Scars of the Past

Chapter 1: Nightmare

CHAPTER ONE

The moon was merely a thin white crescent in the sky, leaving the forest below in nearly complete darkness. The specks of stars that usually glowed so brightly were dulled by dark passing clouds. A wolf far below took advantage of the dark.

Fraye watched a rabbit slowly move from its warren. Its thick, white winter coat almost blended in with the lightly snow covered ground. Fraye got herself ready and narrowed her single yellow eye. She watched the rabbit hop a few feet away from the hole before digging in the snow with quick paws to find some grass below. Its black eyes darted from side to side, just to be sure there were no predictors lurking about. Then it began to gorge on the cold grass, unaware that it was being hunted by a wolf. Now was Fraye's chance.

There was a flash of black fur and the rabbit snapped its small head up in Fraye's direction. It hardly had time to move when the reflection of the wolf's open jaws shone in its beady eyes. The jaws closed around its head and the rabbit met its fate at the end of sharp fangs.

Fraye gently set the freshly killed prey down in the snow and lifted her muzzle to howl in triumph. Her howl rang out in the open air, in a beautiful crisp song. Her warm breath came out in a visible cloud of fog in the coldness.

As her howl died away, she picked up the rabbit and loped back to where her pack was stationed. The camp came into view and she could see the tawny fur of Moro. He was pacing back and forth in front of the cave entrance. Moro was the beta of the pack and Fraye's teacher back when she was a yearling. Him and Fraye had formed a close friendship in the time Moro had taught her the necessities of a wolf, to hunt, fight, and even her roll as delta.

As Fraye neared, Moro lifted his broad head. "Fraye," He greeted before Bowing.

"Enough of that," Fraye growled after setting the rabbit at his paws. The wolves in her pack were always greeting her with great respect, since she was the delta of the pack. The delta was the pup of the alphas, and usually became the new alpha when the current alphas died. But Fraye didn't think she deserved that much respect. She wasn't really the daughter of the alpha's Niro and Chena. She was adopted, found bleeding in snow when she was only a pup.

Now all the black she-wolf had to remember her past were scars over her missing eye. The scars haunted her, causing her to have horrible nightmares almost every night. Now Fraye was a little more than two years old, and was strong and independent.

"Fraye," Moro said, "You know you aren't supposed to leave after midnight. Alphess Chena was worried about y-"

"Why?" Fraye interrupted. "Because she thinks I can't take care of myself because I only have one eye?"

"Of course not! No one is aloud out after midnight. You know that, Fraye. Don't act like a yearling"

Fraye looked down. "Sorry," She grumbled.

"It's okay, I understand." Moro licked her head. "Chena wants to see you before you go to sleep for te night."

"Fine." Fraye picked up her rabbit and pushed passed the beta to entered the cave where the wolves slept. On the far wall, a pile of rocks formed a small path that lead up to a flat ledge where the alphas made their den. Niro was curled up asleep, while Chena sat up and looked down at the rest of the pack.

"Fraye, where were you?" Chena quickly trotted down to her adopted daughter and looked her over.

Fraye dropped the rabbit once again. "I was hungry, so I went hunting. I cought this rabbit." She paused. "I'm not that hungry any more... You can have it."

Chena looked Fraye in the eye, trying to see past her words. "Thank you." She quickly took the rabbit and bounded back to the ledge.

Fraye dragged her paws to her den at the foot of the ledge and entered. She laid down and felt her weary paws rest. As soon as she closed her eye, she fell asleep.

Though she wished she hadn't.

Her usual nightmare came back to her as always. Fraye followed a dark figure In the freezing snow. They soon came to a stop, and the figure suddenly turned and reared up. He slammed his paw over her eye with so much force that she could feel it even though it was a dream. His claws raked down the side of her face and tore her left eye out. Pup-Fraye squealed loudly as scarlet blood stained the white snow.

Fraye jerked away. Her heart was beating hard and she was panting with fear. When she finally calmed down, she gently ran her paw over her missing eye, feeling the ridged scars on her pad. "Whoever did this to me took away my innocence..." She whispered softy. "They will pay!"