VALERIE
I can't breathe through the hand clamped on my throat. The girl, who had looked as innocent as a child before, now looks like she is set to kill me. I know I really shouldn't have said what I did out loud, but it just slipped out.
"What are you? How do you know about wolves?" Evie asks amid clenched teeth, her black eyes filled with fury.
"Stop it Evie. She is one of us," Zelia snaps at her.
"She doesn't smell like a wolf," Evie says, not loosening the grip she has on my neck. I grab a fistful of sand at my side and get ready to throw it into her eyes if she doesn't let go of me soon since I have no other option.
"It's because she hasn't shifted yet," Zelia replies, and that stops my retaliation.
I want to ask her how she knows that, but with the situation I am in, I will be lucky if I will ever be able to talk again. There is no sign of Evie's grip loosening.
As if reading my thoughts, Zelia slowly pulled Evie away from me and helps me stand up. I look at Evie and I see that her eyes are back to their normal green colour. If Evie is a human, I would have easily taken her down, but being a shifter, she is much stronger than me despite looking like an anorexic model.
"Do you belong to this Pack?" questions Evie.
I open my mouth to reply and I can't utter a word. I cough a few times and then stutter out, "I-I-I dud-dud....." Evie bursts out in laughter at my reply and I just really badly want to kick her for it. I clear my throat and finally am able to reply, "No." I hold my throat, trying to rub away the pain, and Evie continues to laugh loudly, looking like a fool.
"Apologise to her!" Zelia demands, smacking Evie's arm.
"I-I-I'm so-o-r-r" Evie mimicks me and then bursts out laughing when I turn bright red. Her sister smacks her again to get her to calm down. "I'm sorry, it was just funny," she says softly and starts giggling.
"I'm sorry for my sister's idiotic behaviour," Zelia says while looking at me sympathetically.
She apologises way too much. I used to do the same thing in my old pa.... 'enough Valerie. New life!' I warn myself.
"New life?" Zelia questions. Did I say that out loud?
"Uh... I was just thinking about something," I answer.
"So, you don't belong to this Pack?" Evie asks yet again.
"No, I'm sorry. I didn't know this was your private property. I'm sorry, for trespassing. I'll just leave!" I say and turn on my heels to leave.
"Wait," Zelia says loudly and I quickly look back at her. "If you don't belong to this Pack, then what are you doing here? I know you are a shifter."
"How do you know, I haven't shifted yet?" I ask her.
"I know," she replies and before I can ask anything else, she gives me a small smile and looks at me with pure admiration in her eyes. I don't understand what she means by that, so I just nod. "You didn't answer me," she reminds me.
"I..." should I tell her? I don't want to, but the way she is looking at me with complete admiration and concern, I don't think I can bring myself to lie to her. "I left my Pack!" I blurt out.
"You left your Pack too? Why?" Evie asks me.
'Too?" what does she mean too? Did they run away from their Pack as well? I thought they belonged to the Waterfall Moon Pack!
"Which Pack?" Zelia asks curiously.
"Silverstone Moon Pack." I reply without hesitation.
"Why?" Evie asks curiously.
I remind myself not to let my mind wonder to the memories of my old Pack. I don't want to tell them, but Zelia already knows I am not a shifter and she seems so excited to see me, so I decide to tell them my entire story.
After sharing my miserable story with them, I can't stop the tears from overflowing. I don't want them to see me crying, so I sit down and look out at the waves breaking in the ocean and coming to the shore. This place is quite peaceful!
"You did the right thing," Evie tells me. She sits down beside me to my left and gives me a warm smile.
"The Silverstone Moon Pack has lost its biggest asset," Zelia says while sitting to my right. This girl really only speaks in riddles. She makes it seem like she knows me better than I know myself.
"Do you belong to this Pack?" I ask them in curiosity.
"No," they reply in unison.
"Did you leave your Pack?" I ask them and both of them answer with a strong 'yes'. "Why?" I ask, eager to hear their reply.
"We belong to the famous Riverside Moon Pack," Evie says loudly, looking disgusted. "I'm sure you have heard about that Pack?"
Of course, I've heard about that infamous Pack. Who in the whole werewolf kingdom haven't heard about It? It was a hot topic a few months ago in my old Pack. Everyone felt bad for that Pack, but no Pack was ready to fight for them. Apparently, someone in their Pack had destroyed the Pack's moon temple and ever since then, the Pack has been cursed. Their Alpha was killed and rogues took over the pack. That was what I heard from the rumours.
The Riverside Moon Pack is at least 200 miles away from the Silverstone Moon Pack and the moment I left my old Pack, if I had started my journey from the southern side I might have come across that Pack eventually, because I wanted to get at least 500 miles away from Silverstone Moon Pack's territory!
I nod at Evie who is looking at me with harsh eyes. "I've definitely heard of their Pack!" I reply so as to quench her curiousity.
"We ran from that hellhole." She laughs humourlessly.
"What have you heard about the Pack?" Zelia questions me.
"That someone destroyed your Pack's moon temple," I tell her.
"That someone was our Alpha's son." Evie growls. She's starting to shake with anger and I feel like it's only minutes before she shifts.
"Evie, don't! Not now!" Zelia commands her and her voice appears to hold a deep power in it.
"Are you...? Umm... your voice had a certain tone in it," I say to Zelia curiously.
"Our dad was the beta." She tells me sadly. "The Alpha, Arthur, had three sons. When he decided to handover the Alpha position to his eldest son Bram, it was approved by all except Archie, his second son. Filled with rage, he joined hands with Terence, a rogue, to kill the Alpha. During the ceremony, when Alpha was about to hand over the title, Archie attacked and killed him, then destroyed the moon temple. The Pack tried to fight back, but it was no use. Terence's rouges were stronger than us. Those if us who survived were put in the prison. Most of our fighters were killed. Bram had to do the right thing..... Umm... he co-couldn't take it so he killed himself." Zelia is sobbing now.
She then takes a deep breath and looks me dead in the eye and says, "Bram put a knife in his own throat." I gasp loudly, having remembered seeing my mom the same way; her lifeless body next to the pieces of my dad's body, the knife deep in her throat by her own hand!
I can't stop the tears. It was difficult for me to see my mom and dad like that. I had woken several nights screaming and yelping, after replaying the scene over and over again in my dreams. My adoptive mother would come and sleep with me on those nights. Those were the days when my adoptive mother had loved me. Ah, she only changed when I reached thirteen and couldn't shift to my wolf!
I look at Evie only to see her sitting and staring out at the ocean, tears flowing relentlessly from her eyes to the sand below.
Zelia sniffs and continues with the sad story of her Pack, "After all those deaths, the pack members who survived were taken to a dungeon. Men, women, children, old or young, none were spared. We were kept in that prison. Luna, Archie's own mother, and Oscar, the youngest son of the Alpha too were thrown into the cells."
"We were made to work like slaves," Evie says, sniffing on her tears. "Archie was never like that. He used to love his family, his Pack. Nobody thought he would ever become like this, a demon!"
"The dungeon in which he kept us as prisoners had no source of light in it, it was completely dark. Day and night were all same to us. We were rarely given food. Many members couldn't survive this!" She adds and I now understood why they were so thin.
"Every day a woman in the Pack was selected by him, he didn't care whether she had a mate or not, she was taken away then thrown back in after he was done with her," Evie pauses. I look at Zelia only to realise that she's crying and wheezing loudly now. I hug her and let her sob onto my shoulders.
Evie continues after a moment, "I used to consider him as a brother." She wipes her tears roughly with her hands and looks at me. I noticed that her eyes are black now. She looks at Zelia who is crying while leaning on my shoulders and her eyes soften for a minute, before they turn dark again with her fury. "The guy whom I considered my brother wanted to use my sister," she tells me through gritted teeth. She closes her eyes and takes deep breaths, by now even Zelia has somehow controlled herself and her tears have lessened.
"Dad and mom couldn't take it," Evie tells me, so much hurt and pain in her voice. "When he came to take Zelia, dad and Oscar shifted and started attacking him. Mom took me and Zelia with her, and somehow we escaped the dungeon. When we were running away in the forest, mom felt dad's pain and she went back, making us promise to never come back. We ran away, but don't know what happened to our parents. Our mind link was broken since then!"