Chapter 1

Nerissa POV

The shouting followed by the screams that ran into the night shook me out of my comfortable sleep. I sat up in bed, looking into the darkness, and feeling my heart racing as I tried to understand what was happening. The door to my room burst open as the light in the hallway blinded me for a moment, not being able to see who entered.

“Nerissa, get up, darling! Now!” my mother’s voice called upon me as she ran around my room, taking a backpack and filling it with clothing and other items.

Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I said, “Mom? What is happening?”

She turned around and rushed towards me, sitting down on my bed and grabbing my face in between her hands. “There is an attack happening. They are breaking through, so you need to get up and dress quickly because I need you to get far from here. Do you hear me?” Her eyes were filled with terror as she looked into mine, begging me to understand what she was telling me. She let go of my face and removed my cover, pulling me up by my arms. “Hurry!” she ushered as she ran towards my window to look outside before continuing to gather my things, and put them in my backpack.

I grabbed my jeans and T-shirt, putting them on, and then taking my black hoodie and pulling that on as well. I slipped on my sneakers and finished dressing just as my mom approached me. She turned me around and hurriedly put the backpack onto my back.

As soon as it was secure, she turned me around to face her, grabbing my face once more so that my sole attention was on her. “Nerissa, now listen to me carefully.” She held my face, not saying a word. It was as if she was waiting to see if I was paying attention before continuing. I nodded my head, swallowing hard, and feeling my heart racing inside my chest, not knowing yet what was going to happen. "You have to leave these lands. Go far away from here, Nerissa, do not turn back, no matter what! Go far to the North, to your Aunt Patricia’s, she will be waiting for you. You still remember where she lives, don’t you, baby girl?” my mother asked.

I nodded my head as I spoke barely above a whisper. "Y-yes I do, but, Mom, why are you saying that? Won't you be going with me?" I heard the slight panic in my voice as I asked her the questions.

She closed her eyes before leaning her forehead against mine, making me close my eyes in turn. I felt her kissing my forehead before she pulled back to look at me once more. "I am sorry, my baby girl, but I can’t go with you. You have to leave this place without me. So promise me you will get as far away from here as possible and be safe. Do not trust anyone. Go directly to your Aunt Patricia’s. Promise me, Nerissa." She shakes my shoulders, making me realize the seriousness of the situation.

"I promise," I said, my voice cracking slightly at the end.

“Good, now we have to hurry while we still have some time.” She grabbed my hand and pulled me after her, leaving the safety of my room. We went straight toward the kitchen and its back door before stopping and standing there for a second, surveying the area for any dangers coming our way. Once we determined we were in the clear, we took off running straight towards my best friend, Emily’s house.

As we got closer to Emily’s home, I saw her emerge from the darkness with her mom by her side.

“Are they ready, Nancy?” Emily’s mother asked mine in a whisper.

My mom looked at us for a second before saying, “They are. They will be safe there.”

Mrs. Macey hugged Emily one last time as mine did the same with me. Pulling away from our embrace, she said, “Remember, go to Aunt Patricia’s and do not turn back, no matter what. Your dad and I will come for you soon as we can. Now go, and stay together, don't stray off the road. Be careful, both of you…" Tears started to fall freely from my eyes, and down my cheeks as my mom pushed me slightly forward, into the dark woods. “Go now! Go, Nerissa, hurry!” Mom urged us. I took hold of Emily’s hand as we started to run into the dark forest.

We ran through the woods, jumping over small bushes and low branches, scratching our arms and legs as we went but not letting it slow us down.

The loud, far off noises of the horrifying battle could be heard, making our hearts beat faster, and urging us to run as fast as we could leaving the screams of horror followed by loud dragon roars behind us. Loud roars and growls startled us followed by screams of fear and pain.

Emily tripped and fell down to the ground. I pulled her up and forced her to keep pace, not wanting us to be a part of whatever was happening back home. “Come on, we need to keep moving quickly,” I told her as we continued running further into the woods.

I couldn’t hold back the urge to turn around and take a look at the way we came. What I saw squeezed my heart as my breath caught in my throat. Wild, enormous flames consumed everything in its path.

My home… my home was burning. I could feel the pain and suffering through our pack link. The pack link is the one everyone in a community, or pack, shares. It binds us so we can communicate within our minds among each other and our Alpha, but we can also feel the pain of a loss if our pack member dies by a violent death, and because of it, it was so difficult to focus on our task at hand, to keep running and to save ourselves.

The need to go back and find my family, to help them was making it hard for me to go further, but my mother's words, her need, and the promise I made pushed through the pain that clouded my mind. I tore my eyes away from the dancing flames and turned the other way to continue on, running ahead with Emily by my side.

A large shadow passed over us as we ran before a growl followed in its wake, making our eyes go wide as we stumbled and fell over a log, straight into a puddle of mud.

The mud became more slippery as rain started to fall, making it harder to move in the mess.

Somehow, we both managed to stand up but it was too late. We were startled as we saw a tall shadow approaching from the darkness in front of us.

I grabbed Emily's hand, turning us around to run away from the blazing red eyes with a menacing grin on the face of a stranger. Except the moment we turned to run away from him, we found ourselves surrounded by four others standing behind us.

"Well, well, well…" a male voice said, the one with the blazing red eyes. "What do we have here?" he asked, clicking his tongue.

I turned around, looking at him with disgust. “Stay away from us! Leave us alone!”

He chuckled and cocked his head to the side, looking at me with amusement and spiked interest in his eyes. “Feisty little thing aren’t you?”

He took a step closer so he was standing in front of me. “Well, I can think of a couple ways we could use that feistiness of yours…” Rising his hand he gently picked a lock of my hair. But before he could do anything with it, I slapped his hand away, not caring about the repercussions. I moved out of his reach, taking a step back and non intentionally bumping into Emily who was right behind me which only made him chuckle some more. He looked over our shoulders and spoke to the males who were silently standing there awaiting his commands. “They are going back with us… alive. I am looking forward to spend some… quality time with this feisty little thing. I can already tell it will be so much… fun.”

Bile rose into my throat as two strong hands grabbed mine breaking my contact with Emily as the other warrior held her tight in his embrace. They pulled me backwards and tossed me over their shoulder, carrying me into the unknown.

Trying to set myself free, I punched and kicked my captor, but it was no use, and a minute later I was thrown over a huge, scaled back, I was flabbergasted as we started to climb up from the ground and into the air,

It was then that I realized I was being carried by a huge dragon. Fear gripped my heart as I searched for Emily, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. The only thing I could see was a second dragon flying behind us.

Feeling as though I failed my mother and the promise I made, I prayed to the Moon Goddess to give me the courage and strength to find Emily and myself a way to escape our captors.

My mom warned me to not shift often nor in front of anyone who was not family or of the same shifter species, but unfortunately, she never explained to me the real reason why.

After some time, the dragon started to fly lower and soon enough we were down on the ground. Before I could even think of escaping, I was grabbed again, tossed over a shoulder, and carried through a loud crowd that seemed to be in a celebrating mood.

Realizing that they are the ones who attacked my home and my family, hurting many of my family’s pack members and others of our kind. The fear I felt earlier was now gone, replaced with hate and anger.

“Take them inside,” the man from earlier ordered, making the one that carried me walk ahead and pass through the curious onlookers standing around us.

I couldn't see where we were going, but from the little I could see we were inside a huge building that looked like a giant mansion. The outsides of it reminded me of those impressive, French colonial-style, architectural houses I have always admired, only not this time. This time I wanted to get as far away as I possibly could.

We walked through what seemed to be a hallway and into a room where more laughter and celebration could be heard.

Everything stopped the moment we entered though, and I could feel the eyes of many looking our way. I pressed my palms on the back of my captor, holding myself up so I could see where they were taking us and have the advantage of a successful escape if I managed to free us both. I wiggled my body, struggling in the guard’s grip to try and free myself but the hold on me only grew stronger, making it impossible to escape.

“What is this?” a gruff male voice asked as my captor placed me down onto the cold marble floor.

Hurriedly, I stood up and found Emily in front of me. I rushed to her and held her in my arms when I heard a chuckle coming from the side of the room, making me look up to see two, tall, gorgeous males looking down at us.

My breath caught when I noticed a green-eyed male staring intensely into my eyes. Our gaze locked and I couldn't help noticing how tall he was with muscles showing behind the fabric of his clothes as it clung to his powerful body like a second skin. His body looked tense and I noticed his fists were clenched, stretching the sun-kissed skin over his knuckles. Curious, I let my gaze travel away from his arms and chest, going upwards and noticing the same sun-kissed flesh on his neck and face. His hair was black like a raven’s and I could feel my fingers itching to run through it. To see if it was as soft and silky as it looked.