Chapter One

Shirley's POV

The full moon shone in the skies in its full glory, the sprinkle of the stars around it added to its unraveled beauty. It was clear and peaceful, well, not peaceful in every sense of the word. 

The appearance of the full moon in our pack and every other pack, marks the day we pay tribute to the moon goddess and indulge in festivities. Today wasn't that day, today remains the day I will never, ever forget in a hurry.

Today was supposed to be my birthday, my turning of age, and ultimately the night I was to meet my destined mate. 

An attack from another bigger pack fell upon us, taking us unawares. The men were killed on sight, some spared. The women were all captured and tied up, including myself and my mother.

My eyes fell on a man supposedly the Alpha of the Pack that invaded ours, my jaws dropped in shock. He was the true definition of perfection. His face had  features that seemed sculpted by the hands of an heavenly artist.

His cold, piercing blue eyes drew me in, like two deep, icy pools that held a very mysterious allure. They were framed by dark, well-defined brows that added intensity to his gaze.

He was slightly muscular, his broad shoulders tapering down to a narrow waist, creating a V-shaped silhouette.

There was an undeniable cold aura around him, an air of mystery that made him irresistibly intriguing.

 We were arranged in a straight line, waiting for fate to decide. The man would look at a particular woman or girl and say either "Kill her " or "Keep her"

The girl beside me unfortunately failed to catch his interest and all he said was "Kill her." I closed my eyes and painfully listened to the sound of her tearing flesh and then, I heard a thud.

Fear took over every nerve and fibre within my body, to be concise, my entire body almost lost function, especially when he stood before me. His shadow dangerously loomed constantly reminding me of death.

"Look up." His ice cold voice entered my ears and I instinctively raised my head to meet his eye. 

Our eyes locked for some seconds."You are quite the strong one." He chuckled lightly.

For no reason, I seemed to give him that death stare and couldn't peel my eyes off him. Suddenly, his large cold hands grabbed my chin roughly and he leaned in closer, our noses almost touching. I swore I felt a strange tingling sensation running downwards from the area of his touch. I could only pray it wasn't what I thought it was.

"How long do you think you can keep up your act of defiance?" His grip grew tighter.

"As long as I want to, you bloody cold twat!"  The whole place fell completely quiet, small gasps sounded from different directions, from both the Alpha's men and even the captured women.

My mouth betrayed me before I could hold it in place. I gulped when the fire in his cold eyes raged.

'I'm dead.'

His thin lips slowly curled into a smile and a bloodcurdling laugh followed, sending shivers down my spine. 

"I like this one." He said as he rose slowly from his crouched position. "Bring her to the mansion and kill the rest."

The weight of his order dawned on me, they were going to kill my mother. "Mother!!!!"

 

"We love you, Shirley." My mother uttered before her throat got slit cleanly along the others.

Two soldiers were already behind me and yanked me up and firm. I tried to fight back with my strength, but it was pointless. The cries of pain and death from my people reached my ears, there was nothing I could do but to cry and cry. 

"I will have my vengeance." My mind marked the man that ordered to the annihilation of my people. 

'Their deaths will never be in vain' I vowed with hot tears in my eyes.

A cold cloth was placed over my nose, my consciousness slipped as I inhaled the content.

*****

I awoke to the sound of incoherent discussion around me. As my sanity came back, I looked around to find out where I was. 

'A cage?' I was locked in a cage with other girls, some I couldn't recognize. There were also other cages beside ours containing young girls, maybe from another pack that suffered the same fate as mine. 

 I tried to move only to realize I was chained, even more precise, chained to the other girls. I hopelessly tugged forcefully at the chains but it didn't budge, I had no other option than to slump back down and kill the thoughts of fighting a lost battle.

"Hey." A blonde girl, aged probably 18 or higher. She had delicate facial features that I almost thought that she could break anytime. Her grey eyes were so mesmerizing and innocent. I was naturally drawn to her. No shades, I had no sexual feelings, she felt welcoming, to be safe.

"Hey?"

The girl crawled closer to me, I mean awfully close that it was as though she wanted to enter my body, I mean her cute puppy eyes. "I'm Cecilia, don't bother to know my last name, I lost mine. What's yours?"

My ears made emphasis to "I lost mine", what did she mean by that? "My name's Shirley Cress."

Before I could even throw a question to her, she stuffed it back down my throat. "You're from the Silver Streams Pack?"

Oh great. Were we that famous? 

"Yes? Why do you sound that way? It's kinda...aa creepy." I raised my right brow as a result of her excited reaction. And her body was too close too, it was becoming uncomfortable. 

Cecilia sulked, now playing with her fingernails. "Sorry, just excited that I have finally gotten to meet another pack member despite we are of different packs. It doesn't matter, right?"

"Ohh, yeah right...." Her response came off, well, stupid but I didn't hold it against her, probably her age. Who cares.

"How did you get here?" I asked anyways. I began to wonder if the other girls went through what I went through.

Cecilia's mood darkened even more, her once charming face turned pale and her eyes screamed of fear, pain and anger. 

"I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about it." She began repeating those words like she was in some kind of loop. 

"Damn it!" A voice cursed from a dark farther corner of the cage. "Yo, girl. You've scared her."

'What?' Scared her? I barely even said anything. Or did I remind her of something terrible, maybe far terrible than mine? My conscience drowned with guilt.

The chain rattled a little, another girl emerged. She possessed a captivating beauty.  Her hair, vibrant and untamed cascaded down past her shoulder up until her lower back. 

However it now showed signs of negligence with tangles and mats suggesting it had been untouched by a brush for weeks.

Her eyes now appeared lackluster and haunted. Carrying the burden of a past. Smudged eyeliner rimmed her eyes faintly. The paleness of her skin starkly contrasted with the circles, beneath her eyes. Evidence of nights spent in anguish.

Clothed in torn garments she seemed to wear her despair like a skin. I felt really bad for her by just a mere gaze at her.

"What's wrong with her?" I asked the girl, searching her dull eyes for answers.

I learnt a few things. The girl's name was Agatha Sage from a very very distant pack. Cecilia was going through a lot, I mean a whole lot.  She was deeply traumatized by her past, I didn't want to delve deeper.

I also learnt from her that all the girls were either kidnapped or brought in as a debt payment or attacked and taken captive like I was. Guy

"That's a whole lot to take it. I had no idea." I tried to show concern in the best possible way I could. "So what do you think they want to do with us?"

Agatha began to laugh, starting in a frenzy. "You still don't get it, don't you? They are going to sell us out as sex slaves!"

 

"Se..sex what?" My throat suddenly dried up at what Agatha said, so I gulped to wet it. Sadly, My saliva was nowhere to be found.

Agatha cocked her head backwards and roared in laughter once again and said nothing more. I had the impulse to ask her again what she meant by what she had said but I was cut short but the heavy clanging of metal hitting metal, from our cage, to be exact.

"Sorry to intrude your little conversation and it will be the last!" The burly guard with a fat bell struck the cage and bellowed.  His eyes ravished us hungrily that we almost felt naked. What I found more disgusting was the moment he licked his lips. "It is bad that I didn't get to find what you girls taste like this time."

My toes curled in fear at his statement. I barely escaped once again.

"Get them out for the Auction." The fat guard ordered to another guard. He unlocked the cage and brutally pulled at the chains with sheer strength, not caring if we would land on our legs or not.

Without another word, the guard dragged us through a long hallway with a giant door at its end. As we neared the door, the hairs on my body bristled at the noise came from behind the door. 

Before we went through the door, I took one last look at Cecilia and Agatha, and said a silent, maybe last prayer for them.