Preface

Following the Dark Path You Learn Hate Destroys.

When the light of day finds you, you Learn Love Conquers.

Forbidden to Surrender to temptation. Yet Eager to Defy All Who Oppose.

Choosing Day will arise.

Everlasting Darknesss; Forever Acting as One.

Or The Brilliance of Romance; bringing unconditional freedom.

Eternal – Anonymous

Death was all around me, it hung thickly in the air; making it hard to breathe. But even in this moment all I could think about was his arms wrapped securely at my waist. I never felt more alive. I thought a long time ago that I was exactly where I was supposed to be, but I had been wrong.

Elijah. Here in his arms...that was where I belonged. I wasn't meant to spend my life fighting against our so called enemies... I would rather die than let anyone hurt him.

War was waged around me, and I was trapped in the middle of it all. I loved my family, I loved my pack, but I also loved Elijah, and I wanted to create a life where we were free to be together without fear of death, and violence.

I had to make my decision now, love or allegiance.

Chapter 1: Outbreak

The news had erupted through the schools today; there wasn't one person that didn't know what events had taken place last night. That was the setback for living in a small town, talk traveled fast.

An entire family had been slaughtered in cold blood. The victims had been found just a few miles from their home, completely shredded, bodies could barely be identified.

It was announced an animal attack, and for this town's sake, it would be better if they believed that to be true. But this accident screamed vampire attack. No sooner this news came out; our pack had been called for an emergency meeting.

As soon as school had ended my friend Beverly and I began heading into the forest to get to the meeting grounds.

"So, how is Danny taking it?" Beverly asked as we made it to the very entrance of the towering forest.

I paused, always feeling a slight discomfort when entering the woods. It was forbidden to enter, that's what this town insisted on. From so many years of horrible accidents that had taken place in this forest, no one is allowed to go in. But right in the heart of the forest sat our meeting house.

I forced myself to turn my attention back to Beverly's comment. "His whole family got murdered last night," I got a little lump in my throat as I said this. "I can't imagine how anyone would be taking something like that."

Beverly sighed deeply, a frown coming to her face, before she took a big step into the woods. She moved fluidly, with a little jump in her step; that made her long blonde curls bounce with her.

I followed after her, gazing around at the wooden splendor. Everything seemed so bright, and lively. The rich fragrance of wild flowers, and soil permeated the air. It had an almost enchanting effect when walking through this place. It brought me a brief escape from reality.

"This is going to completely ruin our relationship," Beverly blurted out, turning to me with a sad look. "I've waited so long to finally get with Danny,"

I raised a brow at her. "Bev, he is already going through a lot, try to show some compassion." I suggested lightly.

"I know, I sound completely selfish..." She bit her lip, looking away from me for a moment. "But... I really like him."

"Things will work out," I offered, and gave her a small smile, hoping she would change the subject soon.

I didn't like talking about Danny, not only because of his family... but the fact that he used to be my favorite person in the world, I missed him.

To my relief we continued forward in silence, following a soft mossy path, careful not to trip over the scattered branches, or large stones. The further we went, the darker it seemed to get as more trees blocked the sunlight.

After finally reaching the center of the woods I sucked in a breath as we reached the large wooden cabin that stood before us. It was greatly outdated on the outside; probably around the 17th Century. It was discolored, and lacked any cleaning whatsoever, but it was very sturdy.

Beverly made a face as we walked up the old oak stairs. "This place could really use a fresh coat of paint..." She grumbled, walking inside.

As we entered, I gasped at the amount of people inside. There was barely enough room for us to squeeze in. I had never seen so many pack members in one place.

Beverly narrowed her eyes at some of them. "Excuse us, Beta, second string coming through." She announced.

A few of them quickly moved out of the way, their eyes wide.

"Bev," I rolled my eyes, shaking my head, following her as a little path opened up for us. "You don't need to do that."

She shrugged. "I know, but seriously Lidia, we are kind of a big deal, and they should respect that."

I didn't try to argue, it was pointless trying to make her see differently.

"Finally, you two made it," A nasally voice got our attention.

I turned, already knowing exactly who it was.

Gwen. Our pack trainer.

Her face was rough; lines of aging were appearing across her face. She had a extensive, yet slender, and unpleasant complexion, with a pointed nose and chin. Her hair hung over her left eye, in a disarray of dull red and prominent grey.

She was part of the Beta first string. She was the one who trained the hell out us almost every day. She was loud, annoying, and if I had to stand more than five minutes in this room with her I would surely lose my mind.

"Well, we just came from school," I explained, holding back the urge to roll my eyes. "We got here as soon as we could."

"Funny, Dante got here perfectly early, along with the other second string members." She snapped, nodding over to where Dante sat, and the other sat.

"Whatever, they ran here as soon as the bell rung," Beverly's tone was irritated.

"Well than maybe you two should have tried a little harder to get here." Gwen said narrowing her eyes at us, before moving her aged red hair from her face. "Go sit with Dante; we are just waiting for Quinton, Vanna, and our alpha to arrive."

Beverly and I walked past her to my relief, and over to the old wooden platform that only the Beta first and second string was allowed on. It was sturdy, regardless to how old it appeared, but it didn't stop me from being slightly hesitant to sit down on it.

In the Beta Second string, there were a lot of us; we all were separated into three groups of five. One group was trained for tactical defense, they were the brains of the pack, they designed weapons, and effective ways of battling against vampires.

The other group was trained for strictly physical defense. They ran rotations every minute of the day and night. They were kind of like the town's body guards. They kept watch on the town's perimeters. So if a vampire was to pop up close to the town, they would defend, and kill.

My group was offensive fighters; we were seen as the soldier's of the pack, if any issue was to happen such as a massive amount of vampires attacking, we would be right in the action.

However, with us all being part of Beta second string that puts us the authority of the omega packs members. The omegas are the rookies; that we are the mentors of. We train, and work with a group of nearly nine or ten omegas.

In my group, it is me, Beverly, Vanna, Quinton, and Dante. We were childhood friends for our whole lives, so out of all the other groups; I believed that ours were the closest, which is important when it comes to fighting as a team.

For each group we had two first string Beta mentors. For our group we had Gwen, who was our main mentor, and Jeremy, who only trained with us on weekends.

As we made it over to the platform, I took in the groups of other second string members, slowly making our way to where Dante sat.

Dante offered us a charming smile; that mostly had been directed to Beverly. His dark brown eyes wandered to her face, and quickly seemed to analyze every inch of her face. "Good afternoon ladies." His thick Italian accent was like a wave of rich silk.

Dante had always had feelings for Beverly, ever since we were kids growing up, he had never given up on her, and at times I truly did feel bad for him. He was so kind to her, and never failed to give her attention whenever she wanted it.

Beverly rolled her eyes unaffected by him, plopping down near him, only to shift her whole body away from him; she faced the crowded room, looking around expectantly, ignoring the both of us for the moment.

I knew who she was looking for.

"Hi Dante," I sighed, sitting next to Beverly. "Are we really that late, that everyone was waiting for us?" I raised a brow at him.

He glanced towards Beverly, slightly disappointedly, before shaking his head, causing his long black hair that just touched his shoulders to sway. "Nah, you guys were only like five minutes behind me."

I rolled my eyes, sighing again. "Gwen was giving us a hard time about coming in late."

Dante chuckled. "Oh, you know she loves messing with you two more than anyone, it's only because you guys give her a reason to be here."

Gwen had lost her husband from a vampire attack years ago, and to this day it has made her bitter. She became part of the pack the moment her husband died; the werewolf gene was triggered in her.

Being a part of a pack made her feel that she wasn't alone, and with her role of being a mentor over us, it made her feel like she was finally a mother to someone, in our case it was Beverly, Vanna, and I that she focused her attention on. We were the only girls.

"Where is Danny?" Beverly finally turned to Dante, giving him the slightest of her attention.

He made a face. "I wouldn't go near him right now; he isn't taking this whole thing well... I mean why would he... I just... wouldn't put too much pressure on him right now."

Beverly didn't respond right away, her eyes grey eyes seemed to cloud over for a moment, and repeated with a little more emotion. "Where is he?"

Dante slowly pointed into the direction of the crowd, and there he stood, leaning against a wall, his hood down over his face, his body was tense, and his arms crossed his chest.

"I should go talk," Her eyes were now bright as she watched him.

Suddenly another voice came, making me jump. "Don't even think about it,"

I turned to see Quinton standing in front of us, his button nose crinkling up as he looked between the three of us. "He isn't in the mood for bullshitting at the moment."

Vanna was at his side, their hands interlocked at their waists. She gave us a sad smile. "Yea Bev, it's a really bad idea." She muttered.

For a moment a pang of envy shot in me as I looked at Vanna.

Her light brown hair hung in perfect curls down to the middle of her back, and her faint blue eyes held nothing but elegancy. Her body was slender, yet curvy, and although she was much shorter than most girls, her petite size only added to her perfection.

She was no doubt one of the most friendly people you would ever meet... she just had it all... and even though we had been friends sometimes I couldn't help but feel that way.

How come someone be this close to complete perfection? It was almost unfair for the rest of us.

"I'm his girlfriend." Beverly huffed, giving them both a look.

"Just a friendly warning," Quinton shrugged, and lightly his hands went to Vanna's waist, he picked her up easily, and set her down beside me on the platform.

Vanna gave me a hesitant glance, before turning completely to me glazing at me with wide puzzling eyes. "Do you think your mom is going to be really upset?"

I shrugged, thinking about it for a moment before answering. "I think she is going to be livid,"

Vanna nodded seriously, a small frown coming to her face. "I had a feeling she would be..." She paused, looking away for a moment, before bringing her attention back to me, she whispered. "I really think if anyone should talk to Danny, it should be you."

I was caught off guard by her words. "Why me?" I whispered back.

"Well, you lost your father the same way." She said gently. "You can almost understand how he is feeling right now... maybe he would find more comfort in you than anyone else."

A slight pinch came to my heart as I remember back to the moment I had lost my father forever. It was painful to think about, I tried to never look back in the past... I didn't want to face all that pain for the rest of my life...

I nodded, looked down at my hands for a moment. "I haven't really talked with him... since we broke up." I muttered.

Vanna bit her lip, and nudged my arm. "I know it's going to be hard, but I think it would really help."

"Alright, I'll try... I mean... what would it hurt."

"Thank you Lydia,"

Again I nodded, glancing in the direction to where Danny was standing for a moment, but suddenly the movement from the crowd distracted me. All the Beta first string came forward, getting on the platform, standing rigidly behind their group.

Gwen and Jeremy watched over us, looking calmer than the others.

She was coming...

Please review and let me know what you think so far