I did not need to hear the sound of dying warriors to tell we were under attack. I didn't need to feel the rumble of paws to sense the arrival of the next wave of enemies. I didn't need to flinch every time the pack link became weaker with each fallen warrior. All I needed was the metallic smell of blood...everywhere.

My senses were overloaded, jumbled in ways I've never experienced. I could hear the growl of the mighty wolves, the earth shaking like quakes beneath my feet. I couldn't find my mother, my wolf still too young to use the mind link to find her or feel emotions or pain. If she were hurt, I'd already be too late. My father would protect her as well as he could, that provided me with very little comfort. I loved my father, but he was not a strong warrior.

A loud crash sounded from the hallway; a large force was slamming against my bedroom door. Trying to snap the lock in two. As the door violently shock as the body slammed into it, I cowered back hiding behind my bed watching in horror as the door flew open.

I let out a sigh of relief when it was my Alpha who came storming through the door. I raised my hands in the air, indicating that I wanted to be picked up as if I was a small child. The Alpha ran towards me scooping me up into his arms.

"Dawn we have to get you down to the safe room with the other untrained wolves." He said carrying me swiftly through the halls of the pack house. The sound of fighting got louder the more we ran towards the safe room. The Alpha quickly puts me down and pushes me behind him.

"The rogues are trying to break into the safe room." He whispers turning to face me, he places his hands on my shoulders and looks me deeply in the eyes. His pupils dilated and I knew he was going to use the Alpha command on me.

"Dawn go straight to my room and lock yourself in my closet, don't go anywhere else I have to help fight." He commanded and I nodded my head in agreement. He let go of my shoulders and runs away. I start running to the Alphas room, my wolf under the power of the Alpha command. I heard the painful howl of a wolf and my heart shrivelled up; it was the cry of my mother. My wolf was roaring in my head, trying to pull me to go back on my ordered path but I didn't want to. Your wolf side is supposed to be the dominant one, who uses the Alpha command and pure natural instincts to decide what's the best path. Although it can be our weakness at times it's how the wolves have lived since the beginning of our history. Though today the Alpha command seemed to be slipping as if it never had been put there in the first place. I blocked my wolf and ran back down the stairs and out the front door. Most of the enemy had either been killed or had retreated. I heard my mother's howl once more and I ran off in the direction of her cries.

My steps seemed to echo through my mind as I sprinted over to my mother, I found her tossed up against the side of the tree. I ran over to her and pulled her head onto my lap.

"Dawn?" She whispered shakily staring up into my eyes in confusion. I smile down at her and softly brush the sweaty hair off her face.

"Yes mother, I'm here now." I whisper soothingly moving to the side of her body so I could place my arms under her armpits and under her knees to pick her up bridal style. Cradling her tightly to my chest, I carried her quickly back into the pack house and towards the infirmary. Sophia the pack nurse rushed over to me and takes my mother out of my hands and onto a gurney. I watch as she wheels her away.

"Dawn why are you here?" The Alpha's voice called out and I turned to face an angry Alpha. His pupils darkened, and his nostrils flared in anger.

"My mother was injured." I told him nervously watching as he walked towards me, practically feeling the anger roll off him.

"I commanded you to go to my closet, how were you able to disobey?" He asks a subtle growl raging under his breath.

"I don't know." I told him shaking nervously as he stared me down, some of the other members nearby have started to notice the commotion and have gathered around to watch our interaction.

"The simple possibility that you are able to easily defy my Alpha command makes you a traitor, nothing more than a worthless rogue!" He snapped taking a step closer forcing me to take a step back to avoid having him directly in my space bubble.

"Your body has no reaction to my command; your soul isn't obedient or loyal. Only rogues have the ability to ignore a command. I should've seen the signs earlier, you are a natural born rogue!" He stated in front of everyone, in front of my family, friends and my pack. Calling me a traitorous, disobedient, worthless rogue and crushing my spirit under his clipped tone.

"I'm not a rogue!" I pleaded trying to get him to understand that I care about my pack more than anything. I have never acted out against him, no acts of rebellion, and no defiance.

"What have I done to make you think so low of me?" I asked tears starting to pile down my face, I wiped them away with my sleeve. Taking deep breaths trying to be able to calm myself down. I was starting to have a panic attack. Rogues were not a name to throw around lightly, it was a serious matter that if continued could lead to banishment. Was there any chance at all that I was as he claimed me to be, was I really a natural born rogue? The cursed kind of wolves that are destined to be killed or banished from any and every pack they lived in because their humans couldn't obey.

The Alpha's face fell in remorse, he almost looked sorry for me. To him I was a pack member, someone he was entrusted to protect and care for, but now in his eyes I'm nothing but the very enemy he had killed earlier today...

"For the sake of your parents, loyal pack members of the Luna Woods Pack. I have decided not to kill you where you stand. Instead I shall banish you. Do not take this as mercy, if I ever see you again on my lands, I will kill you." He said, his face emotionless, his tone strong and serious. I was no longer a pack member in his eyes, but a danger to his way of life. A danger to everyone in this pack. A danger to his authority, to his power, which in his mind is probably worse than all the others.

The words that he spoke hadn't sunk in, I stood there unmoving not able to process how he had just ruined my life. Had I known disobeying him in such a small manner, could lead to the end of any fairy tale life I wanted.

"I will escort you to MY borders, you will take nothing and say goodbye to no one." He told me firmly and despite the circumstances I was happy he told me what to do. I had no idea how to react or what to do with myself. I nodded my head and followed silently behind my alpha...I mean the Alpha of the Luna Woods pack.

Thanks to the wonders of the mind link, when I followed the Alpha outside into the courtyard all eyes were instantly on me, and their eyes were full of hatred. People I went to school with, people who I considered friends, older mothers who baked me cookies and couples who babysat me all now looking at me with nothing but pure loathing. I shivered under their gazes and kept my head down, refusing to meet their eyes, afraid if I dared to look up into the eyes of the people I love, they would kill me with no hesitation. I am a short walk away from being banished, a rogue, and that made me a threat to them.

Once he had led me to the edge of the borders, he turned to face me hesitantly. There was a strange noise as in his human form he brought his claws forward. Sharp and dangerous. I gulped nervously taking in a few panicked breaths. Everyone knows how to distinguish a rogue from a pack member, a rogue can be identified by a scar starting from the left side of their neck all the way down to their heart. The scar is created by the four claws of the rogue’s previous Alpha. It is a warning sign to other packs of their betrayals, a scar that would never heal.

I could see in his eyes past all his newborn hatred for me, that he didn't want to be the one to inflict the scarring wound upon me, to permanently brand me as a rogue. I used to be friends with his daughter. Our mothers were friends, and since birth so had we. We took baths together as infants and we had been friends for many years until she moved away to be with her mate. The Alpha was like an Uncle to me, someone that would look after me when I was in trouble, like earlier today during the attack, he took time to ensure I was okay, but not now.

I looked past his hatred and the fact that he was going to banish me and tried to comfort him with a smile. Trying to say through my expressions that I could never hate him, no matter what he would do to me. He was always the best Alpha, doing his best to do what was right for his people and if getting rid of me was what was right. Who was I to say what he was doing was wrong? Maybe there was something deeply wrong with me, the day I was born I became a ticking time bomb. My mind just waiting for the right day to betray my pack, and that day has come.

I wasn't paying attention when his hand finally moved to strike me, in the corner of my eye his movement caught my attention and I turned at the last and worst possible moment. His claws painfully nicked the side of my face before clawing deeply through my flesh, carving his way through the muscle in my chest and my collar bone. I couldn’t feel the pain, adrenaline coursing through my blood, my heart pounding relentlessly against my ribs.

When I looked up to face him, he looked startled for a moment before his face went hard and uncaring. He shoved me over the borderline and I tripped over falling to my back.

“Goodbye traitor.” He snarled viciously, the sound foreign to my ears and I tremble at the sound. I propped myself up onto my elbows watching a man who I once cared deeply for, leave me to the fate of the dangers of unmarked territory, where an untrained unmated girl like me had a slim chance of living to see the next sunrise.

As he disappeared out of sight it started to rain heavily, pouring down on my shivering form. Delicately washing away the blood that resulted as a consequence of my actions. Pools of water started to form around me, and I looked down into the puddle.

What I saw caused me to burst out into tears. His claws had created a scar over my left eye, blood sliding down my face. I could taste the bitter metallic flavour in my mouth and I spat it out. Wanting nothing else but to be rid of the scar, but it's just like the carvings on my chest. A wound inflicted by an Alpha will never heal.

Within minutes the last of the remaining sun had vanished beyond the horizon and I knew I had to move or die. Rogue don’t often stray so close to border lines so I’d be safe from them if I remained here, but I would not be saved from border patrol, which I’m sure will resume their duties shortly, the Alpha giving me a short window of time to pass into no man’s land, unowned land scattered around the borders of pack land.

I get up from off the ground, mud slipping off me as I walk away from the borderline. Not sure where to go I wonder aimlessly into the woods. I turn back one more time to look at my home, but the pack borderline is no longer in view. It’s in this moment that I decide, to never look backwards again. I march onward, deeper, and deeper into the woods until I can no longer smell a trace of that pack.

All I can hear is the sound of my own footsteps crunching against the leaves and the insects who can now be heard chirping in the silence of night. Cold has seeped deep within my bones in a way it has never done before, rogues have the warmth of their wolf’s fur to keep them warm at night, I do not have a wolf to warm me.

I come across a large tree, its roots crawling across the surface of the soil. It’s in between two large roots that I dig a burrow for myself. Bloods seeps from the edges of my nails, as my fingers frantically dig through the soil, until a child sized hole is created in the soil. I zip up my sweater, tuck the hem of my jeans into my socks trapping my remaining warmth in before climbing into the hole. The burrow kept the wind off of me, as I struggled to fall into a restless sleep. Waking every few hours at the sound of twigs breaking, or owls hooting, or even the feeling of insects crawling across my skin. Though, eventually I fell into a sleep that lasted until morning, the worst day of my life passed, to make room for the second...

The first few days were a nightmare. Winter is cold enough when you’re sitting in front of the fire inside your warm home, let alone when you are out in the woods with no survival skills, struggling to find suitable shelter, nothing but the trees over my head to shelter me from the rain that seemed to soak through my layers of skin even though it shouldn’t be possible. Food was always scarce, as I had not shifted yet I couldn't use my wolf's natural instincts to hunt down food, instead I was left with nothing to eat but the produce off of the land which was very little. The second morning of my banishment, I came upon a small bush of berries and was too hungry to considerate not eating them. I don’t remember much of what happened in the following days, but what I could remember consisted of memories of being violently ill and lying on the ground crippled with pain.

I concluded yesterday that the only way I can survive being a rogue long enough to shift, would be to trespass onto pack lands in search of anything safe to eat. I will not survive eating anymore poisonous berries. The rashes from them along drove me insane and a girl has to eat. At least I was smart enough to know never to return to my old pack in search of food. Despite the fact that they have known me all my life, if they saw me, they'd kill me on sight.

I didn’t know exactly where the nearest pack was located, but I knew the moment that the reek of an Alpha filled my nose that I was metres from a pack boundary. I was quietly treading the borders of what I believed to be the land of the Faded Shadow Pack, it was the only pack within wandering distance. From my previous knowledge, this pack has harsh procedures when it comes to rogues, but their main weakness is their border patrol. Too much land and not enough wolves eligible to be put on patrol. This was a weakness I was eager and ready to exploit.

Peering through the trees into the wide open space, I saw no wolves and took it as reassurance for me to continue. I poke my head out from the bush looking in both directions before running across the borders and towards the town. If I were quick enough, I'd have several minutes before any patrol wolves come by and catch my scent, allowing me a slim time frame to find some food.

Smoke from a distant chimney guided me to a house on the outskirts of the pack, a small house probably intended for newly mated couples to get away from the chaos of the pack house and move somewhere quieter to raise a family.

I creep around the back of the house, quietly scaled the small wooden fence, and snuck up to the house. Leaning against the side of the house, I walk over to the window and peek my head over the edge of the windowsill. Inside the house were two children at least three years younger than me, sitting at the kitchen table. I watched with sad eyes as their mother walked in with two bowls of warm porridge. I could smell the honey covered oats from where I was crouched. The sight alone made me drool and want to sing hallelujah. I have tried my hardest to forget about everyone, but I couldn't help but wonder of my mother and whether or not she was even alive. Last time I saw her she was lying badly injured on an infirmary stretcher.

In that split moment when I dazed off thinking about my mother, the real mother in the house turned and spotted me through the window. She gasped loudly causing me to snap out of my thoughts and stare at her in horror. I've been spotted. I give the woman an awkward smile before bolting down the side of her house, running through her lovely front garden. Reaching my hand up I grab an apple from the tree above before sprinting full speed in the direction of the borders.

I could hear a howl somewhere in the distance, signalling my presence to the rest of the pack. I keep the borderline in my sights, pushing my legs the as fast as they could go. Though, realistically how could the legs of a fourteen year old girl out run fully grown wolves.

The closer I got to the border the louder and more frequent the howls got, suddenly I could hear growls coming from not far behind me. I knew any chance I had to escape was slim, but hell I wasn't going down without a fight. The sound of the wolf’s paws echoed through my ears, their harsh ragged breath tickling down my neck.

It wasn't until I was just a few hundred metres from the border did a big wolf tackle me hard to the dirt. We skidded against the hard ground and I moaned out in pain as my skin scrapes against stone and grass, leaving burns in my skin. In a brief moment of courage, I shoved the palm of my hand into the wolf’s face trying to pry him away from me, but he growled dangerously and I cowered, closing my eyes pinning myself to the ground.

If I close my eyes for long enough maybe I'll wake up and this all will be a terrible, terrible nightmare. I wouldn't have been kicked out of my pack, forced to be a rogue, left frozen and starved and now most likely going to be killed for stealing food from a pack to avoid starvation.

The wolf who tackled me, is now sitting directly on top of me keeping my body pinned to the ground. A simple but effective strategy to ensure I can't get away, but honestly how could I. Within minutes a majority of the pack warriors will have surrounded me and there wouldn’t be any chance of escaping. I hear the sounds of people approaching, they were far away at first so their talking was quiet until they got a lot closer.

"Have you spoken to the rogue yet?" A thick masculine man asked, his tone strict, serious, and potentially dangerous. I'm too scared to dare to look him in the eye, if just the sound of his voice reeks of Alpha dominance, I can't imagine what he’d look like. Alpha's have not been kind to me in the past.

"No sir, we were awaiting your arrival. Our third currently has her pinned." A weaker voice replied, I could sense he was the Beta and obviously the third in command is the lovely soul crushing my little body.

"Okay John, get the men to stand between her and the border, everyone else surround the area and I'll cuff her once the third removes himself.” The Alpha sent out orders to his men and I could hear them walk away to presume their positions. Treating me like a threat who was going to bolt the second I got a chance. It was all silent for a while until slowly the pressure from above was relieved and the wolf had got off of me, allowing me to sit up...