The sound of the chilling wind pricked Anna’s ears as she stood in front of her father. Standing five feet tall in wolf form, her father was a relatively normal height for a werewolf. He was strong, with a gray silver coat, and amber eyes that sparked with life like a raging fire. His warm breath reached her tiny muzzle and excitedly she jumped up letting out a small yip. As her small body landed back onto the soft powdery bed of snow her paw pads sent a shock rippling through her body causing her to visibly shiver. As she followed behind her father slowly, her older brother walked beside her. Playfully nipping at her to hurry along.   

Anna’s brother, age ten at the time, was just a bit larger than her. She was seven. Even so she still grew to be nearly the same size as her brother which was an uncommon thing amongst she wolves. Relatively she wolves tended to always run a foot shorter than their male counterparts. However Anna always stood just a few inches shorter than her brother, at least as a wolf she did. She never quite understood why though, her mother was a foot shorter than her father so it wasn’t like she had some crazy gene that made her taller. Her mother always explained that when a wolf pup is born the moon goddess chooses the wolf that matches the strength that wolf would grow into throughout their lifetime. Whether or not that was true was a complete mystery to Anna. She didn't like to speculate about why the moon goddess did things. However as Anna grew older more people in the pack began to take notice of her unusual size. And this made her a target for ridicule and physical harassment. Her father and mother could never pinpoint the kids who had done it but ultimately decided it was time to put her into combat training even if it was a bit earlier than normal. It was after that when her reputation changed from being considered a “freak of nature” to a formidable opponent. Sure occasional name calling didn't stop but after beating a young pup to a pulp when she was 10 the physical abuse stopped. By the time she was 16 every person in the pack either respected her or held a heavy resentment towards her. Which was something she was never bothered by better to be hated and feared than bullied and beaten. She no longer felt like she shouldn’t have been an alpha’s daughter, instead she felt proud and carried herself as such.

She can remember her brother's face looking at her that day up on the ridge above the wintry plain. His eyes blazing the same amber her father's did, his coat a shimmery light brown, inherited from their mother. He in almost every way took after their mother even in human form he had a face that resembled hers and her dark brown hair sat on top of his head in a mess of waves. His gentle and kind demeanor was something he had gotten from their father. 

That day up on the ridge her father came to a halting stop, her muzzle smashing into his right hind leg. As he nuzzled her with his nose he encouraged her to get back up onto her paws and so she did. Following closely behind him to the edge of the cliff they looked out on the vast snow covered plain beneath them. Saddling up next to him she gazed out onto the plain and was met with a cold breeze. As she let her eyes wander along the snowy plain she felt almost weightless. The view was breathtakingly beautiful, one of the most awe inspiring things she's ever gazed upon. Granted she was still incredibly young so she didn’t have much to go on. But what she did know was that a place that had this much beauty in one place was rare. Her brother sat beside her as they looked out upon the land they called home.

"It's beautiful right?", her father had said, interrupting the silence filling it with his voice. "I brought your brother up here when he was your age and he almost fell off the cliff. He was so excited to run around outside the pack grounds he hadn’t even noticed that he nearly ran off a 15 foot drop. Luckily I was here to save him from his clumsiness.", he had said, chuckling to himself as he turned his gaze back to the white wilderness below them.

“I wasn’t even close to falling! I knew there was a cliff.. I was just being adventurous.”, her brother had retorted. 

“One day my little wolf, your brother and you will inherit Eastwood Rock and this along with it.”, her father had said looking down at her. There was no way at the time she could have known what those words would truly entail. 

Nearly two years ago the pack was in a war of territory with a rogue pack. The rouge pack was created by a group of wolves who had left their pack to create a separate pack of their own. This was illegal and called for the execution of every rouge wolf, ordered by the Alpha King. The rogues had set up camp in Eastwood Rock territory and as such it was Anna’s father’s duty to execute them. So in February of the year Anna’s father died, the pack was thrown into a war. Nearly a month had passed before the execution of every rogue wolf was fulfilled. However, Anna’s father didn't come out unscathed. In the final battle of the war against the rogue alpha, Anna's father was severely wounded. When they brought him back to the compound the pack doctors said that during the battle Anna’s father had been bitten with metal teeth laced with a poison. A poison that leads to fatal consequences for a werewolf. They informed Anna and her mother that her father would die in approximately ten months. When Anna’s mother found out she was hysterical, as the news of a mates’ inevitable death is devastating. The first three months her father slowly lost strength in his arms and legs. His face and body grew thinner as the poison slowly ate away at him. Within the fourth month he became bed ridden and only ate soft foods. Anna’s mother stayed by his side every moment of the day, sometimes refusing to eat. He still performed his alpha duties to his best ability but all the physical work alphas were required to do was left to his beta. By the time the tenth month came Anna’s father looked like a skeleton. Dark black circles under his eyes and rarely ever spoke. Anna was there when he died sitting right next to her mother as she wept. He had suffered for ten months so Anna saw his passing more like freeing him from that pain. But her mother took it hard. Before he died however he had made Anna promise to do something for him, something that left Anna with a conundrum she wasn't sure how to approach. After his funeral her mother fell into a deep depression and stopped eating for a while taking up liquor to satiate the pain of his loss, it didn’t help that the death of Anna's brother still weighed on her mind. Her father’s death was inevitable, no matter how much Anna needed him, no matter how much the entire pack needed him. After his death he left the pack to Anna telling her to take over for at least a year until she could find someone worthy of taking his place. Anna was reluctant to follow through but knew it was something she had promised her father. She had to stay true to her word and became the temporary alpha. 

A year later and the pack was run carefully and skillfully by Anna. However she didn't do it alone, she had her best friend Keith. He was close to her brother before her brother's death and she knew if anyone deserved and was capable of being pack leader it was him. When the pack had initially been left with Anna many of the male wolves in the pack thought it was preposterous. She didn’t blame them though, females aren’t leaders in werewolf society. So her having a position of power like an alpha was against everything that werewolf society and culture was built on. They had threatened her life and some even attempted to kill her. Luckily Keith was there to defend her when she needed it. Anna was perfectly capable of taking care of herself and knew how to defend herself as well but against a whole pack of male wolves she wouldn't stand a chance. So having Keith there to back her up when needed was a blessing. Her size may make her powerful but it doesn't make her invincible. 

As the death of her father and her brother weighs heavy on her mind she stands on the same cliff she stood on so many years ago with her father and brother. Gazing down on the vast plain surrounded by snow covered pines she sighs wondering if the next time she's up here she'll be standing next to Keith who will be the Alpha. She's already twenty years old and has lost so much. She sighs as the events of the past year run through her head. The fights with former pack elders, their executions carried out by Keith on her orders. She never wanted to execute them but she knew her father would have done the same. They betrayed the pack and it was her duty as pack leader to rid the pack of any detriments. She hated what her pack had become. A bunch of hateful bastards who wanted her dead and them running the pack. Anna didn't tolerate it though. She made a promise not only to her father but to herself that she would never let the pack fall apart. And yet as she sits on the cliff fully baring her dark shimmering silver coat and bright icy blue eyes, she can't help but think it had. It had been a year and a half since she last was up here, with her father. And it pains her thinking that was the last time she was ever going to be up here with him. She had always been closer to her father. She spent so much time watching him run the pack as alpha and as such had learned a great deal. When her brother was still alive he would be there right beside her. Though when in the combat training room he always seemed to have an uneasiness about him, like he didn't want to be there. He was gentle and hated conflict, that much Anna had learned about him. But when he was on the floor fighting as his wolf his demeanor changed. He gained focus and determination. When she was younger she thought he looked somewhat scary, but now, she finds that she respected him. She sighs, closing her eyes as she lets the breeze hit her muzzle like it's greeting her. She thinks of her father and brother beside her and opens her eyes, met with the same emptiness that she had when she walked up here. They were gone that much she knew. They no longer existed on the same plane as her but they were always there beside her. Albeit in a more spiritual sense.

Making her way down the snowy cliff ,with the sun setting behind her, she heads back to the pack house. As she does she hears a howl burst through the winter evening. It came from the direction of the pack compound and she can distinctly make out that it's coming from her father’s beta, now technically hers, as she was the temporary alpha. The howl was a meeting call, one that Anna had grown familiar with throughout the year. Her pace changes from a casual trot into a full on sprint down the hill across the plain peppered with small pine trees towards the pack compound. When she arrives at the pack house she enters the open patio doors leading into the large community room. Her father's beta, Ben, stands waiting just inside in his human form looking at her. 

“Aren’t you going to switch, we don’t really have much time to wait for you to get changed.”, he says with a small smirk on his face. Ben has had a mischievous side to him since he was young. However Anna in many regards never found that it was humorous, she found it annoying and slightly demeaning. And this current joke was no different. He knew in order to prevent tearing her clothing when shifting she had to strip down. This is how it is for every wolf. If this is what he considered to be a joke, it’s definitely not funny.

“If you don’t want to be laying dead on the floor you’ll understand we have plenty of time.”, Anna says menacingly through a mind link and he visibly gulps. If Ben had learned anything in the past it’s that Anna is more than capable of killing him. He more often than not pissed Anna off enough to where he was pinned down begging for her not to kill him. And as such he changes his demeanor to a more serious one clearly shaken by the dark and intimidating greeting.

"We’ll be waiting in the council room.” he says and turns around, turning to the right in the direction of the council room. Ben was about three years older than Anna and was previously her brother's friend. Ben's father was Anna’s father's former beta until Ben's father died. And that's when Anna's father decided to choose his son as his next beta. Personally Anna thought it was a very bad decision mainly because it gave his pervy ass a reason to be closer to her, and annoy the hell out of her. Though as pervy as he could be Anna had to admit he was one hell of a fighter. Which is why when she started running the pack she didn't change what beta she had.

She readies herself to walk in the direction of her room when a hand makes contact with her fur. Immediately she snaps her head back to see who it is letting out a low growl. A pair of hazel eyes meets hers and she relaxes. They belong to a face she knows all too well her best friend Keith Quinn. His tall physique and dark brown hair made him popular with a lot of the females when he was younger. Right now he looks like he just came back from a run, his hair tousled on top of his head in a mess of brown threads. Anna could admit that he was handsome but she never found him romantically attractive, he was always more like an older brother to her. He could never replace her brother James but he was the only thing she had left of her brother. So he was like her family and as such he held a great importance in her life.

“Go easy on Ben, he knows his days are numbered since you are stepping down soon. Once you do, he'll no longer have the position of beta, that's a lot for him to take in and accept.”, Keith says to Anna and then walks away towards the council room. Keith had been her right hand the entire year and had accompanied her to every council meeting. So it was no surprise to her that he was on his way there. What did surprise her was what he said. Ben was her brother's friend and as such he was Keith’s friend too. However Keith held a strong resentment towards him because he found him to be incredibly immature and didn't like the way he treated her.