Wolf Queen - Book 1 of The Nightfall Series

Two

The morning air felt heavy against her lungs, frost hung from each leaf and stem of grass as the first signs of winter began to show. She was once again at her perch, high on the mountain.

One of the advantages of being a daughter of an Alpha brought gifts to her genome. She could read thermal signatures with her eyes by summoning her beast forward. Through rust-coloured eyes she could see her pack mates in and around the valley, the wolves on patrol, she could even see lesser animals, prey, as they wandered through the vast woods.

It was a valuable gift that proved useful in many different situations, the protection of the pack being one of them. Hunting the other. It was mid-morning and the pack had only just begun to rise for the day. The air was cool and the sun was low, casting golden patterns onto the horizon and the accompanying mountains.

Their territory was rocky and protective. Harsh and uneasy to access to threats but also easy for the pack to hide within. They'd spent the best part of their lives scaling the mountains where safe dens were hidden at the mountain tops and learning to walk within the forests embrace without making a sound. They were the ultimate predators within their domain.

The normal silence that surrounded her was soon shattered, her morning peace disturbed, as a howl rang out in the south. A pack mate on patrol. She looked towards the direction of the howl and a growl rumbled from her throat. Three wolves sprinted through the valley, white hot with heat, as the patrol wolves chased them. The difference was easy to distinguish, they were not pack, the pack wolves' blood was colder because of their life in the mountains and they wouldn't be seen out in the open.

She stood from her perch and cast her gaze over to the pack c, her blood pumping quickly through her veins as her breathing quickened. Her beast eager for blood. The intruders weren't far from the pack, too close for her liking. The patrols would never catch them.

Despite the howl of imminent danger sounded by the patrol, the pack continued its usual routine. Miscommunicating the call as a call for the Alpha. She watched as the group of running wolves begun to get closer and closer. A patrol wolf being thrown to the side as he tried to slow them down.

No one had ever dared to come so close.

She reached up her left hand to touch the pack mark nestled between her shoulder blades, a crescent moon, a sign that they were the moons servants. It gave her a direct link to her father in times of need, her only binding to the pack, and therefore allowed her to alert them to the danger that was coming for them when she allowed the connection to open.

She howled as she did this, her vocal cords grinding and changing into that of a beast. Releasing a large roar that shook the trees around her and echoed off the mountain sides around her.

Her eyes changed back to crystal clear vision as she dropped down from her perch, the forest floor the world imploding around her, rocks falling from above. It had barely dropped back to the ground before she was sprinting off towards the pack. She needed to get to her father.

The muscles in her legs screamed as she leapt through the forest, her feet barely touching the icy floor as she pushed her body to the limit and followed the scent of her father. Her hands turned to claws and her canines lengthened as she partially released her beast, giving her body the power to sweep through the forest and break through the treeline just as the intruding wolves leapt out.

She interceded the leader as he leapt over an empty den that was being constructed, towards her father. He had stood, face thundering with anger at an intruder that entered without permission. She made contact with the leader mid-leap, crashing into his side, arms wrapping around his mid-section as she threw him to the side.