PROLOGUE

      "Melisca! Get your backpack. Hurry up! They are coming. I can feel them." Cabril called for his daughter in their cabin in the forest. They stayed there for a day to visit his wife's grave.

       "Who are coming, dad? The hunters?"

       "No, the wolves. I don't know what they want, but we have to go. We need to get on the road, so we can lose them. Now!" He then jumped outside, shifted, and Melisca hopped on his back and started right on his at most speed.

     Tower-like trees with rich green leaves and trunks that could be great for playing hide and seek would completely cover your figure from anyone. Before, the dancing leaves and the birds' lullabies brought Melisca a peaceful feeling that she was one with nature. But now, she only wished that the arrays of tall greeneries would just end, for them a sign that they'd reached the highway.

       The stomping of her father's paws on the freshly dried leaves and the frantic beating of her heart were thudding together in her ears. Flocks of birds scampering away as the chase went on. Looking at them with envy, that they can just escape like that.

       "They're approaching, dad." She said through the wind, glancing behind her. With her heightened senses, she can see five wolves a few kilometres away and two on each side. They are encircling them.

       "Brother, I just have something to say." Candor mind-linked Cabril. "About our father." He added.

       That made Cabril slowly stop when they reached a clearing in the middle of the trees, where a group of campers would stay together for a bonfire. The sun above was no longer hidden by the branches, it was about to set. Yet, odd that the forest's usual insect sounds could not be heard. Maybe even they had sensed the danger in the area and wouldn't dare to make a sound.

       "Dad, why did you stop?" Melisca wondered. But her father signalling for her to get off, so she did. He shifted back and gave him a coat to cover himself. "Dad, do you know them?" They watched them shift back to their human form in a far tree and come out after covering themselves.

        As they were approaching, Cabril pulled her behind him so he could shield her from them.

       "What do you want, Candor? What about our father?" He asked directly, on alert in case anyone attacks them. But he also got a bad feeling of what he might answer, especially if it's about their father.

       "He's family, dad? Your brother?" Melisca butted in. She finally met her other family, and that got her excited.

       "Not now, dear." He made his daughter stay quiet. "Don't get near them."

       "So that's your daughter. Where's Melicia? Is the rumour true that her own clan killed her ten years ago?" He sounded like he enjoyed the topic.

       "What do you want, Candor?" Cabril repeated his question with a menacing look. He just wanted to get out of there to ensure his daughter's safety. He knew his brother could never be trusted.

       Melisca, on the other hand, felt insulted in the way he talked about her mother. She doesn't like him anymore.

        "Long time no see, brother. And this would be the last. Father ordered me to kill you both for having a half-blood child and being a traitor. She should never exist, for she's an abomination in our kind." He smiled at that.

       "You have to kill me first!" Cabril then jumped on his brother, which made them tumble on the ground. "Run!" He shouted at Melisca. Two wolves jumped on her both sides at once. But she leapt away from her position, dodging their attacks. "I said run!"

        "No! I'll fight with you!" She stated bravely. 

       "Your mother wanted you to live. Don't put it for nothing, Melisca! Only know that we both love you endlessly. Go! Run for your life! Leave!" Cabril can't hold his brother down much longer.

      Melisca didn't want to, but she has to live for her parents. Knowing that once she had turned her back on them, the worst could happen. The possibility of not seeing her father again made her hesitant to move. There was nothing she could do to help him or save them both.

      The begging eyes of his father finally made her turn around.

      "I love you so much, dad." Bottling up the tears, she fled with her wolf speed in human form because she can never shift, though she has all the abilities of a wolf.

        She was near the road. She could see it not far ahead. She just had to get in a human crowd, so they would lose her. A thought that maybe she can still go back, help him if she can just get rid of the two wolves running after her. Maybe that could work. She held on to that hope.

      "Get him off me!" Candor ordered the other two wolves, and they jumped on Cabril.

      "Can't defeat me alone, huh?" He mocked him as he let go and leapt away from the attackers.

       Bang! Bang!

       Cabril's face retorted as he fell down on the ground. He hadn't expected those shots from his brother. Blood immediately trickled from his mouth. "It's not fair." Struggling to breathe. The bullets can't kill wolves, but the poison in them can. The poison that is made by witches could instantly kill a werewolf.

        "Yes. It's never fair, Cabril. Never fair that you were always his favourite son."

        Blood pooled around him. The wounds would never heal, for the poison was made for them. Looking up at the empty eyes of his older brother, no inkling of life for his family even.

        "Let my daughter live." He pleaded till his last breath. He hadn't protected his wife before. Melicia had been killed by her clan. Now, he wouldn't allow his daughter to be killed by his own pack, his family, but he can no longer protect her. His dying wish is for his daughter to live.

        "No problem, she's just one half-blooded wolf. Harmless, maybe. But if my buddies caught up with her, then it's her fault for being so weak, not fast enough unlike us pure-bloods. If only her mother was not human." He laughed at his niece's fate. "Goodbye, brother. I'm going to be the Alpha now." He then left him dying on the ground. The group shifted and ran away.

       The gunshots made Melisca stop in her tracks. She had to get back. Her father. Something snapped inside her. She wants to feel his presence, the connection. But it's no longer there. She felt nothing anymore. Her insides went numb, hardly breathing for the intense, agonising pain of losing another one of her parents.

       Why do they hate them so much? Why do they hate her existence? She'd done nothing to them. Why do they have to kill her family? Even kill their own blood just to get to her.

     Right then and there, as Melisca resumed running, she swore to heaven and hell that someday it would be her turn to hunt. To shed herself with their blood. Her family's murderers would pay with their lives back. A life for a life. She breathes for that mission only.