1 Prologue

The night was silent as we waited for an update on my father and on my mate.

We were being attacked on all sides, the only way out was to fight. I badly wanted to fight, but my safety was the priority.

As future Luna of the Silver Moon Pack I needed to stay safe. As a viable heir to the Shadows Pack, I needed to stay with our people.

I was furious as I looked out the window of my father's office, watching the moon in all her glory. It was a full moon, the Moon Goddess was watching.

I may be angry, but she always calmed me. Even my hot blooded wolf was slowly calming down.

We didn't like being left behind, especially when the safety of the packs were at risk.

It was not in an alpha's nature to stand idly by as a fight ensued, but it was a luna's.

I was both, and yet I felt like I was neither. I was torn by duty, tradition, and the Moon Goddess' destiny.

Why couldn't have she made things simpler for me?

As I stood and marveled at the skies I felt a piercing pain coming from my chest.

It was as if my heart was breaking.

It couldn't be, could it?

I dashed from my father's office where I had been leading the non-warriors of our pack. Duty to the pack before duty to one's self, that's what I had been taught growing up as the Alpha's daughter.

We needed to get all the women, children, and elderly to safety. It was my job to make sure that those incapable of defending themselves or of fighting would get hurt.

I was also tasked with making sure that all the injured that came back to us were looked after. No one was to be left unattended, everyone was to get the care they needed.

I wasn't allowed out of the room, I was instructed by my father to lock the doors and the windows should an intruder find their way to the pack house, our stronghold.

Ignoring all of his instructions I searched the pack house frantically for my mother. She wasn't in their room, nor was she in her office.

I guessed that she was taking care of the injured in the infirmary downstairs, so I ran in search of her.

As I landed at the bottom of the stairs, I saw my mom, screaming and crying.

She was on the ground, clutching her chest, clearly in pain as she wailed.

"Mom!" I called out. She didn't respond. "Mom!" I shouted once more, but she remained on the ground crying, oblivious to my presence in the hall.

"Amaya!" My father's beta, Daniel, shouted as he spotted me. He had a shocked look, unable to believe that something had called me out of the office.

I knew I shouldn't be here. There is a reason I was kept in my father's office, it was for my safety, it was the most secured room in the whole pack house, a home that had served my family for generations.

"Amaya!" He called out again as he tried to catch my attention.

I lifted my head, but the pain in my chest suddenly grew, making me cry out in pain.

Beta Daniel quickly rushed towards me, catching me as I began to fall.

"Amaya, you need to be strong." I heard Beta Daniel tell me.

'Strong?' I heard Ares, my wolf, ask in my head.

What did it mean for us to be strong? Did it mean that we needed to feel no pain and show no pain? But the pain I felt now could kill, it was unlike anything I had experienced in my entire life.

"Is my dad-?" I began to ask as the pain suddenly intensified, this was worse than what I felt just seconds ago.

"Alpha, don't die on us." I heard Beta Daniel beg.

'Why is he calling us Alpha?' I heard Ares ask.

As the pain intensified I found it hard to focus, I couldn't even hear what Ares was saying, let alone what Beta Daniel was trying to tell me.

'Hold on.' Ares told me, it was the only words I could process.

'What is happening?' I asked her. 'Is this what it feels like when your predecessor is hurt?'

My question at the time seemed hopeful, too hopeful, little did I know that my fate would change that night.

That the world I once knew, that the happiness I once reveled in would all be gone by the time I woke up.

'It's our mate.' Ares tells me as everything went dark.

The world was gone and so was the pain.

I was content.