Chehlia was born last in a litter of four to Celia Elias and Dhani Ostrega. Her name is a combination of those of both of her grandmothers--Chena and Dahlia--and her middle name is that of Dhani's sister, Esmerine. Her father was a nomad that settled with their pack for what was supposed to be just the Winter, but ended up being much longer as he began a family with their mother. A forest fire stole the lives of both of her parents when she was three months old. She and her siblings survived by the grace of the pack's alphas who took them in and raised them beside their own three pups.

<p>Once the Ostrega pups were old enough, they left their foster family in search of places of their own in the world.