Chapter 2

Next morning

When I awoke from the sun hitting my eyes. My body was still in pain. I looked down at my body and automatically blushed. I was naked. And that’s when the memories of last night returned.

Death. Destruction. It was all too much for me.

I stood up on my feet using all of my strength and started to shift so that I wouldn’t be naked anymore.

My bones began to crack and shift, fur started to sprout from my body, and a snout formed.

The process didn’t hurt as bad as it did last time, but it was still painful.

When I was fully shifted, I began to hike up the hill.

From where I was at I could smell the smoke of my village. I knew from the deep of my heart that it was all over, but I simply refused to accept it. I hoped that there could be injured survivors .

But, there was only one thing that was racing through my mind. A promise I made last night.

I had to bury mother.

The moment I recalled her death, my tears started to trickle down my face. It wasn’t fair. She was one of the only pack members that didn’t care I was different. And now, she was gone.

I shook the thought from my head and continued to climb. When I reached the top of the hill I immediately paused. The forest was in dead silence. Usually there would be birds chirping by now. But there was no sound.

None.

I began to walk up the path to the village.

The trail I was on had dozens of footprints. I could tell which ones were the rogues’ and which ones were Grace’s just by looking at them.

Grace.

She was somewhere out there. Either dead or suffering. And it was all my fault.

More tears filled up my eyes, but I held them back.

Pull yourself together, Diana. You want to believe that she’s alive…Grace is alive…

As I continued, the smell of smoke got stronger, and the memories of screams filled my head.

I forced myself to keep going, even though my legs were aching and the memories were painful. But all I could think about was that I wanted to get to the village fast.

I came to a halt when I heard rustling in a bush.

A rogue?

I got into fighting position and started to growl.

‘Diana, kill it if it’s a rogue! Remember what they did to our pack last night!’ My wolf growled.

‘I promise I will, don’t worry.’

Before I knew it, a yellow fluffy ball jumped from the bush.

I ducked as it flew over my head. The thing was crazy!

I turned to face it. But it wasn’t what I expected it to be.

It was a little puppy.

I could see fear in it’s eyes, most likely because I looked so dreadful. So I did the simplest thing I could – I stopped growling.

When it realized I wasn’t going to hurt it, it started to wag it’s fluffy tail and bounce it’s way up to me.

I didn’t have time for this.

I turned my back on it and started to make my way to the village.

But soon, I realized it was a big mistake.

It started to whimper and whine.

Oh, my lovely puppy. How could I abandon such an adorable creature like you while you were sitting there and crying.

I decided to adopt it.
That’s all it took. It stopped it’s little fit and actually tried to play with me. It began to circle my legs beneath me and playfully bite my toes.

That’s when I realized it. Only baby animals do that. What a lovely pup is it!

‘Just tell the little thing to go away, we don’t even have a place to settle ourselves.’ my wolf said to me coldly.

‘But it’s so cute. I can’t just leave it here.’

My wolf was right though, I really needed to be somewhere. But how could I abandon this pup?

That’s when the idea came to me. I would just bring it along.

I nudged the pup from underneath me and picked it up by it’s neck roll. It tried to give up a fight but eventually gave up and just let me hold onto it.

So their I continued my walk with my new companion, puppy.

I’ll just change it’s name later.

When we reached the fence line, I nearly collapsed. Everything was ashes. There were some buildings left, but they were badly burnt.

I looked around everywhere, there were bodies with ashes on top. And they weren’t just deceased adults, there were children as well. Some were in human form, but from what I could see, most of the pack were in wolf form.

I gently placed the tiny pup down and made my way to where I had left my mother. By our burning house.

The house was in ashes now. Nothing stood to indicate that it was even a building. The only thing that was noticeable was a body. Mom’s body.

She was in the position I had left her in, sprawled onto the grass with blood surrounding her.

‘I promised myself I would come back to bury you mom. I’m sorry I couldn’t have saved you.’

If a wolf could cry, I was doing a pretty good job at it. I could feel tears stain my fur.

‘She is gone. We couldn’t save her.’

I nodded to my wolf. ‘No, we didn’t’

I jumped at the sound of a squeaky bark. When I turned, I saw the pup with a ratted, blue dress in it’s mouth.

I guess the pup is good for something.

I began to shift back, ignoring the pain. When I was finished, I reached for the dress the pup was holding. It gave it up willingly.

‘Isn’t this mom’s old blue dress?’

Tears started to trickle down my face uncontrollably.

“Yeah, it is.”

I slipped the dress on.

You know those dresses that are from like, the eighties? They’re short sleeved, go over your knees, and they sprawl out. Well that’s what this dress was. And it was mom’s favorite color. Baby blue.

“Well, look who’s back.”

I shivered at the voice of the man who started this. I will never forget this voice.

It was Paul.

“What are you doing here,” I asked furiously.

“Oh don’t treat me like that. I just came to look at the scene. I didn’t expect to see you here in another beautiful dress.”

I turned to Paul with hatred in my eyes. “Why did you do it?”

His face went emotionless as he sighed. “You know how I told you my mate was kicked out of the pack, and I had to reject her because of it. Well, now there’s no pack, I can have the love of my life. She said all I had to do was this, so I-“

“Damn you idiot. Haven’t you thought about the chance that she’s manipulating you?! She doesn’t care about you, and you stand up for-“

Within seconds Paul had me by the throat, feet dangling above the ground. All I could do was struggle. But each time I did that his grip tightened.

“She’s my mate! I have to stand up for her! I have to love her! Or else I get hurt! Do you know the pain of it? Oh wait, that’s right, you don’t. You’ve never even met your mate!”

He released his grip and I fell to the ground, coughing like crazy.

“You just don’t understand Diana. The pain is unbearable,” he said while turning his back to me.

He’s telling me about pain? Him? He ruined my life!

“Pain,” I choked out while getting to my feet. “You know there’s a thing called pain. But you destroyed my life! You murdered my friends and family, and now your telling me about pain!”

I charged him with balled fists. I knew that he sensed me coming, but he didn’t move when I struck him.

I kept hitting and hitting him. But he just stood there, taking all the hits.

“I hate you! I hate you! I will kill you right here, right now!” Tears began to well up in my eyes and trickle down.

What a devil! How could he do this?

Paul quickly turned around and grabbed my wrists. “I’m sorry Diana. I wish it didn’t have to be this way. You can come with me. We have a pack of our own. Just take my hand.”

I shoved him off of me and crumpled to the ground. “Get lost you traitor! Why would I join a group of murderers like you!?”

He sighed and started to rub the back of his neck. “You know, if I would’ve just forgotten about my mate when I rejected her, this would’ve never happened, and I would’ve fallen in love with you.”

I looked up at him as the wind started to pick up. His brown locks started to rustle and his eyes showed sorrow.

“What the heck are you talking about, you butcher? I will never fall in love with you!”

He nodded and turned his back on me. “I know I love my mate. But, for some reason, I can’t stop thinking about you.”

Does he really mean it? I thought to myself

‘Don’t listen to him! We have a mate of our own somewhere out there!’

Maybe my wolf was right.

“Last night, I went to your house and packed your clothing, your books, and some food in a trunk and left it beside the fence line before your house caught on fire. I knew you would want to come back. I don’t know why I did it though.”

He began to walk away. “Maybe, we’ll see each other again. I wish for that day.” With that he disappeared into the forest.

I dried my eyes with the palms of my hands and looked around the ashes. puppy was jumping and bouncing into several piles of it, trying to entertain itself.

“I don’t think I can forgive him with all the damage he did…”

‘Just forget about what he said. Let’s just concentrate on burying our pack members and burning the dead rogues.’

I nodded in agreement. My wolf was right. There are other things to worry about.

I got back to my feet and made my way to one of the buildings that weren’t burnt down.

The tool shack.

The door was burnt to ashes, so it was easy to get in, and the tool that I wanted was lying on the ground.

A shovel.

I grabbed it by it’s hilt and dragged it out. Then I found that was perfect for the graves.

I began to dig.

First hole, for the Alpha… Killed in battle.

Second hole, for the Luna… Killed in battle.

Third hole, for the Beta… Killed in battle.

Fourth hole, for Gianna Jones… Killed in battle.

Fifth hole, for Hank Jones… Killed in battle.

Sixth hole, for Thomas Jones… Killed in battle.

Seventh hole, for Solomon Jones… Killed in battle.

I kept digging hole after hole until each member of my pack had one.

Eighty seven holes.

I then went to each body and hauled them to their graves. Each one I cried for.

After burying them, I dragged the shovel back to the tool shack and took the gasoline tank and matches.

‘It’s time to light them up.’

I nodded and went back outside.

I placed the tank and matches down, then began to drag the bodies of the dead rogues and pile them up.

“Are you ready?”

‘As ready as I can be.’

I nodded and went to retrieve the gas tank and matches. Once when I had the gasoline tank in hand, I began to pour it’s contents onto the stack of bodies. Then I lit up the matches and threw it onto them as well.

They were in flames.

Suddenly, I felt something wet licking my bear feet.

‘Chill, it’s the pup.’

I looked down at the pup who was seeking for attention.

“What do you want?”

It ignored me and curled into a ball.

“You know what, I think I’ll call you Puppy Eric.” I smiled lightly at the name. It was from a book mom had gotten me awhile back. The Hunger Games. “Suits you better than puppy.”

I picked up the tiny thing and started to stroke it gently. “Can you go look for a house that’s not badly burnt?”

I’m pretty sure the pup understood, because it hopped from my hands and ran to one of the buildings.

‘Lets go retrieve our stuff.’

I nodded and searched for the trunk that was supposedly by the fence line. Soon I spotted it.

As I was walking towards the trunk, howls started to erupt from deep within the forest.

The rogues.

‘Don’t worry about it, those are howls of departure. They’re leaving and going somewhere else.’

I released a breath I had no idea I was holding. I really couldn’t deal with anything else.

When I reached the trunk, I grabbed it by one of its handles and began to drag it.

Soon enough I was in the house the pup picked out with my trunk at my feet.

This is where I would start my new life, in my old village. The village where I grew up in and the one had been destroyed. I’m going to rebuild everything but live alone, with the acceptation of Puppy Eric.

But, I would be known as a rogue to other wolves and packs.

I have no where else to turn to but here.