Once Upon A Time (22 page)

So, if you
ever wonder why I have such a scorn for humans, this is where it
started: with the murder of a Pack Beta, who was doing nothing to
harm his killers. When we heard the dogs, and realised that we were
their prey, my sire also realised that we were too far from the
Pack house for us to escape. On his own, he could have done it, but
with a juvenile, who was only realising how to run in his wolf
form, he had no chance. His only option was to hide me, and to hope
that he could lead them away from me, giving me the chance to find
my way back to the Pack. I whimpered as I felt, for the first time,
the power of the Pack Beta on me, rather than the strength of my
sire. As a young pup, I had no chance of fighting it. I had no
option but to stay where he told me to stay, even though I knew
that, in order for me to move from that place, he would have to be
dead.

I saw him die.
I saw my sire suffer the slashes of a variety of farm implements,
causing him to lose blood and thus, lose strength. If that was not
enough, the pack of domestic dogs used by the pond-scum peasants
tore the remains of my sire to shreds, even as the humans
encouraged them. They didn’t even try to save his pelt, as I known
has happened in the past.

By the time I
made my way back to the caves in which we had made our home, at
least when the Pack was in wolf form, I was scratched and bleeding,
from having fled the baying humans. Even a pup was a creature to be
slaughtered, not least because I still resembled the black wolf
they had just seen torn to shreds. Aelwen, our Pack Alpha, had
screamed when, hesitantly, I had told her what had happened. I had
abased myself before her, in my form of a juvenile, praying to the
Goddess that she would not take out her temper on me.

So, that is
why I do not enjoy having humans in proximity to my Pack. I have
never told anyone how I saw the Cŵn Annwn Pack Beta slaughtered by
a species more deserving of the title of animal than our other
selves, our wolf selves. For without my sire to control her
excesses, it fell the Aelwen to harvest the evil, without the
balance of her Mate and to take the full weight of those evil souls
upon herself. In the times in which we lived, there was evil and
intolerance aplenty, and the resulting effect on our Alpha was
almost a foregone conclusion.

The day came
when, I had no choice. The she-wolf I had known as a pup was no
more. The dam I had known as a pup was long gone. The Alpha I had
known as a pup was long gone. Even our human neighbours saw only a
woman driven insane through the accidental death of her husband in
the mountains. When I reached maturity, I did what I had been
trained all my life to do. I fought and killed my own dam, to take
the position of Alpha of our Pack. I think she welcomed the blow
that ended her life. She knew what had happened, but she had also
known that there was no one else who could have taken her place,
not until I had reached maturity. Had my sire survived, then both
he and my dam would have survived for so much longer. Instead, it
fell to me to lead my Pack into the changes that became known as
the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian Age.

The fact
remains that, for the Alpha, the Mate is vital. There is no other
way to explain it. Without my Mate, , the fate of my dam would have
been my fate also. The only difference was that I had ordered my
friends, now serving as joint Pack Betas, to kill me if that
happened. In return, I swore that, should any male or female in our
Pack, deprived of their Mates, succumb to the darkness of the evil
souls harvested, I would kill them myself, before it became too
late. I would not let any of them suffer in the way that my dam and
former Alpha had suffered. That was my oath as Alpha.

Telling the
Pack this small part of our history would have made no difference.
My sire was still dead. My dam was left on her own to run a Pack,
to harvest evil, and to raise her cub to maturity. It would have
made no difference to how we perceived humans, and given that we
must operate in this world of humans, it was better than most did
not know. Let them believe that it is their Alpha’s paranoia that
was behind the hatred of humans. Some sacrifices are worth it.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Jo Pilsworth,
the Lead Author of The Hunter’s Arrow Ltd, found that too many
nights away from home resulted in needing to find a hobby, and
joining an online role-play group based on Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark
Hunters universe, was the answer. As a result, I became friends
with some of my fellow writers, Tracy Andrews and Donna DeBoard,
who joined me when I started what was known in the role-playing
world as an ‘own character’ group. Thus The Hunter’s Arrow and the
worlds of the Anghelescu Hellhounds and the Negrescu Cŵn Annwn were
born. Currently, The Hunter’s Arrow team includes authors from
around the world, most of whom have contributed to the subsequent
volumes in the series. All of us met through the ‘role play’ worlds
of Facebook, and despite the best attempts of Facebook and Internet
trolls, have managed to produce several novels between us.
Currently, we are planning the eighth volume of The Diaries of the
Cŵn Annwn.

When not
dreaming of hunky shifters with attitude and how to tie their
stories in with real-world events, Jo works in medical equipment
sales, covering a substantial part of the United Kingdom as her
territory. She is supported in her writing endeavours by her
wonderful husband of more than 25 years, David, and her son, David
Junior, who has been an invaluable advisor when motorbikes or
archery were involved in the stories.

“
Chains of Perception” was the first story Jo wrote, starting
when she was still in school. Were it not for her friends’
encouragement, she might not have considered that others might like
to read it. “Bound” is the first in the “Diaries of the Cŵn
Annwn”.

We hope you
have enjoyed it, and that you will feel encouraged to check out
some of the books we have planned for publication under the name of
our co-operative, The Hunter’s Arrow.

ABOUT THE HUNTER’S ARROW
LTD

Currently, the
authors involved in The Hunter’s Arrow Ltd are as follows:

Jo
Pilsworth (UK), Lead Author

Tracy
Andrews (USA) Senior Author

Bethan Thomas (UK), Author

Gabriela Collazo (Puerto Rico), Author

Friendship has no borders … Not when the Internet is
involved.

DISCOVER OTHER TITLES
BY JO PILSWORTH AND THE AUTHORS OF THE HUNTER’S ARROW LTD

The Diaries of
the CŵnAnnwn

Alpha (planned
publication May 2016)

Beta (planned
publication October 2016)

Delta (planned
publication May 2017)

Caduceus
(planned publication October 2017)

Ddraig
(planned publication May 2018)

Daimonas
(planned publication October 2018)

“
Alpha”
Book 2 of The Diaries of the CŴn Annwn

In the
meantime, keep up with the worlds of the Negrescu Cŵn Annwn and the
Anghelescu Hellhounds on

www.facebook.com/huntersarrow