Chapter 1

"When her island paradise erupts in flames, priestess Loiza must lead 10,000 werewolf survivors to a hostile ally’s territory. As their new Alpha forged in fire, she discovers her fated mate—their rival leader. But dark family secrets and a slave trade within his pack could shatter their bond and ignite war."

Loiza's POV:

After being a priestess of the Goddess for most of my life my intuition is exponentially higher than that of an average werewolf. Once you're chosen for this task, no matter what tribe of the supernatural you are from, the Goddess bestows her Blessings as well as her gifts upon you. As a young Priestess in training away from my pack in the warm heart of The Caribbean, I came upon many beings of such species, and even though outside of Avalon most are our enemies, inside Avalon, harmony persists. It's the way of the Goddess... Blessed Be.

I was offered to continue my education as a High Priestess because of my accomplishments, but as a werewolf, being away from my pack made me feel isolated. Not that there weren't other she-wolves, it's just that they were not from my pack, and even though we all lived in harmony and well wishes, I longed for my pack and my family dearly, I have been here since the age of five, so I really knew nothing else. As a Priestess of the Goddess I earned my Crescent Moon branding on my left forearm, not that they brand me with a hot iron, the brand just appears, a moment of sizzling hot pain and then it's over, the clear picture of the Crescent Moon created from one's inner fire. At 14, I returned home to Karaya Island, to The Osupa Moon Pack... location undisclosed to the outside world, and only allied packs knew how and where to find us.

After the so-called age of discovery, our standing in the islands had faded as much at the natives themselves which basically worshipped us as gods. To gain favor with the "new gods" that had arrived at our shores, some of the natives gave the Conquistadors the secret to our weakness, silver and wolfsbane. It was an awful mistake... they did not know that while sealing our fate they were sealing theirs as well. And just like they were falling to disease and slavery, we were being hunted, we knew nothing about guns. We lived peacefully and in harmony in our islands with the natives, there were land disputes, but thank Goddess they were always settled peacefully and we always vowed to protect the natives. The only condition we had, was that we would not get involved in any quarrels among themselves, for even though they worshiped us as gods we always tried to assure them we were not, we dared not stray that way for we would lose the Goddess's Blessings.

Originally, we were not just one pack, there were at first 13 then our numbers dwindled making least five total in the Caribbean, those that were left after the genocide decided to unite and form the Osupa Pack. As Islanders, the sea was as intimate to us as the rainforests; the smell of salt was as was at enticing to us at the smell of dirt being sprinkled by rain and the aroma of the tropical flowers of the forest. It was the scent of home, and we had no intention of giving it up so easily. We sent scouts in canoes to find the perfect island where we could all regroup and become one indestructible pack, and that's where we found an island that had never been inhabited, it was large and fertile enough to be able to house all of us with more than enough room to grow. And of course as creatures of the Moon, and subjects to the moon Goddess we would name it Karaya, the Taíno word for moon.

Yet we were no longer pure Taíno; just like our human counterparts, we would mate with those that were different, it was not considered taboo to mate with something other than warewolf. And some even found their true mates among the Europeans and Africans that were brought under the yoke of slavery. We relished in the diversity, the genetic mixing made us stronger. The new flavors and languages, the sounds of the African drums all united us into one powerfull pack. This was our last stronghold in the Caribbean and we were determined to protect it at all costs. We guarded it from the turmoils of those times, within our territory silver and slavery were banned.

We learned the languages of the invaders and slaves alike, our training became more rigorous, not just in physical strength, but in nautical prowess, guerrilla warfare and above all stealth and espionage. We would join the Conquistadors who hunted us in their ships without them knowing who or what we were, we were mixed enough that many of us could pass for European, we would send teams to every single landmass on the planet, until we knew every culture, every language, every pack. Our mission was gathering as much intel as possible and never be taken by surprise again. Our other mission, was to meet other packs in other lands and create alliances, we had no knowledge that werewolf packs in other lands would be so hostile towards our desires of a united werewolf world. We were so used to the unity we had in the Caribbean, but we were naive then, and we were still learning.

With the passing of the centuries not only did we become masters at espionage, we kept developing our technology. Unlike other werewolf packs who have their territories in continents, we did not have to worry about rogue attacks at any border. Our border was the ocean and our main line of defense, just like the rest of the world, we were developing our technology at a rapid pace, so we would always try to be one step ahead. We developed sonar before humans actually did, so anything that approached our territory would be easily detected, with that, we also developed a cloaking mechanism that would hide our island from satellites and other sonar. It was as if we were invisible in plain sight! If we found new technology outside of our borders in our missions of espionage we would definitely steal it and adapted it to our needs.

We were no longer the hunted and went back to our original instinct of being the hunters. We hunted more technology, not just for defense, but for offense, for medical purposes, for more effective espionage we were able to develop many ways to hide our scent from every supernatural being that has the gift of enhanced scent and for more effective travel outside the island. We studied new combat skills from all over the world, and we perfected the incapacitation of our opponent through pressure points... Anatomy and Chemistry became very important subjects in school, because with this simple knowledge even the weakest among us had the chance of survival. And that's when the Priestesses of the Moon Goddess came to us and they choose three girls to be potential Priestesses, all three girls were always tested, and only one would journey to Avalon to become a Priestess of the Goddess. When my time came I passed the trials I had the honor to be a Priestess in training for the Goddess, I would learn the Mysteries, controlling the elements of nature, of learning of other supernatural beings, their strengths and weaknesses just like they would learn mine. And by learning from each other we kept coming up with new ways to hide from the human world in plain sight!

However, we were not allowed to share the weaknesses of those other beings to our pack, to our tribe, to our clan. If you did so, you would receive the ultimate punishment, you would lose the Moon Goddess Blessings. And this is knowledge that every Clan, of every supernatural being knew, so once a girl has finished her training no one would ask for that information once we return to our homes, only the information to hide from humans and hide ourselves from other Supernaturals. After I passed my trials to become an official Priestess at the age of 14 my longing for my pack and family became so great that I was allowed to be dismissed.

My pack never suffered in continuous wars like others because of our state-of-the-art defenses, and our almost anonymous status; that's why our Alpha, and dear friend to my father, his Beta, was satisfied and did not pressure me into go for High Priestess or Prime Priestess for that matter, those who could Master the elements to a degree that nature bends fully to their will. He knew my father and mother, his own sister, and my siblings longed for me to come back home. Alpha Gúarionex had always had a soft spot for my family, and his Luna was like a second mother to me, when I was born my mother became quite ill, and it was Luna Isla herself who nursed me, for she had just given birth their one and only son. If only I knew then what I know now I would not have been foolish in thinking that being a simple Priestess was enough. My weakness, my selfishness for home cost that home dearly, I will never forgive myself. I was a complete failure.