In the Heart of the Forest

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Author's Note:

I will be switching point of views, but only between our two main characters, Logan and Thea, and it shouldn't be very often. I just feel it is important to get both sides of the story.

Anyhow, on with the story!

Logan

I groan as I pull myself out of bed. My injuries from Saturday night are still a little sore, even with my werewolf healing. This war with the Black Claw pack is killing me. Literally!

The Black Claws are a what we call a feral pack--a pack that wants nothing but blood and destruction. They are also kind of insane--they give in to their wolf side. Most packs, like my Moonrise pack, live peacefully with the humans. Right now, the humans think us Moonrisers are just a reclusive community that live in a neighborhood deep in the woods. Really, we are all werewolves, and we live secluded so we can shift freely, without the human's prying eyes.

It was about a year ago when the Black Claws showed up. They apparently want to take over the town and slowly slaughter all the humans, except for the eligible females that will be used for mating. Hence all of the 'animal attacks.'

You see, contrary to popular belief, the werewolf gene only passes down through the males, which is why the Black Claws would preserve the females. But for some reason, if a werewolf mates with a female who isn't his mate, the chances of male offspring are significantly diminished.

Which, I don't know why they would forcefully mate human women for males when they would probably only get female offspring anyways. Although, they are kind of insane.

I am still waiting on my mate; however, I wouldn't tell her about my true identity until after the war with the Black Claws is over. I just can't put her in the kind of danger. I am the future Alpha, and killing my mate would be killing me. It is impossible for a werewolf to live without their mate.

I push myself to a standing position and clutch my sides from the pain in my ribs. Last Saturday some of the patrols caught a few Black Claws trying to chase down a human female in the woods. They mind-linked me for help. Apparently she is new to town and didn't know to not go out after dark. I shiver at the thought of what they would have done to her if she had been caught. They have recently been hunting down girls more and more often.

Thankfully, the howl I let out to warn the others caused them to stop their pursuit; however, they were a bit angry about the interruption and set their sights on us. It was a hard fight and I suffered four broken ribs, a displaced shoulder, and a fractured Fibula.

In the end, we managed to kill all the enemy wolves and returned home with just injuries.

I pace across my bedroom floor looking for clean clothes. I pick up a grey t-shirt and some jeans and take a sniff check. Hmm, doesn't smell too bad. I might have worn them once a couple of days ago, but compared to my other clothes that are either shredded from shifts or covered in mud and/or blood, these look pretty good.

I grab a few minute long shower and head downstairs for some breakfast.

"Hey, Ma," I say when I see my mom in the kitchen making breakfast. She is the pack's Luna. Some larger packs in Russia (where we are originally from) stick with tradition and have a position for every pack member starting with Alpha and Luna, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, and so on. But here in the Moonrise pack, we just have Alpha, Luna, Beta, and the elderly make up the Omegas.

"Hi, Sweety. Are you healed up enough to go to school yet? I'm sorry you had to miss yesterday."

I'm not sorry I missed. I hate Mondays.