Howl

Prologue

Prologue

                Somehow, the fourteen year old had managed to hold himself together through the funeral. Now that it was over, and he was alone, Lukas finally allowed himself to cry. As devastating as his loss was, it shouldn’t have meant he lost everything. After all, Lukas had a pack. A pack that should have taken care of him. But that same pack also should have protected his parents and his brother. They failed them, and Lukas had no reason to believe they wouldn’t fail him as well.

                Part of him knew that the whole pack wasn’t to blame. It was only the alpha, Anthony. Lukas knew it was his fault. He never knew why, but Anthony hated his family. Lukas knew that he never would have lifted a finger to help them, and the more he thought about it, the more Lukas was convinced that Anthony was responsible for his family’s death.

                As he lay on a bed at his aunt and uncle’s house, his sorrow turned into anger. He wanted justice, vengeance. He wanted to see Anthony dead. He wanted to see the hunters who had killed his family dead with him. And not just the ones that had actually done it. Lukas decided that he wanted all werewolf hunters dead.

                Before they had died, his parents had mentioned a wolf in Idaho who wanted to take the fight to the hunters.  His parents thought that the werewolves had lived in fear of hunters for too long, and they had devised a plan to train members of the pack to find those hunters first. When they had brought it up to the rest of the pack, it gained support, but Anthony had shut it down.

                Now Lukas knew his parents had been right. They couldn’t sit back and hope the hunters never found them. He knew the pack wouldn’t support him, but Lukas didn’t care. If his pack wouldn’t protect him and care for him, he didn’t want them and it was in his right to leave. He knew what the oath of loyalty stated – if the pack couldn’t protect him and give him a home, he wasn’t under any obligation to remain with them.

                He wiped the remaining tears from his eyes, determined to make it on his own. Where he was going, he couldn’t be seen as weak. It was a long journey ahead of him, and he no longer had time for tears or useless emotions. His anger would keep him going.

                When he opened the door to the room, he could hear voices downstairs. His former packmates were down there, talking. He listened for a few moments, and heard a few people talking about him. His uncle was saying that he would be living with them. For a brief moment, Lukas felt guilty. He still had some family left, and his aunt and uncle would love him just like they did their own children. But he knew he couldn’t be happy if he was forced to stay in that pack. Not with Anthony as the alpha.

                Quietly, he closed the door. He wasn’t even going to attempt to get out of the house that way. Instead, he went to the window and opened it and stepped out onto the roof. Walking over to the edge, he looked down. It wasn’t too far of a drop, but Lukas would have preferred an easier way down. But unless he wanted to climb over to the other side of the house where there was a large tree, jumping off was the only way to go.

                Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and let himself drop to the ground below. He groaned as his body hit the ground. It had hurt, but he’d also experienced much worse. Picking himself up, he took off, leaving his aunt and uncle’s and heading back to his house. He would have left right then, but first he needed to figure out where he was going.

                It was nearly an hour before he made it home, and it was getting close to dusk. He found the spare key hidden by the back door and then went inside his home for the last time. In truth, it was no longer his home. Just a shell filled with the ghosts of happy memories.

                Those memories were almost enough to bring him to tears as he made his way through his former home. He walked past the place where his brother accidentally broke his nose when he was seven. They had been roughhousing and Paul had knocked Lukas face-first into a table. It was the same room where the two of them had built forts out of blankets and pillows and played games all night until they were too exhausted and fell asleep.

                Lukas remembered the first time he had shifted into his wolf form right there in the living room, and how happy his parents had been. His brother had shifted too and had tackled him. Because it had been his first time in wolf form, Lukas had been awkward, unsure of his movements, but he eventually felt just as comfortable as a wolf as he would be in human form, and he and Paul had chased each other around the house for what felt like hours.

                Doing everything he could to forget those memories, he went into his mom’s office, looking for the information he needed. After ten minutes, he found it and took everything he needed into a backpack. He remembered a stash of money his parents had for emergencies – technically, that money was supposed to go to the pack. But Lukas certainly didn’t want it to go to them. He didn’t want them to have anything. He ran to get the money, adding it to the contents of his backpack.

                Finally having everything he needed, he took one last look around the house. He almost wanted to burn it down to the ground to ensure that Anthony and the Mile High Pack couldn’t get anything from it. But he knew that there were some items that would go to his aunt and uncle – they would want the photos and other such things.

                He walked out the front door, not bothering to lock it up. For a few moments, he stood in front of the door, knowing he would never come back. Once again, tears threatened, but he refused to cry. He headed off the porch and ready to begin his journey when he saw two familiar faces waiting for him.

                His cousins, Sophia and Talon, stood there, just looking at him.

                “What the hell are you doing?” Sophia demanded to know. “Why’d you jump out the damn window?”

                “I’m leaving,” Lukas answered, not looking at them.

                “What? Where are you going?” Talon asked.

                “None of your business,” Lukas growled. He didn’t want to deal with his cousins at the moment. Or ever. He knew they wouldn’t come with him. They would remain part of the pack, and therefore, Lukas wanted nothing to do with them. “How’d you get here anyway?”

                “Jason drove us,” Sophia said, referencing their friend who was a few years older. The four of them had always been close, and Lukas knew that he would miss them. “Just come home, Lukas. We’ll help you get through this.”

                “I don’t need your help!” Lukas shouted. “Leave me alone!” He stormed past them, not wanting to talk to them anymore. He just wanted to be gone.

                Surprisingly, they didn’t seem to be following him. He’d made it down to the end of the street and was crossing to go into a park when he finally heard someone coming behind him. He growled, wishing they would just let him go. He turned around, expecting to see three wolves, but he only saw one. Talon.

                “Go away,” he growled at his cousin.

                “Lukas, you can’t just leave,” Talon said. “This is your pack.”

                “No,” Lukas said quickly. “It’s not. You can’t stop me.” Lukas started to walk away again, but Talon seemed to take his words as a challenge. Lukas turned around quickly when he heard Talon moving behind him and moved out of the way just before Talon tried tackling him.

                Things only got worse from there. Lukas didn’t really recall what had happened. It all seemed like a blur to him. All he really remembered was when it was over. Talon was lying on the ground and blood was everywhere. He saw Sophia and Jason running over. When they saw Talon, they froze, staring in shock at what had happened. They looked at Lukas, and for several moments, they stared at each other. Finally, Lukas turned and left.

                He never wanted to return.