Amarelo Blood

"Do you smell that?" Ian asked his wife, Hillary. He could just smell a very faint hint of iron somewhere within the trees but could not point out exactly where the scent was coming from. Hillary shook her head in response.

"It’s much too cold out here to smell anything, Ian. We should be getting back home before the boys start to worry." She replied.

The pair were currently outside in the midst of one of the coldest winters they had ever experienced. Hillary was shivering despite being the powerful Luna she was. Ian being the current Alpha of the Galaxy pack meant they were the leaders of one of the strongest packs of their kind in the world.

"Just a moment, Love." Determined to find the smell he walked ahead of her through some trees, the smell getting slightly stronger as he spotted the bushes so he bent down and pushed some of the snow-covered leaves apart to spot what he had been smelling. Hillary gasped softly from behind him.

"It's a girl," she whispered walking over to where the little girl lay on the ice wrapped in no more than a thin black blanket. There were crystals of ice clinging to the strands of her chocolate brown hair, her skin drained of its color, lips were blue, and yet, the Alpha and his wife noticed, she was still breathing. Very softly, but nonetheless breathing.

"What is she doing out here?" Ian asked looking around, but there was nothing to indicate where she had come from. He figured she had been there a while given the lack of footprints and the amount of ice on the blanket. Hillary knelt and touched the girl's face lightly, immediately pulling her hand back as soon as it made contact with the ice-cold cheek.

"She's one of them!" She said not taking her eyes from the little girl.

"I know...” He had been able to sense what type of wolf she was as soon as he had seen her, “How is she still alive? It's freezing out here, and by the look of it, she has been out here for a while already..." Ian mumbled.

"She's so beautiful, Ian." Ian looked as his wife touched the girl's cheek again gently, her thumb running over the child’s eyelashes clearing away the dusty snow that had been on it. The girl must have barely been seven years old. There was no doubt she was supernatural; she was part of one of the strongest kinds of werewolves. They were known to be very protective of their own kind, so why was this little girl out in the forest alone? It made him quite suspicious. Was it a trap? He could not figure out why it would be. His pack was not currently on bad terms with anyone, and why would they risk harming this little girl just to bait other wolves?

"Ian, she's getting weaker. Let's take her home." Hillary finally at her husband. He knew that look. Hillary seemed to already have made her mind up. They could not though.

"She's one of them, Hillary. The pack wouldn't accept her." Ian said. It was hard enough convincing his pack to accept a wolf of the same breed, let alone a completely different one.

"You don't know that. Besides, you're Alpha. They have to accept her if she's yours." Ian looked at the girl when Hillary said that. They had three children already, all boys. He had always wanted a girl…

Ian hair out of her face as he studied her. They could not just leave her in the snow to die, no matter what kind of wolf she was, she was just a child…

"Fine." He mumbled glancing up at his wife. Hillary smiled as Ian picked the little girl up into his arms to hold her against his chest. The girl squirmed weakly against him, and he wrapped his coat around her as best he could before his eyes widened. When the blanket slipped from her shoulder, he saw where the smell of iron had come from, "Hillary, her arm." There was a huge bite on her arm. Her skin practically ripped to the bone, and it looked and smelt infected; it was still bleeding. But why? She was a werewolf. She was supposed to heal.

"She's not healing? It must be because she's very weak right now." Hillary was a combination of witch and werewolf since her mother had been a witch and her father a werewolf. She lifted her hand to the girl's arm, and they began to emit an olive green glow. Ian watched as the girl's wound healed. He had been married to Hillary for fifteen years and yet was still amazed by her power. Ian lifted his hand and pulled the blanket back over the girl when she was healed. He smiled when she cuddled closer to him. Hillary was right; she could be theirs and Ian knew that from that moment she was.

-----

"Daddy, Daddy!" Ian smiled hearing his little girl's voice. When she had woken up, Ian and Hillary learned that she had no memory of her past. Not where she lived or how she had ended up in the forest, not who her parents were, she didn't even know her name. So they named her and told her that they were her parents and their sons were her brothers.

"Yes, Izzy?" They had named her Izabella. Her brothers, twelve-year-old Cohen, and ten-year-old twins, Gray and Adan had taken an instant liking to her. Hearing a soft sob made Ian look up from his work, instantly angered, "Izabella, what happened?" He asked moving from his desk and kneeling before her. She held back a smile at how dirty the light blue dress she was in looked. She must have been playing in the sand.

"N-no one wants to play with me," she rubbed her eyes causing him to take hold of her wrist gently to prevent her from getting any more dirt in them. Her brown eyes were surrounded by red puffiness from her crying, "They - they say their mommies said to stay away from me."

Ian frowned. He had spoken to the pack, had told them to treat her like one of their own. He was not about to let her get hurt more than she already had.

"It's alright. Why don't you go play with Cohen and the twins for now?" He smiled.

"Yeah, Izzy." Izabella turned hearing Adan at the door, "Come on," the boy grinned.

Izabella nodded smiling at Ian before running out of his office with her brother.

The Alpha’s smile dropped once the kids were gone. He was going to have to have a serious talk with his pack.

"Hayley!" I furrowed my brows as I turned to look at my best friends, Corey and Hayley, hearing Corey hiss her name for the umpteenth time. What were they doing?

"What?!" Hayley hissed back, not looking up from her work.

"Do you have sweets?" She rolled her eyes at the question. We were currently in Math class and Corey had yet to be quiet in a thirty-five minute period of time.

"No!" She turned only to glare at him and I laughed softly.

"Izzy!" He turned to me.

"No," I laughed. I looked towards the front of the room hearing a throat clear and my laugh was cut short as I was met with a disapproving look from our teacher. I immediately looked back down at my work to avoid her eyes.

"The pain of being Alpha Ian's daughter," Hayley smirked at me. I frowned. She was right. Everyone expected me to behave really well and excel at everything. I was always more likely to get pointed out than everyone else was. Most of the teachers at the school were part of our pack. A lot of the students were as well.

"I'm starving!" Corey groaned.

"Yeah, we can hear that," Hayley said. I shook my head biting back more laughter. It was true. We could hear his stomach growling softly. Every werewolf in our class would be able to.

"Izabella, do you have something to add?" I looked up as Mrs. Haynes frowned at me. I stared at her surprised. I had not said a word or made a sound! I glanced at my friends sending a glare their way.

"No, Mrs. Haynes," I said looking down as my friends laughed, but she did not acknowledge their laughter.

I could still feel her gaze on me, so I was beyond relieved when the bell rang. I grabbed my bag shoving my things into it and ran from class not glancing back at Mrs. Haynes. I had no doubt in my mind my father was going to hear from her.

"Izabella!" I heard Corey shout from behind me even though shouting was not necessary because, with our ears, I would have heard him if he had whispered.

"Meet you at your car," I called back slipping between the crowd of people.

I hated that my locker was on the other side of the school, and most days, I ended with Math class, meaning I was basically walking against the tide of people trying to head out of the school, which was why I tried not to go to my locker at that time. But, I had left a reading book I needed in it. I greeted some people as I passed them. I wasn't very popular. It was only a few humans greeting me as pack members did not usually acknowledge me unless my family was nearby. When I finally made it to the hallway my locker was in, most people had already cleared out, and there were just a couple here and there.

"Izabella, I'll be over at five!" I turned hearing Tarisa call out, reminding me that we had a pair history assignment to work on and I nodded at her.

"Got it!" I smiled at her before turning to keep walking, but I hit someone causing me to fall back onto my butt. They had to be a wolf for me to end up on the floor, and as soon as their scent surrounded me, I knew I was screwed.

"What are you? Blind?!" I looked up at the future Alpha of our pack, Sean, before I got to my feet clenching my jaw.

"If I am, then I'm obviously not the only one seeing as you didn't move out of the way." Growing up with my brother Gray and Hayley made me rarely be able to bite my tongue which got me into trouble a lot. Kind of like it would right now...

"Don't talk to me like you're on my level. I'll kill you." He glared at me.

I clenched my fist. I had never gotten along with Sean. Once, when we were nine, we got into a very rough fight which resulted in my breaking his arm and him breaking my leg. Needless to say, my Dad and his Dad, Cole, who was our current Beta (the second-in-command leader of our pack) were pissed at us.

"I'm not afraid of you," I said defiantly.

"Oh?" I cried out when he suddenly grabbed me and I was slammed into the lockers hard, "Really?" His warm breath brushed against my cheek as his fingers dug into my arms.

I lifted my fist to swing it into his jaw before kicking him in his shin. His cheek healed just as fast as I had hit him leaving just the thin line of blood that had managed to escape. His eyes flashed to black indicating how angry he was as he grabbed my wrist and twisted them outward. I tried not to show that it hurt as I tried to tug my arms from him, though it did. If he twisted it anymore, it would break.

"Don't test me, Freak. Daddy and Cohen are not here to protect you." He said lowly. I knew I should not keep fighting him, but I still tried to break loose which only resulted in his giving a strong twist that made me cry out as my wrists cracked.

"Sean, come on. Alpha Ian's not going to let you off with a warning this time. Word has it he's not very happy today. Let's go before you hurt her." I hadn't noticed his friends were there.

Sean's eyes faded back to their grass green color, the eyes that made so many girls that were in our pack and not swoon, and he was still glaring at me.

"When I'm Alpha, you're the first thing I'm getting rid of, Freak." He let me go before he left with his friends. I glared at his back as I clenched my fist tightly. I hated him so much.

I circled my wrist slowly as I looked down at them. Freak. No one called me that around the older pack members. I was weird. My dark brown eyes never went black; they glowed topaz when I shifted or became angry enough for my wolf to want to take control of us. I had longer canines than the other wolves, sharper claws, and I had little control of my wolf, so I shifted as little as possible. It wasn't a secret that a lot of the younger pack members didn't like me at all. I didn't know why. I was different, but that wasn't my fault. My parents always said it had something to do with Mom being a witch, except my brothers didn’t have any of the weird traits.

I turned and flung my locker open to get what I had come for and shoved the things I didn't need into it before I began walking down the empty hall. No one dared pick on me in front of my brothers or my father; they were some of the strongest wolves in our pack, my father being the strongest as the Alpha. And even though my brothers were not Alphas, they could still take Sean on which was why my father made them teach the jerk along with my Dad and Sean's father.

"What happened to your wrist?" I had just reached Corey's car and somehow it was the first thing he saw. I looked at my pink wrist. The bruises would heal within the next minute, and there would be no trace that I had ever run into Sean in the hall.

"Nothing." I shrugged it off.

"Did Sean hurt you again?" He asked, his face serious.

"No," I said.

"Izabella, -" Hayley began.

"Drop it, okay?" I asked annoyed.

"Oh, we'll drop it, Izabella. But Cohen won't." Corey frowned.

"Corey, no. Please -" I was saying.

"Then tell us what happened," Hayley said. I sighed.

"The usual," I said.

"Izabella." I was annoyed that they kept using my full name.

I frowned. "I bumped into him. We fought. He left with Jason and the others." I said.

"And your wrist?" Hayley said. I looked down, and there wasn't a spot left. Thank God for my faster than normal healing ability or my parents would have seen it. The only wolves that healed faster than me in our pack were Sean and the other leaders because of the strength they had.

"He twisted it," I said.

"Why won't you just tell Alpha Ian? Or even your Mom, Izzy?" Corey asked.

"I'm not a child. I can take care of myself. Sean's nobody." I said.

"He's going to be Alpha. You can't have a feud with your Alpha." Hayley said.

"I won't. Let's go." I said.

I won't even be in the pack then. Courtesy of that asshole Sean.

-----

I held my breath feeling a weird sensation on my left wrist. It felt like I was drawing on my skin, but I wasn't, and I had not since I was ten.

"Izzy?" I looked up and smiled at my eldest brother as he walked into the kitchen.

"Yeah, Cohen?" I asked rubbing my wrist figuring the sensation would go away as recently the sensation seemed to come and go a lot.

"Is something wrong?" He asked.

"No, I -" I began but sighed, "My wrist just feels funny." I waved it.

"It does?" We looked at Mom who had been standing at the sink as she cleaned a couple of plates. I nodded.

"Let me see, Sweetie." She smiled, I just held my hand out figuring there was no way I could convince her it was nothing because she always got worried about the slightest inconsistencies with us. She took my wrist gently and examined it. I furrowed my eyebrows when she whispered a spell and shut her eyes.

"Mommy?" I whispered wondering why she thought this warranted a spell.

Her eyes opened and for a split second, I saw a fearful, shocked look cross her face before it disappeared and she smiled, "It's nothing. Just ignore it." She said.

"But, Ma -" Cohen began but our mother was already out of the kitchen. He looked at me, "I'm not the only one who thinks that was weird, right?" He asked. I nodded. He looked at the door thoughtfully before he smiled at me.

"Wanna make cookies?" He asked.

"Sure!" I hopped off my seat.

"Anyone say cookies? I would like them to be chocolate chip," Cohen rolled his eyes while I laughed as Gray walked in.

"No, and now just because you said that; we aren't making it," Cohen said crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against the stove.

"Making what? Cookies? I want cookies. Chocolate chip, please." Adan came in while Cohen rolled his eyes and Gray glared at Cohen. Well, at least Adan said please.

"You two –” Cohen began but we all heard a loud howl from somewhere outside.

"Dad –” Cohen dashed out of the kitchen, "Izzy, stay!" I heard him shout back as the twins and I began to follow him.

"But –” I began.

"Stay," Gray told me. I frowned as he ran out. Adan smiled at me.

"I’m sure it’s nothing, Izzy. We'll be back in a few, get started on the cookies." He said. I forced a smile at him as I nodded and he ran out.

I sighed looking outside where I could see my brothers, like a lot of other wolves, running towards the forest. I looked down at my wrist as it began to burn slightly. That was now… What was happening to me? What happened in the forest? I had a bad feeling about all of it.

-----

Turns out my bad feeling was right; Dad had informed the pack earlier that three wolves had been killed in an ambush in the forest including Sean's mother. I hated Sean, but his mother had always been an amazing woman. She was so close to my mom, and they spent so much time together, it automatically made me close to her. I had not seen Cole, our Beta, but Dad mentioned that he was absolutely devastated. No one could get to Sean either. I had always heard that losing your mate could kill a werewolf or drive them to suicide, I really hoped Cole would be okay. I felt for Sean too. I could not even imagine losing my Mom. I could not even begin to think about what he was feeling having lost his.

"You alright?" I looked up from the book I was reading as my mom peaked into my room, her eyes bloodshot. Kayla, Cole's wife and mate, had been her best friend all her life. I nodded and scooted over in my bed. Mom smiled sadly as she shut the door once she was in my room and climbed in beside me.

"I'm sorry," I whispered leaning my head on her shoulder.

Heard her sniff softly, she was crying again. "It's okay," she whispered kissing my hair lightly.

"What… happened to them?" I asked softly.

"Attack. We think other werewolves somehow got into the forest." I felt like there was something she wasn't telling me, but I brushed it off because I did not want to force her to tell me when she was clearly hurting. Instead, I shut my eyes sighing. Even though it was an evil thought, I hoped whoever hurt them died an awful death.