“Run Juliette! RUN!”
The sickening sound of flesh being torn apart filled the air, wide hazel eyes watched in horror as the wolf tore apart the very man they had always looked at with every bit of love in her heart.
The beast raised its blooded muzzle and snarled in Juliette’s direction. With a shriek of terror, she instinctively turned to her heel, ignoring the stones bruising her bare feet, and broke into a run.
She could hear the paws of wolves padding on the earth like the thud, thud, thud of a loud drum. The sound of her heart was echoing in her ears like a beat, beat, beat.
Don’t look back. Don’t look back. Don’t look back.
She looked back.
Two wolves were hot on her heels, snapping their blood-stained jaws at her. Her stomach throbbed with the effort of running, her legs threatened to give up but just then, three wolves appeared from the front, baring their teeth, and fell upon the others. Pained howls and snapping of bones filled her head.
As if in a nightmare, tears streaming down her face, Juliette dashed forward. She ran and ran and ran until she could no longer feel her feet until sweat covered her like a second skin until she was only going on for her unborn child.
In a distance, she saw light. High walls. The smell of other lycanthropes.
Shelter.
Heaving, stumbling, gasping, she reached the high iron fence that marked a pack’s territory.
“Stop!” a stern male voice barked “Who are you? State your name and purpose.”
Juliette looked at the two tall males that approached her very quickly, even for werewolves.
Her lips parted to say something but her mind was blank, her soul-shattering, her energy crushed and darkness was filling her vision.
And she fainted.
***
Several hours later, Juliette was holding a baby girl in her arms. Hazel's eyes, so much like her own gazed back at her.
“Elijah would’ve loved you so much,” she whispered, tears prickling her eyes.
A knock on the door of the little room snapped her out of her thoughts. A woman in her late twenties came inside.
“Juliette, Luna would like to see you,” she said gently “come along, dear.”
“Yes, let's go.” Juliette nodded at the omega Lycan
They walked through the long, narrow passages of the omega quarters to the wide and glamorous hallways of the Alpha and Luna’s chambers.
The guards let them into the meeting room where the Alpha and Luna sat. the Alpha was a big man with broad shoulders, a proud scar on his left cheek, and fierce brown eyes. The Luna was a fragile-looking woman but her blue eyes were sharp as a hawk, piercing as shards of glass.
“Alpha, Luna,” Juliette dipped in a curtsy
“Mrs. Attwood,” the Alpha spoke “We sent troupes to your pack territory, but no one could survive the rouge attack. No one but you and your daughter.”
Juliette nodded, feeling her chest constrict with pain.
“Now, we understand you need shelter,” the Alpha continued “and we would offer you a place here in the estate, as werewolves and Lycans are not so different after all.”
“That would be very kind of you, Alpha,” Juliette replied meekly
“But,” the Luna interjected, “you are not part of our pack, hence, you can only stay as an omega.”
Swallowing the lump in her throat, Isabella looked at her daughter’s hazel eyes. With a deep breath, she made the choice any mother would’ve made.
“I accept the conditions.”
After Juliette had been officially converted to omega by taking an oath and shaking her hand, which she’d cut a bit to draw out blood, with the Alpha, who had done the same. She went out, clutching her baby.
She hadn’t taken more than a few steps when someone tugged at the hem of her dress. She whirled around, her eyes landed on a four-year-old boy. With his dark brown hair and deep blue eyes, it wouldn’t take a genius to guess who he was.
“Who are you?” he asked, though his eyes were curious, his voice had been commanding
“I, well,” Juliette struggled with her words “I’m the new pack member.”
The boy nodded, craning his neck to look at the child in the woman’s arms. Juliette lowered her arms to let him have a look.
The boy smiled at the infant “Hello there, I’m Luke Winters.”
He looked at Juliette, apparently to know the name of the child. Juliette blushed, she hadn’t thought of it yet but…
Looking down at her angle, a soft smile tugged her lips
“Elise,” she said “Elise Attwood.”
Luke grinned and let the baby hold one of his fingers
“Welcome home, Elise.”