Queen of the Beasts *Sample*

Chapter 2

As a trio of rogues we were on the move rather often, so this was nothing new to us. This was the way had to be. We were seen by packs as unruly and untrustworthy. One didn't become a rogue by accident. We had to be rejected by our packs because we had committed a heinous crime, because we were physically unwell and would only endanger the pack, a runaway, or because we were not able to properly function within the structure of pack life. And because of that no werewolves wanted us near their territories. They assumed must've been dangerous and deranged if we wanted to live our lives away from civilization because wolves were not designed to live alone.

But I didn't feel that we were violent and unpredictable. At least not towards the majority of our kind.

Thorn was the only one of us had chosen to be this way. He had wanted to rebel against the royals since he was a young pup, but his pack refused to stand behind him on such a dangerous front. He was cast aside when he was only twelve years old. Being tossed out when he was so young simply because he had an opposing opinion only heightened his dislike of the royals and he vowed to do whatever he could to impede their way of life.

Hunter had been born with a deformed hind leg. His warrior parents had abandoned him in the woods at the very young age eight when they assumed that it was something he would not grow out of. Thankfully, Thorn had found him and had saved his life and Hunter had grown to be a resourceful and fully functioning werewolf. Together, they began plotting their attack against the royals.

My story was both more bizarre and confusing and I was the last one to join the group.

My mother had been a wonderful luna when I was a young girl. The entire pack had adored her without end. She was a beautiful, strong woman who stood beside a proud alpha male, her legal husband and my father. Then, little by little, she destroyed my life. One night she went out for a solo run and returned home, mumbling about a wolf she had seen. She claimed he was the most beautiful creature she had ever laid eyes on. For a few nights I could hear her crying softly to herself. After a week had passed I heard my parents arguing. I don't remember much but I do recall my father scoffing and telling my mother that mates were unnecessary, alliances had to be forged for strength and my mother screamed back at him, telling him he was more human than wolf now.

The next morning, she was gone.

My father never went after her; he simply went on to find a newer, younger wife. When I asked him about it he told me that my mother had made her choice and I merely had to accept it.

But I was more stubborn and more determined than he ever gave me credit for. I decided that if my father wouldn't go after her then I would. Someone had to find her; she could've been hurt or lost. I didn't realize that I was being young and naïve.

I also left in the middle of the night, hoping to track her down and bring her back home, where she belonged. She and my father would apologize to one another as husband and wife should and my world would return to normal. My father would heavily disapprove of this as he was too proud of his own good so I used the cover of night to sneak out of our little house and off of our packlands.

I had trekked around the dense woods all night in search of my mother. I called out to her until my voice was hoarse and I was slightly dizzy from dehydration. I was so focused on my task, so convinced that I would find her and everything would be well again, that I didn't realize that I had gotten very lost until the sun had risen the next morning.

With the world around me illuminated dread had set in. I was eleven, uneducated and terrified. And completely alone in unsafe territory.

In the week that I was alone in the woods I understood how right my mother was.