Wildfire

Prologue

The little deer ran through the woods behind its mother. Their hearts pounding in their chests as the wolf behind them gave chase.

They zig-zagged around trees, dodging branches and tree roots in desperate attempts to escape the wolf. The large brown wolf charges after the fawn and its mother with its jaws dripping with saliva and blood.

The blood that clung to the wolf's sharp teeth was of the fawn's father. The buck had fought hard to keep them safe, but his efforts were futile. The wolf had torn out the buck's throat angrily. The fawn's mother had pushed her whimpering baby out of the cave they were hiding in and made a run for a pack border. She knew that the rogue wolf wouldn't dare pass onto a wolf pack territory unless he had a death wish.

The doe, looking back to see the wolf catching up to them, shifted and scooped up her baby into her arms. The doe had shifted into her second form to carry her child. A deer shifter had three forms. A human form, deer form, and a form that resembled a centaur of sorts.

The doe's wild brown hair whipped in the wind as she increased her pace. Her brown eyes darting between her child and the woods in front of her. The fawn laid his head on his mother's teat, squealing and whimpering in fear. The fawn wanted comfort that the doe could not give him.

The doe ran fast through the woods, struggling to carry her fawn who refused to shift into his human form. The doe sighed in relief as she saw the shimmering translucent border to a wolf pack. She was so close to getting her and her child to safety. The doe worked her legs faster to bring her child towards their new refuge.

Just as she was about to pass the border, the doe is yanked backward. The doe screams in pain as the wolf clamps its jaws onto her hind leg. The doe trips and falls, her child being thrown through the air as the doe struggles to escape the wolf's grip.

The doe fights to the end, squealing and biting and hitting the wolf as it tore her to shreds. The doe's eyes landed on her shivering child who had fallen by a large tree. The fawn's light blue eyes glistened with tears as the doe was killed the same way her mate was.

The doe's body shifted back into her deer form, whimpering into the cold night as she heaved her final breaths through the tear in her throat. Blood bubbling up and spewing from the wound as her body becomes lifeless.

The wolf triumphantly stalks over to the whimpering fawn. The child's white fur matted with blood. Caked with muddy dirt. Its ears pitched back as it huddles closer in on itself.

The brown wolf shifts into a man. The man had crazed red eyes and a wicked smile. He had a wide nose and deep brown hair. The man was burly, thick hair on his arms and legs and... other places. His muscles bulging and his stomach sticking out with pudge. The man breathes heavily as he stands over the small fawn. His disgusting breath smelt of death and it made the small deer shifter's body jolt with a gag.

"I have you now," the man says, grabbing the fawn by its fragile neck, making the fawn choke.

"Toby..."