Sapphire Nightborne

"Again!" A chorus of groans could be heard as the girls picked up their knives before returning to the throwing line. I had just started their training a mere hour ago and yet they were complaining that they were tired, that this was not what they are supposed to do. I watched as they continued to throw their knives, most throws missed targets or just harmlessly bounced off them, I pinched the bridge of my nose as I watched their pitiful attempts.

"This is useless!" My head shot up as I saw a girl, a few years younger than me, throw her knife to the ground and begin to walk away. I ran up to her, placing my hands on her shoulders.

"What are you doing?" She scoffed as she used her hands to pull my hands from her shoulders.

"What am I doing? What are we doing? This is not what women are supposed to do in a pack, we stay back to take care of the young and old not charge on the frontlines of battle. That is why we have our warriors." Her words made me feel as though I had just gone back a hundred years.

"And tell me, what happens when your men are not good enough to protect you? What happens when the enemy is too strong and breaks through their ranks?" She stood there silent, her mouth closing and opening like a fish. The other girls had stopped their training and were staring intently at us. I beckoned them to come closer with a wave of my hand, it was now time to educate these women.

"All of you do know what happens to women after their pack has lost, don't you? All of you pretty things would become the toys of the men who have won, your children would be slaughtered to prevent any future uprising and worst of all, you no longer have control over your lives because from that day onwards when you get taken, your life is no longer your own." I watched as they stood in shock, the girl who had so confidently defied now hung her head as her lips trembled. I began to circle them and tell them in graphic detail of what I had seen during my days in the field, the horrors I had to watch as defenceless women were ripped from their children and taken away while I could not stop them. The girls stood huddled together, some now even sobbing, I knew what I was doing was cruel but they had to know what they were training for. They were not training for blood, they were training for a chance to let their lives be their own.

Their eyes followed me as I walked back to stand in front of the girl, she had tear tracks on her cheeks that I wiped off with the back of my hand. I placed both hands on her face before looking down at her eyes and then looking back up to meet the eyes of the rest of the girls.

"As your Alpha Female all I am asking is that you fight for your life to stay yours, I had mine taken away for a while and I can tell you that it is the most excruciating thing you would ever feel, to not be allowed to run when you want, to not being able to meet your loved ones at the drop of your hat. These things might seem trivial now but once they are taken away, they become the most important." After those words left my lips, many pairs of arms started to wrapped themselves around as the girls threw themselves on me while I stood there awkwardly patting their heads or arms.

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I smiled as I watched them begin to improve, they were now trying their best to hit the targets and some who were able to even began to help the weaker ones. This was what a pack should be, a place where people help each other to be the best they can be not a competitive battlefield where you step on each other to try and become the best, and the best part was, not a single complaint was raised after my talk with them.

"Girls!" It made me smile to see all of them rush to me with smiles on their faces despite the hard training I put them under.

"I am so proud of your improvement so how about we do something different as a break. Besides knife skills, your stamina has to be at its peak if you ever want a chance to run away from someone over a long period of time or even if you wish to engage in a fight, you have to pray their stamina runs out before yours." Not a word of complaint as they nodded before walking towards the edge of the forest.

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Pants filled the air as we ran through the forest, we had started about half-an-hour ago and some had already reached their limit but the rest managed to urge them on by slowing down just a little to allow them to catch up.

The smile on my face soon dropped when I looked over to my side to see a large shape running alongside us, it was almost indistinguishable from the foliage but years of training had heightened my sight. My heart froze when I realised that it was not just one following us.

"Stop!" I reached my hand around to my back to brace the girls behind me from running into me as I lowered into a crouch, tilting my head to catch any sound that was out of the ordinary. Whispers filled my ears as they started to ask me questions but I only just put my finger to my lips to shush them.

"Stay behind me, if anything jumps out I want you to run and get Xander, Brendon or Jared." They let out small whimpers and jumped as shapes approached us from the dense foliage, their nails dug into my arms but soon relaxed when they saw the familiar faces.

"Xander, if this is a joke I swear..." His face remained stern as he shook his head.

"The warriors on patrol reported a breach in our Southern border." Those were the mountains, Damien, and his pack could not have crossed it so fast. Those thoughts quickly left my head as the sound of twigs snapping, Xander and I as well as the rest of his warriors formed a protective circle around the girls.

"I, Xander Lykos, Alpha of the Shadow Mountain Pack, order you to show yourself!" A smile formed on my face as roar resonated through the forest, this was not a wolf at all. I immediately broke free from the circle and rushed forward to the source of the sound.

"Amelia!" There was a rough sound that sounded almost like a laugh as a large panther came into view, her glossy black fur shone against the sunlight as she stood in front of me. She stood there quietly for a moment before launching herself at me, knocking me to the ground. Xander rushed forward to me only to stop as Amelia bared her teeth, she playfully snarled at me as I tugged on her ears.

"Go and shift, I think we have many things to talk about." She nodded before retreating back into the forest, the shadows that stood around us followed as well.

There was an almost awkward silence as we waited for her, Xander had asked about her but I told him it would be best to start talking when she comes back, it was just quiet as he had sent the rest of the girls as well as his men back to the training hall.

"Waiting for me?" I laughed as I ran to hug her, she chuckled as she patted my head, it had been one of the few things she always enjoyed doing despite being only two centimetres taller than me, I could not stop myself from staring at her. It had been years since I last spoke or even saw her.

We paused our chatter as Xander cleared his throat, hinting that he wanted more information on the 'intruder'.

"Xander, this is Amelia Ravenswood, my cousin." I watched as his eyes widen by a fraction as they flicked from Amelia to me.

"Please to meet you Xander Lykos, my pride and I heard about your little altercation with Alpha Damien Black, we came to offer our assistance." Xander's remained an impassive mask as he nodded before suggesting that we go back to the main hall to continue this discussion.

By the time we reached the end of the forest, the sun had begun to set. Its rays broke through the mosaic made by the branches of the tall trees covering the lower foliage in patches of gold. I stood silently next to Xander as we watched Amelia walk back to her pride to speak to them about our alliance.

"Something tells me that there is a long story between you and her." I looked up at his eyes before sighing.

"You wouldn't believe it. Amelia was the result of an affair between her mother, who was part of our pack, and an outsider. Her parents were social climbers, they would do anything to rise in the pack rankings, so trust me when I say that Amelia's birth was a little inconvenient when the child in question looked nothing like her parents. Her parents were both blondes while she had hair as black as ink, they had blue eyes while she had eyes the colour of amber. I remembered being curious about them as a child as they almost seemed to glow in the dark. Her parents were cruel, they blamed her for their disgrace when in fact it was her mother's fault for her infidelity. The worse came when we shifted, we shifted for the first time within weeks of each other but while I shifted 'normally', she did not. They were expecting a wolf, not a scrawny panther who could not even stand on her own. Just like me, she was labelled as a 'freak', it seemed laughable how people could shun someone so much just because they're not like everyone else. I was shunned for being a Lycan Legacy while she was shunned for being a Werecat. We thought that this would be the worst things could get, but we were wrong.  Mere weeks after we shifted we were called in by the Elders so that they could privately 'train' us, we went blindly thinking that this could be our ticket to acceptance, their promises faded into thin air the moment the doors closed. We were their little guinea pigs, subjected to every test and simulation under the sun, they forced us to train under horrendous conditions. They wanted to find a way to replicate our abilities to create better wolves, better soldiers. I still remember the times where Amelia and I were left in a cell with just a loaf of bread to last a week, just to see if we could. But still, no matter how much I hate the Elders I still have to thank them for making me who I am today. The harsh training made us stronger, this brought me acceptance in my pack but it did not do any good for Amelia. She was still shunned as a freak of nature, she couldn't even feel the love from her parents that she so craved. They ridiculed her for her birth, pushed her further emotionally than the Elders did physically. The only people who cared for her were my Generals, who trained by our side, and my family. But even then Lia began to turn her back in Amelia when she became the mate of our Alpha." I closed my eyes as the memories of old flooded through my mind. She was so innocent, craving love where there was none, willing to forgive when no apology was given.

"Her parents must have at least shone her some care. The paternal bond between us, wolves, is one of the most powerful bonds." Xander looked at me with disbelieving eyes. I used to envy people like him, people who had full families with a childhood that they can look back on with a smile.

"Did you not hear what I said? Her parents hated her with a passion, to her father she was a symbol of his mate's infidelity while to her mother she was just a mistake of one night. They kicked her out in the rain when she was just three years old because she dropped a cup on the floor, they whipped her with silver because she wanted more food. Everyone knew what was happening behind those closed doors but they did nothing and it soon became our pack's most open secret. My father tried his best by providing her with shelter when she had been kicked out of her house or food when they starved her but ultimately there was only so much he could do. They pushed her so far that she decided one day to end it all. I remember finding her in her house lying unconscious in a filled bath-tub with golden chains soaked in wolfsbane, which are harmful to Werecats, wrapped around her wrist. I still remember the metallic smell of blood invading my nose as I rushed to her and pulled her out of the crimson water. She slowly started to regain consciousness when the door flew off its hinges as her mother rushed in asking what the hell was happening."

"That means she cares if she was worried." I could not help but let out a scoff as I cast my eyes to the ground shaking my head if he only knew.

"That was what I thought as well, I thought that by almost losing her they would wake up and start to treat her like a human being, but I was wrong. Her mother screamed at her while she bled about how she was useless by wasting wolfsbane, she screamed at Amelia that she should have just drunk the entire vial and save everyone the trouble of cleaning the mess." I expected Amelia to break down into tears like she usually did but she only stared at her mother with a new fire in her eyes.

"What happened afterwards?" I opened my mouth to reply but was cut off.

"I left. I spent a few years roaming unclaimed territories before coming across other Werecats who had also been made outcasts by their packs. We began to travel each other and the rest is history." I smiled at her before letting my eyes trail down her arms to see the faint bands that decorated her wrists, I looked over to her pride to see many shared the same markings in various places. I was interrupted as Amelia placed her hand on my cheek, her dark brown eyes solemn.

"We will bring Damien down and end his reign ofterror. You protected me once, now it is my time to protect you."