601 Anything But That

When she was first trained as a Berserker, Ashleigh saw the prestige of the role. The unattainability. She had gone through all of the rituals and training to harness the rage and use it to bring her pack honor and fulfill her duties. But also to impress her father and show herself that she could do it.

To become a Berserker, Ashleigh suffered different forms of physical and mental torture. But, at the time, she, and likely most others never realized that they were stepping to the brink of death to allow the dead to become a part of them.

Lily had told her that the rage Berserkers called on was created from the echoes of the past. The energy stored from pain, suffering, loss, and hatred. The wolves of Winter had a connection to the dead, even if they couldn’t actively speak to or hear them. The shadows that lived in the deadlands still hung near the Winter wolves.