Can I just say how sorry I am that I took this story down? :( I truly am sorry and I bet a lot of you are wondering why I decided to take this story down. The main reason was because I had terribly writer's block and didn't really have any idea of where I was going with the story. I want to thank Gillian2892 for PMing me and being such as sweetheart. I promise to all of you I will continue this story and hopefully I wouldn't get writer's block again. So here is the prologue, read, review and most importantly enjoy :)

Love,

Owly

I kneeled in front of the Council, my hands folded in my lap with my eyes down. I did not have the courage to look the Council members in the eyes, knowing that I would see the blame and hatred in them for a crime that my pack and I did not commit. We patrolled day and night, killing any mystical being that posed a threat to the humans who lived in our town, Lakewood Row and yet they blamed us for the death of multiple humans, the people that we were bound to protect. I wanted to scream at them, to tell them how blind they were being, rushing to conclusions without expecting all of the other options. My pack was not the only one. No, there were four packs of seven, the other three were never questioned. Truth be told, mine did have some of the more rebelish and not as human loving as others.

As the thought crossed through my mind, I felt Shay Allen look at me with his icy blue eyes. I always got this sinking feeling in my stomach whenever he looked at me. I tried to push it aside but it always bothered me. I did not trust Shay as much as I did the others in my pack, like I said before Shay has become known as a rebel and not very loving of humans. He thinks of us as gods because of our ability to shift and feels like the humans should grovel at our feet, showering us with gifts. I have told him countless times, the history of our people, that we were meant to protect, not rule.

"Aeriol Emilie Ashmore."

I looked up at the sound of my name to meet the cold hazel eyes of my father.

I felt my stomach drop down to my feet. My father and I did not have the greatest of relationships, if you call hardly speaking to me since birth a father-daughter relationship.

The main reason for it was because he was bitter. My mother was never meant to have twins, maybe another child after a son was born but never twins that would going to be a boy and a girl. I have heard that my father was appalled when I was born first instead of my twin brother Ansel. You see, my father and mother were the Alpha male and female from of the four packs from their generation and that meant their first born child would be a natural born Alpha and control their own pack once they were old enough. I was born two minutes before Ansel so the right of Alpha passed down to me.

I am one of the only females naturally born with the right to be Alpha, there have been others but most of them have passed on. I hardly had any help in the beginning. I had to go by my instinct when my pack was sent out to patrol or fight off a vampire from the town. I learned and made mistakes at the same time, which was what made me such a great Alpha in the end. My pack was patient with me as I was with them when they disobeyed my orders.

I have all of the rights of Alpha, including sitting in front of the Council for judgment for my pack's "crimes".

I tried not to hiss or bare my canines at my father, which would only speed the trial and get me killed. Instead I sat silently, waiting for him to speak again.

"How do you plead against the murders of five humans from Lakewood Row?" Father asked.

"Not guilty," My voice rang loud out strong and firm throughout the Council room. I only wished I felt the same on the inside, I was shaking like a leaf.

"Very interesting," Father mused as he looked at the papers in front of him. I was tempted to walk up and slam his head against his desk.

Not really, I wanted to growl at him. He seemed to sense it because he looked up sharply, his hazel colored eyes glaring at me, the rims of them beginning to turn gold which always happened before one of our kind shifted. I glared back. He wouldn't dare attack me here in front of the entire Council. My father was impulsive but he was not stupid. He knew that attacking his daughter, let alone the Alpha of one of the packs, would have his immediate removal from the Council and execution.

"You say you are not guilty, than why was your pack's scents found at the scene of the crime and why the victims had wounds that doctors have confirmed could have only come from our kind's razor sharp claws. Would you care to explain that?"

"We had been patrolling in that area of the forest earlier during the day, it is natural if our scents linger there." I answered simply, trying to keep the edge out of my voice and than added. "Excuse me, Father but you do realize we are not the only pack in Lakewood Row protecting the humans, correct? Than why is mine being the only one questioned. True, that my pack's scents were found there from an earlier patrol but it seems like you have rushed to conclusions and not searched all of the possible angles of the case."

Multiple members of the Council murmured quietly while Father glared at me again, his upper lip curling in snarl as I stood up, meeting his cold hazel eyes with my own. That was the one thing I hated most about my physical appearance, the fact that I had gotten my father's sharp hazel colored eyes, the rest I was a replica of my mother who had left my brother and I when we were only ten years old. No one knows why, not even my mother's sister Tessa who says that they had been close since birth. I tried not to let it bother me now, I have gone eight years without a mother and I did not need one now.

I smiled at the Council and said in as sweet of a voice as I could muster due to the circumstances. "If the Council would permit it, may my pack and I take our leave?"

The members whispered to each other for a moment before Theodore Gold spoke up, grinning at me. I noticed how much the skin in the corners of his brown eyes crinkled when he smiled. It calmed me but only a little.

"Your request is granted, Aeriol. You shall be called upon again when the Council has made their decision."

I nodded and hurried down the aisle on the Council room to get to my pack. As I walked I could feel my father's glare burning two holes into the back of my skull but I refused to turn around and look.

My Beta and best friend Carissa jumped out of her seat and followed closely behind me when I reached where she was sitting in the back of the Council room, the other members of our pack trailing behind us.

"We need to get out of here." I whispered to her, "I do not trust anyone on this Council. We need safety and we will not find it here anymore not when they suspect our pack on killing innocent people."

Carissa looked at me with wide green eyes. "Where are we going to go?" She whispered back.

"I'm not sure." I growled slightly, "But anywhere is better than here."