Chapter 1 : A Path to Ruin

*Lynn*

The path through the dense underbrush was thick and overgrown with vines and weeds, choking out what little I could see of the trail. I flicked my hair from my damp forehead, ignoring the moisture clinging to me.

Despite the morning winter chill, I was sweating much more than usual for a routine hunting trip. Well, I wouldn’t call this trip ‘routine,’ as I’d come up short with only a rabbit to show for my efforts.

I was out for most of the morning, searching for a large buck to get my sisters and me through the next few weeks, but the herds had all moved on from the territory, driven back by the wolves collected there.

They were hunting too much. I’d known it for months. The pack’s warriors had hunted nearly everything the land had to offer and scared away the rest. All for HIS table.

While HE was dining lavishly, the rest of us were left to find whatever scraps we could.

It wasn’t the best form of living, but it was surviving.

The slim rabbit hung loosely from my belt as I made my way through the small growth of trees surrounding our cabin.

If I hadn’t already known it was there, tucked gently away in the overgrowth, I would have missed it completely. That’s what I loved about this place—the way it disappeared into the environment, invisible to all but the few.

I could already hear my sister's grumbling long before I entered the small clearing leading to the footpath that cut through our small garden.

With her back to me and her brown hair swept neatly into a bun, I could tell it was Aldith who was cursing at the harsh roots stuck in the ground.

“Damn it!” she muttered under her breath.

I was somewhat surprised to see her elbow-deep in the frozen ground. Gardening wasn’t one of her strong suits, but there she was, fighting to obtain a small potato.

“That desperate, are you?” I teased as I walked up to her.

She jumped so suddenly that she almost fell back from her perch on the ground.

“What the—?” she began but stopped when she looked up at me. “There you are!”

She jumped up and gave me a bear hug, knocking me back some.

“Calm down,” I told her. “It’s only been a few hours. You act like I’ve been gone for months!”

Aldith stepped back and batted her long lashes at me. “You might as well have been. I’m starving! Clara still isn’t back from town, and I haven’t had anything to eat all day!”

I was tempted to roll my eyes at her, thinking that we were all hungry. It was a way of existing then. But I didn’t do anything other than pull the rabbit from my belt and toss it to her.

She grabbed it eagerly from midair and grinned. But her smile was short-lived when she realized how small it was and that I only had one.

She frowned, her brown eyes gazing at me with remorse.

“That’s it?” she asked me.

I sighed and stepped up to the front porch, where dead vines hung from the thatch roof.

“Yes. That’s it. Everything else is gone. They’ve either left to escape the cold or the idiots Dryden keeps sending after them.”

Aldith shivered at the name. “Do you have to say his name here?” she said, wrapping her arms tightly.

“Yes,” I told her. “It is his name, after all. Names are only powerful if you give them a reason to be. There’s no use being afraid of it.”

Aldith looked up at the gray sky, the clouds rolling in as if anticipating a coming storm.

“Still. I don’t like being reminded that he’s out there. I’d rather just forget and pretend it’s just us.”

I looked back at her, one hand on the latch of the door. “Me too. But that’s not the reality of it. But we are safe here. For now, at least.”

Before I could say more or open the door, I heard the light calling of Clara as she stepped away from the path leading into Downsurry. Her pink dress and cape fluttered in the cold wind as she walked briskly to us.

Even from a distance, I could tell her face was red from more than just the cold. Her eyes were puffy, and tears still streamed down from her porcelain cheeks. But the basket at her hip was filled with fresh bread and desperately needed goods.

I stepped away from the porch and rushed over to her, my face filled with concern.

“Clara? What is it? What’s wrong?”

Clara couldn’t speak through the sobs that racked her chest. My heart went out to her, hating to see her this upset.

Aldith wrapped an arm around Clara’s waist and led her to the front door.

“It’s okay,” she told her in a calm voice. “You’re home now.”

Together, Aldith and I helped Clara inside and sat her down next to the kitchen fire, piling blankets on top of her, but she wouldn’t stop shivering.

I gently took the basket from her hands and placed it on the table, ignoring the contents for the time being, and focused on my shaking middle sister.

Clara was usually the calm one, the tame one, the one I could always count on. She was so wise for her age, I sometimes forgot she was only nineteen.

I squatted down before her, holding her frigid hands in mine as I tried to read her face. Her lips quivered as she tried to speak.

Aldith sat down next to me, her frown heavy on her lips.

“Calm down, Clara,” I told her, holding her gaze. “What happened?”

Clara took a few steady breaths and spoke in a low but firm voice.

“I had just stepped out of the bakery when…when I saw the notice in the townsquare.”

Aldith and I looked at each other with fear etched onto our faces. There were rarely any notices from our beloved Alpha. For one to show up out of the blue like this was more than surprising.

“What did it say?” Aldith urged.

“It said…” Clara took another deep breath before continuing. “It said that Dryden was looking for breeders.”

Silence hung in the room, the air visibly thicker as we considered her words.

Clara looked up into my eyes, the browns of hers matching mine. “There was a list of females he’s chosen. I’m one of them.”

Suddenly, I shot to my feet, my heart hammering like a thousand drums. I could feel the heat rising to my face, racing down my spine.

“What?” I shouted, hoping, BEGGING, that she was wrong. That I had somehow misheard her.

Aldith was shaking next to me, her head swaying from side to side in disbelief.

Clara stared down at her feet, her hopelessness visible in her sagging shoulders.

“It’s true,” she said, a new wave of tears falling to the floor.

“But he can’t!” I objected. “You’re not old enough! You haven’t even had your first change yet. It just doesn’t make sense!”

“Of course it does,” Aldith said with venom. “It makes perfect sense!” She suddenly looked up at me from her place on the floor, her face as red and wet as Clara’s. “That monster thinks he has the right to tear his claws into our family and ruin everything we have. He proved as much that night when he cursed us to this life! He doesn’t care how old we are.” She pointed to Clara. “She can still be bred, whether or not she has her powers.”

“But it isn’t right,” I seethed. Why was she defending this? Why was she on HIS side?

“No,” she agreed. “It isn’t. But nothing about that man suggests he cares two shits about what's right.”

I slowly sank to my knees, the truth of it creeping in. She was right. Of course, she was right.

Dryden Vespertine, our merciless Alpha, wasn’t always Alpha. No. He stole that right, just like how he stole the lives of both of my parents.

We were happy once, all of us. Dad and Mom were the rulers of the pack—the Alpha and the Luna, a perfect love match. Clara, Aldith, and I are all products of that union.

They ruled kindly and justly, never considering their own wants and needs before their people's. Our pack was once known for its grandeur and its beauty. It was one of the wealthiest packs with the largest territory and the strongest fighters.

And then, one day, that all changed.

One man ruined everything. He came in the night and murdered both of my parents, leaving me and my sisters orphans. I was only sixteen at the time.

As soon as Dryden became Alpha, the pack fell to ruin. There were no longer wild festivities with plenty of food and drink or long celebrations and activities. All of that was gone, replaced with violence and depravity.

Dryden’s warriors got their kick out of taking from others, filling their own bellies instead of their people.

My sisters and I were cast out of our home and forced into the lowest rank possible. We were once princesses. Now, we were no better than dirt.

All because of one man who could become a powerful wolf.

Now, I was nearing my twenty-first birthday, and after I make my first shift, I’ll be that much closer to my revenge. I was determined to make Dryden pay for what he had done to me, my family, and my pack.

He had taken so much from us. There was no way he was taking Clara too.

I looked back up into my sisters’ eyes, first at Clara and then at Aldith.

“No,” I told them. “I won’t accept it. I won’t let it happen.” To Clara, I said, “You won’t go to him. I won’t let it. You are coming with me where we will be safe.”

Clara shook her head. “What are you talking about, Lynn? How could we possibly get away from him? His reach is far, and he is very powerful. There is no way we could get away.”

I scooped up both of her hands and squeezed them.

“Of course, there is a way. There is always a way. Don’t let our parents’ deaths be for nothing. They were good and kind people and didn’t deserve what happened to them. And you don’t deserve to be shackled to that man,” I stated with nothing but resolution in my heart.

Clara laughed, and, for a moment, I couldn’t figure out why. And then, she threw her arms around me, her sobs coming in short bursts. Only, she was no longer sad.

“I knew you would fix it, Lynn. I just knew you would. You’ve done so much for us since Mom and Dad died. I can’t begin to express how much I’m thankful for you.”

Aldith came in behind me and hugged me, all three of us interlocked in an embrace filled with the love and loyalty that could only come from the bond of sisters.

When we finally pulled apart, our faces were wet with tears, both happy and sad.

None of us knew what to expect or what would happen if we left. But we had to. We have no choice. If we stayed, Clara would be forced to a fate worse than death. But if we left, we would be less than what we were.

A wolf with no pack is like a fish with no water. It just doesn’t work. We’d be rogue wolves. Omegas. The lowest of the low, lower even than we are now.

Was freedom worth it? How much could we sacrifice to save ourselves? What would it come to?

But as I sat and looked back at each of my sisters, I realized that I would sacrifice it all to protect them.

However, a small part of me continued to pester a corner of my mind as if there was something else I wasn’t looking at, some point I had missed.

I shook it off.

It didn’t matter. Not now. What mattered was that we found a way out of here and saved Clara before it was too late.

We had to escape. Otherwise, we’d be dooming ourselves to lives of torment and slavery…forever.