The shouting, snarling and screams had finally stopped, leaving nothing but an eerie silence in their wake.
Now, the only things I could hear were the soft crackle of flames and the erratic thump of my own terrified heartbeat.
I wanted so desperately to be brave. To get up and find my mum and dad... but I couldn't. I couldn't make my legs solidify from the jelly they had become.
A tear slid down my cheek as I trembled. The thin crack of the cupboard doors slowly becoming more visible as the flickering light in the room beyond burned ever brighter.
I knew what that meant. But still fear restrained me.
Guilt mixed with my terror and the lump in my chest grew to an almost suffocating level.
It was my fault.
The Pack was attacked because of me... Because of my family.
Young though I was, I was well aware of the snorts of derision. The snickers and pitiful glances. I knew that my father's humanity painted a bullseye on our Pack.
Knew that I was an anomaly.
Silent tears flowed down my cheeks as I curled into an ever-smaller ball. Wishing my mum would hurry and find me.
Wishing I was a normal pack member with a wolf to fuel my bravery.
But after nine years of nothing, I knew better. I'm more human than wolf.
The first whisps of smoke poked their tendrils through the crack in the door. Swirling ominously in the low light of my hiding place.
I buried my face in the collar of my jumper, trying desperately to filter the air as it grew thicker and hotter. My lungs burned with the effort to extract some oxygen and finally a flicker of desperate bravery broke free of my suffocating silence.
"Mum! Help! Please..." The words were barely audible, a strangled sob made of the little air I could draw in.
My ears rang and chest heaved, sight darkening as I felt my body begin to slacken against the wooden wall behind me.
I had almost resigned to my fate as the doors swung open.
The glow of the smoke-filled room swirled around my saviour. Midnight eyes met mine as a final tear escaped me.
I wasn't sure I deserved it, but I was going to live.