Stephon came to a sudden hault as they approached the Brightfur packs territory. The smell of blood, smoke, and pain blew towards them on the wind. This surprised him. He hadn't heard news of any fights over territory recently. Besides, this pack wasn't very large, so neither was their territory.

It didn't seem it would be worth it to him. Maybe something else was amiss here. He looked towards one of his scouts and nodded to him. The brown wolf walked off, smelling the ground, the air, and trees as he went. The whole pack patiently waited for the scouts return.

The wind blew in their direction again, bringing with it the smell of unfamiliar wolves. Stephon tensed and glanced back over his shoulder at his eight year old sons. They looked back at him with trusting eyes. He started to pace as he waited for his scout.

He thought of the other villages they'd visited recently, Blacklake, Shiningstar, and Silverpelt. They were all nearby, but none of them had seemed to have been in a scuffle recently. They hadn't been tense about their visit either. If anything, they'd welcomed them.

They were on a search for one of his warriors, Camren. He'd expressed interest in finding his true mate instead of just settling on someone in the pack as most did nowadays. The packs used to be one. They had their own alphas, but they also had an alpha king. Which meant they all had the same laws. They were also a lot friendlier to each other because fights over territory weren't allowed.

Now, each alpha had his own rules, and you never knew the welcome you might receive when going to another pack. Because of this, most didn't go searching for mates any more, it was considered too dangerous. They also didn't have any coming together events to bring the packs together because they all started ending in fights.

Stephon had been lucky, though. He'd found his true mate, and they had accepted each other. There was nothing like the mate bond. He still missed his own mate desperately. He'd encouraged his warrior by agreeing to visit the surrounding packs to see if any of the females had the lure scent.

So far, he'd had no luck. Well, maybe a little two of his other warriors had found mates. One of the females had decided to come with them to join the pack and be with her new mate. The other was married already and decided to refuse the bond. It was a sad thing to see, but it often happened. If they only knew what they were giving up, they wouldn't do it so easily, he thought.

His scout approached, his head hung low. He carried with him the smell of ash and death. He shook his head sadly at Stephon, meaning there were no threats in the area. The alpha met his eyes and saw the sadness there. What lay before them?

The Alpha walked towards the village cautiously. As he reached the peak of a hill, he saw what used to be the village. Evidentally, it'd been worth it to someone.

His thoughts churned as he took in the extent of the destruction. There was almost nothing left. Just a big black smudge with the occasional piles of wood here and there still burning.

This had been recent then, very recent. Maybe just last night or the night before. His pack followed him slowly down the hill. What would have driven someone to have gone to such lengths, he wondered.

He looked towards his first beta and nodded towards the right. He looked towards his second beta and nodded towards the left. An obvious sign to his pack to split off and look for any survivors or anything else useful.

Where the ground wasn't covered in ash, it was stained with blood. There were a few bodies left that the fire hadn't consumed. A grey wolf near the edge of the village, its throat sliced open. A brown one that had been brutally gutted.

A little further in there were two separate pieces of a war form. Around the middle of the village near what appeared to be the remnants of a well was the body of a naked woman half burned. He wondered if she had been burned before or after death.

When the Alpha and First Beta met in the center of the village, they changed back to human form to talk. Nicholas's face was grim, making it obvious he'd found much the same thing in his section of the village remnants.

"You find anyone?" the alpha asked.

"No," the beta shook his head. "What do you think happened here?"

"I have no idea, but from the looks of it, it was a much larger pack that attacked them," Stephon answered solemly. "They didn't stand a chance."

"I was thinking much the same, but there aren't any packs this large around here," Nicholas said, his brows furrowing in thought. "And why such brutality?"

"I know, I-" he stopped midsentence, his mouth fell open. The beta followed his alpha's gaze, and his mouth fell open as well.

His sons were crouched down in front of a little blonde haired girl standing at the edge of the village. She was covered in black soot from head to toe. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he could tell the children were talking to each other.

The little girl sat down and showed the boys her feet. They were ripped up and bloody. He winced, thinking of the pain she must be in. She was too little to have gone through something like this. She couldn't have been more than three, the same age his own daughter would have been, he thought. He pushed the sad thought away and started towards them.

The girl was obviously a survivor. Was she the only one? What horrors had she seen? What horrors had she endured? The little girl shot up and grabbed Jax's hand nervously when he reached them. Her eyes darted as if she were looking for a way out.

"Where did you find her boys?" he asked, looking down at them.

"She was standing at the edge of the treeline watching us. I think she was scared, but we went and told her it was okay," Jax answered proudly.

The little girl looked up at him and the first beta and started to tremble. She moved to hide behind Jax and Emmett.

"What is your name, little one?" the alpha asked, crouching down to be on her level. She hid her dirty tear streaked face in Jax's shirt. Her scent drifted towards his nose. Wolf, ash, blood, and something else. A sweet smell he didn't quite understand.

"It's okay, we won't let anyone hurt you," Emmett said protectively, taking her hand gently. She looked into his eyes for reassurance, then she turned towards Stephon bravely.

"I'm Cata... Catalina," she answered, in a sweet, shaky voice, stumbling over the large name.

"Where are your parents, Catalina?" the alpha asked softly. She shook her head and looked down at the ground. He thought he saw a tear drop fall to the blackened earth below, and she wiped her nose on her arm.

"Is there anyone else here?" She shook her head again, still staring at the ground. The alpha and beta stepped away from the trio as the second beta approached them. He spotted the little girl and stared at her in suprise.

"Is there anyone else here?"

"No, no one," he answered, still staring at the little girl.

"Any proof of who did this?"

"No, burning everything made sure of that. There aren't even any scents or tracks to follow. The soot and smoke took care of that, too. Is she a survivor?" he blurted, not being able to resist any longer.

"It appears that way," the alpha answered, looking back at her.

"Then she's the only one, and the only one that knows what happened here."

"What now?" the first beta asked.

"Now we go home. It's too dangerous now to leave the pack without its best warriors, and she appears to have been through enough. She might even need medical attention."

"I'll gather the pack."