Prologue

Sofía held the bundle in her arms, chewing on her bottom lip. Her husband, Andrei, paced around the room, mumbling to himself in Russian. Though they had been told the experiments had been successful, they couldn't help but worry. Since their daughter's birth, everything had been going smoothly. Their little Anastasia seemed to be just like an ordinary Human—though it was too soon to determine if she'd live a normal life, there was still the hope that she could live a more Human lifestyle. It was still too early to tell if there had been any kind of mistakes in the experiments, but for the most part, Anastasia wasn't experiencing anything out of the ordinary.

"They said she'll be fine, Andrei," Sofía said. "The doctors did everything to prevent her turning out like us."

"That's what's starting to worry me," Andrei muttered, a Russian accent lacing his words. "How can they alter what she is? She's our daughter, she will always be what we are."

"What we are is dangerous," Sofía hissed. When the baby in her arms started whining, she calmed herself down, taking some relaxing breaths. "We aren't accepted by anyone outside our own kind."

"Letting those doctors perform what they did to Anastasia..." Andrei shook his head. "Those alterations while she's in the womb? We're lucky she didn't die."

"You're right, Andrei," Sofía murmured, cradling Anastasia close to her chest. "We're lucky she didn't die. But I know we did the right thing. She would never be accepted by anyone but us. Do you understand how rare it is to find others like us?"

"Anastasia could have lived a normal life without going through all that." Andrei looked down, his vivid blue eyes shimmering with guilt. Anastasia was his only daughter, and while, at the time, it seemed like those alterations and experiments would've been the best thing for his little girl—wanting Anastasia to live the most normal life possible—he was starting to wonder why he allowed himself to do that to his daughter. "What about the medication?" Andrei muttered. "If the doctors are so confident in Anastasia's final outcome, why would they need to give her medication?"

"Side-effects?" Sofía sighed. "We don't know what will happen to her when she's older. I think the medication is to help her deal with any kind of side-effects."

"If this worked, she shouldn't have side-effects," Andrei barked. Anastasia gave another whimper, wiggling in her mother's arms.

"Andrei." Sofía's husband looked at her with exhausted blue eyes. "We did what we did because we wanted Anastasia to have a better, easier life. That's what we were told when we went to them. Right?" He nodded. "Everything about what we are and what we do is dangerous."

"What if hunters found us?" Andrei hissed. "They would kill Anastasia, regardless of what's been done to her."

Sofía shook her head. "Do you remember my brother, Ari?" Andrei's face became grim as he nodded. "I told him that if anything ever happened to us, he'd take Anastasia and raise her."

"You know how I feel about Ari," Andrei grumbled. "Anastasia could live with my family."

"We can't send her to Russia, Andrei." Sofía shot a look her husband's way. "Especially if she's too young to fly a plane by herself. Ari lives nearby, he adores Anastasia."

"He hasn't even met her."

"I've sent him pictures."

"What about your parents?" Andrei exclaimed. "If something happens to us, why not send little Anya to your parents?"

"They live in Cuba, Andrei."

"Compared to Russia, it's not that far."

"I think we should end the discussion." Sofía gently placed Anastasia in her crib. The infant had a mixture of her mother's tan skin and her father's pale skin, black fuzz at the top of her head, and big blue eyes. "All I want for our daughter is for her to live a life without being scared of what she is." Sofía looked at her husband with tired brown eyes. "Being scared of hunters getting to her, being rejected by those who know about what she is, always wondering why she is the way she is—I don't want that for her."

Andrei walked over and looked into the crib. Anastasia was blinking tiredly up at her parents. Looking at his daughter reminded Andrei that he had even bigger responsibilities—he knew that he'd have to be even stronger in order to protect his family. When it was just him and Sofía, he knew what he'd have to do to keep her safe, but with Anastasia, it was something completely different.

"She'll be fine, Andrei." Sofía put a comforting hand on her husband's shoulder. "All we can do now is watch her grow."

Andrei sighed. Watch her grow, he thought. Grow into what? He nodded.

Author's Note:

I am so sorry if this first chapter isn't that good. I am hoping that the rest of this story will start to make sense in future chapters. This is my first 'Darkest Powers' story, so if you guys could help me through this, I would greatly appreciate it. It's going to be an eventual Derek/OC story. I do like the whole Derek-and-Chloe getting together, but I always kind of wondered about the possibility of Derek getting together with someone else. There might be some moments in this story where it's similar to the trilogy, but I don't know if I really want to do that yet.

I do not own the 'Darkest Powers' characters or stories at all, those all belong to Kelley Armstrong. I own Anastasia, her parents, and my fillers.

Leave a helpful and kind review, please!

Thank you.

Susan Strong