Eighteen Years Ago

The Shadow Pack burned that night; the storm came first, then came the lightning.

It split the sky in two; thunder shook the very foundation of the pack, like the growl of a vengeful god.

The rain lashed out, falling heavily, but it didn't quench the fire swallowing the packhouse whole.

The flames devoured the Alpha's mansion and everything that stood in their way.

Hidden in the hollow oak tree is a child with jet-black hair clutching a leather-bound book to her chest.

The pages smelled like burnt ink and blood; the cries of the people filled the air.

"Run, Eliana!"

Her mother's voice, filled with pain, echoed in her mind.

"Run, don't look back!" She screamed.

The child scrambled off the oak tree with tears almost blinding her; she made a run for it.

The white-haired woman with icy silver eyes wielding a flaming sword appeared in the ruin.

"Where is she?" she barked at Kimberly, the fated mate of Alpha Orin Stormwolf. The Alpha was gutted open on his throne by Damon Blackclaw, the Alpha of the enemy pack, and his Beta, Brian Paw.

"You will never find her," she barked, laughing at her foolery.

"Call out to her," the moon priestess whispered.

"Never..." Before she could finish, the moon priestess drove the flaming sword into her. Kimberly groaned in pain and died.

Eliana, hiding behind a tree, saw the flaming sword buried in her mother's chest, went mad with fury, and her silver eyes glowed faintly as the moon had touched them.

She made to avenge her mother when a hand suddenly gripped her from behind.

Holding her mouth with one hand while holding her back with the other.

"Shhh," the voice hushed, begging her not to fight him anymore.

"You have to survive and grow strong, and when the blood moon rises, the stormwolf will make them pay for what they have done."

Kristen chanted the prophecy to her, hoping it would calm her rage down. Immediately she saw Damon; her rage was instantly replaced by fear. She had seen Damon gut the Alpha open in the throne room.

"Find the brat," Damon ordered his men.

"The Stormwolf Whelp dies tonight, or we all burn tomorrow."

A whimper cut through the silence; they all turned.

"Run," Kristen whispered in her ear. Eliana lunged to the rear tunnel, the one only the alpha's bloodline knew of.

She made it three steps to the tunnel when the moon priestess appeared behind her like a harbinger of doom, with the flaming sword in her hand.

"Found you," she whispered.

Then she swung the sword at Eliana, and it found her; the force pushed her into the tunnel, and a gust of wind, unnatural and howling, swept her into the darkness. Just as the tunnel collapsed behind her.

Damon roared in fury, but the moon priestess gripped his hand.

"No child could survive that; if the sword and the fall didn't kill her, the marshes would swallow the last of her, be rest assured."

Above them, the crescent moon bled crimson, a sign the moon goddess was watching them.

And wrath, as all wolves knew, was a storm that always returned.