My Silver Fang

Chapter 1: The New Family

A small light ahead led as she ran. She can feel their paws padding behind her heels as she tries to quicken her pace. On her right side, one was matching her step by step, she turned to look, and a sizeable reddish-brown wolf stared dead at her. She roared at it to try to scare it off, but it didn't budge. Instead, she heard it chuckle. She then looked ahead to see the light getting bigger, but something was different.

The light was moving towards them, and each wolf disappeared into puffs of smoke one by one. As she watches the light come closer, its shape starts to change. A wolf's silhouette took its form as it continued to come forward. She stops and turns to run, but the ground gives out from underneath her; she looks up as she falls to see the white wolf jumping in after her.

"Selina," It called out; Selina looked confused at it.

"How does it know my name?" she thought to herself.

"Selina, time to wake up, sweetheart," It talked again as Selina reached to touch it. The wolf turns its head to the side; Selina turns to look and sees another white wolf running towards them. This one had a long claw mark on the left side of its face; it growled at the other and leaped toward Selina. The other wolf jumped in, blocking the attack, but as they collided, their lights surged the whole area while blinding Selina.

"Selina," she heard again, "Sweetie, are you alright!?"

Selina woke up to her mom's worried face and looked around; she was sitting in the backseat surrounded by boxes. "Another nightmare?" her mom asked as her father looked through the rearview mirror, his eyebrows forming arches.

"Nightmare? More like some weird fantasy dream," looking straight into her mother's eyes. "Aw honey," her mom said as she placed her hand on the side of Selina's face, who lightly smiled. "So this move was a great plan? Great, if you are getting weird over traumatic, getting away was for the best," her father added with glee.

Selina didn't look in her father's direction and turned to look out the window, but after some time, she had a big grin. Her parents locked eyes with each other and, without a sound, "Look, that's process Hon," mouth her mom. "Yeah, getting away from all that toxic energy was the best course of action," her father mouthed back.

After two hours of driving, an excited gasp made Selina look forward to the front window. "We're here," her father gladly said, "Ah, it's been a long time since I saw my little brother." As they passed, her mother looked at the buildings, "way bigger than what I thought this town would be, Galville, is it?" Her father nodded, "Used to be Silverlone, heard some type of event force them to change it."

"Silverlone was a better name," quietly added Selina as they passed a centerpiece in the middle of the town, "A wolf?" Her father side-eyed the statue, "Wow, so the name was the only thing that changed; they must have fought tooth and nail to keep that statue there." Selina looked closer and noticed beside the wolf a chunk of it was missing, "Must have been quite a fight," she thought to herself.

As they passed the town end, Selina and her mother noticed a couple of large mansions towering over the town in the distance. "Ah, the Silverlone, Silverstone, and Adalwolf family mansions, beautiful, aren't they?" asked her dad as they entered the residential area. "Silverlone was named after the family?" asked his wife, and he nodded, "From what I heard from my brother, they are still a powerful family with the backing of the other two, but a fourth family caused problems and tried to turn the town against them. The town name was not the only thing they had to compromise about."

"Where's their mansion?" Selina questioned, "Up ahead, it looms over the neighborhood," answered her father, then his eyes widened, noticing his daughter was speaking to him, and he looked at his wife. "You have all the lore, sweetheart," his wife mouth to him. He smiles and adds, "They say the fourth family was for the people, but my brother had said the most human ones were the other three families as they help build and fund this town."

"Heh, it's always the ones saying they are for the people when they take from them," commented her mom, "That's right, in a way, they were taking things away that were important to the town folks," her dad responded, "It must be why that statue is still standing, it was very special to the people." Selina stares at the fourth mansion and adds, "Might explain the upkeep of the fourth mansion looking like it's haunted."

"Yeah, but your uncle said they are still good people with some bad apples," replied her dad, "Ah, there it is."

Their car pulls up to a dark brown two-story house with a red-brownish roof with a small garden to the side. "It's way more beautiful up close than it was on the app," her mom commented, "Now for the thing we all dread." She looks at the moving van filled with boxes. "Good thing we order new furniture online, and they will be the ones moving it in," said her dad as he stacked some boxes on top of each other and picked it up. Her mom unlocks and opens the door for him as Selina picks up the packages.

"One at a time, hon," her mom told her. "Okay," Selina answered her. They continued to move their items until dusk, and Selina put the flattened boxes into trash bags. "Is that all of them?" Selina asked. Her parents looked around, "Yep, those are the last of the boxes," answered her father.

"Would you mind taking the trash out, sweetie?" requested her mother, "Your father is helping me with the bed frame." Selina gathered all the bags and put them near the door, so she would not run back and forth for each one. She opens the door, four bags in hand, and slowly goes down the three steps. She drops the bags as she looks for the garbage bin; she heads towards the other end of the house, where the porch light doesn't reach. As she leans her head around the corner of the house, she hears some whispers and rustling to her left. She looks to her neighbor's yard to see four pairs of glowing eyes staring at her. She freezes as she notices how large three of the figures are; the smaller one moves its head to the side and back at her.

She started to slowly move back to only stop when she heard a low growl. One of the larger ones turned to look at something, then grunted at the smaller one, who did a couple of grunts. They turned to leave; the smaller one stopped to look at her once more and disappeared. Selina started to breathe normally and stood straight, looking at the yard. As she was sure they were gone, she quickly took the bin from the side of the house while making sure the noise didn't bring them back.

She stopped pulling the bin and set it upright; she sighed in relief when she felt something warm, grabbing her shoulder from behind. She lets out a scream and starts throwing the bags in its direction.

"Selina? Selina!" it yelled out, "It's me!"