Alpha's Death and Vampire Slaughter

"Our Alpha is dead!" a woman screamed next to me, her voice cracking with raw hysteria.

The words hit me like a physical blow to the chest. No. It wasn’t possible. I reached out through the pack bond, desperate to find my father's familiar, steady warmth. Instead, a suffocating black void swallowed my mind where his vibrant energy should be. The mental tether was gone. My father was gone.

The agonizing cries of my packmates morphed into a chaotic chorus of sheer terror. Just minutes ago, I was a normal teenage girl. Well, normal for the firstborn child of an Alpha. My entire life had been a series of endless combat training and grueling leadership studies, molding me to succeed my parents and lead the Frost Moon pack. I had just finished a sparring session near the forest edge as dusk painted the sky in shades of bruised purple and dark blue.

Then, my father's Beta mind-linked me. The panic in his voice felt like ice water in my veins.

*Thalia, we're under attack. Get to the packhouse. Find your mother.*

Before I could process the order, the connection went dead. Thick, gray smoke rolled through the trees, burning my throat and stinging my eyes. I sprinted toward the village streets where I had spent my life. Buildings collapsed under roaring flames, spitting sparks into the night sky. Tears blurred my vision. My chest ached with a hollow, crushing pain from the loss of my father, but I forced my legs to keep moving forward.

*Thalia, your sister is at Hazel's. Please find her and get back to me.* My mother's soothing voice echoed in my head, a brief moment of sanity before she too vanished from the link.

Maeva was only eleven. She was just a pup, far too young to mind-link. She wouldn't gain that ability until her fifteenth birthday. Hazel was her best friend, so I reached out to Hazel's mother through the bond, praying for a response.

Only cold silence answered.

I rounded the corner onto Hazel's street and choked on a gasp. The two-story house was a towering inferno of orange and red. Through the thick haze of smoke, I spotted a tiny figure standing frozen at the front gate.

Maeva.

I pushed my muscles to their limit, sprinting toward my little sister. "Maeva! Where is Hazel?" I grabbed her narrow shoulders, shaking her to break her trance.

Her eyes were wide and vacant. She raised a shaking finger toward the blazing wreckage. A wall of blistering heat slammed into us as the roof gave way, crashing down and crushing the second floor into the first with a deafening boom. A cloud of black ash mushroomed into the air. No one inside could have survived that collapse.

Chaos swirled around me, drowning out rational thought. How did the fire spread so fast? I flared my nostrils, searching for the musky scent of rogue wolves. The air held nothing of the sort.

Who was doing this to our home?

I didn't have time to find out. I snatched Maeva's hand and yanked her away from the blistering heat. I dragged her rough and fast behind me, setting my sights on the distant outline of the packhouse.

Then, the metallic stench of blood hit me. It invaded my nostrils, thick and sickening, followed by the unmistakable reek of rotting meat and decay. I skidded to a halt and looked down the street we had just fled.

Through the smoke, I finally saw our attackers.

I had never seen one in person before, but the nightmare stories were ingrained in every werewolf pup. Vampires.

Aside from their pallid skin and the long claws extending from their fingertips, they didn't look much different from a werewolf in human form. But their movements were jerky and predatory. They snarled like feral beasts, sinking their fangs into the throats of fleeing pack members. They tore through flesh and muscle, laughing with giddy, sick delight as they bathed in the blood of my people. The massacre was a game to them.

Panic seized my chest. I swooped down, scooped my sister into my arms, and ran. The extra weight burned my thighs, but adrenaline masked the exhaustion. I knew deep down we weren't going to make it. The hoard was descending fast, cutting off escape routes. I desperately wished I could shift into my wolf form to gain speed, but I was still two months shy of my eighteenth birthday. I was trapped in this weak human body.

A choked sob tore past my lips. Behind me, the sickening sounds of slaughter echoed. I felt the rush of wind as vampires snatched running wolves just yards away. I braced my shoulders, waiting for the cold grip of a monster's hand to rip me backward into the dark.

But the hands never came.

Instead, a vicious growl shook the ground beneath my feet. A massive dark brown wolf launched himself over my head and plunged directly into the frenzied hoard. It was Kaelen, my mother's personal guard. He was a fierce warrior and had been a constant presence in my life since I was a little girl. Mother must have sent him to secure our escape.

*Run, little wolf!* Kaelen's voice commanded through the mind-link.

He threw his giant head back and let out a booming howl. Other adults, men and women who weren't even trained warriors, rallied to his call. They shifted mid-stride, their bones snapping and reforming as they charged the vampires. I watched in awe as the wolves tore into the pale monsters, ripping arms from sockets and crushing skulls between jaws. But the disparity in numbers was too great. The vampires swarmed the brave wolves like insects. I knew every single one of them would die.

*RUN!* Kaelen linked again, his voice raw with urgent strain.

I spun on my heel, forcing myself to look forward. My throat tightened with profound grief. Kaelen and the others were dying to buy us a chance to survive.

The silhouette of the packhouse loomed ahead. I locked my eyes on it and ran as fast as my legs would carry me. Maeva's dead weight tested my strength, but I refused to stop. I clutched her tight against my chest, and she buried her tear-soaked face into my shirt, sobbing without pause.

*Mother?!* I linked, my mind frantic.

*To the stables now. Hurry, Thalia!*

Our pack was one of the few left that stubbornly refused to embrace the new technology leaking over the borders from the human world. I had seen pictures, but we didn't travel with vehicles. The horses were seldom used because adult wolves were faster in wolf form. But my mother loved horses, so my father kept them and insisted every child learn to ride in case they ever needed to travel long distances. Tonight, that old-fashioned rule was our salvation.

I rounded the corner of the packhouse and burst into the stables. The scent of hay and nervous animals hit me. In the center aisle, my mother was adjusting the saddle on Barnaby, my favorite bay gelding.

She turned at the sound of my footsteps and opened her arms. I dove into them, sobbing loud.

"Mother! Father, he—" I choked on the words, unable to finish the sentence.

"I know, dear. I know." She stroked my hair, her touch frantic but soothing. Her voice cracked, broken by her own tears. Losing a true mate was the most painful experience a werewolf could endure. I felt certain that only her raw instinct to protect her pups was driving her past the crippling grief.

She held us tight for a moment before pushing me away. She looked deep into my eyes, her gaze fierce. "You need to take your sister and ride, Thalia. Go and don't look back. I have to stay. I am the Luna, the mother of this pack. I cannot abandon them."

"No, no. Please, Mother, don't make us go." I begged, gripping her shirt. I wanted to stay and help. I was the future Alpha of this pack. Operating on pure instinct, I reached through the pack bond and realized with dawning horror that there was hardly anyone left alive. I could sense a few flickering life forces but was mostly greeted by the cold black void.

She opened her mouth to answer, but a deafening noise interrupted her. It sounded like something huge dropping from the sky right outside. The ground shook beneath our boots.

My mother's eyes grew wide with fear. She stepped in front of us, dropping into a defensive stance. I braced for a large creature to tear into the stables.

I was shocked when a smiling man rounded the corner instead.

He was close to seven feet tall, the largest man I had ever laid eyes on. I knew the second I looked at him he wasn't a werewolf.

His hair was the color of fire, vivid reds and oranges that seemed to dance just like a flame atop his head. His yellow eyes had black vertical slits for pupils, and they locked right onto my mother. He stalked toward her with a vile, chilling smirk.

Mother turned back to us. She grabbed my sister by the waist and threw her up into the saddle, forcing me up behind her before I could fight back. Tears spilled out of her eyes and ran down her soft cheeks as she spoke to us one last time.

"Never forget that I love you both more than anything else in this world. Be strong, okay? Take care of each other."

My sister wailed loud. I tried to argue, reaching for her, but she slapped Barnaby's haunch hard. The horse took off, bolting out the back exit of the stable, carrying us away from the red-haired man.

I grabbed the reins and turned around just in time to see my mother shift into her beautiful white wolf. The coat was pure as snow, a color so rare we didn't know of another in any of the packs we associated with.

We left the red-haired man's booming laughter behind us, tears burning our eyes. As we ascended a steep hill into the forest, my sister grabbed my arm. I stopped the horse, and we looked back down into the valley toward our mother.

My heart stopped beating.

The man with red hair held my mother in her wolf form by her neck. She struggled in his grasp, snapping her powerful jaws and clawing at his arms. I couldn't understand how he could restrain her in his human form. In a one-on-one battle, a vampire could not stand against even the most average werewolf. If he was a vampire, holding down a Luna should be physically impossible.

Yet he didn't even flinch.

We both screamed in raw agony when the monster grabbed her white scruff. With a sickening sound of tearing flesh and snapping bone, he ripped her head from her body as if she were a cheap paper doll.

Blood sprayed the dirt. With the Alpha and Luna gone, the final tether snapped. The pack bond dissolved into dead silence. Our pack was wiped from existence.

My stomach churned while I watched the red-haired monster lift my mother's severed head and begin to drink her blood, letting the crimson liquid pour into his open mouth.

I was shocked at how strong he was, but I hated his power just as much. The brutal loss of my parents broke my heart into pieces. I turned my weeping sister into my chest, holding her tight, and vowed to protect her for the rest of my life.

"RIDE!" I screamed at Barnaby, my voice hoarse and painful.

We rode in a dead sprint for as long as Barnaby could last, both of us sobbing the entire way through the cold wind. We are orphans now, lost, terrified, and fleeing into the dark night.