Prologue

He watched with horror as the forest burned below him. To say it was a nightmare was the understatement of the century. Everything he knew, everything he loved, was purged in the fire. At the very heart of it were the damnable humans. A hunter and his friends were paving the way for a hunting lodge. After cutting down the trees they needed, they burned down a portion of the area to make room for a true construction sight, and to scare all the wolves away. They hadn't been afraid. They fought, just as they always had. Even to their bitter end.

The black wolf tried to run back into the blaze but the few followers who escaped with him kept him back, fearing for the life of their alpha. He struggled against them, his heart hammering loudly in his ears. Someone of importance had not escaped with them. The alpha wolf searched frantically but she was nowhere to be seen.

"We have to go back!" he yelled, "We have to find her!"

"Tempest, it'd be suicide!" one of his last followers got in front of him.

"They'll kill her! We have to do something!"

"To save her you must save yourself! They'll kill you!"

He was devastated. He needed to go. He needed to leave, but he needed to lead the last of his pack to safety. The humans were relentless. They'd never make it out alive and he knew it. With tears in his brown eyes, he forced himself to turn away from the blaze. They would return and search for survivors when the flames died. They had no choice but to wait.

It felt like eternity before they were finally diminished. Tempest had led the last seven of his wolves, some of which were his immediate family, deeper into the dense woods, bordering another pack's territory. Once he knew they were safe, he immediately went back and waited as the blaze died. Finally he could hopefully find Yura, his beloved mate.

Looking around he saw no sign of her. He couldn't smell her through all of the ash and death. He felt hopeful and ran from the burned soon to be construction sight. The black alpha darted through the woods as fast and far as his paws could take him, hope budding anew in his broken heart. But approaching the river that served as a western border for his territory, his hope turned to dread. There, laying partly out of the water, was a body. A wolf body, gray and buff in color. By her scent, Tempest knew who this was.

It was his Yura. His beautiful Yura, once so full of life, warmth and love, was now no more than a lifeless corpse. Looking her over, he knew her death wasn't accidental. In the head of the beautiful cream and gray wolf was a circular hole with a piece of metal inside. The bullet had not passed through her head, so Yura had suffered before she died.

Tempest whined and licked her face, his triangular folding back against his head. His eyes filled with tears and, unable to contain his misery, he howled in despair and anger. In his song he vowed vengeance against humanity and vowed to hunt and destroy the ones who did this. He pulled her body to the shore and laid it close to a fallen pine.

"I'll find them Yura…I'll make them pay…all of them" he snarled and licked her face in goodbye as the love in his heart died, replaced with only a thirst for vengeance…