CHAPTER ONE
Silvia's POV
The boots came first. They always did. That stomping that shook the ground under my six year old feet. Then I heard my parents voices quiet at the same time telling me to hide and be still. The trees and bushes were. Then there was gunfire. Sharp and mean. Tearing through everything I knew.
I woke up covered in sweat my heart beating fast against my chest. For a moment I just lay there listening to the quiet in my room waiting for it to bring me back to the present.
"It is a bad dream " I said to myself putting my hand on my chest. "Again."
"It always is " my wolf Sienna said softly in my mind. Her presence was like a heartbeat, calm when mine was not. "But you are still here you are still standing."
I let out a breath. "Today of all days I need to be at my best."
"Then get up " she. Her voice was gentle but sure. "Today is ours."
She was right. I was turning twenty today.. On this birthday I was going to be crowned leader of the Southern Pack. The position my father had before the hunters took him and my mother had stood beside him in before they took her too.
It had been fourteen years since that night I asked my parents to take me to see the world as a birthday gift. I was six and full of wonder. I did not know that my curiosity would cost them everything. The hunters found us in the woods near the border. I hid under a tree biting my hand to be quiet while my world fell apart. My fathers helper Antonio found me there hours small, shaking and alone.
I never went back to those woods.
I got out of bed. Swung my legs over the side. The pack house was quiet that stillness before dawn when even the most restless people are asleep. I moved through it like a ghost, out of my room and down the hall to the back of the house.
I always ran before sunrise. It started when my wolf appeared, when I was ten and my sadness had somewhere to go. Running did not fix anything. It gave my pain something to do.
I passed my mothers garden on the way to the training field. Stopped. The elders kept it for her. A patch of moonflowers and silver sage that bloomed all year. In the dark the white flowers seemed to glow. I stood there breathing in the scent feeling the ache of missing her without trying to push it away.
Then I kept walking.
I heard footsteps behind me before I reached the training field. I was distracted lost in my head. I let my guard down. That was careless in the pack grounds.
"Obstacle course or just a run?"
I recognized the voice before I turned. It was Toby. My guard and oldest friend had been following me on these dawn runs for years since he found out I was sneaking out at midnight. He never asked why he just started showing up quiet and steady and running with me.
I turned to find him standing a few feet behind me arms. Grinning.
"Run " I said.
He nodded. We both changed.
There is something I will never get tired of. The moment of changing, when the world gets bigger. Colors get deeper the air is full of information. My paws hit the dirt and everything else. The coronation, the elders, the weight of the crown. Fell away. There was the run, the speed, the cool air.
We ran around the field until the first light of morning came. By the time we changed back and went to the pack house it was awake around us. The maids were decorating for the coronation the kitchens smelled like bread and someone was arguing about flowers.
"And where are you two coming from at this hour?"
The voice came from the top of the stairs. Antonio stood there in his morning robe looking at us with that expression he used when I did something he could not technically object to but wished he could.
"Training field " I said. "We went for a run."
He. Shook his head. "The elders will not be happy if they find out. You know that. Please,. Get ready for your big day."
I started down the hall with Toby behind me when another voice called out.
"Tobyyyy!"
Ava came running toward us from the guest rooms her blonde hair loose her blue eyes sparkling. She was my helper and closest friend. She looked beautiful even early in the morning.
" morning soon-to-be leader " she said, directing this at me before turning to Toby and launching herself into his arms.
He caught her. The two of them were, in their own world, soft words and laughter.
I watched them for a moment.
Something empty moved through my chest. Not anger I loved them much for that.. A quiet ache that I was used to carrying. The awareness of something
"You two do not have to make the rest of us feel it much " I said dryly and kept walking.
Ava pulled back. Smiled at me a little sorry. "Sorry, leader."
"Take it as a birthday gift " I called back. "Enjoy it while I am being generous."
Their laughter followed me down the hall. I let myself smile even as the empty feeling settled firmly in my chest.
"We will find our mate " Sienna said quietly. "I promise you Silvia. We will."
I closed my door behind me.
"Soon " I said to the room.. Tried to believe it.
