Chapter 1
*** Intro ***
Darkness fell around us. The danger creeped in like a fog making it almost impossible to see a way out. Looking around at those who were my friends and family, those who were here to fight with me who barely knew me, just believed in what we were here to fight for. I let go. I released the flames of rage. I felt the burn as they took over my thoughts and body doing what had to be done...
Chapter 1
Every major city in every part of the world has a” would-be underground.” A group of leaders if you will that control that city. Some of course care for the people of the city while others are greedy. The bigger the city the more greed you'll find. Corruption, among other things, is a hefty price under the laws of the underground. These actions have gone on for hundreds of years and it is nothing new to now see the misdeeds of some of these organizations on the nine o’clock news anymore.
The world above of normal day-to-day people only sees what they are allowed to see. Often enough they see what they believe is just violent crimes, when the reality is it's always a message for those who know what they should be looking for. It’s always been about power and sadly enough people die so those in power can stay in power.
If I were a normal girl of sixteen, almost seventeen the thought or idea of having this knowledge would scare me, because even though knowledge is power it also puts you on the radar of those already in power. This is one of the very few reasons I am thankful that I am not normal. When those in power want to come find you, not being accessible is a great thing.
Most of the time I would like to think that I might just sell my soul in order to live a normal life never knowing of all the things that go bump in the night. Not only do I have extensive knowledge of all the who's and what's of the underground, but my father is also the head of it. He is the one that makes the city run from the background. Only those who are involved in the workings of such organizations even know of his existence. However, all the city knows the rumors of a bad guy working for the good people. A Robin Hood type of story.
Jasper Gentry has been the best boss that the underground had seen in many years and, as my father and Alpha, I was under constant watch to make sure that there would be no threat to me. As everyone knew, I would be the one to replace my father as the future Luna and leader of the underground workings of the city. Of course, in that line of work, there was always "business" to handle so I learned at an early age. I had a front-row seat to the back-alley politics of the city.
There was so much that could be done to and for it and my father had worked long and hard to give the people here a better life, evening the scale on the illegal side of things. He understood that the average person sometimes needed a hand up and with a city of addicts well, it was the fastest and easiest to get the cash you needed. All the city's dirty little secrets were neatly tied up in that classic little black book of my father's. He was the best at what he had done, both our pack and the people of the city loved and respected him. Well, those privileged to know who he was anyway.
There was so much more now at stake since in a few short weeks I would be seventeen. The thought for your average teen was probably excitement about a birthday and to be seventeen. One year until adulthood, more freedom that came with growing up, yada yada yada. Not me.
The reality is for a wolf at seventeen your world is never the same. It can be a lot of pressure. Even more so when you are the daughter of the alpha and are the future Luna of the pack. Life would soon get a lot more complicated, and I wasn’t sure I was ready.
Hell, I couldn’t manage a group for a social class at school, how was I going to be a good Luna? Lead a pack? There is so much I still didn’t know and sure wasn’t ready to learn. Life for me had its own version that it wanted me to live out. I just wanted to be a teenager. Yet every time I thought I might have something normal there was always something reminding me that normal teenage things were not possible for me. The closer the date of my seventeen seems the more and more life wants to test the limits of what I will be able to handle. Everyone has a breaking point though, right? What happens when I reach mine?
Now I do have to say that all the horror/romance bull shit that you read in books and see in the movies about werewolves do have some truth to them. Even though it was not as simple as it appeared there is truth; and the truth is at seventeen a werewolf becomes known to their mate. I will soon be linked to someone who would be my forever.
This is something I never wanted. I never wanted to be mated. Forced by the universe to love and care for someone so deeply. The thought made me sick to my stomach. Loss of all control over my life. I was born to take over for my father, well that's what has been drilled into my head since I could remember. A true leader is something I had far from begun to live up to and now that I would soon be turning seventeen, there was nonstop conversation about it.
My mother and father were complete opposites. I have to say that Phoenix Gentry looked the part of a trophy wife and mother. Tall, slender, perfectly well toned body, long black hair which was always kept in a neat tight bun. Both manicured fingers and toes. Always dressed and prepared for any type of business that may come up. Camera ready at all times, but behind that perfect pencil skirt and flawless make-up my mother was a heartless troll. Very few people who had a close relationship with her and by close, I mean needed their job close, quietly didn't want to be within twenty feet of her EVER. She was not at all the soft and cuddly type of mother.
She was far more hatful than anything else. There was almost an evil to her that made you walk to the other side of the room to avoid walking too close to her. Even if it was subconscious. She spoke to everyone as if they were beneath her. Which generally included me.
My father though he was always dressed for any type of business that may come up the same as my mother, he had a different aura about him. In his line of work, he had to keep up a hard exterior, but he was never cruel. He too had jet black hair neatly styled. He was lean but muscular. Standing a huge 6’5 he could be very intimidating to anyone who wanted to cross him. Wolf and human alike. With the darkest green eyes that could both be your peace or your nightmare, he was a true leader. Kind but dangerous.
The difference in my mother and father is what I hated most at the thought of having to be mated to someone. Only a mating bond can force such different people to stay together and make it work. I could never understand the pull or reasoning behind my dad being with my mom, it was truly baffling. In a few weeks though I guess I was going to learn to understand it a little better. Either way I often found myself pitying my father because of it.
Standing together they looked like the perfect couple. Mom smiled and laughed at all the right times, even if it was fake. Dad always had his arm protectively around her. They were beautiful together to anyone looking from the outside. Their bond appeared to be strong, but anyone who had regular contact with them knew that something was off. Never had a Luna been so cruel with an Alpha so loved. It was unheard of. The rumors flew that it was arranged, and they weren't mated. There is no way my father would put us through all of her shit through the years and not be mated with her. What other explanation was there other than that damn mating bond.
Though it had been almost thirty years since a wolf had been able to shift, there were some packs among the world that still had other abilities that kept us from going extinct. Our pack was one of those. Oak Bane was one of the oldest packs that you could still call a pack. After the last war with the witches and their supporters' witches had cursed the Lycans to remain in a human form in order to keep them and their abilities at bay. They never expected us to regain power. They undoubtably thought that we would destroy ourselves with battles for what power may have remained for us. They were wrong. Packs slowly reformed. Alliances were made and the Lycans slowly rebuilt our lives. We kept low profiles so not to draw attention to our growing numbers. It was the key to survival.
Life would soon get a lot more complicated, and I wasn’t sure I was ready.