Black Feathers

1: Annabelle

 It was grey. It was dark, and wet, and icy chills ran their fingers up everyone's spines as they always did when the King walked into the room. The howling storm outside the large stone castle was nothing compared to the wild calm that encased the King. A man with eyes greener than the forests, piercing eyes that could freeze even the moodiest shifters in their tracks.

 He was tall, rising like a shadow wrapped in a black cloak always, walking with his head high, death in his gaze, and more power than could be felt by the people of earth. It was only natural he ended up their King. Though Lucian had made no move to take the position himself. The man had simply found himself in the position after a number of years. There was nothing more for him to do than go with the flow. Earth wasn't his birth home, but he'd make the best of it.

 His title gave him free run of the kingdom. War was nothing new to Lucian. War with the creatures of earth, however, was very different from what he had witnessed in Nevaeh. 

 Settling in the seat placed at the head of the room Lucian leaned on his arm and ran his eyes over the Great Hall. Marble floors, stone pillars, the wolf shifters that served as the kingdom's guard. They stared, as they always did, at King Lucian. Shifters had been the most powerful beings on earth between the humans and magic users.

 Lucian had found his way to the kingdom that the wolves ruled. To the north was the Ursidae shifters, in the west was the Felidae shifters, south was the Reptilia shifters, and to the east were the Hyaenidae shifters. King Lucian held a peace treaty with the Bears of the North and the Reptiles in the South, however the war between the Hyenas and the Felines kept them too busy to pay mind to Lucian. The problem was, their war was invading other lands and it was reaching a point it could no longer be ignored.

 To find the end of a war in a kingdom other than his own. The thought of it made Lucian scowl. His mood adding an extra layer of darkness over the room making the wolves uneasy. 

 "Sir." 

 Lifting his head Lucian turned at the sound of the call, his eyes finding the man quickly. Noah, the Beta of the pack. Lucian's right hand. His dirty blond hair was soaked and plastered to his face, water dripped off his body quickly soaking through the dry clothes hastily pulled on. In his arms was, to everyone's surprise, a woman. Naked. Her pale body limp and smeared with mud and fresh blood.

 Pushing himself up Lucian felt his eyes widening when a smell touched his nose, a scent he never thought he'd catch again. Walking forward Lucian sniffed again, reaching down to peel the wet hair off the woman's face. She had two freckles going vertically under her right eye, and one more on the left side of her chin. Even half covered in mud Lucian was struck with a new feeling, he had never taken notice of a woman before but this one was beautiful. The scent was definitely coming from her.

 Yet, she was human any way Lucian looked at her. So why was it her body radiated the scent of an Angel? The scent of Nevaeh?

 "We found her on the Eastern border. In the gorge." 

 Lucian looked up from the girl to Noah. The gorge, it was a 200 foot drop straight down a 30 foot gap in the earth with a river at its bottom. Under the river years of fallen trees, boulders, and rocks piled up. The gorge ran along the kingdom's entire Eastern border, for miles. It separated the Wolves and the Hyenas. With one 20 yard gap in the rock wall that had collapsed at some point in time creating a bank to the river. Lucian had forbidden most of his pack from going near the gorge, the ground was unstable near the edge and many had lost their lives to the valley. It was a miracle this girl wasn't dead, though the state of her body was proof enough that she had been in the rushing waters. Large bruises marred her skin along with various scrapes and gashes oozing fresh blood.