Intuition

Each year, as winter turns to spring, a sound rolls over the mountain. A hollow chorus of voices calling into the wind. The humans in the valley come out of their homes in hopes of seeing the wolves creating such a naturally haunting orchestra.

Meanwhile, the residents of the range were perfectly aware of the beasts roaming their lands. You see... They were the wolves that had captured the humans' fascination. To them, this event was known as the Calling. All packs came together at this time each year so their young could find their mates.

The mountain was large and its inhabitants have lived there for generations. The largest pack on the range was the StarLight pack. They resided in a providence which they built years ago and named Green Tree. Their colors were royal blue and black and the crest that adorned the trees along their border had the facial profile of a wolf. This image was to signify their strategic minds, though they also carried a reputation for brutality.

The next largest pack was that of GraySky. Their town was named Acres and they were located a bit higher up the mountain than their StarLight allies. Acres was three hours away from Green Tree by car. Their colors were heather gray and black. The crest used by GraySky depicted two wolves fighting while standing on their hind legs. This was supposed to symbolize their strength as well as the fact that they had they greatest percentage of warriors.

Eve had grown up in Acres her entire life and she was afraid of the Calling. Females must relocate to their mates’ packs and she, like most, was weary of change. Wolves can chose to attend the ceremony when they come of age but convention forces them to go when they turn twenty one. So, Eve waited until she was forced to attend. Yet she heard no one calling out to her. The next year was the same.

When she was twenty three, she reluctantly attended her third Calling. Things were changing before the moon even rose into the sky. Her inner wolf had become more outspoken and she was less able to push her out of their shared mind. Still, she attended the event. It was on this night that she found him. Ran right into him actually. His name was Flint Dolan and he was the next Alpha of the StarLight pack.

Flint Dolan began attending the Calling when he was nineteen. He never heard his mate howling for him. After four attempts, he gave up the belief that she was out there. He began drinking, smoking, fighting with his family more frequently, and sleeping with humans. He spent the following three years avoiding his responsibilities to the pack, just to avoid his father.

When Flint gave up on the Calling and began spiraling, he and his father had a fight. His father was Elijah Dolan and he was the Alpha of the StarLight pack. The argument escalated until Flint lost control of his wolf, which had been happening to him on and off his entire life. This time in particular, the fight spilled into the street. Flint permanently injured his father’s back and Elijah was forced to shift back into his human form out of pain. This humiliated him in front of the pack.

Flint was left with a decision; take Alpha or bow to his father. There was only one problem... An Alpha can’t rule without a Luna by his side. So, he bowed. After that, he delved further into his bad habits and self loathing. His mother, Selena, was the one who forced him to go to the Calling when he was twenty six. He thought it was futile, so he stood at the very edge of GraySky territory when he allowed his wolf to take him over.

This was when he heard her. A familiar yet new and exciting feeling was carried to him on the wind in the form of her howl. He howled back and the pair eventually barreled directly into each other. This was where their story together began.

Flint marked Eve as his mate on the second night of her stay in his home. It was also the night she gave him her purity. She marked him as well and the bonding began. The bonding is a stage of life for wolves after they connect to their mate. It's said that their features enhance to make them resemble their own kind more and not just their human counterparts.

Eve thought the bonding was nonsense until she watched Flint’s forest green eyes lighten to glow like emeralds. Her own gaze had become electrified in their blue coloring. Her features had sharpened slightly and she felt stronger. Along with this came mood swings and an inability to contain the animal within themselves. Still, Flint and Eve persevered. When the bonding was over, they didn’t have to get to know each other because there was nothing new to discover. They were of one soul and one mind.

The mindlink between an Alpha and his pack is not one sided. Alphas pull on the instincts of their lessers and the pack can communicate back to them. The link reveals strong feelings or instinctive instructions. The recipients of those feelings can nearly experience the reasoning behind them.

The mindlink for mates is different and significantly more substantial. Words and sensations can be communicated between the wolves inside them. This link can’t be disconnected as easily as it can be from their pack, though one could suppress its intensity.

Once marked and bonded to a mate, a wolf is mated for life. The only way to break this bond is to be marked by another, and even then... The twice marked wolf can’t connect to her mate or the one that broke the bond. Nor can they connect to the mindlink of the pack. When females move to the pack their mates are from, this dissolves the link between her and the original pack until the time comes to connect with her new Alpha.

Eve's uncle, Skylar Adams, was the Alpha of GraySky. His mate's name was Lauren and they weren't able to have pups. Ben and Becca were Eve's parents and she also had a brother who was older than her by just a year. His name was Jay and he was set to be the next Alpha. He found his mate, Fay, on his second time attending the Calling. But he didn't challenge his uncle for leadership because of their close relationship. Along with the fact that Skylar was an exceptional Alpha to their people.

However, the threat of war tends to change things. Eve and Flint were getting settled in after the bonding, when they came across a lost half-bred, little boy on the border of StarLight territory. Eve insisted, much to Flint's chagrin, that she help the boy find his rogue parents.

"Rogues" is the term the wolves coined for a specific group of people. This group includes wolves who have human blood, are shunned from their packs for whatever reason, and more. Lycans can only be conceived in wolf form which is why it is greatly looked down upon. You see, most of these beings were made as products of rape and other crimes. A hundred years earlier, wolves would shift to their beastly forms during intercourse. This terrified humans and produced no small amount of demon lore.

Ellis Dolan, Flint's great-great grandfather banded the packs on the mountain together and created a universal law. To sully one's blood with human DNA meant to give up your right to the pack. The disobedient males were killed, the women shunned to the valley, and their offspring went unacknowledged. To control the population of rogues and make sure their numbers didn't grow too large, StarLight pack kept an eye on them. As years passed, that remained the same.

This was why; as Eve walked the lost, half-bred boy back toward his camp, she asked him questions. She learned that he was camping outside the border with his parents and had wandered off. Now the kid found himself unable find them. She is also made aware that the boy's father is a rogue from the fact that he had previously warned his son about the wolves on the mountain. His name was Briar and had been camping before with his family, but never in the same place.

She didn't see the boy as a threat, so she sent him back to his dad with a message. It was warning them to stay away from StarLight territory. Flint understood his mate's actions, even though he wouldn't have done things the same way, he appreciated the gesture.

His parents didn't share this feeling. Elijah sent Eve on a border patrol to make her learn their ways. Flint chose to lead the group to be by Eve's side. It was there that they managed to locate the four rogues that had been penetrating their territory and GraySky pack's as well. The rogues were captured and taken back to StarLight headquarters in Green Tree.

Flint interrogated the leader of the rogue warrior captives. Her name was Sky and she had history with the Dolans. Flint had killed her husband, Anthony, a few years before when he lost control of his wolf. Sky told him that the rogues from the valley had banded together and they were coming to start a war. They wanted to be allowed back in their packs and they wanted to see the Dolan family suffer.

Flint's wolf had been telling him for years that it was his time to take Alpha. He hadn't been listening because he didn't have his mate. But with the idea of war on the horizon and Eve by his side, he had every reason to challenge his father. The fight was long and arduous but in the end; Flint walked away the victor. He contributed his strength to the fact that Eve was by his side, believing in him and wanting him to lead.

Flint and Eve pledged their loyalty to the StarLight pack shortly afterwards. They were running at midnight that night, only to come across two bodies of fallen warriors. A voice from the trees taunted Flint with his past and with his new relationship. Another dead warrior fell from the branches overhead just before the mysterious teasing voice disappeared.

Flint said his name, knowing who had been hiding in the shadows. It was his childhood best friend, Bastian Anderson. The Andersons had been close to the Alpha family when he was younger. Clair and Tony were both friends with Selena and the trio would often spend their weekends watching over their boys together.

When Bastian and Flint were young, their bonds crumbled. Clair brought Selena to the woods, where there were sixteen rogues waiting. Tony was there as well, though Selena can't recall where he was when everything began. A shunned wolf with no mate bared the mark Elijah had put on her skin. He raped her before sinking his teeth into the scar that bound her soul to her mate's, dissolving their link.

When Elijah found her, he didn't feel connected to her and he knew what they had done. He killed them all. Clair and Tony included. Flint had stowed away in the bed of his dad's truck. After that day, no one mentioned the incident but it still took a tremendous toll on their lives.

Elijah hardened. He became cold, brutal, and uncompromising. His relationship with Selena never healed and the pair grew apart despite the deep love they still held for one another. Flint grew up with cold, distant, and distracted parents. Bastian was sent off to live with the relatives of some other wolves in Summerville. Life moved on for the inhabitants of the mountain, but one little boy in the valley never forgot.

Bastian didn't believe his parents were traitors. He thought that Clair, Tony, and Selena were all victims of an ambush. This made him resent being shunned and he grew to hate Elijah with a frightening intensity. He knew something had to be done. He craved revenge for the deaths of his family.

So, Bastian formed a plan. When Flint became Alpha, he got impatient and he started the steps of his scheme by taunting his old friend in the woods after Flint took his oath. Then, he wounded elder Joshua severely. He beat him and threw him down an elevator shaft, leaving the old man paralyzed from the waist down. Next Bastian took Eve.

He kidnapped her to lay a trap for her mate. Eve foiled him by calling Flint on her cell phone after she was captured. She was rescued quickly with just minor injuries but she made a mistake... In talking to him, she had shown Bastian what kind of person she was and he was immediately fascinated by her.

Next, Eve made the suggestion that the rogues be allowed to band together and form their own pack. On the condition that they moved out of the valley; at least two providences away from any and all pack territories across the range. Flint didn't want to legitimize them so he disagreed with the entire concept.

So, the Luna had to make a new plan. Bastian knew Flint very well and he had been anticipating his moves. But Eve knew that even though her mate couldn't fool his enemy, she could. She talked Flint into letting her use herself as bait and go into the woods without him. She and a team of specialists managed to catch Bastian off guard and capture him.

Seeing his mate execute such a flawless ambush boosted his faith in her abilities. Flint told himself not to underestimate her again and he gave her idea about a treaty with the rogues more thought. He took the proposal to the elders and they were clearly, vehemently against it.

Meanwhile, in the GraySky pack, Jay challenged Skylar for Alpha. He won, though the fight was very difficult. This made Jay and Fay the new Alpha and Luna of the pack. Skylar became an elder and Jay immediately made his uncle his chief advisor.

Bastian teased and taunted Flint when in his cell. Even after he heard he was to be executed publicly for his crimes, Bastian seemed amused. This bothered Flint and he tried to break through the man's denial but he was unable. Selena heard that Bastian believed his parents were innocent and she decided to see him. This made Flint suspicious and he assigned a specialist to watch his mother at all times.

The Alpha convinced Star that Bastian was using the rogues to get to the Dolan family. He then used Eve's idea of a treaty to calm down the rogues that were craving war. He released Star and kept her team members to ensure she would return with an answer. Against the wishes of the council, Flint had offered the rogues their freedom. Star returned a few days later to accept the deal.

The paperwork was drawn up and signed in the valley. The rogues moved south of the foothills, well over two providences away from the mountain range. They had decided to name their pack 'HillCreek' and their Alpha was a shunned full blooded wolf named Drake Hunter.

When the day of Bastian's execution came around, Flint was feeling both anxious and vindicated. He went to check on arrangements, while Eve nervously watched the prisoner. Bastian used his chains to hold the Luna hostage while his cohorts sprung up and took out the StarLight warriors guarding Bastian. Selena left her family and her pack behind to help him escape.

Over three month after the escape of his worst enemy, Flint found himself in an all together new situation. His mother had run off with a faction of rogues. He and his father had switched residences. Bastian was gone in the wind along with his ominous warnings. And on top of all that... Now Eve was pregnant.