𝙴𝚌𝚕𝚒𝚙𝚜𝚎𝚍

Chapter One

Since I was small, I had been haunted by relentless nightmares. Nightmares that never really made any sense to me. In them, was a woman whose beautiful long blonde hair, illuminated by the full moon behind her, flailed in biting wind that smelled of smoke.

Now why I had dreamt of this woman more times than I could count, I was unsure. Because I had never once seen her before in my waking life, just occasionally when I slept. But what had made it a nightmare, was having to watch the life drain from her glowing blue, almost white, eyes after she was pelted from behind with not one, but a swath of flaming arrows.

Despite not knowing who she was, every single time I awoke, I would find myself screaming with tears soaking my face and snot dripping from my nose. Mourning the loss of someone that I wasn't even sure was real.

And like usual, that morning was one of those times.

"Again?" Luci groaned from my now open bedroom door, "You would think that you would have at least stopped screaming by now."

"Indeed." I wiped the wetness from my face, then sipped on a glass of water. I always had one waiting on the small table by my bed just for such an occasion. "Perhaps one day the dreams will finally cease."

Even though she sounded fed up with my usual unwanted morning theatrics, Luci had always arrived at my door in haste, ensuring that she was the first thing I saw once I had calmed down. It had been like this since she was old enough to understand what was happening and from that point on she had never missed an occasion.

I would miss her once she married off and left me there with father and the other two. And I knew that time was approaching faster than any of us had wanted. For she was newly eighteen and would have finally been allowed to attend her very first Finding Ball.

These specific balls were parties that our pack, which happened to have been one of the largest in the region, threw every few months. Our Alpha would send invitations to all neighboring packs, asking that all their unmated males and females attend, in hopes of helping mates find one another faster. Something I, myself, avoided like the plague.

"You're going to the market today, are you not, Elizie?" Mira poked her head in, hair disheveled as usual, along with dried drool still crusted on her face.

"I am." I waited, listening for the thuds of Katie's little feet, knowing once she had heard the word market enter the conversation, she would immediately rush down the hall to beg me to let her join us.

And, as if right on cue, she scampered into the room, pushing the other two out of her way, and joined me on the bed. "May I please come with you Elizie?" She bounced.

"Of-" Mira cut me off before I could answer.

"No, Kate. Father already said you had to say here. We are going to be stopping by the boutique while we're out today because Luci is in need of a new dress. So we do not need an annoying child getting in the way and slowing us down." Mira barked, she was now standing in the room with her arms crossed over her chest and her eyes rolling into the back of her head.

"Of course you may come, Katie." I glared at Mira, silently scolding her for trying to exclude little Katie for no reason other than to be mean. Her odd teenage aggression had been getting worse and worse as of late and I was nearly at the end of my patience. "Mira is just teasing."

"Is her wolf presenting itself?" I wondered to myself, "That would explain all the attitude that's been coming from her for the past two weeks."

"I have a question, however." I looked at Luci who immediately adverted her gaze, "Is it true we are going to pick you out a new dress? What's the occasion?" I smiled at the thought of watching her light up like the night sky during a full moon, she absolutely loved dressing up.