Chapter One – At the Battlefield.
Jade’s POV
Seven Years Ago
“Get your booty out of my face!” my best friend, Amara, yelled.
I jumped chuckling and moved aside for her to drag my suitcase down. She stopped, snapped her head at me with a scowl.
I got the message and ran upstairs to continue packing. There had to be a way I could help if I wasn’t strong enough to lift those suitcases.
While dragging out everything in my drawer into a bag, my fingers scratched on a broken glass. It was the glass frame of our last family picture.
“Take the picture, Jade” my twin said, leaning on my door. I made a small pout then tossed it into my bag. It was the last picture together with our dad before cancer took him away.
He wasn’t the best dad to brag about but he did his best. Not everyone was cut out to be dads.
“Jade, Jade, Jade!” my friend screamed again.
“Yes, Amara!”. She always had a temper.
“Baby girl, if we are going to be moving early enough to get our ass on a train by two, we better work faster and smarter” she eyed Jake, resting on a chair, “And same goes for you too!”.
My mom returned from meeting all our neighbors to tell them we’re moving, she held a basket of fruits and some cakes. Our typical nice neighbors.
“Wow, Amara. All the suitcases down. And the garbage?”.
“Taken out too. Except for those two in there. They can take themselves out!” she answered, wiping her hands across her shorts.
My mom and I rolled our eyes in sync. Amara was just eleven but she had an acidic tongue.
“So we got our house at the estate already right?” I sneaked in my hand towards the basket, but looking at my mom squarely in the eye.
“Yes, dear” she caught my hand and slapped it off, making me giggle, “But I don’t know, there’s a rumor that the place is in war. I don’t know about that, but we’d find out soon”.
I was born here, at Swoosh Estate, it was the classiest estate in those times, now it was worn out and needed painting every two years due to leaking roofs. A neighbor's house had collapsed last month, thankfully none of them were home.
It made everyone realize the dangers of leaking roofs and we’re all moving out. The owner of the buildings had some work to do.
“Should I move you? Or you move?” I heard Amara yelling at Jake, he was at the front seat. He grumpily moved to the back.
“Don't bully my brother, Miss!”.
“He lets me bully him, so I take the chance!” she winked. I tried to wink back but my both eyes always closed.
“Let's go, kiddos!” Mom bellowed as the ride to the Moonshine estate started.
We had spent three hours on the road already, mom was speculating us missing the train. She was going to sell our car to foot bills, we needed to catch that train.
“Oh, Darling, I am driving, can you call back later?” I knew who was calling, it had to be my new stepdad.
“Well, I got some news. I don’t know if it’s terrible or… well, it’s kinda terrible now. The kids should come stay with me, then next week, you can move in”.
We all shook our head at mom, Jake turned off the loud speaker feature on the phone.
“We are not staying with your boyfriend, mom!” I spelt out. She frowned and switched on the loud speaker feature, “Why can’t we move in?”.
He was silent for a while. “The estate belongs to werewolves” he sniffed, “and they are having an unfriendly match this side. It won’t be good for the kids”.
My mom turned to us with wide eyes but we all gave her blank stares. It still doesn’t mean we were staying with her boyfriend.
I wasn’t scared of werewolves. They were in our school, and they kept a good distance. Nothing was making me live with that drunkard.
“Okay, darling. When we get close I'd text you!”. The line was cut. The rest of the way was silent.
There had to be something really going on in that estate. As we passed through the gates, I caught sight of a huge smoke floating from the middle of the estate.
“Kill the boy, it’s important you kill the boy!” someone bellowed to some men holding guns. Many house owners were running out of the gate as we drove in.
“We should leave!” mom fidgeted, dragging her steering. Didn’t those words bother her? “Kill the boy”?.
An explosion sent a cabin shop, besides us, to the air and nearly crashed on us. It missed our car by a little but fell before us, trapping us between it and a gate. Shooting started, I heard growls from afar.
“Damn, I think we should get out of the car!” Amara screamed, she opened the car door but someone, from outside, shot it back.
It was an older man, he looked straight in my blue eyes, “Don’t worry, children. I’d get you out of here!”.
Next thing he did was move our car. He was a bloody werewolf?! I watched a boy my age, carrying a box twice his size, that had fallen from the cabin, and he threw it off, but it landed on a man holding a gun, three feet’s from him. He had to be a werewolf. And we were humans, in the same battle field.
“Woman drive your kids away! Return next week!” the old man advised, still pushing my mother’s car away from the cabin shop. My mom started the car again, and it kicked.
The werewolf boy didn’t meet out gaze. I noticed his eyes shiny yellow. I didn’t know the classes of werewolves yet but I knew yellow was a strong one.
“Grandfather, should I go back for Megan!”.
“No, Alpha. They’d kill you. You’re the price. They can’t get you!” the man slapped my mom’s car and she drove away.
‘Maybe he’s the boy those gunmen said should be killed” Jake turned back to the old man and boy, “Poor kid, what’s did he do?”.
“He's an Alpha. I think it’s a rank or something” mom swerved to another direction and continued, “If they kill the Alpha, maybe they win”.
Jake sat back and sulked, “I don’t like this place”.
Mom shrugged, “Me too. But we bought the house so…. We’re staying at my boyfriend’s place and no more arguments”.
None of us dared speak. Jake turned back to the battle field again and whispered, “I pray you survive, Alpha”.
Amara rolled her eyes, “You don’t know if he’s in the bad or good side”.
I supported Jake’s prayer. I don’t care what side he was. I just prayed he wasn’t killed.