Happy Chaos

CHAPTER FORTY

RENETTA

I WAS EXCITED. I had loved going on the first picnic with Ainsley and I had been waiting to go on another one. I loved being able to spend one on one time with Ainsley.

Picnics had a special place in my heart. My entire family used to go on them when I was a kid and I remember being the happiest in those moments.

Some time ago

I had a pretty large family. One of the main reasons was that I had two moms and three dads. It wasn't the typical family but it was perfect.

Typically, wolf shifters like me had packs. However, unfortunately on Ostradus, we weren't allowed to have them. It was considered illegal and punishable by death.

Large groups who rallied together were always struck down even if they had no intention of trying to rebel against the royal family.

The last group of shifters that tried to form a pack were all slaughtered. You could hear their screams and smell their burning flesh for miles. Or so I was told. I wasn't alive when it happened.

And even if people wanted to attempt to form packs again they can't. The royal family made sure of it. You see, whenever an alpha is born they send royal guards to kill it. I don't exactly know how they know. I'd assume it had something to do with the palace sorcerer, though or some type of magic.

While it had always been sad to me it never affected me. That was until my little brother was born and was an alpha. Thankfully for us, they had only sent one guard. A man named Ronald with a big round belly and a beautiful smile. When he laid eyes on my family, and my little brother James, he couldn't find it within himself to kill him. So he spared him.

He was one of the best men that I knew. Besides my dads, that is.

He had often come to visit us and check-in. He quickly became a part of my family and I absolutely loved it. He soon became like a grandfather to me and my siblings and when he began to bring his wife when he visited, she became like a grandmother to us.

We called her Gran. She was apparently a cook in the palace and that's how she met Ronald. By the time they had met and fell in love, they were past the age that they could have children. So meeting us? They called our family a gift from the heavens.

All was well in our lives. Ronald and Gran would often join us on our picnics, Gran helping my moms cook in the kitchen.

It had been a warm, breezy day when it happened. It was one of the few times that Gran and Ronald hadn't joined us on our picnics. Gran said that she had to help cook a feast for the royal family. She said it was something about a celebration with hundreds that she would have to cook hours for. Ronald was also supposed to stand guard. Which he hadn't done for a while.

When we reached our cabin, all laughing and joking around, we saw Ronald standing there. Pounding on the door. He looked panicked and was breathing heavily. He was wearing his armor which was odd. A horse was tied to a tree behind him.

"Ronnie!" My dad, Jacob, said with a wide smile. One that he didn't return.

"You guys have to go. The guards are coming. Somehow they found out about you guys." He rushes out "I overheard them talking while standing at my post about how they were being sent out to kill a bunch of wolf shifters because they had an alpha son that had slipped through and survived. I got here as fast as I could but I still worry it wasn't fast enough. So please, you guys have to go. I don't think you have any time to pack anything."