My story may contain some cussing...
The story is mainly in the female MC's POV, if the POV changes, it would be stated at the beginning of the chapter.
Dedicated to : MarbelisLugo for the beautiful book jacket above!
Prologue
The first thing that hit me was the heavy smell of smoke.
I was out of bed in a flash, scanning the room for any possible intruders. Thick clouds of grey surrounded me and the pungent smell of smoke wafted through my sensitive nostrils. I let out a few coughs, trying to expel the smoke from my lungs.
I felt around for the doorknob. Being old and loose, it twisted at once. Bright orange flames sprang to my vision, consuming whatever that came to sight. The flames flickered back and forth in the hallway, teasing me for being helpless. A crowd of people raced towards the end of the hallway where it led to the ground floor.
The alarm bell finally rang which did nothing but cause more panicked screams to erupt from the crowd.
Someone shouted my name. "Hazlynn! You there?"
I turned to the direction of the sound. Suddenly, a huge panel of the wooden ceiling I remembered my father had spent ages to build, crashed onto the ground, squashing a few people underneath it.
I rushed over to lift it up. "No!"
My brain was working purely on adrenaline at this point. My arms were aching. "Somebody help!" I screamed out amidst the panicked shouts and cries.
I looked down at the victims and immediately wished I hadn't. The pack members looked at me in awe and gratitude. It was almost as if they had already given up before I even came over.
No, they can't die on me.
"Hang on! I'll get you out of here." I tugged at the panel but to my dismay, it wouldn't budge. Finally, someone came over to help me. I looked up to see my father's Beta, James, leaning over to lift the other side. With an enraged cry, I pushed the panel above my head just in time to see another fall in front of my face.
Covering my face with my hands, I took a few backward steps. The debris came up in clouds, choking me.
"Hazlynn!" I heard that voice again, this time filled with hints of desperation. A figure appeared beside me just when I pushed the useless piece of wood away. With a heavy tug on the arm, she dragged me away from the scene. "We're under attack. Let's go!"
Knowing that James would take care of the victims, I tried to keep up with my mother. "What's happening?" I asked in between gasps, exhausted from the effort I had put into the rescue mission.
"We're under attack." she repeated. Her shoulders were slumped forwards and she wore a frown on her face. Wisps of hair were falling out from her usually-neat bun. For the first time of my life, my mother looked flustered and not at all in control of the situation. Her face was charred and her clothes... It was hard to believe they were white in the first place.
"Blood Moon." It sounded like a statement, not a question.
"Yes. We've got to get you somewhere safe." she led me past empty corridors and slowed down when we entered the study.
She suddenly stumbled and would have fallen had I not caught her.
"Mum!"
"I'm... fine." she breathed out, holding her left hand out onto the wall to balance herself. "I can just feel the ties from the pack members slowly being ripped off from my heart one by one."
As the Alpha and the Luna, mum and dad could feel every death of a pack member. But for me, they were just pinches to the heart, unlike my parents. Each one hurt more than the last.
She opened the drawer of a table and took out a bottle. Moving quickly, she sprayed my entire body thoroughly with the liquid. It smelled like smoke. This was a tactic that I had learned a few years ago that was used to cover up one's scent.
"Let me see if I can smell you." She started to sniff around my body, trying to detect my scent before nodding in satisfaction.
That particular move from my mum supported my next guess.
I was leaving.
She walked over to the bookcase with its back facing the brick wall. There was an empty space where a flower pot once stood beside the bookcase. It was big enough for one person to squeeze through.
"Dad and the kids?"
"Dad's below fighting. The kids, you'll see them later." she flicked her fingers impatiently.
I never knew why dad didn't just take away the flower pot and push the bookcase straight into the wall, but now I did.
I watched as my mum push the flower pot away before running her fingers over the brick wall. She suddenly stopped at a particular brick and pushed it in.
Like a scene from a movie, the wall was pushed to the side and a poorly-lit passageway could be seen. "Go."
I hesitated and turned around to face her. "What about you?"
She gave me a shaky smile of reassurance. "I'll be fine. Stay safe. You'll meet the kids at the other side. Drive until you reach Golden Moon, alright? Look for the Alpha. Tell him that you are the one they're looking for." she brushed the stray strands of hair away from my forehead and before kissing it gently.
"What do you mean?"
"There's no time for questions."
A choked sob escaped from my lips. This felt too much like a goodbye; like it was the last time I would ever see her.
"Why don't you and dad come with us?"
It was a futile question, but I needed to hear her response. "As the Alpha and the Luna, we're the last ones going down fighting."
I felt my heart clench at her words. I was about to persuade her to come along with me when a tortured scream came from a few corridors away. My mother quickly pushed me into the secret passageway and pressed a lever at the side.
The wall began closing and I turned around towards the small opening. "Mum!"
"Stay safe." there was a sad smile on her face. "And remember, we will always love you."
Just like that, the wall closed until all I saw now were slabs of concrete holding the bricks in place. The shouts and screams of agony that sounded vaguely familiar from the other side of the wall were enough to make me want to break down and cry.
"Where are they?" I heard a gruff voice ask.
"They're.. dead." my mum coughed out, as if she was choking on something.
I heard the sound of knife cutting through flesh and I held in sobs. One thing that was weird was that I didn't feel any pain. I should've, if my mum was gone.
"Sniff around and see if there was anyone here," that same voice from before spoke. "She may not have been alone."
"Yes, Leo."
Is my mum gone? What would I do without her? What would the kids do without her?
The kids!
I suddenly remembered about my siblings who were waiting for me and turned back to the passageway.
Leo.
At least I had gotten his name.
Without caring about all the warnings I had heard for the better part of my life, I shifted into my wolf and ran towards wherever the path was leading to. As I got closer to the end of the pack's territory, I distinctively heard a howl of victory and knew right there and then, that my pack had lost.
It was nearly over.
Shifting back into my human form before reaching the end of the tunnel, I was immediately greeted by my younger siblings and the personal bodyguards that were assigned to the Alpha's children.
"Miss Hazlynn, we've got to go."
One of the guards, Richard handed me a long cotton T-shirt which I pulled over my naked body. At that particular situation, there were more important things going through my mind than to care about my nudity.
Nudity wasn't an issue among our pack members as we did grow up around each other anyway.
"What happened to your dress, miss?" Homer asked from the driver's seat as I got into the tinted black car.
"It got burnt so I threw it away."
It wasn't exactly a lie, it was just ripped into pieces when I shifted.
"Where's dad and mum?" my 15-year old sister, Hadleigh, asked even though she already knew the answer.
"Back in the house." was my brief response. I wasn't sure if they were dead or alive, and judging from Hadleigh's reaction, she didn't feel anything either.
"They're not coming?" Tristan, who was busy wiping his tired eyes, asked.
"No."
With that, the floodgates opened. It didn't matter whether my parents were alive, I mean, it did. Of course. But the whole pack was gone.
My parents? I was sure that they're somewhere.
Hiding.
I turned away to stare out of the window as Homer sped off into the darkness. Out of the corner of my tear-filled eyes, I could see Hadleigh coaxing Tristan to sleep. I didn't dare turn behind.
I knew how horrifying the situation was.
The White Moon Pack has gone down in flames.
Lost in my thoughts, everything happened so quickly that I had almost missed it.
As we were driving up the rocky and hilly terrain belonging to the Golden Moon pack, one tyre from the right side of the car came off and flew past my window. The whole car crashed into a tree and I hit the passenger seat in front of me on impact.
My ears were ringing and my arms were outstretched as I tried to reach for my siblings. Hadleigh, who still had a sleeping Tristan on her lap stared at me in confusion, before panic settled in. Her eyes grew wide and her mouth was opened as she tried to speak.
But I couldn't hear her.
Black spots covered my eyes and my breathing got heavier and heavier before I was engulfed into darkness.
The last thing I saw was a pair of blue eyes staring into mine.
...
Hazlynn is pronounced as Haze-lynn BTW!
The most intense and longest prologue I have ever written, hands down. (:
Doesn't explain much (the prologue, I mean) but I still hope you enjoyed!
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- Amelia ♥
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