I heard the sound while I was still asleep. Somebody who didn’t know better would have called it a thump, but I knew better. It was a noise that you never forgot once you heard it. Even in my dream I became uneasy. My gut was roiling, like the boiling contents of a cauldron.

That sound didn’t belong in my dream. I was in a garden. My wolves were there. So was Lara. We were eating. Chepi was lying in my lap and I was stroking Lara’s hair.

The next sound made the hair at the back of my neck stand. I recognized that sound too. In my dream I turned to Lara and she was fading, her face was melting. I fought my way out of my dream, and my eyes snapped open.

Every survival instinct I had was on high alert. I jackknifed upwards, alarm bells going off in my brain, adrenaline rushing through my veins. Something was wrong. I glanced down. Lara was still asleep. I pushed the blankets back.

“What's wrong?” Lara’s sleepy voice mumbled as her hand stretched out to feel for me.

“Nothing,” I lied. “Go back to sleep.” I jumped out of bed and landed on the floor like a cat, ready for trouble.

“Where’re you going?” she asked.

“Don’t leave this room until I come back,” I ordered, and moved to pick up my trousers.

Then I heard another sound, and my body went crazy. That was no fucking dream. I stopped thinking. I became an animal. Stark naked, I grabbed my pistol from the top of the dresser, and I ran as fast as my feet could carry me. I rushed down the stairs, and flinging open the front door, I burst out into the porch. Frigid air filled my lungs and gripped my body in an icy clench, but I was so hyped up I didn’t even feel it.

There was half a moon in the sky, and it lit up the white ground like a lantern. Everything was eerily still as I’d stood there surveying the open ground. Not a soul anywhere, but there were trails on the snow. My animals. They had scattered in all directions. I went down the steps on my bare feet, my eyes moving, searching. Then I saw the dark shape in the snow, moving towards me.

I raced towards it.

The whole time my mind was screaming no, no, no. I stopped a few feet from the dark shadow and looked at it in disbelief.

“No.” The sound was wrenched from deep inside me. “Oh my God, no.”

The pistol fell from my nerveless hands. I dropped to my knees. “No, no, no, please, please. No.”

My beautiful, beautiful girl. Oh, Chepi, no. Why? Why? Why? Tears filled my eyes and ran down my face. I crawled to her body, sobbing like a child. An arrow protruded from the area near her heart. It was embedded a good five inches inside her. Her coat was soaked in dark blood and more was pouring out of her, but I didn’t see what you or anybody else would have seen. I saw an archer saying, “Hey, Wolf. Taste the rainbow. Not quite a dead center, heart shot, couple of inches out, but still a good kill shot, dude.”

I had reached her in time to watch the fierce green fire die in her eyes. She was mortally wounded, but there was no revenge, hatred, or malice in her eyes. She could not focus properly on me. Her poor body had gone into convulsions. Her mouth was open, but no sound was coming from it.

I realized there was nothing I could do for her, but offer her an escape from her terrible pain.

I reached down and kissed her cheek, I swear her eyes swiveled and looked at me. In that moment we learned more about each other than ever before. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d shed a tear, but I couldn't stop them pouring down my eyes. We both knew in that moment what needed to be done.

She was ready to go.

She had crawled as far as her wounded body would allow her to, to get back to me. Now it was my turn.

“My brave Cepti. Don’t you worry none. I’ll take care of everything. No more suffering for my beautiful girl.”

I swallowed my pain, lifted her head, and snapped her neck quickly like it was a twig.

Her lifeless body lay in my hands.  It had been years since I’d lost anyone of value in my life, and I’d almost forgotten how that felt. Now I’d lost one of my family. The pain was indescribable. Chepi was young and so full of vigor I had even imagined she’d outlive me, and worried what would happen to her when I was gone, but she’d been cruelly robbed of her best years. 

Suddenly, the pain was too much and I roared an almighty scream of anguish. I’d dabbed the tears away and with my almost frozen crimson hand, I yanked the arrow in one clean thrust out of her chest. Her blood was already becoming solid in the freezing temperatures.

For a second I stared at the arrow. A Tac arrow!

I knew then this was no accidental killing. Whoever shot Chepi was a professional hunter with one of the most expensive and accurate crossbows available. Its bolt speed is so incredible that no animal in the world would have time to react before it hit. Its power was such that it would penetrate any fatty tissue and shatter any bones in its way at eighty plus yards.

Considering it had felled a wolf, it was probably a PSE Tac Elite. My grief quickly turned to the kind of black rage that completely engulfed my senses. An owl hooted back in the spruce, a tree cracked sharply with the frost as the rest of my family members started appearing all around me. Andak, Adam, Rolak, Koa, Lobo …

One by one they had come to pay their last respects. I heard a sound and whirled around, more animal than human. I had forgotten about her. Lara was standing in the middle of the snow holding a blanket in her shaking hands.

“Kit,” she cried out, her voice filled with fear.

“Don’t come any further,” I said. My teeth were chattering.

Instead of turning away and going back to the house, she came forward, one arm outstretched, her feet sinking into the snow. I pulled Chepi’s still warm carcass into my lap and heaved her up as I got onto to my feet.

Carrying the dead body of my daughter, I walked towards Lara.

As we reached Lara, her hand connected with my arm. Instinctively and quickly she threw the blanket over my shoulders. Then we ploughed back to the house through the thick snow where I laid Chepi on the floor of my living room.

My feet were blue and I was shivering uncontrollably.

Lara came close to me and pressed her body to mine. I had been alone for so long. Closed off to everyone. Then this woman came, brought a sweetness I had never known and … an enemy.

Someone who doesn’t want me to be with her.