Prologue: The Attack
It all started when I was 6.
Life was cozy. Dad was one of the top-ranked warriors of our pack and Mom was one of our healers. I don't remember much from before the attack but I remember being Happy. Mom said I was never very social but that she and I would often play in the gardens before going to meet Dad for lunch.
Every other night, Dad would go on patrol until the early hours of the morning. I would wait for his howl before going to sleep every night.
So that's what I did. I heard his howl, felt Mom kiss my forehead, and snuggled into my thick blankets to drift away. The moon was still shining brightly in the sky when I was awoken by a harsh shake of my shoulder. "Celeste!" My eyes popped open and sleepily took in the form of Mom. She was in her pajamas, hair askew, and panic ablaze in her unusually wide eyes. "Celeste, baby, wake up we need to go!" It was at this moment that my ears took in the harsh growls, yips, barks, and other sounds going on outside. It sounded distant but it was still audible. It was scary. What was going on?
"Mommy?" She shushed me, picking me up; I wrapped my arms around her neck.
"We have to go. Everything is going to be okay." I remember it sounded like she was lying. Running out of my bedroom, she rushed to the hall closet by the back door. From there, she grabbed our two large emergency bags. I knew one of them was clothes for her, Dad, and I while the other one carried medical supplies and some food. Our whole pack had emergency bags, an idea Grandpa and his Alpha had come up with in their youth after a small neighboring pack was attacked. With a tight grip on the bags, she threw open the back door and took off running. Others were running too, more pack members with their children in their grips or frantically running beside them. Mom's hair flew out of her loose updo, getting in both of our eyes. We were approaching the tree line and the noises got louder.
"Mommy?" I was scared. I could feel myself shaking, my little hands were getting sweaty as I desperately tried to grasp Mom's shirt. Mom stumbled, falling to the ground with a scream. I shrieked, holding on tight. Her grip never faltered, tightening around me as Mom's scream turned from loud and shocking to little whimpers. I could feel water on my head, Mom was crying. "Mommy, where's Daddy?" With that, she started sobbing.
"Emily! We have to go!" My head whipped to the side. One of the other healers, Helena or Heather or something along those lines, was grasping Mom's shoulder. Mom nodded as the lady helped her up. Mom's crying never stopped as we met up with more pack members, never stopping our journey away from our home.
"I'm so sorry, baby." I didn't understand what was going on. Where was Dad? What was going on? Where were we going? The questions didn't end in my little head.
We ran until morning light.
I didn't know how far we were from the pack by then but any fighting was no longer audible. We had all stopped by a stream. There were maybe 30 of us, mostly women and children. We stayed there for a while, waiting I think. Mom changed our clothes and gave me food from our bag. I didn't see her eat anything. I overheard some adults talking about how there were fewer of us than expected. I didn't know what that meant.
"Mommy," I softly asked that first official night by the stream. We had put on coats and were laying against a tree. "Where's Daddy?" I think I knew the answer. So many people were crying, Mom included. I knew that patrol was a dangerous job but Daddy always came home the next morning. Would he be here in the morning to wake me? Mommy cried harder at my question.
"Baby," her voice was even softer than mine, "Do you remember those loud noises last night?" I nodded. "Someone attacked us," she choked back a sob. "Your Dad didn't make it." I felt my lip quiver. "He died," at this, her sobbing that had eased a few hours back began again. She wrapped her arms around me and cried into my hair. I felt the tears start. They didn't stop until I went to sleep.
The next afternoon came around before I noticed some people starting to take off. Where were they going? Why weren't they taking us with them? Less than 20 of us remained. We packed up what we had and got to walking. Some people shifted, Mom included. I climbed on her back like I had with Dad so many times before. She and the other adults explained to us kids that we had to find somewhere new. One guy in the group explained that it might be hard, that not many packs would so easily take on a group of our size, especially when we didn't know why they attacked us. He explained it could risk that pack's safety and that we would just have to keep asking, hoping for the best. Whatever we had to do to keep ourselves safe.