The Graedarian Chronicles

Prologue

"Come my love. They're here, they know." My husband Gabriel whispered to me as he ushered me from my bed with a sleeping bundle of warmth in my arms.

"How can they know; she was born yesterday. Please tell me this is not happening Gabe." He looked at me with his piercing blue eyes and messy brown bed hair. He simply wrapped his arms around me and kissed me on the forehead. "We must leave, there is a passageway under the ale room that leads to the north grounds. Our men are doing everything they can to keep it secure."

A tear slipped down my cheek and he brushed it away; I grabbed a gown and was about to grab some shoes before we heard shouting down the hall. I had only half a second to look at the room and all it's belongings before I was pulled out the door by Gabriel. He ushered all of us away from the fight and down the long hallways into the basements where the servants' quarters were. The cool night breeze hit my exposed skin as we burst onto the grass, and I shivered. My toes were well past frozen, and I was expending all my body warmth to keep my little girl warm. I turned around to locate my husband and he looked as if he was in shock. I came and stood beside him and let out a little yelp. The yard was littered with bodies, fire danced in front of my eyes as the forest burned. Our home would be nothing by morning.

Howls and battles cries came from the left of where we were standing, and Gabriel's eyes glazed over. The calm rage in them when he came back was terrifying. "You must do this next part without me, I'm so sorry Evangeline. And to our precious daughter, Liliana, you will grow up to be a wonderful, powerful lycan." He kissed her on the head and then leaned in for the longest kiss we've had in years. I savoured every moment, tears streaming down my face before he pushed his child and I into the woods and said, "Run."

"You cannot run forever Evangeline. We know who you carry with you."

My bare feet beat against the ground as I sprinted away from my pursuers. The heavy breathing and rustling of the bushes filling the eerie quiet of the night. I could hear them gaining so I quickly changed direction towards a little town to the west. My heart pounding in fear, the little bundle in my arms the only reason that I kept moving. I had no idea what was happening to my home or if they had taken my husband hostage, but I knew I had to keep going.

Above the lines of the trees, I spotted a church not too far from the border of this heinous pack leading into the next. I had no idea who they were or what they were capable of, but I would prefer my little heir to brought up as far away from this pack as possible.

Bursting out of the tree line I raced towards the doors of the church. Knocking on the door as hard as I could I placed a light kiss on the top of my baby's head. Blue eyes with golden coloured flecks stared back at me and a sob escaped my lips. No one would know what my daughter was capable of or where her lineage came from. No one ever will.

I heard footsteps coming from behind the door and I could also pick up the scent of the trackers on the incoming breeze. They'd found me. I placed my darling gently on the doorstep and backed away, "You will be so special. This is our sacrifice to you; we love you always."

The door opened as I raced into the night. I had just enough time to watch a gorgeous young women pick up the bundle of blankets and look around into the night before retreating back into the church. I had no time to turn and run before I was hit in the side by a large body. My clothes ripped as I shifted into the lethal lycanthrope that ran through my bloodline. I turned around to face my attackers, "You will not claim my family."

"Your family is dead; it exists no more. You are the last measly wolf we are to get rid of and then our Alpha will take his rightful place."

"You're so-called Alpha is a disgrace to our kind," I growled before leaping onto one of the unshifted wolves. I fought bravely and valiantly knowing that they would never know where my daughter was.