Maeve dropped the last white rose on her mother's grave.

Her heart was broken. She and her mother used to be extremely close. She was the most important person in her life and now she was gone.

Maeve did have siblings as well but never had she been as close with them. And half of them had died along her mother in the unfortunate accident. A forest fire in the middle of the bloody winter. No one could name who or what had started it.

"Maeve." Her older brother William came closer. "It is getting cold and mother would not want us to mourn her in the cold where we could get sick."

"How do you know that?"

"I have a feeling." William smiled.

Now that she had turned eighteen many men had came to ask her hand in marriage. William could not blame them. She was a beautiful young woman, with long strawberry blonde hair and hazel eyes. She reminded him of her mother.

Every facial expression was filled with the similarity of Alison.

She also had some similarity to their father. Maeve had never met him. William had. The day Maeve was born he met his father for the first and the last time.

"Let's go. I will make you a cup of hot chocolate." He saw her face change immediately.

"You know me too well."

"I know Maevey, I know." He said and hugged her closely.

When they finally found their way back to the small cabin, Maeve started crying once more. William decided to leave her to mourn on her own and walked towards the kitchen.

Maeve could not understand why her mother chose to give her own life to save hers.

She was the one who had been in the woods.

She was the one who did not notice the danger as birds stopped singing.

She was the one sitting in the middle of flaming trees.

Everything had happened in a blur.

Alison had seen the smoke coming from the woods. She had made the choice to run into the woods to save her child. A choice that costed her own life.

She had jumped in front of a falling tree. While doing so she pushed Maeve out of the way. The flames covered her body soon after and then she was gone. With her last breath she whispered her final words: "forgive me Oliver."

Maeve's tears did not stop when William brought her her favorite treat. Hot chocolate had been her favorite vice in the whole world ever since she was six summers old.

***

Far away from the crying girl was a castle.

That castle held more secrets and evil than many any other place in the world. That castle was the home of Dominic Deàsun.

The man in question was walking down the hall to find his most trusted man, his beta, Cato.

"My King, please wait." A young servant boy was running behind him.

"WHAT" The man growled out . The servant boy was sure that he had just wetted his pants. "Sec-se-sector s-seven is d-d-d-down." The boy stuttered out.

The servant boy realized that the King probably had not heard him so he said it again without stuttering. Or that was what he hoped.

"What do you mean by that."

"Gamma Caspian told me to i-inform y-y-you that Sector Seven had a m-major forest fire. N-no one knows if anyone survived." The boy felt proud of himself. He'd just spoken without stuttering.

"Inform your gamma that he has to take the soldiers with him to sector seven and kill all the survivors." The King said without batting an eye. His voice didn't even flinch.

"But my Lord what about the children-".

"I recommend you to stay quiet if you don't want to join them."

"Of course my King." The boy said while bowing. He felt sad about the people living in sector seven. For the blood bath that they would have to face. Though there was nothing he could do to stop it from happening. He did not want to become the next grub for the rogues.

Dominic stopped on his tracks as a thought came to his mind.

"Tell them to bring a human along them."

"Y-yes my L-lord."

God have mercy on them.

***

The fire had left its mark on their lives.

No one did mention it. Everyone acted as if nothing big had happened but their hearts had turned darker. Too many deaths.

Everything was peaceful. Almost too peaceful, thought Maeve. It felt like the calm before the storm.

Their storm was already over.

Maeve was walking away from her mother and sibling's grave when a scream was heard. It was not the scream of a happy child. It was a scream of pure terror. New storm had arrived.

Those were the screams that started everything.

"William." Maeve whimpered and started running towards her house. The small cabin in which they lived was on the outskirts of the village. Their village was not large. Everyone knew each other with only a few families living there.

Their home was empty. Every window and door was open as the heavy wind blew snow inside of the building.

"William?" she whispered heavily as she stepped in.

"William!" Now she was screaming. Her fear started clawing at her heart and in a desperate effort to prove her worst fears wrong, Maeve started ripping the cabin apart to find any clue to reassure herself.

She did not manage to find her brother although she found her sister crying under a bed. "What is happening?"

"T-they c-c-came and Will protected me." Kiera was sobbing. Half of her dress was covered in blood.

"Protected you from w-what?"

Kiera never got the chance to answer. Her throat got ripped open by a large wolf.

Maeve screamed. She screamed so loud that the wolves next to the cabin started to whimper. Suddenly she felt a stinging pain in her scalp. One of the men, who had now entered the cabin, was dragging her from her hair. When the girl started to fight back, the soldier spit on her face

"Tramp, let's see what he is going to do to you." The man smirked, "I think we found our perfect human."

One of the wolves outside shifted "Who knows? Maybe he'll even let us have a taste of you". He licked his lips.

Maeve felt sick. She would not be able to fight them off even if she wanted to do that.

"P-ple-please" she whispered while tears blurred her sight.

"Oh puss don't waste your tears, you will need them later."

The man who was dragging Maeve kicked her in the stomach. Maeve coughed out blood. Her eyes had started to feel heavy when she saw William.

Her dearest brother was wearing white garments and was walking towards the unnatural light filling the square.

"William?" She screamed. "Save me p-please."

William turned around. A shadow of sadness washed over him as he smiled.

"I love you, little sister, remember that."

"Remember that when you are all alone surrounded by darkness."

"Remember us." After that, he disappeared into the light.

The men holding her looked at her oddly. "Who the bloody hell is she talking to?" The other man shrugged "maybe she has already lost her mind."

"W-will don't leave me." But it was too late.

Her brother was gone.

***

The journey to the castle was long. The soldiers who carried Maeve were not exactly gentle. When pausing they threw her to ground like a sack of potatoes.

"Wh-why are y-you treating me l-like this?" She sobbed. The soldier who had grabbed her by her hair laughed at pathetic state of the human. A foot collided with Maeve's head. "Why should we bow in front of a human? You and your kind are the disgrace on our world. Just like your home, you are not going to exist for too long, puss."

The rest of the men laughed.

They knew more than she did about her own future. Maeve could not make herself feel sad if what he said was true.

It was clear that none of them respected her at all. She was their garbage that needed to get disposed. They threw rocks at her and called her foul names.

Maeve's eyes were stinging from all the crying but she could not stop. Her once beautiful grey dress was now ripped and dirty, her hair a big mess and her face swollen. Not what she had expected when she had woken up that morning and put her favorite dress on.

One of the soldiers slapped her face. Maeve fell into a deep slumber.

"You know she is kind of pretty," One of the men said.

"How can you even think that. She's not definitely one of us, she is filth." Another answered and went closer to the fire burning in the middle of them.

"I am able to see it, believe me." He smirked "take a good look at her. She looks like a bloody doll."

"Stop it if you don't want to lose your eyes."

"You know you probably shouldn't have killed that brunette. Maybe we could have had the one of them."

"Well it's too late now, the brunette is dead and soon she will be as well." The man nodded towards the passed out young woman.

All of the men turned to look at the peaceful creature under a tree.

"We should probably wish her luck."

"Luck?", one man let out a hoarse laugh. "She will need something more than bliss to survive."