"Bad weather for the past few days," I commented after I swallowed my last mouthful of lasagna, wiping my mouth with a serviette.

Pierre nodded, agreeing, "I hope it won't pour on our ceremony."

In all honesty, there was a part of me that hoped for that. Maybe then, we could question our beliefs in Lupa. Maybe then I would be remembered as something else other than my Father's son or the next Alpha.

Ivory perked up at that, seeing it as another advantage to spread her Lupa messages, "It wouldn't. Lupa would make sure of th-"

There was a loud shot, the terrible sound echoing around the camp, hurting our sensitive ears so much so that my eyes pricked slightly with tears of pain. It seemed as if the shot happened right next to us, but I knew better.

I was up and out of my seat, hauling Pierre, Elliot and Ivory out of their chairs and partially dragging them to the steps.

"Go! Run! I'll settle this." I shouted, panicking as I shoved them up the stairs. They were still dazed by the shot, and none of us were prepared for the resounding of more fired shots, echoed by the screams of my pack.

Elliot began to cry, bursting into tears and wailing as Ivory hugged him. She was trembling, and I could see that.

"Run!" I roared as guards came running towards me, securing the room.

"Sir, we need you immediately. Your Father has been shot." The Commander said, a burly man of 32, towering over me.

Pierre stopped and whirled around, "Wait! I can help."

"I need someone to protect Ivory, and Elliot." I answered gruffly. "We don't have time."

Under normal circumstances, Ivory would have retaliated with some saucy catchphrase such as "like hell I do", but I could see the fear in her eyes. As strong as my sister was, bullets and firearms were handled only by the male guards and Alpha.

Pierre relented and followed Ivory and Elliot up the steps, along with eight more guards. I could only hope that they had time to reach the safe rooms.

I ran out into the rain with my guards, who lead me to the Council Rooms. As much as I hated my Father, a part of me still cared for his wellbeing.

"You came," He croaked, lying on one of the couches, stained with his blood. Two of the advisors sat slumped in their chairs, presumably dead, from the pool of blood under their heads, dripping down onto the floor.

A healer was tending to his wounds, grinding paste and rushing to bind his wounds.

"He was shot in his shoulder and leg. If the one in his back was another inch closer to his spine, he would have been paralysed," she said.

I didn't answer. I couldn't find the words, and a wave of bitter hatred washed over me.

"Go. Surround the camp. Five of you, with me," I ordered, ignoring my Father and walking out of the building. A group of them immediately ran to surround the perimeter, not bothering to strip as they burst into their canine forms, disappearing into the night.

The six of us stripped ourselves of clothes, dumping them in the bushes as we manifested into our wolf forms. Under the tense circumstances, transforming would be easier due the amount of adrenaline produced and our already increased heart rates.

I closed my eyes, the light of the moon blinding me even with my eyes shut, deafening me, and surrounding me. I pulled on the spirit of the Alpha, as if it were a shred of moonlight, cloaking myself with it as my limbs elongated, my bones shifting and shaping, my tailbone extending.

I could feel every hair on my body pushing out to form a thick pelt, warmth seeping through my blood like I was on fire.

I could feel the power seeping through my veins as I transitioned, my heart pumping faster. As my eyes opened, everything came into a sharper focus, so sharp that I could see every drop of water, falling onto the ground, moving so slowly compared to the inhuman dimension I was in, taking almost an eternity before it splashed into a puddle on the ground, that grew with the rainwater that it caught.

I whirled around, my lips pulled back to show my teeth, ears flat against my skull. The night was too quiet, the shots had stopped, but the ringing in my ears was unbearable. I could hear everything, every breath, every heartbeat, every footstep, even from a mile away.

I scanned the area, my canine eyes seeing better than my human ones did. The dark was hardly an obstacle. My nose caught a whiff of an unfamiliar scent, and I let out a growl as my turned guards howled through our mindlink at the thought of an intruder, only mere miles away.

"Let's go," I snarled in our link, digging my claws into the ground and pushing off, my muscles contracting and then expanding as I leaped and flew through the forest, tearing through it at an unimaginable speed.

I could sense every member of our pack, like they were pinpricks of electricity, and the intruder was a cold so icy, it burned my mind. I couldn't tolerate it, and my instincts were screaming at the outrageousness of his boldness.

He was so visible, so sharp, that it was strange. As we neared his location, I halted, dirt flying up from my abrupt stop. There were growls and howls as my guards stopped beside me.

A man sat on the ground before us, clothed in black. He was moaning, but none of us moved any closer. I turned into my human form, taking mere seconds.

"Who are you?" I asked fiercely, every muscle in my body tensed. The man merely moaned and seemed to struggle.

"Who are you!" I snarled, repeating myself, clenching my fists.

I approached him in a whirl, shoving him into the ground.

But what I saw, made my heart sank in realization that we were doomed.

My guards howled in anger as I stared at the man.

He was gagged, his hands tied in the front with an explosive, the trail of detonating cord that connected to it nearly burning out.

His eyes were missing from their sockets, and on closer scrutiny, his tongue was only a stump.

It was horrifying, and I reeled from the sight, nauseous from the it.

The wounds were still bleeding, and that meant that they were fresh.

If a human was here, bound and holding an explosive, then this was a trap.

And we had fallen for it.

He was shaking in fear.

He was human.

"Return to camp! Quick!" I recovered and bellowed. "It's a trap!"

There was a chorus of howls as other wolves got my message. I was back as a wolf in a flash, twisting as I tried to free the human.

Silence! I lashed out at the guards. The actual intruder would know that we had fallen for his trap, and that was the last thing I wanted.

"We must leave!" The Commander growled. The spark was about ten inches from the explosive.

I couldn't save him. The man was beginning to scream.

I had to think fast, and the first idea that came to my head was to end his pain.

I looked at the Commander who understood what I had to do.

"I'm sorry," I tried to say to calm the man, before I slashed my paws across his neck, the blood splattered on the trees, choking him off, and killing him instantly as his head disconnected from his body and fell to the ground in a sickening thud.

It was a quick death, but it was a slow murder.

I wanted to roar in despair and devastation, but I merely turned and ran, my commander at my side.

"You had no choice," he said gravely as I avoided his gaze. It provided little comfort.

There were more shots, more screams for help, and then it exploded. The explosive let loose silver shards that sliced through the trees, embedding themselves in the wolves who were too slow, burning them and frying them.

One shard sliced across my back foot, making me stumble a little, but it didn't stop me as I tore through the forest, back to the houses.

I jumped over a female who was howling as her flesh blistered, a silver piece lodged in her chest and coming out through her back.

"LUC! LUC, THEY'RE HERE!

PLEASE! HELP ME!

THEY'VE GOT ELLIOT - THEY'VE SHOT PIERRE! "

I heard Ivory's shrieks for help in our mind-link and I howled, enraged. The spirit of the Alpha might have strengthened me, but it didn't subdue all of my fear.

"GET HERE. QUICK." I could hear Pierre's voice through the link, but I couldn't hear Elliot's.

"ELLIOT? ELLIOT! BACK! BACK TO THE ALPHA'S HOUSE!" I yelled.

My anger doubled, and I ran faster, moving as a black streak through the night. I crashed right through the front door, knocking the wood down as if it weighed nothing, watching as it crashed onto the ground and broke.

My guard flooded the house behind me, scrambling up the steps even though it was harder for us in canine form. The house was filled with yips, snarls, growls, and howls, deafening and angry. There was another shot fired, and it was louder, thundering through our minds.

I could smell the silver of it, clean, and lethal.

I ran across the hallways to the safe room, just as Pierre crashed through the wall, tumbling into me, shaking his head and the debris off him. He was bleeding and blistering from a wound on his back limb, but he lunged back into the wall, into the men who were about to reach for Ivory.

The intruders were dressed in awful crimson, silver masks covering their faces.

I felt relief as I saw her intact, snarling at one of the men and tackling him, dodging bullets like the true daughter of the Alpha that she was. But my relief was shredded to pieces when I saw all of the guards lying dead on the floor, with bits of meat and flesh smeared across the floor, bodies burnt and blackened, or red and raw.

And there, where they were supposedly guarding him before they died doing so, was Elliot, lying on the ground, a gray pup, his head bent the wrong way, and his body twisted so grotesquely.

My cry of shock and pain thundered through the entire house, deafening me and leaving my ears ringing.

I let out a roar.

My blood boiled and I could only see red.

It didn't make sense.

I kept seeing Elliot's carcass in the corner of the room, twisted. Mangled. Dead.

Dead. Cold. Elliot. Broken.

This was just a dream, I tried to say, but I knew it wasn't.

I couldn't comprehend it, that this was real.

I didn't get to say goodbye.

I didn't get to say that I loved him.

I wasn't there to protect him.

The Spirit of the Alpha melted into my senses and shook me to the bone.

I leaped through the doorway, and pushed one of the men down onto the wooden ground, hearing the crunch as his bones broke and the floor cracked with a huge dent.

He didn't even get the chance to scream as I ripped his head off. I screamed for him, even though it didn't chase the pain away.

I tackled the next, one of his bullets whizzing past my head, as I dodged it easily. My guards handled the rest of the intruders who were spilling out of the other rooms. The blood of the men were splattered across the walls and our pelt, but their blood was not red.

Their blood ran silver. And it burned us, over and over again. But I felt nothing. The physical pain felt like nothing compared to the heart-wrenching feeling as Elliot's death burnt me as if I was covered in gasoline.

I didn't notice that people had stopped fighting, and were staring at me.

I didn't notice the aura around me, flames licking at my body, but leaving me unhurt.

I didn't notice that when I roared, the entire building shook.

I couldn't see, and I couldn't feel. All that I knew was that Elliot was dead. Elliot, my little, unknowing, ten year old brother who had done nothing.

There was no blood on his hands.

No black mark on his soul.

He knew nothing of death.

He knew nothing of pain or misery.

Why him?

I ripped flesh from their bones, their meat tougher than any creature I had ever hunted. I was disgusted, spitting out silver blood that scorched me inside out. One of my guard members had swallowed too much blood, and he began to thrash on the ground, fighting and screaming as he frothed at the mouth, red blood spewing from his muzzle.

One of his friends dragged him out, screaming for a healer.

"Keep one alive!" 

I wanted that murdering fuck to feel every bone I break, every inch of flesh blistering with flames. I wanted to feel so much pain, he would go mad from it.

 The Commander held one down with a paw, and he screamed, although his voice was high-pitched, so much so that it forced the Commander to howl as he thrashed. The creature took that opportunity to grab his gun.

He must have realized that he couldn't run, because he put the gun into his mouth. But I was faster.

I roared as I grabbed his body, flinging him against a wall, his body falling like a ragdoll. But I wasn't done.

I lunged onto him as he tried to scramble away, and smashed his face into the broken wall debris, again and again, breaking his skull, the rocks digging into his eyes.

I slashed at his belly, silver spurting out and flooding the floor.

Ivory came forward and pressed her muzzle into my side, shaking and crying silently, but comforting me as I howled in sorrow and fury.

My pack howled with me, but it offered no solace.

Elliot was gone.

He had hardly even lived.

He would never hold a sword.

He would never find a mate.

He would never learn how to hunt.

He would never see his family again.

Their voices were merely noises, blocked out by my pain and hatred for my dead brother, lost companions, lost homes, failure, and disbelief.

The torrent of emotions supressed me, and I was drowning under it, slowly going insane as the reality crashed into me over and over again, knocking me off my sanity and consciousness. My human form took over as I lost control.

Dead.

Exhausted and burnt, I stumbled out of the room, holding the dead carcass of my brother, cradling it to my chest. As I fell to my knees in silence, looking up at the moon above us, with dead eyes, through the pelting rain that seemed to destroy the Spirit of the Alpha in me, and I swore an oath.

I swore an oath on my life.

I swore to kill every last one of the creatures.

And I swore to take vengeance on Lupa.