Born To Burn

Ch. 1: The Siren's Call

***Author's Note***
My prologue didn't save properly, so I made it a separate creation. It's called Born to Burn- Prologue. Feel free to check it out before starting The Siren's Call!
Thank you! ♥️
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I hear it again. That beckoning melody that pulls me to the woods edge. Desperately urging me to just step into the darkness. Its hypnotizing. It promises hope. I want to believe it, but that's never been in my hand of cards. All my senses dull except for hearing. It encompasses me so deeply I don't even realize my feet are already in motion, carrying me ever closer to the wood line.

I watch fog cling to limbs, creating a mysterious haze as the siren sings. I'm drunk on it. Just... a couple more.... steps....

"Ember!" I hear it like it's an echoing whisper.

I ignore it as I focus on the dull orange glow I just noticed dancing through the trees. It glimmers and swirls in the soft evening breeze, reminding me of a feather or dandelion riding the wind. It captivates me. I somehow knew it wanted me to see it. That somehow it knew me and I knew it. It felt warm and welcoming. Why was it being so distant? Come closer. Don't hide from me.

The smell of smoke filled my nose. Not black, toxic, steal your breathe smoke, No. But the delightfully heartwarming kind. The kind that smelled like earth and aged wood. Dry moss and grass. Like the smoke that accompanied a wood pile burning softly in the night as you gathered around it with friends and family and talked into the wee hours of the morning. It was comforting. A reminder, but of what?

It felt so familiar. I watched it continue to dance on the unseen breeze. It felt like....home. That word alone entraps me. Home. Wasn't I already home?

"EMBER!" I feel a hand gently gripping my shoulder, freeing me of the forest siren's spell.

I gently shake my head and turn to see my mother looking at me wearing a mask of curiosity and concern. "What on earth draws your attention that intently? I know you heard me calling!" She asks, carefully sniffing the air. Did she smell the smoke too?Her eyes dart back and forth through the trees and I can tell she is at full attention.

"Don't you hear it? That beautiful song? It's happy and sad at the same time. It calls me. I swear I know it." Her face grew more concerned.

"No child, I don't hear a thing. Just like I never do." Her eyes soften a little.

"Ember, If there was a song being sung, you know damn well I'd have heard it. My hearing is easily 10 times yours. Now stop letting your imagination get the best of you. Off with ya now, go get cleaned up for supper."

With that, she gently turned me in the direction of the house and scooted me onward. She didn't follow me and as I reached the door I turned to see her still intently studying the woods. She had her head crooked ever so slightly as she desperately listened for the song I kept telling her about.

I smiled at the woman who I called mother. She wasn't who birthed me, but she was the best mother a girl could ask for. A best friend, a confidante, and even a partner in crime when needed. I am grateful Danielle's heart was big enough to love me too.

When I was still an infant, I was found deep in those very woods by a group of hunters from this pack. They heard my cries while fleeing from an unexpected forest fire. They assumed I was left or accidentally forgotten by somebody else fleeing and didn't think twice about saving me.

After the smoke cleared and the pack reunited, nobody knew who I belonged to, or where I came from. Alpha Conri had sent scouts to neighboring packs and nobody ever claimed me.

Nobody wanted to take me on either. I'm no wolf, they owe me nothing, let alone their love and loyalty. My heart pinches at the thought and my eyes water slightly.

In comes Danelle. She heard about the helpless babe found in the woods and couldn't stand to think I was orphaned or alone for another second. And even though she had 3 pups of her own, she asked the Alpha to take me on.

Her boys have since grown and moved out, leaving only me for her and Papa Ray to dote over. She always told me that she always wanted a little girl and was blessed by the goddess to finally have one.

She's who named me. She told me that when she finally laid eyes on me, my face was purpled from crying and I was so small and frail. She said as soon as I was handed over to her, I settled down against her chest and drifted off.

Before I fell completely asleep, I stared up at her with hooded, glowing, fire like eyes. She said it reminded her of the embers of a dying fire. That, paired with the circumstances of which I was found, is how I became Ember, Daughter Of Danelle and Ray Dunn, of the Equinox Wolf Pack.

That was 17 years ago.. I look up at Mom again, still trying to see what monsters lay in the darkness, haunting me. She'd rip them to shreds if it meant I could have peace. I didn't doubt that fact for a second.

I was home because she was my home. Wherever mom was, was safe. I was safe. I smiled as I turned and headed toward the sink to wash up recalling my life with Mom and Papa. I've never felt like they didn't want or love me. The rest of the pack however...

Let's just say it's hard enough to be different and "regular" kids can be cruel..but shifter kids drew blood. I have never really been accepted and as a result, I don't have a life outside of this house. I can't mind link, I'm not destined to find my soul mate, never shifted into a magnificent wolf on my 13th birthday.

I'll never run freely through the woods that desperately call me. I'll never know how it feels to feel the earth beneath the pads of my mighty paws or just how intense my hearing and sense of smell could be. I'll never join the chorus of howls that reiterates the bonds of packmates. I am alone. Utterly alone.

I've heard it all. Freak. Loser. Misfit. Your parents probably abandoned you to die because your so useless. Unwanted. A burden. Mom has wiped her fair share of tears from my stained cheeks over their words. And wiped her fair share of blood from their wounds.

It's a rare day at school that I'm not attacked in one way or another. She tells me to be brave. To be open to the universe because it speaks in unique ways and that every single person is born with purpose. I just don't know mine yet and that's ok. When the time is right, the universe will reveal it to me.

Papa just wants to crack heads. I smile at the thought, sniffling quietly. If he thought he could escape Mom's wrath, every jerk kid and teen in this pack would be in trouble.

So I keep to myself. I go to school, come straight home and either hide in my room or sit out in the backyard next to the creek that flows through it. The water oddly calms me. I can feel my mind slow and oddly, my skin cool from head to toe if I put my feet in the water. But Mom worries if I'm out there too long and she hasn't heard from me.

For as long as I can remember, the woods have called me. The same melody haunts my ears, beckoning me, almost possessing me. More than once Mom has stopped me from entering the wood line that butts up to our property line. She's warned me there are miles and miles of unexplored, thick forest and it's possible I could get so lost that not even the best of our trackers could find me.

I sigh. I am a freak I guess. She swears every time I mention it that there is no sound. No noise. It's all my imagination. Well, my imagination is getting louder. And the pull is getting stronger.

Even now I can hear it tickling my ears, begging for my attention. I shake my head slightly and join Mom and Papa for supper. Gotta be strong, gotta be brave, gotta try not to be such a freak.....

***Authors Note***

Hello Dear reader, hope your enjoying the introduction of Ember. Any guesses of what she may actually be? I've left a few hidden clues!