Chapter 1
Talik awoke to a sharp prodding in his side. He opened his eyes to a red shape in front of him. When his vision focused he noticed it was his good friend, Rox. He smirked a bit and asked, "What do you want Rox?" Rox grinned at him with sharp, white teeth and said, "The pack has been called to gather at the great willow, you better come." He closed his eyes and he remembered the nightmare he had experienced the night before. He shivered slightly. Was that a warning of bad things to come?
He slowly got up and nodded at her. Rox was a lifelong friend of his, adopted into their pack when her pack was slaughtered. They were only young pups at the time but still remembered the horrific looks of the adults. The slaughter haunted Rox everywhere she went but she was always joyful, never showing it. They trotted out of the makeshift den and headed towards the great willow tree. Once they got there the pack was assembled. A massive grey wolf sat at the front of the tree with a smaller brown wolf beside him. The rest of the pack was sitting in a circle around them. Talik and Rox sat beside their pack mates. The grey leader raised his voice, "I have brought the pack together today to promote one of the pack members to Beta. As you know, I and Marcy are getting older and we need someone to take our place." Talik perked his ears at the leader's words and straightened up. He heard Rox snicker at him.
Talik noticed the other male wolves straighten up eagerly. Forest was a tad bit immature to be a Beta. His prickly brown fur was un-groomed and matted but his green eyes flashed with strength. He did have some qualifications with his pride but his arrogance would get in the way. He looked at the other candidate. Depth was an exceptionally good wolf and sat straight with no nervousness. He was always the calm one with white fur and pools of gold for eyes. Talik was taken out of his thoughts quickly when his alpha stood up.
"The new Beta of this pack will be Depth."
Depth stood up and walked up to his leader. He touched noses with him and said, "Thank you Lord for this great opportunity. I can assure you I will not let you down." The pack started howling in approval. Depth was a respected wolf and was Talik's brother. Talik knew he had it in him to be a leader. But he couldn't help but feel a ting of jealousy from Depth being chosen by their father, Lord. Lord howled his approval then said, "The pack is dismissed. Depth will stand guard tonight for the usual ritual."
Rox popped into Talik's vision, startling him. She laughed then grinned again, her bright blue eyes sparkling mischievously. His heart beat faster. He growled at her, "Why did you do that Rox, man you can get annoying." She giggled, "Brighten up Talik, let's go for a walk to our creek!" He sighed. What else was there to do? They headed toward the Eastern border, where their creek lay. As they walked Rox was hyper as usual and jumped up and down. She kept moving her mouth "Isn't it great Depth got to be Beta? He's going to be a great Alpha! I bet he'll choose Omen to be his Alpha mate when Lord and Marcy pass away. Aren't they getting older? I'm sure going to miss them." He felt more jealousy hearing his brother's name being said but he just nodded. The sun shone brightly, lighting the forest up. As they neared their creek his nose caught a strange scent. He stopped and sniffed at the air a couple times then at the ground.
Rox stopped when she noticed him sniffing, shutting her mouth. They both sniffed, tasting the air. Once they came to realize what the scent was they looked at each other with wide eyes. It was the scent of humans!