Extinction

Khaos stepped out of the cave, taking a deep breath of mountain air. This had been her home for over a decade, but she never got tired of the sight. She watched as Chickadees flitted through the meadow, dodging in and out of the pine trees, stopping only to sing their early morning songs. She could sense a deer watching her in the pines, but she paid it no attention as she swiftly braided her long blonde hair out of her face, tucking it tightly into the wild rag that covered everything up to her eyes. Settling her cowboy hat on her head, she let out a piercing whistle that carried far in the cool mountain air. Tango, came trotting up nickering at her in greeting. She smiled as she ran her fingers through his rough sorrel coat and whispered good morning. He was her only companion in these wild mountains, and she was thankful every day that she had been able to pull him from the corrals before her home had been destroyed. Throwing the saddle on, and checking his bridle, she loaded up the elk meat she had butchered out the day before and left to air chill. She needed some supplies and elk meat was the best bartering chip around. "I would rather run," grumbled Larkspur, her wolf, as she swung her leg into the saddle. "I would too, but we can't risk it," Khaos replied, "Once we make this trip to town, we can settle in for the winter, and I promise we can stretch our legs. No one will question a lone wolf in the winter on top of the Wind Rivers." "Fine," replied Larkspur, curling up in the corner of Khaos's mind, only slightly appeased and hating the feeling of confinement. Khaos sighed to herself and clucked at Tango to move along. As they made their way down the mountainside, Khaos found her mind drifting back to her prior life and the events that had led to now. Her heart and soul ached with the memories. Khaos had grown up on a cattle ranch on the Western side of Wyoming. As the 5th child in a long line of Alpha's and the only girl, she had learned to ride a horse and herd a cow long before she got her wolf. It seems strange that a werewolf family would run a cattle ranch, but her great-grandfather, the alpha at the time, had decided years before she was born, that that was the safest route for his pack and family. How many humans would suspect cattle ranchers to be werewolves? It took over a hundred years for anyone to start poking around, towards the end of the werewolf extermination frenzy. Prior to this, the Wind River pack flew under the radar of humans. If any locals suspected a thing, they never said anything. It was a case of don't ask, and it worked for a bit. That is until a local kid went missing and fingers started being pointed. The case against werewolves had started over a hundred years prior, when some of the packs, with more power-hungry Alphas, wanted to bring everyone under their power, including humans. To gain this power, they were willing to go through whatever means necessary. When humans entered their territories, they were immediately dealt with, causing tension in the neighboring towns. But, even then, werewolves were still a part of fantasy, a myth told at bedtime. And then, came the 2000s and technology, and one was caught on camera, and then another and another one. The human obsession with recording every part of their daily lives, was the downfall of the werewolves, and, if truth be told, of humans as well. At first, humans didn't stand a chance. They were no match for the creatures that could change seamlessly from one thing to the next. Many who chose to face a werewolf usually went numb with shock watching the transformation. Many ran away, no bloodshed was necessary. That was until they seemed to learn the secrets of the werewolves. They started searching for packs, watching those who seemed to not leave a certain parameter. They had learned that werewolves couldn't just leave their pack boundaries and wander to the next one, so they started baiting them and killing them. But, they grew frustrated when they realized that the pack members that they usually killed were not of high significance to many packs. They then learned of the hierarchy in each pack, and the leaders became the targets. By this time, they had learned that silver and wolfsbane could kill in high doses, and they had made sure to get their hands on these items prior to attacking. Once guns became involved, the wolves started to fall, a silver bullet laced with wolfsbane would hit them and instantly start coursing through their blood stream. The humans wouldn't fire one shot. No, they would fire multiple shots, ensuring the inability of the attacked wolf to recover. They started hunting down the Alpha's, Betas, Gammas and Deltas, one by one. Destroying them and their families. They knew an Omega held minimal significance and that a pack couldn't rebuild without its leaders. This is what happened to Khaos's pack. The local child went missing. Later it was found that it had accidentally slipped into the Green River, but by then the damage was done. Angry townspeople and some out of-staters who were looking for a fight had already gathered at the Wind River pack. They had demanded answers and when they did not receive an answer they liked, they had attacked. Burning everything to the ground and annihilating the werewolves as quickly as possible. Khaos and their Beta's daughter, Sparrow, had been sent running to the horse corral closer to the woods. Sparrow had slipped into her wolf form and escaped, but Khaos had turned to watch the scene unfold. She watched as her mom, the Luna, and her dad, the Alpha, tried to reason with the people and were shot down. Her brothers saw this, and quickly changed to their wolves, choosing to fight rather than reason. Each one was destroyed one by one. Her last brother turned to run to the woods, but it was too late. His last words to her were a mindlink to run. She stared into his golden eyes as he took his last breath. With that push from her brother, she swung her leg over Tango and let him fly. Not bothering to change into her wolf form, knowing they would have hunted her until their last breath had they seen her change. After that, the world had changed in a hurry, the panic of werewolves had brought out an all-out war. Us versus them, and in a mad dash to stop the complete destruction of the werewolf kind, the packs agree to band together. The thought was the numbers would be enough. But it wasn't. Bombs were dropped, they had made it too easy for humans. Chunks of packs destroyed, whole families annihilated, until the only thing left to do was run. The few remaining Alpha's, Khaos included, as the last living member of her family, had done a massive mind link, agreeing that boundaries were now eradicated. Packs were no longer safe, and members needed to cross in and out so as not to raise suspicions. Every pack came as close to rogue as possible, with Alphas ordering their members to disband and no longer answer to them. It was decided that if werewolves wanted to survive, they would need to hide.