The round and wondrously bright disc was hanging in the clear and starry night. Chords of moonlight gleamed across the sea of trees. It was that time of the month when the moon would appear more gloriously beautiful than ever.
For werewolves, Full Moon was both exciting and frightening. It used to be a challenging moment for werewolves—half human, half wolf—to face a Full Moon, as it was the exact time when they would turn into their wolf counterpart. Now, hundreds of years after the Dark Ages, werewolves had mastered to control themselves. Full Moon became a celebration of life.
Every Full Moon once a year, the tribe would gather at a small clearing on the hill, with each family bringing a peace offering for the Moon Goddess—which we believed to be the reason why we found each other here, why we were blessed with such a good life. The other Full Moon was still celebrated within the family or pack.
On a Full Moon in one October night six years ago, I had my first transformation. I was only ten that time, and was considered a ‘late bloomer’ by other werewolves, who had tasted how it felt like to meet their other half at the age of eight. I remembered crying to my sleep because I was made fun of, generally because both my parents were a born-werewolf, where most of those kids had one werewolf and one human parent.
Half-blooded werewolves usually had slow transformation—but I had even slower one. They compared me to my own brother, who was already in training to become an Alpha that could lead his own pack someday.
It usually took eight to ten years for a born-werewolf to be eligible for an Alpha training, but Nathan only took seven. He was exactly seven years old when he first transformed into a full wolf and it impressed the whole tribe. He was automatically in the race to become Alpha once he turned 14.
Mastering transformation wasn’t easy, but Nathan nailed it all. Most young werewolves were still learning to shift according to their desire. Some still needed Full Moon to do that, some had a hard time battling for the dominance, and some could not transform at all.
And Thea Whitlock, the daughter of one of the Shadow Striders Elders, was thrown into the last category.
In the middle of the gathering, Nathan’s friends came to me who was sitting by the fire. One of them had turned into a small grey wolf and growled alongside their laughter.
“How is it, Little Thea? Still can’t turn?” The tallest boy—even taller than Nathan—smirked, showing his white teeth.
“Quit bothering her, Drake!” Selene Preston, the prettiest of them all—mainly because she was the only girl in the group—defended me. It wasn’t the first time she tried to do this, but the other boys wouldn’t listen. I could tell that she liked Nathan. Otherwise, she wouldn’t bother taking a stand for me.
“Nate! Are you sure she’s a werewolf? Your parents didn’t adopt her or something?” Drake Calloway still picked on me, followed by cold laughter from the other boy and the wolf.
“Stop it, Drake.” Nathan came between us. “Why don’t we all go to the spring? I heard the Moon Goddess sometimes appears in the Full Moon.”
“You still believe that bedtime story?” Bryan Waltz, the one with curly hair, chuckled. He patted the wolf next to him. “I think even Elliott no longer believes it—and he’s only ten.”
Elliot Calloway growled again. He was in the same class as I was. Calm, reserved, and kind, but he always followed his cousin, Drake, along. One minute he would sit with me at lunch, and the next, he would join this group to laugh at me.
“No, no, I agree with Nathan!” Selene said excitedly. “The Moon Goddess can tell us who we are mated with.”
“Boo-hoo,” mocked Drake. “But, well, it is better than being here. Full Moon celebration is boring.”
The group was starting to leave. I stood up, but Nathan blocked my way.
“You can’t come along,” he told.
“Why?”
“It’s only for werewolves.”
The answer unexpectedly hurt me. Nathan didn’t stand up for me, he just doubled whatever mockery Drake just spat to me.
Emotions building up inside me. Seeing Nathan chose his friends over his own sister created a big hole in my heart. He wasn’t exactly Brother of the Year, but if I could expect someone to defend me, it would be him of all people.
Running into the woods, I finally burst into tears. I didn’t want anyone in that gathering saw me crying. They would pretend to care, but they would definitely make crueler comments behind.
‘Look at that Whitlock girl—she really can't do anything but cry!’
‘I can't believe she's Nathan's sister! Robert's daughter on top of that!’
‘I'm betting my whole fortune that she can't transform until she's at least 12 years old!’
All those comments were lingering in my head. I had never heard it directly, but I could see it in their eyes whenever I made an appearance behind my parents and my oh-so-good brother.
I kept running deeper through the trees that I lost track of where I just came from. I slowed my feet, but a sudden misbalance made my whole body stumbled on to the ground.
Lying flat on my stomach, I tried to get up, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t feel my legs. At the same time, there was some strange patches of hair along my arms. Just like my braided blonde hair, they all turned white, sprouting from every inch of my body. My fingers became shortened, but nails were sharper.
My face felt numb. I could feel that my mouth was getting bigger—no, it was my teeth, growing longer and pointed.
The Full Moon was reflected on a puddle of water in front of me, so was my face. A hairy beast with yellow eyes was what I saw.
If I could scream, I would. My voice was choked in the throat. A split second later, something was pulling my feet, but there was nothing there. Instead, I saw two pairs of big claws.
A sharp pain sear through my body as I felt bones crackled, lengthened, popped through my skin and ripped my clothes.
I was sure my scream tore apart the night, but instead of my voice, all I could hear was a long howl.
My first transformation ever, and my parents were not there to guide me.
I should have known what to expect, but I didn’t. How to walk after completely transformed into a furry, four-legged animal certainly wasn’t a fifth-grade elementary student would learn at school. With my four legs, I staggered through the woods, looking for a way back home.
Every time I screamed, “Mom!”, it all came out as another howl. I just hoped they heard and came looking for me. Werewolves were supposed to have each other’s’ back after all.
The sound of twigs snapping was heard. I turned around, hoping to find at least one of my family members. Instead, I could only see a shadow lurking in the dark, behind the trees.
Something dashed and scratch my left leg. I howled in pain as blood spurted. An arrow was stuck on the ground near my leg. I couldn’t run away as the pain seemed affected my way of walking. I tried to limp away from that spot as far as possible.
The whole situation reminded me of the stories my parents always told me about humans. Some humans liked to hunt supernatural creatures. Whoever shot the arrow had to be a hunter. They probably were preparing another one to shoot through my heart.
With the blood kept flowing, I could barely see the woods in front of me. I swore it was just a scratch, but the blood came out as if I was shot through. I moved slower and slower, and in the end, I couldn’t walk anymore. I whimpered weakly. I was losing too much blood and none of my family knew I was even here.
Through my blurred vision, I saw someone—a human—got closer. With that height, I thought it was Nathan, but his voice was completely different.
“You got hurt!” The boy almost shrieked.
Panic ran through my veins. When he touched me, I struggled, almost clawed him in the process. He swiftly avoided, but instead of running away scared, he stayed.
“Hey, calm down,” he said. “I’m not gonna hurt you. I will help you take care of your wound, okay?”
The boy took out a handkerchief from his pocket. He ran his fingers through my fur to calm me down. It was indeed soothing. I stopped moving so much to allow him to wrap the handkerchief around my wounded leg.
“There you go,” he whispered. “I want to take you to the vet, but I don’t think they would like it.”
His face was illuminated by the moonlight. As I looked at him, he caught my eyes. A pair of beautiful green eyes were staring sincerely at me. His smile bloomed once again, followed by his soft voice telling me that it was gonna be alright… It all lingered on my mind for a brief second.
I heard the sound of the trees rustling even though there was no wind that time. The boy put his finger on his lips.
“Don’t tell them that I helped you!” Carefully, he stood up and dusted away the dirt. “Bye, wolf!”
And just like that, he left, disappeared into the woods. I had never seen him before. He obviously wasn’t part of the tribe because if there was a nice boy like him, I would have known.
He was a human, a kind human, a human that was not like my parents’ stories at all.
A human who knew how to treat a wolf right—unlike the werewolves themselves.
***
“Earth to Thea.”Fingers snapping in front of my face made my eyes blink repeatedly. When I finally got back from reminiscing the event from six years ago, I realized that I was sitting on the dining chair with Mom’s cooking on the table.Nathan, who already walked away from the table after bringing me back with his finger snaps, laughed. “Stop daydreaming. It’s night already.”I scoffed and continued to devour the steak on my plate.“Did you hear what I just said, Thea?” asked Dad.Flash backward to five minutes ago. Dad was talking about how Full Moon was approaching. We would do another celebration, but it was the sixth year for our family to celebrate alone as we moved away from Grassmere, where most of Dad’s tribe resided.“I did, but do we have to do that every year?” I groaned.“Of course, Honey. It is to show our gratitude to the Moon Goddess for blessing
The last thing I wanted to do in the most boring event in the history of werewolves was to meet the very people who forced me to run into the woods in tears and almost got killed in the end. If my brother wanted to blame someone for our migration, he should look at himself and his pack full of jerks first.I tried to tell my dad that it was okay to celebrate Full Moon on our own, but he seemed to make up his mind. It was all thanks to Selene who just had to reminisce all the good things we had in Grassmere.I was lifting some stuffs in Ashborne High School gymnasium when I accidentally knocked down a stack of boxes that my friend Olive Hartwell arranged five minutes ago. An uncontrollable strength was unleashed alongside my anger that one of the boxes was dented.Gasping, I quickly kneeled down to fix it. The box contained sets of gold-colored draperies that would be use to decorate the gymnasium. In exactly four days from now, there would be a homecoming party
After waking up with a new bandage the day after I had my first transformation, I remembered asking my mom where the handkerchief that was used to cover my wound were. She admitted that she had thrown it out, but I managed to rummage through the trash bin to take it back.The white handkerchief turned red because of my blood. I had to wash it numerous times to get its original color back, but the best I could do was to leave a faded red stain on it. At first look, nobody would notice that it used to be blood because it looked like some kind of splattered paint.Going back home, I found Selene hanging out with Nathan in front of the TV. I walked past them and went straight to my room. I crouched by my bed and took out a turquoise box containing some memory stuffs. The handkerchief was rested well inside the box and it bloomed a smile on my face.After six years, I couldn’t believe I would meet the boy again, who already grew into a gorgeous, tall boy with t
I was staring at the handkerchief for the millionth time when I heard footsteps approaching. Two knocks on my door were enough to send me into a tidying up frenzy. It wasn’t safe to bring the handkerchief around, so I put it back to the box along with other stuffs and slid it under my bed. My door was opened as soon as I jumped on to the bed, posing as natural as I could.“Hey, Mom,” I grinned widely as my mom opened the door. She couldn’t just find out that I had been keeping the dirty handkerchief she had thrown out before. She would ask questions and that would end up with me having to tell her about Carson.“Someone’s here to see you,” she said.Another figure appeared behind her. A boy with a neck length, black hair smiled radiantly as our eyes met.“Elliott?” I gasped. I got on my feet and just received the hug from his muscular body, still with a bewildered expression. “Elliott Calloway?&r
When I was into my deep thought, I heard Elliott shout.“Oh, look!” He almost jumped excitedly. He looked over my shoulder and then walked past me. “It’s a spring!”I caught up with his steps. From the distance, I could see a small waterfall above a pool of spring, glistening under the moonlight. The sound of the water was serene and soothing. The stones were reflecting the luminescence of the moon. It reminded me of this one spring in the middle of the woods in Grassmere, but this spring was wider and deeper. The waterfall just made it more exquisite.I had gone around these woods before, but I never realized that there was a beautiful spring here.“Do you remember when we were kids, there was this tale about Moon Goddess descended to the Earth on the night of the brightest Full Moon?” Elliott asked, almost with a whisper because he didn’t want to ruin the nature’s sound.Mom used to read it to
Dad wasn’t amused hearing my story about how some people were hunting deer at night in the woods that wasn’t even a hunting ground. Elliott, who joined the dinner, backed up my story. “The place was perfect for gathering, but we don’t think it’s safe,” he said. I really thought he would hold on to his ‘hunters-don’t-exist’ view in front of Nathan, but fortunately, he went with what I suggested. “It’s forbidden to hunt outside the hunting ground,” Dad said. “I should report this to the Sheriff.” “And tell him what?” Nathan chimed in, with his mouth still full of mashed potato. “That two teenagers—one happened to be your daughter—snuck into the woods at night and witnessed the shooting?” Here we go again. Nathan gaslighting someone on the dinner table wasn’t really a new thing. “Yes, that’s exactly what he should say,” I insisted, ignoring how the wording could put Dad into shame for having a teenage daughter going into the dark woods wi
The decoration for the homecoming night was already 80% finished, making it a forbidden room for any students other than the committees. It was decorated with black, gold, and silver color. Sparkling star decorations were hung on each corner, the paper lanterns were arranged as an arch in the entrance, and gold draperies was put as a background for the photo booth. The high ceiling was covered with black cloth, which would be luminated by light projector, making it look like a sky full of stars. Olive was raving about it this morning, but she couldn’t help after school because she had to take her mother to the clinic. So, she listed all the stuffs that needed to be done today and sent it to me. A little advice for those who bore missions from Olive Hartwell: do it right or have her knock on your door at night just because you put the wrong size of cups on the table. At the same time, Mom also sent me the list of groceries I had to purchase for the Full Moon.
The stories about hunters had been circling around werewolf tribes for long, as the history of supernatural beings was shaped partly because of them. There were two kinds of hunters—the ordinary one, humans who just liked to hunt wild animals; and the ones who hunted the supernaturals. The latter was what we always feared of, although many werewolves just fended it off because there had not been many cases about our kinds dying because of them. Nathan was definitely one of the skeptical ones. He thought being hit with a silver arrow was just a coincidence, or just Little Thea craving for attention. He couldn’t prove me wrong back then, but he still stayed with his principle: hunters were real, but they were not a threat to us as long as we stayed hidden. Mom’s explanations just struck me like a lightning bolt. If Nathan was right, both kind of hunters didn’t just threaten wild animals out there, but also humans. I heard from my parents once that hunters would