-flashback continued-

A low, pained howl started Cecilia causing her to nearly crash as she skidded to a halt.

“Oscar…” She gunned her motor and speed back to the estate. She could still hear the mournful howl and she knew Oscar was calling her back, something was wrong.

She ripped her helmet off, and the scent of smoke and blood hit her nose. She was running to the house as fast as her feet could carry her, following the sound of Oscar’s howl.

The house was a wreck, the front doors had been blown off the hinges and the house was in ruins, like explosions had torn huge chucks of the building down.

There were bodies everywhere, mostly wolves she recognized, in both forms, their bodies mangled and lifeless. There were also other bodies she didn’t know, these bodies had clearly been attacked by animals, limbs were torn off, throats ripped out. C.R had seen blood and death before but the carnage she was seeing was more like the aftermath of a war.

She stopped short at the room she had seen all the pups in only an hour before and she sobbed out loud. They were all dead, eyes open in fear, clustered together. A few feet in front of them was a wolf she would have known anywhere.

Her mother’s wolf form was covered in wounds and deep gashes, blood had formed a large pool around her. She had clearly given her life trying to defend the weakest and most precious members of the pack. Several bodies were torn to pieces around her, she had put up an intense fight.

It took every ounce of strength Cecilia had to keep moving.

OSCAR she screamed though the mind link trying to find his scent.

Cecilia, come to your family’s apartment. She could hear his low growl and fury through the link. She sprinted up the stairs heading for the apartment her family used in the house.

She found Oscar in a demolished room. She tried not to look at the bodies laying prone on the floor, but she couldn’t help it. Two young men in their twenties and Cecilia’s heart broke even more when she saw her twin brother was one of the men. His arms were around the other man and he was laying mostly on top of him. Ceenan had clearly died trying to protect his mate.

Cecilia forced her eyes away from her brother and to the only other living beings she’d seen, Oscar in his wolf form, a huge golden wolf and someone she didn’t recognize.

A man was backed into a corner, sitting on the floor his hands wrapped around a mangled bite on his calf, claw marks on his arms and chest a testament to the fight that had occurred. Oscar also had deep gashes on him, and one paw raised off the floor.

“What are you doing here? What happened?”

The man sneered at her, “Just exterminating a filthy pack of dirty mutts.”

Cecilia jerked back, shocked. She had heard of factions of different races who believed in “clan purity”. The believed their race was the only race worth existing. However, she had never heard of a faction that was large enough or bold enough to actually attack other races.

Oscar growled stepping closer, Cecilia reached out, resting her hand on the giant golden wolf’s head. “Easy Oscar. How did you do this, how did you get past the borders?”

The Mage laughed cruelly, “Wouldn’t you like to know, you mangy dog. We’re mages, we have our ways of defeating a few worthless mongrels. The coven leaders expected it to take years to infiltrate your pack but with the right tools we found a way to get close enough to exterminate you all.”

“You’re mages.” She was shocked, she had never met a mage before, they were very private and kept mostly to themselves. “What coven, who did this? Why do this?”

“We did this to cleanse away the scourge of the Fae from the land. Your pack was an abomination to magic and we have freed the Earth Mother from you parasitic, feral mongrels…”

Cecilia turned away while the mage continued to rave on about purity and the Earth Mother. She looked at the lifeless body of her twin. She thought about all the bodies in this house, mage and wolf alike. So much death because they were different from each other.

Maybe if I hadn’t been so selfish about what I want, I would have been here to help, and he’d be alive.

Cecilia shook her head. If she had been here, she probably would have died with the rest of them. They had to have found away to mask their scents, getting past a wolf’s senses was not an easy thing. Even now, the mage didn’t have a scent, if she hadn’t been able to see and hear him, she wouldn’t have known he was there.

“Oscar,” Cecilia’s voice was barely above a whisper, but she knew the other wolf heard her, “shut him up.”

She didn’t stay to watch what Oscar did to the mage, the sound of his screams and flesh ripping about left little to the imagination. She leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor, tears flowing down her checks. She was finally letting herself feel the loss of her family and her pack. Everything she had known was gone, except for Oscar.

What do we do now?