I had to physically stop the gasp that wanted to come out of my mouth. The goosebumps on my arms rose as my excitement did. Better make sure I locked my mind away before Asra gets any ideas. That is, if he was out of his grump.

I was once a well-respected man of the council. An alpha in his own right.

So, where do I begin, other than the start?

You found my book. That is for a reason. I write this as I think, unsure if I will ever let it leave my grasp. It is my diary, if you may, my journal.

Your world may differ from mine now, as a lot of things are about to happen. The council have all agreed to a war. A Great War. It will eradicate the entire human population if they do not stand down. But wolves are desperate.

We are a threatened species, and we require the land and safety of being free. That is a given, is it not? However, hunters roam the woods, and we fear they may use our strength for evil. So, they plan for a war. Many will die, but I fear the humans will bear the worst of it. They are stubborn, vicious creatures without claws, who fight with weaponry as their defence.

The wolves need the element of surprise, and so, next week as the sun rises, so will the wolves. Crawling out of the shadows on all corners of the world, they are going to force the humans to submit. They recognise the sheer amount of deaths, and plan on hounding the humans like cattle. Force them into towns where they will remain a pet for their safety.

It is inhumane. We are part of them, created in their image, and yet we will destroy them.

The Moon Goddess will be happy.

Whatever you believe, she is real.

I have met her myself.

A dainty woman full of curves, she is our mother.

However, she is not as amazing as she seems.

She manipulates and she controls. There are whispers of her involvement in this war.

I should probably backtrack a little. Who is the Goddess?

She is a god. A human-appearing female with god-like capabilities. A female who can create life and destroy it with a flick of her finger.

They did not create wolves for good.

You see, all is not fair in love and war, because with love comes heartbreak, and that is something the Goddess took hard.

When the man she adored created a creature, we now know as human, she grew jealous of the time he put into the creatures. Her hatred and jealousy made her see only the bad in humans. Their greed, their disgusting lack of care... They were dirty, selfish creatures to her.

They did not share land, nor money, and they cheated on their partners. They manipulated their jobs and their homes, and demanded the women were incapable of their own minds.

She did not like her lover's fascination with the species, and so created her own out of hatred.

With a human in one hand, and a loyal wolf in the other, she created the shifter beneath a full moon.

From both a beast and a lover.

You decide which is which.

The first werewolves were loyal to each other, with the strongest and most-powerful becoming alpha male. This wolf, we know as Aldrich di Capo.

The Goddess created more, and more, and more, until in a mere matter of five days, there were nearly three-hundred wolves.

But that wasn't all. She gave them the gift of strength, speed, and healing. She allowed them to turn into these creatures to defend their life, land, and honour. But she also made them unable to hurt those they loved. With this came the mate bond. She created a lifelong commitment that she decides from the day they create a child in the womb.

The Moon Goddess sees all; past, present and future. No age is a difference if the first mate in question must wait. She loves her creation, but she loves power more. A strong bond means a strong pup. It was all she wanted; to prove to her lover that she, too, was capable of amazing things.

With her mate-bond uniting wolves, her lover realised how well her species appeared. However, the wolves were prideful, and often fought for dominance. Not every wolf was happy with a sole leader, with Aldrich's soft nature, and many broke off into groups, lead by their own beast. Thus, territorial packs were created.

The Goddess failed to see how merging two species could backfire. The wolves, desperate to protect their own kind, fled to the shadows. Soon, other creatures of the night were discovered, importantly the vampires. An equal enemy to the werewolves, so the wolves left them be. They watched as the vampires ravaged villages, and it only made the Goddess angrier.

Humans were stupid and defenceless.

Meanwhile, her wonderful creation was hiding in the shadows in fear of the gunpowder and silver traps that the hunters lay. But wolves just wanted peace. They wanted to protect their young and their species.

So for three hundred years, they lay in hiding.

Until now.

The wolves had grown exceptionally, but bloodlines were struggling. We could not find mates in those of too-similar blood; it was wrong. The bond made a strong offspring and pack. So the wolves were stuck. With most branching off-shore, soulmates were hard to find.

They needed land, too. Packs grew cramped from the mountains that they hid. Humans did not enjoy going up the mountains, which gave them the perfect cover. With their fur, they were more adapted, but now... We had nowhere else to go but down.

We wanted the warmth their land provided, too.

So what better way, to gain land and pride, then to demolish well-built civilisations?

What had the Goddess' lover done to her, to cause such hatred on his creation? Was it jealousy? Did she loathe the time he spent looking after his humans?

She only saw them as weak, selfish spawns. And with her whisper among the wolf council, they go to war.

Millions of humans died all across the globe, those left forced to small neighbourhoods to work for the beasts.

Not all of us agreed to this, but at the end of it all, it goes to vote. An eighty perfect vote in favour trumps all others and now humans lay dead.

I just hope that they realise the error of their ways before it is too late.

For I have found a mate. At last, after all these years of searching, I found her.

But guess what?

She lived among the humans.

I first discovered her as a pup, her mother dying sadly after her birth. To others, she was nothing but an orphan pup, but her father, a once powerful man, succumbed to his mate's death, and the pup, with such rich blood, was left with no defence.

So, what did I do?

I sent her to the human village as a babe. It is, after all, what I can do for the child of my best friend. Humans were not the creatures others believed. They loved hard, and they protected with everything they had. They had these weapons because they had nothing else, their creator giving them no defence, not even fur to warm their backs.

They were compassionate and worked well as a team, much as we did. Though their senses were dull, their personalities were unique. Their thoughts were so much more complex than ours, able to think so much more deeply than any beast. They are soft, caring, smart, and adaptable. They love everything, their land, their animals, their homes...

But like beasts, there are those that don't. There are selfish creatures in every species, but if you look past those arrogant beasts, you find those who are not.

And with a blood-line as strong as hers, she needed all the protection I could give her.

That meant hiding her.

I just hoped the humans accepted her as well as any pack. She was valuable.

Being the last of her bloodline, the two of us needed to be safe to one day bare pups of our own and continue her great-grandfather's bloodline. The once-great Aldrich di Capo. The first werewolf, the first alpha, created by the Goddess. The strongest bloodline there was, and she was the last one.

I owed it to her bloodline to keep her safe.

So, I found her a couple who could not bear children, and gave them a gift I knew they would love unconditionally; a daughter. I supplied the humans with silver, and they were compliant, understanding it was for her own safety.

I would be back.

I will be back.

Serena, I will never leave you.

I slammed the book closed, unable to contain my emotions. My mind was whirring, a strange sense of dizziness taking my breath away. I was fully aware of the teenager glancing at me again, but I was fast to scurry and check out the first book, hiding the journal beneath my clothes.

I could not deal with this in there. I needed privacy.

My mind was blank as I ran from the library, empty as I boarded the elevator. It only exploded with thoughts the moment I was behind the bedroom door, and only then did I let out the soft scream of emotion into a sofa cushion. Lying down, I fought to catch my breath.

This wasn't just a book.

This was Asra's damn father's journal!

I cursed, lifting the book above my head. Why did I have his journal? From what I read in this, he was a devoted male, so why did everybody paint him in such a terrible light? Why did Asra believe his father forced his mother to move with him?

Asra believed humans found his mother wandering after her parents died in the war, but this happened way before the war. His mother was older than he thought, and her past was not what he believed.

Why did they twist the stories?

Right, let me get this straight first before I continue reading.

Asra's grandmother died after childbirth. Why? Wolves have amazing healing!

His grandfather, therefore, died after his mate from the heartbreak of the mate bond. He was a direct descended of Alpha Aldrich, too!

Damn, a bond was intense.

Why did Asra's father make a promise to Serena's father? He said he would keep her safe, even if it meant affecting their bond. He wanted her safe.

From what?

Or should I say, from who?

Did the person he was hiding her from kill her parents? Did they not die naturally?

Did her mother truly die after childbirth? A newborn was an easy target; wolf or not. They grew up as humans and didn't shift until they were older, but Serena never shifted. Her original bloodline, her wolf, her beast instincts, never came out.

They poisoned her with silver because they wanted her hidden.

So, who would want to wipe out an entire bloodline?

This was like one of those documentaries on the television. I need a notepad.

Grabbing one from a drawer, I scrawled down all my thoughts, and when finished, I couldn't help but stare down at it with confusion. There was no chance I was leaving this now. This was my new obsession, I was certain of it. I would sort this out.

If not for Asra, but for his mother and father.

That urging gut-twisting in my stomach was the same as whenever I thought about my father. So, I knew I had to investigate further. I couldn't leave it. This book was intentional.

It was a journal, with no library barcode or insert.

Who planted it?

Who put it there for me to find? How did they know I could find it?

I wasn't anything special.

I swore softly, not knowing where I was going to go with this. So I turned the page and continued to read. Page after page. Line after line.

The day the treaty was signed, the death toll was up to five hundred thousand wolves.

That sounds a lot, doesn't it?

But do you know how many lives we took? How many defenceless, innocent humans died?

One billion, two hundred thirty-one million, seven hundred fifty-three thousand, five hundred seventy-six humans died.

Not that I was counting...

Well over half of their population. Gone.

A mere seven million of them left.

Just when humans discover that silver can harm us, we retaliate. They are smart, but we are ahead of them. Our beasts thrive in packs, but humans do not hold such a commitment. If threatened, they run or submit, and the beasts? They kill them either way.

So many humans gone, so many lives lost. Families destroyed.

Serena was safe. The elder humans she lived with as a pup were smart. Now it was over. I would move them to a human territory where I could keep a close eye on her.

For now, I was glad the treaty was done.

Humans will never truly know why. They will never know the benefit of their existence.

It was sporadic. And we questioned every single movement the Goddess ever made. She created life; she created love; she created bonds. So why, why now, did she pair an alpha with a human?

The moment Alpha Bodhi's mate was killed, the entire frontline stopped.

A human as a mate?

It boggled them all.

Cross-species mating was unheard of.

The luna dying in Bodhi's arms was a call for all of us. What we valued, what we hoped for... We all mourned our losses that day and the treaty came from our hurt. The possibilities of our future were declining the more we hurt. The more we pillaged.

The Goddess, changing her plans and giving us the ability to find mates with other creatures, had many wolves question if it had already happened. What if their mate was a human and was killed last week?

What if their mate lay dying at the hands of another wolf and they'd never know?

Most wolves burned from the inside, the terrifying, heart-stopping fear that they may lose the one thing we strive for in life; a partner. The one who created for us.

None of us knew the Goddess' plan anymore.

We were lost.

These creatures that hunted us, that wiped out bloodlines out of greed, could now be ours?

But there were still those wolves with anger in their heart. The humans still risked their family's lives and posed threats to our environment. Even though many were innocent, their village friends still hunted ours. Controlling them would give us the advantage. Hounding them into districts meant we could track the bond's easier, and so, we created the hunt.

It gave those bloodthirsty a chance to seek revenge on cocky humans who thought they were better than their curfew and laws. But it gave them a chance to control something many beasts desired, and protect the possibility of mate-ship.

Wolves had grown greedy; the original council being overturned in favour of independent continental territories. Each continental alpha was to rule over subsequent territorial alphas.

The Great War relegated those who declined into territorial positions, and that's when my downfall came. I was a territorial alpha. How could I protect my mate now? I was beneath an alpha who sought human blood in the hunts.

She was barely a teenager now; I couldn't risk her life.

But at least she was safe. And she was smart. Her parents often spoke of her passion for cooking, and the moment the war ended, I moved them to somewhere that she could flourish her passions. It would keep her safe, having a job. She could grow into a woman with the support of her townspeople.

As all our lives changed, so did the hope of me looking after her. Where I had hoped to find her during a hunt as she grew of age, the wolves were conspiring still. They believed that Aldrich's line was dead, the only wolf strong enough to control us, and I feared her safety.

My mate, now a young woman. And I was forced into my duties. Wolves were populating and growing happy with their choices in life. As the years went by, and the older I grew, the more stress I had on my job. But I couldn't go to her, I couldn't risk her life, or our future pups' lives.

I was stuck.

Forced into a mate-ship by my Continental Alpha, I took a mate. She did not bear my mark, but bared my child; a son. Azriel.

I paused, exhaling loudly. Asra's brother was not even his full-blood? His father took a mate before Serena. They could do that? That poor mate-bond.

I turned the page to a new entry, bracing myself for diving into Asra's past.

I am angry.

But it is for the good of the pack.

An arranged mate-ship with a territorial alpha's daughter.

I could not love Gabrielle as much as she wished I could. She did not have a mate, did not feel the bond of none. But I did. My beast grew antsy as the years went by, being forced to like this woman who we did not care for emotionally.

I grew stronger. I grew powerful, and with that, so did my anger.

She was a fantastic mother to our son, and a kind woman to our pack, but we did not share the same bed.

I was not angry at her. She did nothing wrong.

One night, as our son lay sleeping, she asked why I could not love her, and in trust, I told her so. I told her I had a mate, but she was human and I left her decades ago. I lied and claimed I feared for her life and my title, and Gabrielle listened and held my hand.

The night before the hunt, she ran away with Azriel in her arms.

I did not look back.

I did not care why she ran.

I only hope she finds the life she deserves.

Now alone with no risk to my created-family, my desires increased. My beastly need to find my mate and make her mine was so strong now. She was in her forties, a prime age for a female wolf, and I so desired her. I needed her.

I was going to have her.

Even if it meant dragging her here myself. I promise myself that she will be mine no matter what.

My canines ached with desire for my hunt.

It was only a matter of days.

So now, I would seek my own bloodline.

************

biiiig chapter this one. more than i usuall write.