Shards of Sanity (Book 6, Forgotten Series)

Prologue

I wasn't sure what it was that had woken me from my sleep. While it was true the group never truly slept well, that didn't account for this. I knew we were too close to the Old Way packs and we were on our own. We never slept well when we moved camps, we were rogues, never really trusted, but this was different. It was usually a sound that woke me. A rustling from a nearby bush, a stick snapping underneath a foot in the distance, a call from one of the animals that stalked the night.

It wasn't that, there was no sound that still rung in my ears. In fact it was quiet. Perhaps a bit too quiet. I slowly stood up, looking over my group to ensure that they were all there, that they were still breathing. I silently counted the sleeping bags in the thin moonlight that fell through the canopy of the trees. I relaxed when I realized they were all there.

We were a scraggly bunch but we were like a family. I was too old to fall into a pack but I took my job in ensuring the safety of my group seriously. We clung to each other because we had been taught that clinging to a pack brought no security. There was a reason a lot of us rogues went rogue. Sometimes it was preferable to being in a pack, it gave more safety.

For me it was the fact I couldn't stand by and watch the Alpha of my pack brutalize shifters in the name of tradition. I rubbed my face at the thought. Beating the weakest of the pack for simply being born different, for having the audacity of being naturally more submissive. There was only so much I could take and females being stolen from their families for the misfortune of being mated to the ranked members was my breaking point. At the reminder I froze. I slowly lowered my hand, my eyes seeking out the newest form that had come into the scope of my protection.

She wasn't there.

I stiffened before heading towards her sleeping bag quickly, not even attempting to be quiet as I realized that she was gone. Marian, who was sleeping beside her, shot up as I patted her hip. "She's gone." I said it low as I gestured to the abandoned sleeping bag. "We need to find her." She nodded, not questioning me as she shoved out of her sleeping bag to wake the others.

I moved over to the missing female's sleeping bag and inhaled her scent deeply. I was old but I was still a tracker, I could find her but touched females like her were unpredictable and I needed all the help I could get. I stood up, scenting the air, my wolf unfurled from his position, lifting his nose as he lent me his strength for the task. We caught the end of her trail and headed into the trees.

The female didn't have a name; we couldn't get one out of her. We had found her, wild haired in the forest deep in neutral territory. She had been so still, so utterly still. She hadn't spoken, hadn't moved, she barely breathed. I had known that touch, I had known what that was. It was why I had taken her in.

She must have run from an Old Way pack because I knew what had happened to her. The Rite of Submission. I nearly snarled at that, my jaw aching with my wolf's anger at the reminder. It wasn't a submission. It was a destruction. And the poor female we had found had been utterly destroyed by whatever male had tied them together. We were taking her to Altia, to give her to the land of the Goddess in the hopes they could help her. I just hadn't expected her to wander off, she had always stayed close to the group.

It worried me. She was in no position to protect herself, her mind barely held itself together on the best of days, not to mention the fact she was pregnant. She was in no condition to be wandering around at night, in a place she didn't know, with no one to watch her back.

The night breeze shifted, blowing towards me, with it I could smell blood thick in the night. It coated her scent so thickly that it nearly drowned it out. My heart pounded harshly as moved through the trees faster, we needed to get to her. My wolf flashed his teeth as I pushed myself, relying on him to guide me as we dodged around trees. We were on neutral territory but that did not stop the illegal rogues, in fact it only emboldened them more. There was a reason more and more rogues were grouping up. The illegals were getting bolder, the neutral territories were no longer safe.