Alisha's POV
"The water was magnificent and oh how she loved the water"Alisha thought to herself. Since she was a little cub, her father would take her swimming to the river beside their house. They would play tag and swim for hours. Mum would come and play with them too. Father would coax her to leave the household chores so that they could do them together later. She would make them sandwiches and bring it to the river where they would picnic and spend the whole day together. Alisha couldn't remember anyone else disturbing their trio since she was a baby.
Every few weeks, her father would take the vegetables that they planted and wooden crockery that he had made and sell it at the nearest market. He never took Alisha along as he was worried that his pack would find him on one of these sojourns and that would be the end of him. Every time he left, her mother would sit by the window praying to the Moon Goddess to keep him safe and sound and let him come back to her. The whole day would pass with the both of them feeling like they were sitting on the edge of their seats hoping to hear the sounds of footsteps denoting that her father had come back from his trips to the village.
He never forgot to get Alisha something from these trips. She loved the little curios he would bring back for her. She and her father would make up stories about each and every one of them and then they would put on shows to entertain her mother
Alisha father was a rogue wolf. He had run away from his pack when they found out that his mate was a human. The alpha of the Black Raven pack hated humans. He felt that wolves were a superior race and humans inferior to them.
Alpha Thomas was shocked to find out that his beta actually had a human mate. He would rather sentence his beta to a lifetime of loneliness than to allow him to mate with the lowly human. Alpha Thomas hatched a devious plan to put an end to the abominable pairing. He sent a group of assassins wolves to kill the woman while his beta was busy
Alisha's father, Lawrence, could not imagine not living his life beside his human mate. Thankfully, there were a few people who were sympathetic to his plight and divulged the evil Alpha's plan to assassinate his mate. Lawrence could not believe that his Alpha would do such a thing to him. He had served his alpha faithfully for the last twenty-four years yet there was not one ounce of mercy shown to him.
Lawrence killed the assassins as they attacked his mate. He then convinced her to follow him into the woods where they spent the next few years hiding from the Black Raven pack and his wicked alpha.
According to the Black Raven's wolf council, no human was good enough to mate with a wolf. An alliance like that was considered a sin against the Moon Goddess herself. Alpha Thomas paid off many in the Wolf council so that they would vote along with him. Lawrence was excommunicated and made a rogue. Alpha Thomas also passed a decree that the wolves must kill both Lawrence and his mate on sight.
Alisha was so glad that her father didn't listen to the wolf council and defied the orders of the Black Raven's alpha. Her father and mother left the pack and everyone he had grown up with to live by themselves in the forest. Lawrence smiled every time he told Alisha this story ending it with her favourite statement. Life as a rogue is better than a life without one's mate.
They had been so happy for many years. Hidden deep in the forest where not many people ventured. It was just the three of them, living a happy albeit simple life together. Lawrence had built a cabin in the woods camouflaged from the outside world where they lived together in peace.No one disturbed them as no one knew they were there.
Alisha and her parents thought that they were finally safe as they had not heard any news of the Alpha and of his pack. Alisha had lived fourteen years of her life making friends with the animals and the birds if the forest.
This idyllic existence came to an end suddenly one day when the members of her father's pack found them. Father has gone complacent after many years of not being found. He didn't check the perimeter very often so he didn't know that his defences had been breached. He didn't think that the Black Ravens would still be searching for him. Lawrence didn't realise Alpha Thomas would take his running away as a personal betrayal and vowed retribution.
They came one evening, as the birds settled for the night and the sun dipped behind the trees, they surrounded the house. A pack of assassin wolves with orders to kill everyone mercilessly. There was nowhere that Alisha's family could escape to.
Father was the first to see them as he was sitting on the porch and reading his book. The wolves slowly creeping towards the house surrounding it and blocking all means of escape. He ran into the house and locked the door silently. He pulled Mother and I close and whispered harshly to us."Promise me! Promise me you will hide until they leave. Don't make a sound." He pulled us close to give us both a tight hug. He kissed mother on her lips softly and me on my forehead. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he kissed us. He stood up and walked towards the door glancing behind one more time as he whispered a sad goodbye to mother. He opened the door and locked it quickly behind him. His voice was muffled by the shut door.
Mother pulled out a small bag from behind the cupboard." Put this on Alisha. They won't be able to smell you as long as you wear this. Don't take it off as long as you are around wolves" she said holding my hand tightly.
Mother began to weep as she pushed me into a small space behind the false back of the cupboard under the kitchen sink."Quiet Alisha! Remember what daddy said. Don't come out till mummy or daddy comes and get you" mother whispered hurriedly.
"No mummy! Daddy told both of us to hide. Don't leave me please!"I sobbed into her shoulder. Large globules of tears trailed down her cheeks as she kissed me on the forehead again. She shook her head quickly and quietly closed the cupboard.
"Please don't come out till we come for you, Alisha. Be safe my darling. Know that your daddy and I love you and are so proud of who you are growing up to be. Don't move and be quiet Alisha" mother cautioned me again through the cupboard door and slowly walked towards the living room.
Alisha could hear snarling from outside their cabin. The intruders were talking to father. Alisha knew that her father had gone outside to find out what they wanted. She tried to listen but from behind the trap door, nothing much could be heard. Alisha could only hear bits of conversation
"Long time, no see Lawrence. How have you been?"
Alisha couldn't hear her father's reply. She waited in her hiding place just like she promised her parents. Alisha didn't know how long she stayed in the trick space behind the cupboard
She heard footsteps in the kitchen and people talking. She didn't know if they would find her but she started praying that they wouldn't. She hugged her knees tightly to make herself as tiny as possible. The herbs that mother had slung on her neck was working. Even with their keen sense of smell, the wolves were not able to sniff out her hiding place. She shut her eyes and stuck her fingers into her ears. She sat quietly waiting for her parents to come to get her
"There is nobody else here. The slut is dead as well. Alpha Thomas will be glad. Our wolf line is no longer contaminated by humans" Alisha heard snatches of the conversation as the wolves were moving from one room to the other. She held back her tears as she was afraid that the wolves would hear her sniffling and come back to the kitchen to investigate.
'Where did Mother go?' Alisha wondered."Does Father know that strange people are in the house" she wanted to yell out to the strangers who were there but kept quiet as she remembered her promise to her parents
After a while, Alisha didn't hear anything else. She had grown stiff sitting in that awkward position for so long. She decided to come out of her hiding place and go look for her parents. As she pushed the cupboard door open, she saw the sun's rays streaming into the broken glass pane. It was already morning! Alisha gasped to see the overturned chairs and the upended tables. The whole house was in a mess. There were flies buzzing around the food that had been spilt on the floor. The cupboards had been emptied and its contents scattered all around.
"Mummy! Mummy are you there? Daddy! Daddy! Please answer me! Its not funny you guys...I am scared" Alisha walked around the destroyed kitchen searching for her parents.
As she entered the living room she saw a pair of legs behind the sofa. Alisha was sure it was her mother as, on her left leg, there was a small mole that looked like a heart. Her mother had said often that the mole represented Alisha's heart and that she carried it with her where ever she goes. Alisha has always laid down on her mother legs when she told her stories. She always held onto the leg with the mole the tightest when she had gotten scared.
As long as the heart-shaped mole remained on her mother's leg, Alisha knew that her mother would always be there for her." Mummy! Mummy wake up " Alisha could see her mother was lying on the floor beside the sofa. Her mother refused to answer so Alisha walked toward the other side of the sofa.
What she saw there made Alisha scream. Mother's eyes were open with a look of terror in them that Alisha would never forget. Her chest was bloodied and the shirt overlying was torn. Her mother had been gutted like she had seen her father do to the fish they caught yesterday. Her intestines trailed all around her body like someone had tried to pull everything out and arrange it outside her body. This was not a simple assassination. They had tortured her mother as well
Alisha fell to her knees in horror. She dry heaved knowing that she was not going to be able to hear another lullaby sung to her by her mother again. She reached out and closed her mother's eyes as she wanted her mother to find peace now even in her death. After crying at her mother's feet for awhile Alisha looked around for her father. The last thing she saw yesterday was her father closing the front door and going outside to confront the assailants
Alisha hurriedly stood up and opened the door to the outside the house hoping to see her father. Hoping to get him to explain what was happening. She saw her father lying on his stomach near the river. Alisha bent down beside him and gave him a shake.
"Daddy! Daddy wake up! I think mummy is dead. The men from yesterday killed her daddy! Please, Daddy! Please wake up" Alisha began to scream at him as he too didn't answer her. She pulled him over so that he was lying on his back. To Alisha's horror, her dad had a massive hole where his face would have been.
"No! No! No ! Daddy no! Please no! " Alisha sobbed. She didn't know what to do. Her parents were gone and she was alone. There was only death and destruction where previously she had only felt love. She knew that she couldn't stay, just in case the wolves that were responsible for the carnage in front of her came back..... but where would she go? Alisha closed her eyes and tears streamed down her cheeks.
Alisha didn't know how long she laid there. The sun had risen and its rays only showed Alisha in greater detail how the wolves had tortured and killed her parents. She just knew that she couldn't leave her mother and father like that. They needed to be buried properly and beside each other. They didn't deserve the atrocious way they had been put to death.
Alisha slowly stood up and got a spade from the garage. Her mother had just tilled the earth to get it ready to plant her flowers there. The flower bed which her mother had planned to fill with blooms of varieties of colour would be the final resting place of her parents.
Alisha dug a hole there to bury both of her parents. She buried them side by side as she didn't want them to be lonely without each other. They had been together for so many years that she wanted them to be together again even in death
She decided to plant some peonies on their graves so that it would look pretty. Peonies had been her mother favourite flowers. The fluffy flower buds reminded her of little balloons. Her mother had readied the garden the day before yesterday to accept a fresh batch of these flowers buds. Alisha planted bunches of these flowers all over the freshly dug graves
Alisha then went back into the house and packed a small bag of clothes and walked out. She didn't look back as her heart broke with every step she took away from the only home she had ever known. Fourteen years of her life was spent with her parents in their house by the river and now she was leaving. She wasn't sure where she was going or what she was going to do when she got there. She gripped her bag fiercely looking ahead as she walked away
"I will avenge your deaths one day... I promise you, father. I will come back and make them pay" she wept as she walked into the forest. She tripped many times as her tears blurred her vision. All she knew was that she was walking further into the forest and that she would someday return to avenge her parents. Alpha Thomas and the wolf council of Black Raven would pay for killing her innocent parents whose only crime was falling in love with each other
She realised that Alpha Thomas didn't know about her and that is how she had survived the annihilation. This was Alpha Thomas's first mistake. She would make sure that he regrets that mistake for the rest of his life. One day Alpha Thomas would pay.....
She fell hitting her head on a large root and knocking herself unconscious. There Alisha laid, lost in oblivion as the sun slowly traversed the sky. As she slowly opened her eyes, the memory of her parents and their last moments together played in the mind. She cried again until she could cry no longer. Alisha tumbled towards the small stream that was flowing beside her and gulped down the clear crystal fluid. She looked around for a tree which she could sleep tonight. Alisha climbed the tree and tied her bag on the adjoining branch. She closed her eyes and fell to a troubled sleep. She had found shelter for tonight but she needed something permanent soon