Chapter 1

4 years earlier

Honey

I was awoken in the middle of the night by hands urgently shaking my shoulders. I sat up in bed rubbing my eyes in confusion, still half asleep. "Honey, you need to get up baby. Quickly now," Beta Tony's mate Cristi instructed me urgently.

"What's going on?" I asked, rubbing my eyes in confusion, as I realized that it was still dark outside.

"Child, you need to get up and get dressed now," she whispered urgently, as she took some clothes from the drawers she had just opened and threw them towards me. Realizing that something was obviously wrong, I quickly got out of bed and began removing my pajamas. I was even more confused now as I realized that Cristi was now throwing clothing of mine into a suitcase. I quickly pulled on the sweatpants, and sweater that Cristi had thrown onto the bed for me, and watched as she emptied my drawers and closet. When I was dressed, I looked at Cristi who was now throwing my clothes and other items she had grabbed into the suitcase hurriedly. She wasn't even folding the clothes which was odd. Neatly packing clothing was something Tony had always said that Cristi had OCD about . Cristi looked over at me and said, "If there is anything you don't want to leave behind, you had better grab it now. We don't have long before we have to go."

"Cristi, what is happening?" I asked her again, feeling scared now that she had said we had to leave. This was my home. I had never left our pack land before and now I had been awoken in the middle of the night and told we had to leave.

"Please, Honey. I know you're scared, and I understand that. But now is not the time for a game of twenty questions," she replied, focusing on her packing. "Is there anything you don't want to leave behind?" she asked again, looking at me once more.

"Yes, my scrapbook," I told her, pointing towards the closet.

"Okay," she nodded, as she walked over to the closet and grabbed my scrapbook. "Anything else?" she asked, as she put the scrapbook in the suitcase she had been packing. I thought for a moment and realized that there wasn't anything else here that I couldn't live without. All my worldly possessions were at my mom and dad's house down the road in the most populated part of the pack territory. My parents and I lived in the Alpha's residence since my parents were the Alpha and Luna of our pack. I only had sleepovers at Cristi and Tony's house whenever my parents allowed it. Usually it was when my parents had guests over and had business to discuss. During those occasions they would let me stay at Cristi and Tony's house so I didn't get bored. As if Cristi suddenly realized what I was thinking, she said gently, "I'm sure everything is going to be okay Honey."

At that moment, Tony came rushing into the bedroom and looked at the two of us, asking, "Are you guys ready to go? We are out of time, we have to go now."

"Yeah baby, here you go," Cristi replied, as she handed him the suitcase she had just packed. Tony took the suitcase from her and started to leave the room. Looking back at the two of us, he said, "Okay, let's go."

Cristi and I followed him out of the room and down the hallway. Moving through the house I felt so scared. I was afraid of the unknown. When we entered the kitchen, I saw that Cristi and Tony's son Zac was already in there waiting for us. Like me, he was also dressed in warm clothing. He had a zip-up Nike jacket on and the rose on his cheeks made me think he had been outside in the cold air. Cristi grabbed my jacket that was hanging on the hook near the back door and handed it to me, saying, "Here honey, put this on." I took the jacket she handed me. It was the one that her family had gotten me for my birthday earlier this year. It was a black and cream cartoon varsity jacket with a bunny rabbit on the right side of the chest. It also had and pink and purple hearts on the top of each of the sleeves. I pulled the jacket on and zipped it up before looking over to where Tony was standing.

"I have packed everything into the ca that we will need to take with us. I also had Zac put some blankets and pillows into the back of the car as well. We need to move, now," Tony said as he began to usher us out the door, still carrying the suitcase that Cristi had handed him in the bedroom. Cristi was the first to go out the door. She had her arm wrapped around me and was holding me close to her, as as she quickly guided me towards the SUV that was parked in the driveway. We were closely followed by Zac, and Tony brought up the rear.

As we were getting into the car, I could have sworn I heard screaming in the distance. The door was shut quickly, so I couldn't be sure. I put my seat belt on and glanced in the direction of where my house was. I could see a strange orange haze in the distance. It was slightly lighting up the darkness in the distance, even though it was still dark around us. Tony started the car and threw it into gear, before speeding out of the driveway. He was driving quickly down the dirt road that would take us to the main highway. This confused me. We were going in the opposite direction to the rest of the houses that belonged to our pack members.

"What is that orange light over there?" I asked, as the feeling of fear began to creep through me again.

"Fire," Zac said as he leaned over me, looking out of my window in the direction of my house.

"Fire? Wait, are you saying my house is on fire?" I asked, worrying about my parents.

"It could be," Zac replied, still looking out my window.

"Well, where are we going? We should be helping my parents! We should be finding out what is burning and helping to put the fire out!" I cried.

"Honey, the pack is under attack. At the moment, the most important thing for us to do is protect you," Tony explained.

"But what about my parents?" I asked.

"I am sure they will be fine. The second Beta team was on duty tonight. Plus, the Gamma's and the pack warriors are all well-trained. They will have enough protection. We just need to keep you safe so that your parents won't be distracted by worrying about your safety," Tony explained.

"You were put into our care for tonight. So we are going to keep you safe," Cristi stated.

"Can you please tell me where we are going?" I asked, as I found myself beginning to shake in fear.

"We don't exactly know yet," Cristi replied.

With that, the car became silent as we sped through the darkness. I stared out my window in silence. I can't see anything now. It was just pitch black out there. For the first time in my life, I was afraid of the dark.

"Dad, how did this happen?" Zac asked, from his seat beside me.

"I don't know yet, but I fully intend to find out," Tony replied, his gaze firmly fixed on the road ahead as we sped through the darkness.

I don't know what time it was when I had been woken up, or how long we had been driving for, but we were still driving when the sun started to rise. I was tired, but I couldn't sleep on account of the fear that had gripped me. The sun was only just peeking out through the clouds when Tony pulled into a motel. It was a small out of the way place that appeared to be in a quiet part of town. We pulled up in the parking lot of the motel and Tony got out and went inside the office to book us a room.

He came back out a few minutes later and said, "Room nine," as he held up the key and made his way towards the back of the car.

We all got out of the car and walked around to where Tony was unloading our bags. Once we had our bags, he locked the car, and we followed him to room number nine. As we entered the room, I looked around and wondered how long we were going to be here for? The hotel room was small, and the decor showed it had been a long time since the room had been decorated or updated. I looked at the two queen beds in the room and hoped that we weren't going to end up having to deal with bed bugs on top of everything else. As we all stood there taking in our new surroundings, I found myself missing my home.

"Okay, Cristi, I want you and Honey to stay here. Zac will be here with you. I am going to go back to the pack and take a look around," Tony stated as he looked at each of us.

"Dad, wait..." Zac started to say, but Cristi spoke over him saying, "Baby, you can't go back there alone."

"We need to know what is going on," Tony growled, clearly frustrated.

"What if whoever attacked the pack follows you back here? Or worse, what if they kill you when you go back there?" Zac asked.

"You can't think like that. You can't live in fear, son. You are the son of a Beta pair. Fear has no place in your life. You would do well to remember that," Tony told Zac as he held his gaze. "I will be back as soon as I can, I promise," Tony said as he made his way to the door.

"What? No kiss?" Cristi taunted, as she walked towards the door to where Tony was standing with his hand already on the door knob.

"My love, you have nothing to worry about, I will be back before you have time to miss me," Tony muttered, as he released the door knob and pulled her towards him in a tight embrace.

"Don't bet on it," Cristi murmured, as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Everything is going to be okay," Tony promised her right before his lips captured hers. A short time later, he broke the kiss off and walked out the door without a backward glance. Once the door closed, we were left with no other choice but to wait until his return. I just hoped that when he returned, he would have some good news for us.