Her story

The sun rays that peeked through the window collided with Ashina's face causing her to bring the covers over her head. She rubs her eyes and sits up before realizing that it's already morning.

Ashina lay back down on the bed with a deep sigh as she placed her arm over her forehead. Slumping exhaustedly down onto her bed, Ashina Kessler pushes back the tears pooling in her eyes that are threatening to fall any moment now.

How had her life come to this?

As a 6-month-old baby, she had been abandoned on the steps of the pack she now called home, the Alpha had pitied her and brought her in and cared for her like one of his own.

Alpha Romulus already had 3 sons, the eldest which is the future Alpha was named Remus, the middle son was David and the youngest son was named George, when Alpha Romulus had taken Ashina in, George had been 7 months old himself and they thought both children would be incredibly close like twins.

Both Luna and Alpha loved their three boys more than words could describe but they had been yearning for a little girl of their own and just like God had answered their prayers.

A baby girl was left for them to care for as their own. Yet since Alpha Romulus's untimely death 3 years ago, any protection Ashina had was now gone and her life had gone downhill.

Now, Remus, the eldest son was Alpha of the pack, as he climbed the ranks of the pack, Ashina was forced down to the pack, and she was forced down to the bottom.

There had always been claims of favoritism from the Alpha to Ashina so everyone seemed happy to see her now at the bottom of the food chain. Ashina had been forced to move out of the only home she knew at the pack house and move to a cottage, 2 miles away which was at the edge of the packs land, she was also now made into the 'pack cleaner', everyone treated her like dirt without the protection of the Alpha, she didn't naturally belong in this pack and people often liked to remind her of this while she simply tried to live her life with what had been handed to her, even if she now drew the short straw.

Today had been particularly hard for Ashina, after setting off from her home at 5 AM to make it to the pack house on time to start her jobs, she had to clean every room in the pack house, it wasn't until she had this job title that she realized how disgusting some werewolves could be but she dared not complain out of fear of what would happen if she did.

Throughout most of her time in the pack house day in and day out, George, the youngest brother found pleasure in ridiculing her and making every single second of her time there much harder. Ashina had learned the hard way to ignore his verbal punches and even physical ones, she had the scars to prove this.

The one good time of the day was when Isabella could go and tend to the horses, she felt at peace with animals, particularly horses and cats. Having a love for cats was practically unknown for werewolves, even though most werewolves wouldn't like to admit it, they were distant relatives of the dog and they seemed for some reason to be unable to gain an attachment to cats like many dogs.

Despite this, Ashina was different, one day on her long walk home from the pack house she had come across a small kitten who was crying out in the bushes, despite only planning to nurse the cat back to health before setting it free, the cat now named Mori, had simply stolen her heart and was now her escape.

As if on cue, when Ashina's head dropped into her hands she felt a ball of fluff circle through her legs with a comforting 'meow'.

"Hello, Mori," she says forcing a smile before scooping Mori up into her arms and she cuddled him close to her neck.

She leaned on the old boards. She felt thin and veined, frozen by a hundred winters, baked by a hundred summers as it smelled of dust and age.

Ashina felts a rough lick on her neck which made her giggle slightly. Once Mori was placed on her knees, she gave an appreciative yawn at the back scratching he was receiving and curled up on Ashina's knees, his favorite place to be.

"You're the only one I need, Mori." Ashina grins slightly pushing away the escapee tear running down her face, she lies down bringing Mori to her side and she curled herself up into a ball too.

She hadn't changed her clothes from the day or even locked the front door but she very quickly fell into a deep slumber, her final thoughts about how she wanted... no needed someone to love her, she didn't know how much longer she could cope, despite the pack hating Ashina, they were not willing to let her leave but then she was unsure if she wanted too.

How would she cope with being rogue?

This would mean that she no longer belonged to a pack, Rogues were categorized as untrustworthy, dangerous and killers meaning most packs.

On the web of clouds, she stare at the back-lit by the failing sun, mist billowed through the trees and over the fields and hung low in the air, masking the camp in a ghostly gray.

The weather-beaten slat cottage sat at the far end of a mostly brown lawn. Wood silvered by the sun. Roof shingles warped. Small stands of plantain and giant bird-of-paradise for privacy.

But once in the vast bed she lay there utterly lost in the waves of terror and loneliness that envelop one at night. Her small body curled comfortably on the single bed she slept on, she lay there, tensed and tight, her toes curled with nervousness, her spine hunched with it, her leg muscles taut.

The food was usually an afterthought for Ashina, so her small frame resembled a 14-years-old rather than the one she should have at her age, 18 years old But Ashina had no one to impress, she was told this continually so she never had to worry about it.