I used to be a normal werewolf with a family.
My mother and father were the luna and alpha of the Fluorite pack. They were sweet and loving. I couldn’t have asked for better parents. My younger sister, Angelia, and I were happy together and as close as two sisters could be.
The Fluorite pack was the size of a small city, but we were wealthy because of the precious stones we mined and the flowers that grew in abundance that we supplied to jewelry, cosmetic, and medical companies from other packs.
Because the pack was so small, we spent a lot of time helping around the pack. We didn’t have amusement parks or anything, so Angelia and I were young we collected gems in the rivers and spent our days playing tag in the meadows. Our parents would watch us from the back of our house until it was time or lunch. After dinner, we’d cuddle up around the fire and they would tell us stories about the great alphas and the way our current society came to be.
I could never have guessed that I would barely get sixteen years of that happiness.
Angelia and I had been in the garden, planning a prank for our parents’ 20th-anniversary party that night. Something about a terrible poem our Dad had written when he was eighteen. It was supposed to be sweet and funny. Everyone was supposed to laugh and tease Dad. Dad was supposed to scowl a bit at our mischief, but Mom would have only fallen deeper in love and demanded to keep the terrible poem for posterity.
We had been giggling when the gunshots started. Werewolves I didn’t recognize stormed the garden, capturing us before we could run. Blood and gunpowder filled the air as I tried to use my mind link to warn our parents and struggled against the men who were dragging us towards the courtyard.
I found it had been too late and watched our parents’ bodies swing from the courtyard fountain in bleak horror. Their wedding bands glinted in the sunlight and they seemed to still be reaching for each other until their last breath.
I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t do anything but pull Angelia closer to me and hope that our deaths would be painless.
But death didn’t come. It was so much worse.
“Gag and blind them,” one of the attackers said.
Someone screamed. I remember trying to get away, to drag Angelia with me, but we were surrounded. A bag was shoved over my head. Angelia was ripped from my arms and they hauled me away.
I couldn’t see anything. My breath was running away from me in panic as they forced us into the back of a van.
“Keep your mouths closed or you’ll wish you were dead.”
I shuddered at the voice even as I tried to reach out for Angelia. She didn’t respond, either out of shock or because she was unconscious. The van bumped and shuddered as it drove away from our home.
My eyes burned with tears as I smothered my sobbing. Dead. Our parents were dead. Our cousins. I had no idea who was still alive.
When the van stopped, I heard the doors open and someone dragged me out and onto my feet.
“Move it.”
I flinched at his tone and walked where he shoved me. The air turned damp and musty like a dungeon and when they ripped the bag off my heels, I realized we were in a dungeon. I crossed the space to wrap my arms around Angelia as if I could protect her.
Angelia was shaking with fear and I could hear her teeth chattering though I was too afraid to open my eyes.
“Glenda,” she sniffled. “Glenda, where are we? Mom and D-Dad…”
I hushed her, trying to keep the memories at bay. We had to get out of here somehow.
“The boss told us to bring him the best three/”
My heart lurched in fear as someone laughed. It was a leering, gut-turning sound that made me cling to Angelia tighter.
“That’ll be hard! They’re all so pretty… How are we supposed to choose?”
I heard someone squeak in fear and looked up as one of them grabbed Armilla by her jaw and stared down into her face. Armilla had always been pretty and she shook like a leaf as the man stared at her.
“He likes the petite ones,” another one said. “She’s a good choice.”
“You,” another of them said, coming towards Angelia and me. He leered and smirked at us. “Both of you. Get up.”
I shook my head, shuddering, “Please…
Please don’t–”
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