieces of wood and metal, tossing them behind me. It took a few seconds, but I saw her hand sticking out from the rubble and I cleared it swiftly. It finally dawned on me, this was a pup, and she hadn’t yet shifted. I yelled for help and in seconds Raul, one
~Hunter’s Point of View~ He raised his eyebrow and I knew that he knew. I shifted my gaze back to my mate. “Pat and Angel, please leave us,” he said, calmly. Pat opened her mouth to protest, but no one outranked Godfrey in this house. She looked at my mate one more time and dropped her hands to her side, then turned and hooked arms with Angel, leaving the room. “It’s very hard to tell her age, she’s very small, maybe 14, 15? I don’t really know, it’s not like I see human children … well really I haven’t seen an actual child in centuries…” He said that because there were vampires and other creatures that looked like children, kind of frozen in time. I estimated that Godfrey was about forty in human years when he was turned. Godfrey looked at her, curiously. It is very hard for a vampire to control themselves in the presence of a child, especially a virgin with pure blood. I knew if he tried to do anything, there would be no way I could fight him. My wolf didn't think rationally
~Ellie’s Point of View~ My eyes flickered open and I sat up with a shudder, and immediately regretted it. I reached instinctively for the pain in my head expecting a gash to be there, but I felt something soft. Maybe a bandage? I looked down at my arm and saw a large bandage. I was in a small but quaint bedroom, and it was night time. There was a small lamp in the corner that illuminated the room. I threw the blanket off me and much to my shock I was only dressed in a large shirt, with literally nothing else on. Who took my clothes off?! There were scrapes and cuts all over my legs that looked freshly cleaned. They looked like they were already healing, and I gaped at that. Was my wolf helping me? There was a bit of pain from my left leg and it had some ugly bruising. I knew I likely didn’t have the strength to stand, but I tried to lift myself enough to see out the window, to gauge where I was at least. I couldn’t make out anything but darkness. I didn’t feel like I was back
~Hunter’s Point of View~ Skyler and I sat in the hallway outside Ellie’s room, listening to her story and getting increasingly restless, desperate to be by her side, to comfort her. Godfrey insisted we wait outside while they gathered information, convinced we would be a distraction. He made Angel put a quick spell on us to temporarily block our scents, much to my chagrin. Ellie … my mate was Ellie. Everyone in my family mostly had some type of nature related name, so I always assumed our mate would. But … that just seemed so insignificant now. Ellie ... her name was Ellie, and she was ours. We had no idea if she knew I was her mate, we did share a brief moment before she passed out, and I just felt she had to know. She hadn’t yet had her first shift, and it was quite possible she didn’t know. Blocking your scent was pretty common for Shadows, especially when we would be in battle. The last thing you wanted was for an enemy to know your scent and remember it if they lived. I list