Author's note: I am planning on making this a long story. This first part 'How it Happened' is more like a prologue/ setting the scene. The main story comes afterwards. Unfortunately it was a bit long so I split it, but it is meant to be read as one section. Also, I just want to let you know, Rowan is not going to be some random character I add with no back story. Nor is he going to be some ultimate wolfblood who is just the best at everything. He is good at some things and bad at others. He has moods. He has good experiences and bad experiences. I just wanted to clear that up in case it looked that way from this first section. I also want to point out that he often cuts short when talking about his past. This will become clear later and it is not me being lazy. I hope you like this story, because I am planning on making it pretty epic.
Also the title seems a bit strange. I had trouble coming up with a good one, but I think this one it interesting. If anyone has better suggestions though, I am open to them.
Chapter 1 - How it Happened (Part 1)
I remember when the wolfblood secret came out. There wasn't some official scientific reveal or the rising up of wolfbloods to help humans in a desperate time of war, like I might have dreamed if I had ever considered it would actually happen. It was an unfortunate accident, mostly. Something to do with a few teenagers - barely more than cubs, a bit of alcohol, some very unlucky kidnappers looking for easy pickings and several camera phones. It was ridiculous that this was how it happened. After all the crazy close-calls that I know I have had, not to mention the ones my pack have told me about! Apparently two of them actually got blood tests at a hospital and…. but I digress.
It was originally thought to be a hoax; I recall as I watched the video evidence I was hoping and praying that it would all be considered a set up. Of course, hope is something that seems to favour everyone but me. The amount of video evidence and witnesses claiming to have seen werewolves captured the interest of some more open-minded scientists, I guess. I remember sitting on the couch that night, my little sister, Myra, snuggled close to my side and sleeping gently, and my pack staring at the screen with wide eyes watching the news with disbelief as they announced that werewolves were real.
It was a very unfortunate time for me in particular. Just like hope, good fortune also seems to avoid me. After almost two years of wandering through the wild with Myra - not unhappy, but I think we both missed having a pack at times - we had finally found a home, albeit temporary. Ceri and Gerwyn were kind enough and let us hang around with them and join their pack on full moon, but I am glad they did not try to behave as our parents, for obvious reasons… Their pack was small and quite strange as it included some humans. I was sceptical at first, but I think staying with them was a good decision and they are definitely more palatable that my previous pack… Not long after we met, Rhydian left to find his mate in Canada. That was a bit unfortunate because I liked having some to wrestle and play fight with, like old times... Then it was just Shannon, Tom and Jana. I even started going to school after some encouragement. Originally, it was mostly for Myra's sake. It had been so long since she had been around others her age, even if they were human, but she was too scared to go by herself. I actually ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Pretending to be human was demeaning and frustrating at times, but the sorts of technology and information that humans have was some kind of wonderful for an uneducated wolf like myself. I even got to sing. Of course, I had sung before - lullabies to Myra and sometimes when we played games and when I howled to Lupana (that's the name of the moon in my native language) - but never had I realised how powerful music was. I joined a band at school called Averwood.
I had been with the pack for just four full moons when all of this happened.
The aftermath of the reveal was like a shockwave that rippled through the entire nation. Everyone was confused and no one could be trusted, it seemed. The media was in a frenzy, desperately coming up with new advice and warnings every day to calm the public - don't leave your home unarmed, hang something silver on your front door, wear garlic around your neck (that one was strange), if you suspect someone to be a werewolf do not confront them, leave no raw meat around your home. I think businesses and schools closed down for several weeks, but I'm not sure because I barely left the house at all. It was the longest I have ever been trapped in a building and it was driving all of us crazy. The irony of this initial mass terror and hysteria is that while humans were panicking and hiding and reading every fictional text that existed on werewolves, the wolfbloods were also hiding in fear, trying to pass as humans and terrified of being discovered and killed or captured for scientific research.
After a little over a month, things began to calm down again. I'm not really sure, but I suspect Segolia stepped in. They offered the information and facts that people needed on wolfbloods, research they had spent years collecting for just such an incident. Although the government settled and decided to invest research into wolfbloods in a formal fashion and to start considering legislation concerning them, the public was still fearful and hateful towards wolfbloods. To be honest, I think the government only calmed because they wanted to appear in control and I guess they knew there was no easy way out - no way to destroy or get rid of wolfbloods because they couldn't find many of us. The nation resumed life and people returned to work and school along with the only temporary law the government had made - werewolves were not to be killed except in self-defence. Of course, this law was subjective and poorly enforced at this time because the police always sided against wolfbloods and any wolfblood officers were generally protecting their own tails and trying to pose as humans. Suspicion and trepidation were buzzing in the atmosphere everywhere. I think that was the most stressful week of every wolfblood's life. I know I was constantly looking over my shoulder and working so hard to act as a human that I nearly forgot I wasn't. It wasn't the first time I had dreaded a full moon, in fact after years of experience in my old pack… But anyway, it was the first time I had dreaded a full moon since those days. We stayed in the cellar - no howling, no playing or growling, no sounds at all. We just sat, comforting each other and wishing for just one more moon free on the moors.
Oh, I'm being rude! This is all very self-focussed, but it wasn't easy on the humans in our pack either. Tom and Shannon actually received far more suspicion than Jana, Myra or I. It was from what happened quite a while ago. I wasn't in Stoneybridge then, but I've been told that when Rhydian's mate, Maddy was still here, one student in the class, Liam, became quite suspicious of her. He actually glimpsed her in wolf form and became convinced she was a werewolf, telling everyone about it. Of course back then he was mocked and laughed at for suggesting such a thing. After the secret came out, though, he was treated as a hero, to have been trapped in a cavern with a werewolf, and he clearly enjoyed the adoration. This, however, rekindled ideas about Tom and Shannon being werewolves. It was well-known that they had been friends with Maddy for a long time and Liam had actually thought they may also be werewolves. It was rough for them. I know it was even though they told me and Jana that they didn't mind and that they weren't in danger because a simple DNA test would protect them. The only thing I reason I had to look forward to that first full moon after the reveal was for them. I believe they went to the Kafe for the evening. There weren't many people there because no one wanted to walk through the streets on a full moon, but there was enough to verify that they weren't wolfbloods. Tom told me that the people there, especially those from school, threw so many fearful glances at them that you would think they actually had turned into wolves.
It was a really horribly terrifying time for me. I was constantly on edge, but if I lost control of my emotions for a moment, I would be discovered. I saw on the news one night during this time there was a cub, probably about 12 years old. He was smaller than average, kind of scrawny really. The studious quiet type, I'd guess. He heard a classmate from across the classroom, a large boy who enjoyed bullying others, whispering boastfully to some friends that he hadn't bothered with his assignment. His mother had written it all for him and that he was bound to get a good grade. I guess this must have annoyed the cub, who worked really hard on his own assignment for the entire week. So right there, in the middle of class, he told the teacher. Unfortunately, when he was asked to substantiate his accusation, the cub said that he heard the bully telling his friends. As a wolfblood, I suppose we don't really know how good human hearing is and he judged wrong. The teacher and the class knew there was no way he could have heard that whispered conversation unless he was a wolfblood. The angry bully stood up and accused him right then and there of being a werewolf. The kid panicked, quite understandably. He tried denying, scrambling for any other explanation for his hearing. The bully and the teacher bought none of it, so the cub decided to get out. He tried running for the door but slammed into the bully and as he fell back, his eyes changed and it was too late. I don't know what happened to the poor kid or his family. The news report didn't say. I think they were more focussing on the horror of finding werewolves in schools among vulnerable children or something. I knew something like that could easily happen to me or Myra or even Jana. The fear we lived in each day was almost painful and I didn't think anything could possibly get worse. However, as I've mentioned, I don't have a way with good luck.