Full Summary- "This is not what I had in mind. I can't just...be Alpha of a pack. I'm just a wolf. How can I live by the Wolf Code if I haven't even heard of it?" Cats aren't the only ones who live by a Code. The Wolf Code has been alive in many wolf packs for countless generations, but it is slowly disintegrating by an unknown force called the Darkness. Mysterious followers of this force are 'scattering' the packs who live by the Code and the warrior way of life is in jeopardy of becoming nothing more than a legend. StarPack has called upon the help of a young loner by the name of Buck and his friends, Lily and Storm. Follow their pawsteps as Buck becomes Alpha of RainPack and how they struggle to relive a way of life that has been only a memory due to the evil paws of the Darkness and its followers, all the while under their constant threat. This is not your average Warriors fanfic. This is real. This is the Legacy. (Rated T for certain events.)

Prolouge- Storms

It was a cold, dark night. Two wolves were seeking shelter. There was a snowstorm raging around them, battering their already weakened bodies with hard shards of ice.

"Are...are we there yet?" One wolf asked. It was a dark gray she-wolf with blue eyes. She had a small pup in her jaws, and it was whining pitifully.

"Not yet, Rainstripe, I can't tell with this weather." The second wolf shouted over the howling snowstorm.

"Our son is going to die if we don't find shelter soon!" Rainstripe growled from a mass of fur.

"He's got my blood in his veins. He can tough it out." The pitch-black male wolf reassured her, even though he wasn't so sure himself.

Rainstripe shook her head, careful not to let the pup dangle too much. "I don't want him to get sick again! He won't survive the winter!"

"Stop being pessimistic, Rainstripe!" The large he-wolf barked angrily at her, his eyes like fire. "We have to have faith!"

Rainstripe kept silent. The sound of their paws sloshed against the snow as the storm lessened its grip just the slightest bit.

"See, there! I see something!" The male wolf cried and started to sprint towards something that was invisible to Rainstripe's eyes. She suddenly dropped the poor puppy and started to follow her mate.

"Shadowstar! I don't see anything! Stop-" Before she can say anything else, a loud gust of wind blew on both her and her puppy, causing her to fall over on her back and the puppy to be sent into a whirling mass of snow. She fought the wind as she struggled to get up, her weak limbs screaming with the effort.

Anxiously, she looked around. ""My pup! Oh, my son! Where is he?!" She desperately searched for her lost wolf pup, but he was lost in the seemingly never-ending mass of snow and wind.

She let out a howl of grief and began to sob.

"My puppy…my pup…oh, what have I done?" She let out another wail.

"Rainstripe!" The call was so distant, but it was there.

"Shadowstar!" The she-wolf answered back, her voice full of sorrow. "Where are you?"

There was no answer. Rainstripe pushed her way through the storm, her eyes squeezed shut as ice and bits of dirt soared past her.

"Shadowstar!" She screamed again. "My Shadowstar, where are you?"

Again no answer.

She growled to herself. No, she thought, he's not dead. I can't let myself think that. Oh, where is he?

She began to sob again. "My puppy and now my mate! Oh cruel fate, why have you failed me now?" She wailed into the wind.

"Rainstripe, don't worry, I'm here!" It was Shadowstar. He coughed as he limped towards her.

Never in her long life had Rainstripe been so happy to see her mate. "Oh, I thought I had lost you!" She cried and ran towards him, pushing her gray-tinged muzzle into his fur. It went as suddenly as it came. The harsh scent of blood.

"Rainstripe, I am badly hurt." Shadowstar wheezed. "A bear was waiting for me when I thought it was a safe haven. I left it running by only a," He let out a weak cough, "few…few tail-lengths, but he won't be gone for long. Where…where's our son?"

Rainstripe choked back a sob. "I…I lost him in the storm."

Shadowstar gritted his teeth and let out a howl of grief.

"Go and run away, Rainstripe!" Shadowstar growled when he was done, tears forming around his eyes.

"I'm not leaving you!" Rainstripe said firmly.

"I said go!"

"No!"

Shadowstar suddenly barreled into her. "Run! I hear it coming! I don't want you to get hurt!"

Rainstripe looked up into his trusting, amber eyes and she shook her head. "If you're going to die, then take me with you." She growled.

Shadowstar was about to say something to her when suddenly he was lifted off her. She gave a shriek and rolled over just in time before a massive paw almost crushed her fragile chest.

She dared to look up and gasped at what she saw. It was a bear! Shadowstar was right!

The brown creature had her mate by the throat with a clawed paw, blood pouring down his black coat like a raging river into the virgin snow.

"No!" Rainstripe cried. Without any hesitation, she barreled into the bear's stomach, barely knocking it over. She only succeeded on causing it to drop Shadowstar and pick her up by her tail with the same bloody paw.

She furiously raked its nose with her sharp claws, feeling the bear's blood seep out satisfyingly on her fur. Or was it Shadowstar's?

The bear gave an agonized roar and snapped at her undefended, exposed belly. Rainstripe yelped when one of its teeth caught on a snag of skin, causing a painful cut. With the bear still gripping on her tail, she lunged for its throat, her sharp teeth aimed for the surefire bite. But instead, at the last moment, the bear furiously tossed her away like a bad piece of food.

She landed on her back and gave a painful groan. It was hard to breathe and her breaths were short and ragged. Her vision was a blur. The fall must have been hard. She thought. Where's the cursed bear and Shadowstar? Oh Shadowstar! She turned her head sharply to their direction, but she only sent enormous amounts of pain to her head. They were gone! She gritted her teeth and looked up into the whirling snow.

"Why?" She chocked into the wind. She tasted the metallic tang of blood in her mouth. "Why me?"

She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, which in all caused her to cough out blood. She gritted her teeth again and rolled over, giving a cry of pain. The bear must have hurt her really badly, so badly that she couldn't move at all.

"All is lost!" She cried, watching as her words sent droplets of blood into the white snow, where already her blood was forming into a sickening puddle.

"Everything…everything…" She lay her head on the soft snow and closed her eyes. "Come onto me, death, I am waiting!" She shouted and shivered, waiting, just as she said.

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After a few minutes of agonizing suffering, the storm finally subsided. She has regained somewhat of her vision, but she felt really faint and lightheaded.

"Maybe death is taking its sweet old time." She mumbled angrily to herself. "It likes to bide its time, doesn't it? First with my pup, then my mate, now me." She gave a nervous laugh and coughed. No blood came out this time.

"Strange," she told herself, "maybe death is not here for me yet." She struggled to get up, but she collapsed as exhaustion overtook her.

"I am too tired. But I still have some youth in me yet! What's wrong with me?" She growled. She then looked around and saw a faint figure just out of her reach.

"Who…?" She asked herself. "C'mon, Rainstripe! Make this last effort! You weren't born to this world to die!" She half dragged, half crawled towards the black figure….no, body.

"Shadowstar!" She cried and collapsed on top of him, sobbing. "No, no, no! You lost your last life, no!"

The black wolf was definitely dead. He was stone cold and his once shining eyes were glazed over by the cold paw of death. His chest had terrible long, fatal wounds and his throat was slit open.

Rainstripe licked his muzzle. "You didn't have to die!" She cried, trembling. "I could've saved you! But…but…" She broke into hysterical sobs. "StarPack, why?!"

"I loved you, I really did!" She wailed and continued her hysterical sobbing, no matter how much pain it was causing her. She just felt so guilty that she could not say her last goodbye to him and tell him how much he truly meant to her.

"Shh…" A whisper blew softly into her ear. It was familiar…

"Shadowstar?" She called into the wind.

"Yes, it is me."

Rainstripe's hopes rose but when she looked down at his body, it was still the lifeless corpse that she was on, not her mate.

"Where are you?" She cried desperately. She felt terribly alone. "Where are you?" She cried again. I must be dreaming! She thought angrily. I must be truly dying!

Suddenly, a mist formed in front of her eyes and a whirlwind of snow joined in making a transparent form of Shadowstar, as though he was made of mist himself. Yes…the same eyes, the same coat color…

Rainstripe gasped. "Is…is that you?" She stammered.

The apparition nodded. "Rainstripe, I am a spirit now. I have gone on living in the stars."

"Huh? The stars?" Rainstripe asked. "St…StarPack?"

Shadowstar's spirit shook his head. "Don't speak. I have something to tell you. Our son is still alive."

Rainstripe gave another gasp of surprise. Her son? Alive? How…

"He is not far from my body. I died trying to protect him from the bear after it threw you. There are two wolves headed this way. Give him to them."

Rainstripe desperately looked around for her son and not before long, she caught sight of him…and the bear too!

"The bear!" She cried furiously, her hackles rose and her fur started to bristle.

"My death had not been in vain, Rainstripe," Shadowstar explained, "I had killed it but my wounds were too great that it wound up costing me my last life."

Rainstripe shakily stood up and groaned in pain. She gazed one last time at Shadowstar's handsome body before taking a few tentative steps forward. After much tripping, she finally made the short distance and collapsed…her head right at her son's small head!

"Oh!' She immediately sat up and wrapped her tail around him. He was freezing cold. She started to lick him and her warm tongue slowly revived him. Sleepily, he blinked his beautiful amber eyes at her, and she felt like bursting out crying again. Her pup was safe!

She looked up and searched for Shadowstar, but he was gone! "Shadowstar?" She called.

No answer.

He disappeared! She thought in frustration. She then looked at her precious puppy. He looks just like his father. She thought and licked the top of his head. He gave a whine, snuggled closer to her, and began to knead his paws against her bruised belly, wanting some milk.

Rainstripe gave a smile. "Now I know what to name you, my son," She said and looked off into the distance, where, as Shadowstar told her, two wolves were walking her way. She bent down and licked her son for the last time, tears falling down her dark gray fur. "I shall name you Storm."

There's the prolouge! Please review or else I won't post anymore chapters! I need at least two! Thanks!

-Evanessence