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Chapter One - Sleep may come.

Prologue

Seven years ago…

Smoke filled Cassidy’s nose. The acrid burning scent had brought her upright in her bed, startling her and disrupting her peaceful dreams. The child blinked rapidly before rubbing her burning eyes and coughing as her sleep clouded mind cleared at the sound of Samuel, her older brother, came crashing through her bedroom door.

“Cassy!” he called out for her and with her responding frightened cry it was only seconds before Sam had found her on the floor next to her bed.

Cassidy had dropped off the side of her bed, going to the floor in an attempt to see through the thick gray smoke that filled her room. She heard her brother and let out a frightened sound as she tried to go towards his voice, only to be scooped up quickly into his arms.

“I got you sis…” was his comforting words as he rushed her through the double doors that led to the balcony outside of her room. They were three floors up and the Pack house of the Wildwoods pack was quickly going up in flames behind them and to the front on the ground a slaughter was taking place.

“Cassy, I'm going to jump and when we are on the ground I need you to run to the shelter. Just like we always practiced. Can you do that?” Samuel had asked and she stared up at him wide eyed with worry as fear was starting to fully sink in.

“Yes… But Sam…” Cass had started to ask, but her words were silenced when Samuel gave a small growl and squeezed her briefly in a hug before he took a running leap off the balcony. Sam had landed on his feet easily and almost instantaneously dropped her as a rogue wolf came at him from the side, digging his long claws into Sam’s flesh in an attempt to get to Cassidy.

~RUN CASSIDY!~ came the command to her mind over her family link with Sam. Cass had been standing in shock, frozen with a fearful expression on her face that was suddenly sprayed with dark crimson blood as the rogue received a killing blow from her older brother. The warmth of the liquid and the roar as her brother shifted into his wolf got her legs moving and she took off as fast as her legs could carry her without a second look over her shoulder.

Cassidy was a few years too young to shift, but she was fast. Faster than all the other pre-shifter boys in the pack and she used it to her advantage. She took off like a shot, weaving in and out of the carnage all around her. The rogue werewolves were ripping into men, women and children alike while leaving a bloodbath in their wake. Cassidy was too young to realize that this wasn't just some random attack on her fathers pack. That these rogues were too well organized, too in control and they had a plan.

Fear gripped the child as she darted in and out of the rocks and trees of the Appalachian timber that her family called home. Nearly every square inch was covered in the scent of rogues that had came in under the cover of darkness. Cassidy had never smelled a rogue before, and it would be a scent she was not going to forget for the rest of her life.

Stale filth, mold, rot and decay of unwashed bodies of wolves that had been banished from their packs for one reason or another. The young mind couldn't comprehend the significance of rogues attacking in such a well coordinated attack through the shock and adrenaline coursing through her.

Leaves and sticks whipped at Cassie’s legs as she ran. Branches catching on her nightdress and ripping it to tatters along the hem. It took her almost half an hour, but she finally made it to the hidden safe house. It was a small underground bunker tucked into a crevice of rocks with just enough room for an adults body to come and go. Cassidy felt almost numb as she opened and closed the heavy door behind her, her chest rising and falling with rapid breaths.

There were no lights in the long concrete room, just four sets of bunk beds and towards the back a small living area that was stocked with non-perishables. Cassidy went to the first bed she could reach and curled up hugging her knees to her skinny body. There had been no communication from her parents through their mind links, her family completely silent as they fought in the attack and focused.

Cassidy sat and watched the door to the bunker. She was trying to cope as well as a child could, but the silence was brought to a harsh end when she felt something snap deep within her chest, pain and grief filling her small frame as the tether snapped between Samuel and herself. The connection being snapped only meant one thing and when her parents unblocked their mind link to her, she felt their grief and pain as strong as her own.

Only minutes later, did she feel her fathers connection fade out rapidly and then her mother following seconds after. The loss was so great,the pain of not only her mother and father and brothers lives being snuffed out, but her parents were the alphas. The loss of her alphas, even for a twelve year old was more than she could handle. Her breathing became heavy and rushed, darkness flooding in and claiming her as she passed out.

Four Years Ago

The alpha’s daughter had been training since the day she woke up in a one room cabin that was heavily crowded with what remained of her parents pack. Raymond Roan, her grandfather, had been away on business when the the rogue attack took place. He had been in the middle of a meeting when he lost the connection to his son, daughter in law and grandson and took the first flight home. He had come back to near complete destruction.

The pack house had been burned to the ground. Raymond had the good sense to check the safe house he had built and he found his granddaughter on the bunk, deep in shock and brought her to a cabin far out in the mountains with what was left of the pack. The pack’s beta, Jett, had sworn that day when Cassidy was found that he would dedicate his life to protecting her. Training her. Preparing her for the life she would have to lead on day as their Alpha.

Werewolf children matured fairly fast compared to normal humans. Pregnancies were on average seven months long. Pups aged the same as humans until they hit puberty around the age of 13. Once that process started they shot up, fully maturing into adults by the time they were seventeen or eighteen. Most werewolves got their first shift around fifteen when their canine genes were kicked into overdrive. Cassidy seemed to be the exception. While she was growing strong with daily training from Jett, she was maturing slower than normal.

She was the youngest survivor of the rogue attack and Raymond believed she was just stunted by the trauma. She was skin and bones, looking more like a wild child than the alpha bloodline she had been born into. But she was scrappy and intelligent. More than once she had brought Jett to the ground and he was more than double her in age. She had the courage to challenge every member of the pack that was left and even though every last one of them declined to test her skills, she at least had earned their respect.

Wildwoods pack had always been in the mountains away from the hustle and bustle of the big cities. So once a week, half of the wolves would take the one vehicle the pack owned and headed to the closet pocket of civilization to restock on supplies. Six of the fifteen pack members had gone for the all day trip. Four more were gone on patrols. That left Jett, her grandfather and two elders that were too weak to really contribute anymore. It was midday and Cassidy and Jett were out back chopping wood.

Cassidy often argued with Jett about how chopping wood benefited her in anyway, she not liking the hours of lifting and throwing wood or swinging the heavy ax while Jett sat and watched or just stacked the split logs. It was during one of these sessions when a warning howl from one of the patrols echoed and then was cut short. Everyone at the cabin froze for a moment as they processed the sound. Cassidy was still standing, listening when Jett grabbed her roughly by her arm, telling her to run and half dragged her through the woods as fast as they could go.

She ran like her life was depending on it, and in truth it was as sounds of wolves clashing with each other in a harsh battle behind them carried through the forest. Jett’s grip on her arm was bruising with the strength he was using to pull Cassidy along until she let out a pained cry and stumbled, falling to the forest floor. Jett nearly fell with her, a low whine coming from the man as they both felt the sudden and instant loss of their small packs alpha, Cassi’s grandfather.

“Get up! Now! We cant stay here!” He commanded his young charge and when she didn't move right away, he picked Cassidy up and tossed her over his shoulder just as she became violent with an angry, outraged scream at the loss of her last family member.

Anger filled her, completely replacing the grief she felt for her grandfather. She lifted her head and screamed, wanting to go back. She twisted, hit and clawed at Jett’s back, demanding to be released so she could go back and fight, to help him even if it was too late. Her rage lasted several minutes and once Cassidy was done with her anger she fell into quiet sobbing. The grief was something she couldn't handle. Her last family connection gone, her pack was essentially just wiped out and dismantled in a matter of minutes.

Time had no meaning anymore to Cassidy. She was devastated and in shock and hardly took notice when Jett sat her down after hours of running as fast as he could go. Jett cupped her cheeks, wiping her tears and smoothing her hair back from her face.

“I'm calling the rest of the men. Stay here princess.” He said to Cass in a gentle voice before stepping away, pulling out his cell phone and getting one of the wolves that had gone to the city for supplies. Cassidy never heard his conversation with them, but she would not be meeting up with them. Jett had made the decision to take Cass into hiding until she was old enough to Make a pack of her own, or land safely into another.

Present day

In an out of the way hotel somewhere in southern Georgia.

Cassidy lost track of time in the shower. It was Saturday. Every Saturday she promised Jett she would take medication and actually try to get some sleep. It was a compromise they had made when her habit of not sleeping was effecting her health after going too long without it. Turning the water off, she stepped out on the towel on the discolored green tiles of the bathroom floor and quickly went to drying herself. Cassidy wrapped her chestnut hair up in a clean towel, making a perfect little turban on her head before she stepped up to the sink.

She gave herself a look over in the mirror as she dug the pill bottle of sleeping medication from her bag. The reflection was the same. Sun kissed skin and golden brown eyes on a,in her opinion, mediocre body. The pill was shaken out of the bottle and she popped it into her mouth, swallowing it before replacing the bottle and grabbing her tooth brush to finish up her nightly routine.

After packing up her bag she threw on the clean pajama pants and t-shirt, leaving the bathroom and came out to see Jett stretched out on his bed reading on a tablet. “Medicine is down. Hopefully I can get a few hours tonight.” She said with a heavy sigh. Tossing her bag on top of her suitcase, Cassidy crawled up into her own bed and slipped in under the covers.

“Sleep well princess. I will be here.” He promised her. It was the same promise every time, and he had never failed her.

Cassidy looked up when Jett spoke to her, promising to be there when she would need him. It was maybe one of the few weaknesses she had left anymore, waking in terror from her dreams, unable to sort reality from what was going on in her mind. He had always been there to calm her down and talk her back to the present.

“Thanks Jett.” Cassidy said softly before she turned the light out and rolled over to do her best to fall asleep, unaware nearly twenty minutes later of the steady hands of Jett covering her up for the night once she had fallen asleep.

The memories were what plagued her every time she slept. Every sight. Every smell. Every sound. Worst of it all was the heart rending pain she felt through it as she remembered and experienced the break of her family’s connections, the loss of her friends and family and the pack bond. With the pain, came the uncontrollable rage and anger that swamped her and after four hours of restless sleep, Cassidy awoke with a scream of anguished heart breaking pain that was intense enough she threw herself off the bed to the small space between the mattress and wall.

She backed herself into the corner there, breathing hard and in a panic, her eyes searching the room but unseeing her surroundings until a rogue wolf came into her vision and she seen red. Cassidy let out a roar of her anger and pain, lunging herself towards the other wolf in the blink of an eye, going for the rouges throat.

Kill him! Tear him into pieces! Just like they had done to her pack.

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