Kaitlyn hated nights like this. Nights where there was a full moon; nights where she had to travel deep into the woods; nights where she had to writhe in pain while her bones broke and reconstructed and her skin would grow black and white fur; nights where she turned into a wolf.
Kaitlyn had known all her life what she was, but it wasn't until she was sixteen that the transformations started. At first, she sought the help of her mentor Natalya. Of course Natalya would never understand the pain that Kaitlyn had to endure going through the transformation, but being that Natalya was her fellow creature of myth, she was the only one who could help. Natalya was a siren, in fact, she was the Queen of Sirens. She would help Kaitlyn by taking away her pain during her transformations. Since Kaitlyn was born Natalya has watched over her and raised her in the Realm of Sirens. Normally, werewolves would never be allowed in Siren society, but Kaitlyn was not your typical werewolf, she was a hybrid, half werewolf, half siren. For the first 21 years of her life, Kaitlyn stayed with the siren clan, but then she decided to live among the humans, much to the displeasure of her fellow sirens. Nevertheless, they allowed her to live among the humans without animosity, so for the past three years she lived on her own in human society. She got her own place and had even got a job as a bartender.
She enjoyed living in the human world because of the freedom it offered her. That's why Kaitlyn had chosen to leave supernatural world in the first place. She loved the sirens and their realm, in fact, she had yet to find a place in the human world that reminded her of home, but the Realm of Sirens could never offer her the freedom to be in charge of her own life. The life of a sire could never offer her the opportunities to travel, to meet new people, to truly explore all Earth had to offer because, at the end of the day, supernatural beings could never intermingle with humans without prosecution. And so, Kaitlyn had a choice: remain within the confines of the Realm of Sirens, and be safe, or venture into the human word, and be free.
In the end, Kaitlyn decided that she would rather live in the human world and live her life the way she choose to. However, she could never escape what she was and she had to hide it from the humans at all costs. Which is why, during the full moon, she would seek refuge in the forests outside of her little town.
Kaitlyn
No Matter how many times I go into these woods, they always freak me out. The tall trees hide the moon from my sight, although its light still manages to trickle down to the woods' floor. I sigh heavily looking up and holding myself with my backpack on my back as I walk deeper into the woods. Finally, I reach the place I want to be. It's a small brook surrounded by tall trees with very little leaves. I had always thought it was funny that these trees never seemed to grow leaves. I lay my backpack next to the brook. Here, I have a perfect view of the bright full moon. I look up at it. Its beauty always manages to mesmerize me, and yet I hate it because of what it does to me. My thoughts are cut short when a sudden pain makes its way up my spine. It's happening: the transformation. The pain spreads to my limbs as I feel my bones break and reform. I fucking hate being a werewolf.
Dean
Humans are an interesting bunch. I know of no other creature that would wage war so needlessly and yet find enough time to slowly kill themselves individually. Not to mention that they live their lives so unaware of the supernatural: of the powers that be that protect their sorry asses from other supernatural beings that feed off them. That's where my brothers and I come in. We're the wolf pack in charge of Gilford. Why the responsibility falls on us to protect the stupid humans is beyond me. It's always been like this. It's the reason for our very existence.
We werewolves were created specifically created to protect human beings, at all costs. Humans don't know that though, and although our ancestors seemed to think that it was for the best, I can't help but feel that it is unfair. We guard humans with our lives, but we get no type of appreciation. Humans don't even know we exist. For the few werewolves who were discovered, they met their end at the hands of the humans. Humans fear what they cannot understand. Fear turns into hate, and hate turns into action, into violence, into murder. The humans fear us, they hate us, they kill us, and we're still blood bound to protect them. I love being a werewolf and I wouldn't want to be anything else, but sometimes, I wish we didn't have to protect these damn humans. Let them live without our protection, and see how long they last in a world where almost every supernatural being feeds on them.
"Dean," my brother, Roman, pulls me out of my thoughts and sniffs around; his eyes turn yellow, and I can tell that he has picked up a promising scent.
"Got something Ro," I ask.
"Yeah, something strong."
"Vampires," Seth reveals. Seth is our youngest triplet. He takes a deep breath and carries on speaking. "It's them guys. I know it's them. I'd know that miserable stink anywhere." I take in a deep whiff and pick up the scent.
"Why these dumbass vampires insist on attacking during full moons I'll never know." The three of us then transition from our human forms to our wolf forms. Staying connected telepathically, I look at my brothers and say, "Let's do what we do best."
Seth
It doesn't take long to find those three lowlife vampires. My brothers and I recognize them instantly, as we have had run-ins with them for years. Dolph, Curtis and Zack. I should have known it would have been these three who would dare hunt in our territory. They are the only three vampires who decided to stay in Gilford after the Primary Assembly, the supreme authority over all vampires, passed a decree forbidding vampires from hunting in areas under werewolf pack protection, in accordance with the treaty they had worked out with the Lyncanthropic Council, the equivalent of the Assembly for werewolves. The three of them were among many vampires in the U.S. who adamantly opposed the treaty, and directly disobeyed it. They risk their lives by going against the decree, if they are caught hunting in our territory. As werewolves, my brothers and I have every right to kill these three, and on several occasions, we almost did. However, the blood-suckers always managed to escape before we could finish them off. Curtis and Zack better thank their lucky stars that Dolph is their creator. That blood-sucker is a certified genius who always figured out a way to outsmart us, to save himself and his lineage. Dolph is the one to watch out for.
We find them at a campsite in the woods and perch ourselves on the high ground above the campsite. As we look down, we see some humans who are sitting around a fire. It doesn't look like the humans are doing much, but in the trees, I can see them, the three blood-suckers.
"Seth," I hear Roman whispering. "All of us need to stay alert. The three of them are starving; I can smell their need for food."
"Then we better be sure to end this quickly," Dean comments.
"We need to get those humans away from the blood-suckers," I point out. "If they are there when a fight breaks out they'll end up getting hurt."
"We need a distraction. Something that scares off the campers but doesn't let the vamps know we're here." As Roman finishes his thought we all hear a loud howl coming from the north. It's definitely a werewolf's howl. I look back down at the camp site and the campers are quickly packing up their things. Good, at least they won't be in the way.
"Guys, the vamps are moving we need to get in there now!" Dean warns us as the vamps descend upon the humans. We move into action and race down to the site, but we're not fast enough. Zack grabs hold of one of the campers and bites into his neck, but, just as fast, he is ripped off the camper when another wolf bites into him, forcing Zack to let go of the human as he is tossed into a tree. The camper runs away, following his human companions as the unknown wolf stands in between the blood-suckers and the humans and lunges at the vamps. It's a three on one assault when my brothers and I arrive. The unknown wolf is holding its own but quickly succumbs to the sEvege beating of the blood-suckers. Roman is the first to attack. He latches onto Curtis and throws him against a tree; brutally biting and sinking his claws into him as Curtis tries desperately to knock Roman off of him.
The second I get there I take on Dolph and tackle him into a nearby boulder, smashing it instantly. Dolph tries to recover from the force of the impact, but I don't let him get up. I lunge at him aiming to bite his shoulder, but he moves and instead his arm is caught in the clutches of my canines. I start tossing him around like a rag doll, hitting him against every possible thing in my sight. It's my hope that his arm just rips clean out of his socket, but that's obviously something that Dolph does not want to let happen. He uses whatever strength he has to kick me straight in my nose. I immediately let go of his arm. It fucking hurts, and I know I'll have a broken nose once I go back to my human form. I go back to attack Dolph, but he's already running away with Curtis and Zack not far behind. I watch them go to make sure that they do not intend to return to the camp site.
"Who's the new wolf in town?" I hear Dean ask. He and Roman are now tending to the new wolf who had attacked Zack. I get a closer look and realize it's a female. From her scent, I would guess that she's maybe 24, but I can tell she's a pup, not meaning that she is really young, but meaning that she doesn't have control over her transformations yet.
"Well she's definitely a pup," I state. "I'm surprised she was able to get Zack off of that human so easily." The she-wolf lies on the dirt floor unconscious. Understandably so, although I have to admit that I thought she would have sustained more serious injuries considering that she took on the three oldest vampires in New Hampshire.
Roman steps toward her and sniffs her a couple of times. Dean and I wait on his assessment. "Well?" Dean asks.
"You guys don't smell that? She's not a normal wolf," Roman tells us as he steps back and allows us to also smell her. Upson closer inspection, I realize that her scent is strange. She doesn't just smell like a she wolf. She smells of something else, something supernatural.
"She's definitely a half-breed," Dean concludes, "but she's certainly not half human, I'll tell you that much. I think we should take her to our pack master."
"Not yet," Roman replies. "Let's wake her up and get answers. Then we can take her to our pack master."
"What kind of answers are we looking for?" I ask.
"Like, who she is and which pack she belongs to, and why the hell would she go after vamps by herself?" Roman stops talking as the she wolf wakes up and gets to her feet.
Kaitlyn
I wake up in a total daze. I struggle to get on my feet as I try to remember exactly what happened. I lift my head realize that I'm surrounded by three huge wolves. I panic; I am definitely outnumbered and afraid. How the hell did I get in this mess?
"You really don't remember?" I hear a voice say. I look around, really confused. "Hey don't look around, pup! Look at me when I'm talking to you." I realize that the voice is coming from one of the three wolves. The wolf with light brown fur to be exact, he is standing in middle of a jet black wolf and a dark brown wolf, but how is he talking to me in the first place?
"Because we're wolves, stupid," the light brown wolf speaks, replying to the question that I had thought. How is it that he can hear my thoughts?
"Okay," the black wolf begins talking now. "So that answers some of our questions right there. The pup doesn't have a pack or else she would know how wolves communicate, and yes pup we can hear your thoughts: loud and clear." So much for finding a way out of this.
"There's no need to find a way out," the dark brown one says. "You're among friends. My name is Seth. These are my brothers, Roman, the black wolf, and Dean the light brown wolf as you're calling them."
"Um, sorry," I think hoping that they could hear me. "I've never spoken with wolves before."
"We already figured that out, dummy," Dean barks at me.
"You can stop insulting my intelligence," I bark back at him. "I may not know a lot about being a werewolf, but when you grow up with a bunch of sirens, who are you supposed to learn from, huh?"
"Sirens?" Roman asks. "You grew up with sirens?"
"Yes," I answer hesitantly. The three wolves look at me cautiously and start circling me.
"Werewolves are allowed nowhere near the Realm of Sirens," Roman continues.
"Sirens and werewolves have been enemies since our birth. They enslaved us, and then cursed us," Seth adds.
"Every supernatural being knows the unsavory history between Sirens and Werewolves," Dean explains. "So tell us, pup, how is it that you were able to, not only enter the Realm of Sirens, but also grow up there?"
There's no hiding the truth from them. Even if I try to lie, they can read my thoughts, so I decide to be honest. "My mother was a siren." Dean lunges at me, tackling me to the ground. I'm a little rattled, but okay. He lunges at me again and my instincts take over. I attack him with every ounce of power I have in me. I claw at his face, snarling at him as we go at one another.
"STOP!" Roman's booming voice echoes in my head as Dean immediately stops his attack, with me pinned underneath him. "Let her go, Dean."
"Why should I?" Dean yells at Roman. "This half-breed is an abomination to both of her kinds! Why should we allow her to live?"
"Because we would cause a problem with the Realm of Sirens if we do!" Roman shouts at him. Roman is definitely the oldest of the brothers. Dean looks back at me with a low growl and lets me get up.
"For what it's worth," I begin. "I don't know anything about the history between sirens and werewolves, and I no longer live in the Realm of Sirens, obviously. I live among the humans now."
"Why did you leave?" Seth inquires.
"Because I was trapped! I live among the humans so that I can be in charge of my own life and have the freedom to make my own decisions! This is my first interaction with other supernatural beings since I left the Realm of Sirens three years ago, and let me tell you," I get in Dean's face and speak slowly, "it has not been a pleasant experience." I can tell Dean is fuming and holding himself back from attacking me again.
"We just got off on the wrong foot," Seth comments. I look at him.
"Could we have ever gotten started on the right foot?" The three of them glare at me, although Dean seems angrier than Roman or Seth. "Listen guys. Whatever problems werewolves have with sirens is your problem and theirs, but leave me out of it. I've been living peacefully with the humans for too long to want to give up my life. So if you don't mind, I'll be going." With that I turn around and run in the direction of my spot, hoping, for my own sake, that they aren't following.
Roman
We watch in silence as the hybrid runs off. So the pup's half siren, huh? That could be very useful one day. I turn to Dean, his actions definitely needed to be addressed. "Attack a fellow wolf why don't you?"
"I'd hardly call her a fellow wolf," Dean retorts as he stares at the ground, pacing back and forth.
"I would. She's a pup, Dean. She doesn't know anything about being a wolf and we should teach her. She's pup after all which means that she doesn't have control of her transformations. Do you remember what it was like going through transformations before we gained control? It's the most physically painful thing in the world. Plus, she's alone. At least we had one another and Dad to get us through those times, but she has no one."
"So what do you suggest we do then, Seth? Huh?! Follow her and offer to help her? Help a half-siren? Forget completely about what sirens have done to our kind since the beginning?!"
"She said, herself, that she doesn't know about that history, we can't hold her accountable for that," I tell Dean. "You're being irrational, Dev. Think of the Sheaefits of having a half-breed on our side. We need to watch over her and befriend her."
"Sheaefits? What Sheaefits could possibly come from befriending an abomination like her?"
"There are several possibilities if you just stop and think about it for a minute, instead of being hot-headed and impulsive."
"Roman makes a good point, Dean," Seth chimes in. "We should follow her and watch over her. We could earn her trust, become her mentors. She could help us in the long run."
Dean takes a deep breath. "Fine, but if she refuses our offer then we have her lead us to the Realm of Sirens and kill everything in sight."
"That sounds fair," Seth agrees.
"Then let's go." With that we take off into the woods after the hybrid wolf. This situation could only end well for us.
Dean
It didn't take us long to find the half-breed. Her smell was very unique and easy to follow. My brothers and I find her in a small area of the woods next to a brook. Ugh, so typical of a siren to be around water. She lays down next to the brook and begins to drink from it. Everything about her disgusts me. Even the way she drinks water is annoying.
"You seem awfully distracted there, Dean." Seth pulls me away from my thoughts. "Be careful. The way you're looking at her, one might think you had a crush on the pup."
"Shows how little you know!" I adamantly deny, "She disgusts me and all I want to do is kill her."
"If you say so."
"Guys," Roman calls to us. "The night's almost over and we can't stay here when the pup transforms back. So make sure you commit her scent to memory. We'll catch up with her later." When the sun rises the pup is going to transform back into a human and she won't have any clothes on. Even if we are wolves, we certainly respect others' right to privacy. I take in a deep breath, and the air carrying her scent fills my lungs. I can never forget it. It's the only time that I have ever smelled wolf and salt water at the same time, and something else, something indescribable, and yet…addictively unique. I nod to my brothers, and we back off as the pup falls asleep by the brook. We'll see her again, very soon.
Kaitlyn
As the sun rises, I wake up with a monster headache. I put my hand on my head as I try to gather my thoughts and remember what happened last night. I remember running off from my spot because I had smelled death, but it was moving. I'm not sure why, but I got pissed off and chased after the smell. I remember attacking a man and then getting jumped by him and his two buddies. I remember waking up to three wolves. Ugh, those wolves. I can barely remember their names, but they weren't too happy with me. That light brown one especially didn't like me because I was a half breed. Well, at least they didn't follow me, or else I'd have to deal with them right now and I'm in no condition to do so.
I gain my composure and look around for my backpack. My transformations always break and tear my clothes, so I have developed the habit of packing a bag of clothes. This way, I won't have walk back to my apartment naked.
After getting dressed I walk back to town. I look at the position of the sun. It couldn't be too late, maybe 9 o'clock or so. I desperately need to shower and take a nap before I have to go to work tonight.
When I get home, I make a beeline for the bathroom, dropping my backpack by the door. My apartment isn't anything special, a one bedroom, one bathroom with a small kitchen and a good sized living room, with a suede couch and flat screen TV. It was on the small side but it was pretty perfect for me. Besides it's not as though I have a lot of friends, or host parties. Since coming to the human world I've only made one friend: my fellow bartender, April, or A.J. for short. She's a good girl, really cool and easy to talk to. She's definitely on the nerdy side and is one of the few humans, I've met, who believe in the supernatural. I've indulged her theories no Matter how wrong they were, but never told her about my past or what I was. She doesn't need to know.
When I get out of the shower I jump straight into my bed. My body is way too sore and exhausted from transforming to do much of anything else. As I lay down and start to fall asleep, I could swear I smell something off in my apartment. I know I didn't cook anything so I write it off as something coming from my neighbors and go to bed.
Seth
So the pup lives in the town that we guard, huh? Guess it really is a small world. Her scent is all over the town but is particularly strong in three places, two of which are apartments. In the first apartment we check out, we immediately find her about to go sleep. We decide to leave her alone for now and check out the other places. The second apartment is empty, but the stench of human fills the air, so it has to be a human friend's place. The third place is a bar in the middle of town called Rhodes's Tavern. It looks more like a pub than anything else. Why would she hang out here?
"Her scent is strongest behind the bar," Dean concludes after we walk into the pub. "She probably works here as a bartender."
We continue to look around until a woman calls to us from behind the bar. "Good morning gentlemen!" She seems really cheerful for a human. She's a small human with long black straight hair, but I can smell the scent of a slight burn on it so she probably has natural curls but straightens them out. She has big brown eyes, a light brown complexion and a very familiar scent. "Can I help you?" she asks us.
I look at my brothers, who are standing behind me. Dean walks past me to speak to the girl. "What's your name," he asks.
"Name's April, my friends call me A.J."
"Well, April, maybe you can help us out."
"Okay," she replies tentatively.
"We're looking for a girl. She's been living in this town for about three years now and works here. Sound familiar?"
"The only girl I know who's been in town for three years and works here is Kaitlyn." This girl is dumber than she looks. Humans are way too trusting. "Are you three friends of hers," April questions.
"You can say that," Roman answers. "We're more like family though." He isn't exactly lying. After all, the girl is a wolf.
"Interesting, Kaitlyn never mentioned her family before. She doesn't really talk about you guys." This April girl is obviously a friend of the pup's. This is probably the human who owns the other apartment.
"Yeah well, we kind of had a fall-out," I offer. "But we're here to make it right."
"Oh! That's probably why she immigrated to the States then. Well, I'm glad that you guys are making up. Kaitlyn has the night shift tonight. She'll be starting around 8 and then she'll be closing up. You can meet her here, but you might want to catch her after work that way she doesn't get in trouble."
"We'll be sure to do that," Dean tells her. "Oh and don't tell her we're in town. It'll ruin the surprise."
"No problem!" My brothers and I walk out of the bar.
"What do we do now," I ask.
"We wait," Roman responds. "When she's working we'll stop by, ask her to come with us and we'll talk in the woods."
"That shouldn't be too hard," Dean adds.
"Well 8 is still a couple of hours away," I point out. "What do we do in the meantime?"
"How about you let me know what the hell is going on?" My brothers and I look around to find our pack master perched atop of the bar.
"Punk!" Roman says in surprise. We all bow immediately as our pack master, CM Punk, descends upon us, landing right in front of my brothers and me.
"You guys don't have to be so formal in a human setting," he tells us. "We don't need to draw the attention to ourselves." We all get to our feet surrounding our pack master. "So you guys want to tell me why you didn't return to the Den after your shift was over?"
"Our apologies, Punk," Roman replies. "We stumbled upon something rather interesting during our shift last night."
"Good interesting or bad interesting?"
"That's a Matter of perspective," Roman answers.
"Well don't keep me in suspense, what happened?"
"We found an abomination. A werewolf-siren half-breed," Dean replies. Punk remains silent, looking at Dean as if he doesn't completely believe him. He crosses his arms and glances over at me and then Roman, still trying to determine if we're lying. He takes a deep breath before speaking again. "Did you kill it?"
"No, we didn't. Roman stopped me before I could." Punk looks at Roman, uncrossing his arms.
"We'll see if that was a good call or not. Where's the half-breed now?"
"At her apartment," I answer.
"Then why are you here?"
"We had a nasty first encounter. We thought we would give her some time before we approached her again."
"I see. And when do you plan on approaching her again?"
"Tonight," Dean cuts in. "She works at this bar. We'll ask her to come with us so we can talk."
"Do you really think that she would just come with you, considering that you had a nasty first encounter," Punk probes us. He has a point. I didn't even think of that. "You'll need some type of leverage."
"What do you suggest," Roman inquires.
"What kind of information do you have on her?"
"Well something that is useful," Roman offers. "We just ran into a human friend of hers. She actually works here. They seem close."
"Perfect," Punk comments. He turns around and looks into the bar through the glass door. "Which one is the friend?"
"That small human female with the long black hair. Her name is April," I inform him.
"Okay. This is what's going to happen, I'll follow April and take her back to the Den. When the hybrid comes along, tell her to come with you. If she doesn't come the first time, destroy the bar. The second time, tell her we have her friend."
"What about the humans," I ask.
"Erase their memories. Then you and Dean will take the hybrid to the Den. Roman will start off on the guard duty shift, and you'll join him on patrol tonight. Do you think you two can handle that?"
"Of course," Roman answers.
"Good. In the meantime, all of you go back to the Den and get some rest. You'll need your strength for tonight." Putting or fists over our hearts and bowing or heads, we leave Punk staring through the glass door.
And here it is! Chapter 1 re-written. As you can tell, not much has changed, but you may have noticed that I combined the first like 2 chapters of the previous story. So do be warned that chapters will be longer this time around because I decided to break the larger story down into several books (ideas kept coming to me, so I made the original story much longer than I intended). In the upcoming chapters you'll notice subtle changes, but much larger changes will take place later on, so please be patient with me. Until next time, LOVE YOU!
-Jae
