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Prologue

I lay on a hand-hewn beam above the hayloft.

This old beam had heard the dreams of the humans who built it — dreams of good harvests, full bellies, peaceful years. Now they were only echoes of the past. They could not have imagined that most humans would be gone from this world.

I am an Abyssinian Queen.

I remember the village when it was alive. Not the empty streets I walk now. Not the boarded windows and the dust and the silence. I remember lights in the windows. Smoke from chimneys. The sound of humans talking, laughing, arguing.

I remember Margaret. She was my human. A historian. She told me I was royalty — descended from an Egyptian queen's Abyssinian cat. She gave me an ankh, the key of life, she called it, and said it was my proof. I wore it then. I wear it now.

Then the plague came.

The streets were not quiet — they were empty. The humans were gone. The animals were everywhere.

The dogs had formed packs. They had claimed the farm and the junkyard. They had befriended an old storekeeper named Elias, who gave them food and shelter. They had fought ferals — led by a huge white dog named Thor, who ran the feral pack.

They had won.

Abyssinian Queen is the forthcoming sequel to Pack of Shadows by Michael Morrow — arriving July 2026. Subscribe to the newsletter for first news.