Daniella watched as another of her pack was slaughtered by the intruder. The silver chains around her wrists, ankles, and neck stopped her from doing anything. Her alpha and his queen had already been killed in the invasion. She was originally from the city, but every month around the time of the full moon she traveled to the country to run with her pack. Daniella knew she shouldn’t really see the pack she ran with as hers.
They only put up with her because Naomi and Jonathan demanded they did. None of the other members really liked her. Still, the open air of the city did not compare to the scent of the forest, the fresh grass, or the feel of other wolves, even if they were unfriendly. She had not found any other pack and wasn’t interested in being rejected at every turn, which was why she stayed where she was. Better the devil you know and all that.
But now even that was being taken away from her as she watched members of her back being slaughtered by a man she didn’t know. She was known as a half breed wolf, which meant she had been turned by having the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Working late at the advertising agency where she was a receptionist, Daniella had been bitten by a stray dog. At least at the time she’d thought it was a stray dog.
Since being bitten she had learned differently. The large stray dog had turned out to be a wolf. Some packs frowned upon changing humans whereas others found their mates by biting humans. She didn’t have a clue why she’d been bitten, but Daniella had had to learn fast how to deal with being a half breed. If it hadn’t been for Jonathan, the now deceased leader, she would have died. The dog who’d bitten her had taken off, leaving her hurt and bleeding. Jonathan and his wife, Naomi , had guided her through the transition until she was able to mingle with humans once again. Until she’d been bitten her life had been ordinary.
She had never taken the time to relish her life or the simple pleasures she enjoyed. Jonathan and Naomi helped her to adapt. Dogs had even stopped barking at her, and she had no choice but to sell her beloved cat. Having her pet hiss at her all the time was unsettling. So every month she would come back to the pack to embrace the destiny that had been thrust upon her. Most of the wolves in her pack wouldn’t have anything to do with her because of her not being a full blood wolf. She couldn’t change on demand and was bound by the restrictions of the full moon. Also, she was bigger than the other female wolves. Where the other wolves were slender without an extra pound on them, Daniella had plenty of pounds to spare. Running with the wolves hadn’t changed her weight at all. She didn’t mind as her body stayed the same even with her eating more. Her life had changed so drastically in the last eighteen months, and now she knew her life was going to change again.
Naomi and Jonathan were dead, along with four other men and women. Their bodies lay in a corner as the man smiled menacingly out at the crowd. His pack stood behind him obviously prepared to take matters into their own hands if necessary. Fear clawed within her stomach. In all of her life she’d never been the type of person to search for confrontation. The man who clearly was the alpha looked happy to tear apart members of her pack. Was he doing it for fun? She’d never seen him before and didn’t know what he had against her pack.
Are they really your pack? For a long time Naomi hadn’t felt like a member of the pack. They put up with her, but no one wanted anything else to do with her. She was the only one who’d been turned by an unknown wolf, and they made sure their disgust was known to her. Neither Naomi nor Jonathan knew. who turned her, but they’d been there when she needed them the most, and she felt a sense of loyalty to them. Licking her raw, chapped lips, she cried out as another man’s head was torn from his body. Her stomach turned. Leaning forward she could no longer contain the vomit she’d been trying to keep down. Everything she had consumed within the last few hours came up. The pack around her started to curse and move away. Someone kicked her thigh sending her down to the ground. Fortunately, she didn’t land in her own vomit. When her stomach settled she stood once more to look at the stage. The silver from the chains hurt her skin. Glancing down she saw the red raw skin was bleeding in places from where the metal touched her. Wiping at her brow, she wished there was something more she could do.
The sound of a feminine scream interrupted her thinking. Daniella saw the only person who had been nice to her. The girl was no more than fourteen. Oliver was her name, and where the other pack members had ignored Daniella, the young teenager talked about her life constantly. Daniella found it strange that out of all of the pack, Oliver always smelled different, as if she didn’t belong. At times, Daniella was sure she and Oliver both smelled the same way, but no one said a thing about the young girl, at least that she heard. Watching the man haul the girl up onto the stage, Daniella had to look away. Oliver wasn’t a bad kid. She was young, sweet, and hadn’t been polluted by other members of the pack. Oliver didn’t see full blood or half blood. The young girl saw people who happened to change into wolves. The innocence within her eyes was something to be cherished, not ignored. Daniella had been ignored most of her life. The only time she hadn’t been overlooked was when she’d been bitten. At twenty-five years old she’d not even had a sexual experience with a man. It was pitiful, but being a fuller woman came with its own set of issues. She’d been on the receiving end of cruel jokes, and she saw the real intent in the eyes of the men who asked her out. Daniella preferred to keep everyone at arms’ length rather than risk getting her heart broken or even crushed through bad decisions. Keeping her guard up allowed her to live her life in peace.
