Searching for Always and Forever

Chapter 1

The nights were cold sometimes in the middle of the winter. Hope woke up to the shivers next to her. She wasn't bothered by the cold that much, she could tolerate it much better than the others. She got out of the bed to put some wood on the fire which was slowly dying. The fireplace was in the small living room which was in one area with the kitchen space. There were two tiny bedrooms opening from the living room, both rooms' doors were wide open so the warmth of the fire could get inside.

The tiny wooden cabin where they lived was in the middle of the woods. No people for miles and miles away. Hope was lucky to find this little place and in the past three years they made a home out of it.

She put the wood in the fireplace and the flames shot up high, filling the air instantly with warmth. Before she went back to her bed, she checked on the room next to hers. Two little bodies snuggled up to each other under the warm blankets. Hope smiled at the peaceful sight, then she walked back to her room and layed back to her bed, next to her sister, Grace.

Hope woke with the rising sun again. She put some more wood on the fire, then boiled some water for the morning tea. While she was sipping on her tea, she cooked some eggs for breakfast.

"Hope!" The scream of the young boy filled the whole cabin. Hope's heart skipped a beat as the screams of her worst night came flashing in her mind. It had been three years now but she could never forget that horrid night when they lost their parents. She rushed into the little kids room, where little 5 year old Jack was sitting on his bed, crying. His hazel eyes were red and angry from crying. His seven year old sister was smirking viciously next to him.

"What the hell is going on?" Hope asked, aiming the question to her little sister, who just shrugged, then Hope noticed the girl hiding something behind her back and she already knew what it was.

"Riley, give Buddy back to Jack!" Hope demanded, noticing the soft stuffed wolf wasn't in it's usual spot, by their brother. The seven year old girl huffed and puffed but finally gave in to Hope's serious stare and gave back the stuffed animal to her brother.

"I don't need baby toys anyway." Riley crossed her arms and left the bedroom but Hope didn't fail to notice the tears in her eyes. Hope helped the little boy get dressed and by the time she went back to the kitchen to check on Riley, Grace already started to serve the eggs. The little girl seemed just fine with her youngest older sister. Of course, it was always Hope, she had to be the bad cop. It's like she wasn't already completely different than her siblings... in every way possible.

As they sat together at the table laughing and planning their next week, Hope just stared at her younger siblings. Grace was two years younger than Hope. Hope was eighteen and Grace was almost sixteen years old. She was thin, taller than Hope, she had long light brown hair and hazel eyes. She looked just like their mother. Her personality was so similar to their mother's too. She was great with the little ones, she could entertain them for hours while Hope worked around the house and Grace would never get bored of the kids, or at least she wouldn't complain. Grace was always cheerful, talkative and social, but also very stubborn. She was the kindest person Hope had known, sometimes she wished she would be like Grace. And there was their youngest sister Riley. She was the troublemaker, but a very sensitive child. She probably had both their parents' qualities. She had dark brown hair with matching chocolate brown eyes. Their youngest sibling was Jack. He was only two years old when their parents died, he didn't even remember his mom or dad now at five years old. He had their mother's hazel eyes with dark brown hair. He was the cutest little thing ever. Hope sometimes wondered why she was so different. Even her looks were so distinct to her siblings. Hope had auburn hair with bright blue eyes. But they were siblings, she was sure about that and their shared Labonair birthmark of a crescent moon on their right shoulders proved that. Their mother had the same mark, and their father told stories about the old pack where wolves with this particular birthmark were treated like kings and queens. They all knew they were the last ones remaining of their mother's blood line. They were all werewolves, but Hope was the only one out of them all, who triggered her werewolf curse. It happened when Hope was fifteen. It happened the same day their parents died... when they were murdered... and Hope could only blame herself for everything that happened on that day.