Chapter One
My name is Wonder Dunes, age 12. From the Red cloud pack, in the west part of the country and northeast from the Royal palace. I am a werewolf, we were all werewolves except the royal family… they were Lycans. Faster, bigger, more deadly.
From the time I became conscious of my environment, I noticed I was different from everyone else, from the color of my eyes and hair down to my abilities. I had a rare eye color, one I’ve never seen on any other person. Teal with a ring of amethyst and grey pupil… my hair was the color of blazing purple. At 12, I could already feel my wolf, which is not something common in werewolves. Werewolves start feeling their wolves around 17 and wolves out at 18.
The villagers are already wary of me, because even my birth was strange. It took 3 years for my parents to conceive, which has not been recorded in history. For werewolves, getting pregnant is as fast as sneezing once you’ve mated with your moon goddess’s gifted mate. Mating heat wasn’t one that could be avoided, but my mother hadn’t conceived of her heat, even though she mated with my father, who was her true mate. My parents are Ishana and Bloom Dunes. My father was the second in command of the Red cloud pack. He has a dark brown wolf called ash.
My life in the Red Cloud pack wasn’t one I could describe as spectacular. I didn’t mingle with my peers and I had just two friends, a skinny boy named Kyle, who was only a year older than me, and the crazy woman that lives on the outskirts of the village that calls herself Donna. She says she’s a seer and is blessed by the moon goddess… well, looking at her bloodshot eyes and brown teeth, one can only find that hard to believe. She calls me “my queen” whenever I come around and even goes further to bow, which I find funny.
She lives along the path to the stream where I loved to play, so seeing her was almost always on a daily basis.
I always drag Kyle to the stream most of the time, even though he never agrees to swim and whenever he does, he does so with his clothes on. I know it’s to hide the whip marks and bruises, but I never comment on that. Kyle’s dad was one of the warriors. He protected the pack during the daytime but was a complete drunk at night.
I once told my dad about the abuse and he agreed to talk to him, which turned out to be a very big mistake on my part, because after that I didn’t see Kyle for more than a week and when I did, it was heartbreaking. His eyes had looked empty, void of all emotions, it had taken weeks to return a bit of light to them.
Kyle’s mom had died during a rogue attack on their way back from visiting her pack. Although it wasn’t Kyle’s fault, obviously his dad didn’t think so, as the reason why they had gone to that pack was because of Kyle’s insistence all week to go visiting, but he was only seven years of age at that time. Losing one’s mate was heartbreaking and can lead to madness if care wasn’t taken. He was made to choose a mate. At first he didn’t like the idea, but after a while he settled for it and picked himself a bride two years after the death of his mate, Kyle’s mom. It wasn’t long until she was heavy with pup, and then slowly the abuse started.. although she didn’t physically touch Kyle, she never tried to defend him or stop his father’s abuse, although in fact I have a feeling that she egged him on.
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"Wonder we have to go back, it’s going to get dark soon”. Kyle says, pulling me out of my reverie. As I was about to reply, we heard the sound of hoofs thundering against the ground, and soon a horse and a rider emerged into the clearing by the bank.
“You pups should head back home now. The alpha wants to address everyone, the Royal army is paying us a visit.” Bellows the rider.
I recognized him, he was among the warriors charged with patrol duty. He had been to our house once a few months ago. He galloped away from the stream not waiting for a reply. It was not necessary.
“Let’s go Kyle”. I finally say.
We slowly began our walk back home.
As we walk past Donna’s hut she sticks her head out and asks “Going home already my queen”.
I noticed it wasn’t a question, she must have seen the rider obviously.
“Yes Donna, they’re calling everyone back. Alpha Ismail wants to address everyone. It seems that the Royal army is paying us a visit soon”. I replied wearily. Suddenly, a hand grasps my arm. Turning with wide eyes, I sighed out, realizing it was Donna..
“You shouldn’t be there my queen, they are trying to find you” she added, tugging my hand towards the direction of her hut.
“Uuhhhmmm Donna let… let go of me please”, I stuttered, panic setting in even though I knew there wasn’t any need for it.
“You have to hide, so they don’t find you.. they must not find you yet!” She tugs harder, finally pulling me from my spot. Suddenly, a stick landed on her head. I turned my head to look and saw Kyle standing over donna’s body, which had now crumpled on the ground. I sighed in relief, I had completely forgotten that he was with me.
“Let’s go Won”, calling me by a nickname he chose, he turned to leave.
“Hold on, we can’t leave her. Come help me, let’s take her inside. It might rain tonight, who knows when she might wake up”.
He eyed her body, then shrugged.
“Fine, but we will leave immediately.”
I smiled, “sure, definitely”.
We struggled and half carried, half dragged her into her hunt as best as we could gently. To our surprise, the inside of the hut was spotless and tidy, nothing was out of place, contrary to what we imagined it should be like.
“Waw, not what I was expecting” Kyle says, mirroring my thought and expression.
“Yeah, no one will believe that this is a crazy woman’s house.”
“Is she really crazy or is that what she wants everyone to believe”, Kyle points out.
I frowned, thinking deeply. “Whatever though, let’s go Kyle, we don’t want the patrol coming back for us.”
“No we don’t.” He agrees.
I grabbed a blanket and covered Donna up, watching as a crease appeared on her forehead. I have never seen her act out of the sort before, her behavior today definitely took me by surprise.
With one final look to confirm she was comfortable, we took off back to the village.
