Chapter 1

"Hey Dad, I'm home!" I yelled as I opened the front door. I walked into the kitchen just as the phone stared ringing, I picked it up, "Hello Ayame Lebowski speaking."

"Hey Aya, just wanted to tell you that I'm working late tonight so you can either cook yourself something or I've left some money on the table if you want to order out." Dads voice came through the phone.

"Do you always have to work late?" I whined.

"I'm sorry, there's a guy here who thinks he killed a wolf, I think its just a big dog. I have to go now, see you later." He hung up.

I went to the computer after throwing my bag in my room, looked like pizza again, I was to lazy to cook anything tonight. After ordering my pizza online I sat and read a book for school, it was so boring. I usually liked books but the ones my English teacher set were all romance.

The doorbell rang and I paid the man, I only ate half the pizza. I would eat the rest later, when dad worked late he always ate dinner at the station.

Forty minutes later I was trying to tame my hair, after my shower it was tangled I gave up and looked at my reflection. A girl of fourteen stared back at me, long tawny hair down to her waist, bright blue eyes. My left eye, for some reason had tiny flecks of gold scattered amongst the blue.

After throwing some clothes on I decided it was time for study, I didn't like it but in this decaying world an education was expensive and I didn't want to waste my parents money.

That was the night this whole mess started, dad came home the next morning saying that mom had over worked herself. That's why I lived with him and not her, she was to involved in her research and hardly ever left the lab. I wasn't told much but from what I could work out mom was the head scientist in a lab, they were working on a special girl.

Anyway that night was also the night some thieves broke into the building my parents worked in, aiming for food they lost one of there own. The boy had fresh bite marks on his shoulder, from a dog of some sort, that's what everyone else thought, the bite looked to big for a dog. I thought it was something more.

I woke up that morning feeling groggy and pissed like every morning, it was a school day so I put on my uniform, white shirt, maroon jersey, gray skirt, stockings and black mary janes. I rubbed the last of the sleep out of my eyes as I walked to the kitchen, dad was there.

"Morning Aya, sorry about last night. Some guy shot a big dog saying it was a wolf, we had to let him go eventually." I listened while buttering my toast,

"By the way, go to the hospitable this afternoon, Cher worked herself to hard again and we're going to visit her." I couldn't be bothered objecting so I just shrugged. I didn't think much of it, occasionally mom would work herself to hard and end up in bed for a few days, I would be forced to go over and help out. She had never ended up in hospital though.

School was boring, I had finished my English book already so she set me a new one, some junk called Twilight, the girls in my class loved it, it sounded weird to me. Harry Potter was more my style.

I met dad outside the hospital and we walked in together with him doing all the talking, "We found more hairs outside the cage, that's three sets now. This is getting weird." He ranted. I just nodded along.

The hospital visit was alright, she was looking better already, "Hello Ayame, how are you?" She asked while hugging me tight.

"I'm fine, schools fine." I said answering here next question before she could ask it. We talked for awhile and dad gave her a really hideous scarf which we both laughed at. He had a horrible fashion sense, a few weeks ago he bought me a bright pink woollen scarf, that had gone strait to the back of my wardrobe and it hadn't been seen since.

When we left we didn't go strait home, dad had to take care of some business, he didn't drive towards the office though, he drove to some old apartment buildings. He knocked on one of the doors and an old man answered and let us in.

"Ayame this is Quent Yaiden, Quent this is my daughter Ayame." He looked down at me.

"Hey short stuff." He seemed drunk.

I spotted a big black dog in the corner of the room, "Mr Yaiden, can I pet your dog?" I asked politely.

"Yeah go nuts, and don't call me Mr, makes me feel old." While the two men sat down I slowly walked over to the dog, she was beautiful, her eyes were amazing, so bright and full of life. I glanced up to see Quent showing dad something. It looked like some deep cuts on his hand.

"Did I hear right? Did you just say wolf?" I asked, I had never seen one only drawings, no one talked about them.

"You cant prove it was a wolf." My father said totally ignoring me.

"Well, there weren't any cats or ferrets around, there was only a young human. That beast turned into a little boy right in front of my eyes." The old man replied while stile examining the wound. "He was just a kid. About as young as yours." He said nodding at me.

I turned around and reached out my hand to the dog, she licked it and I pulled it up to rub her head. She was so calm, she leaned into my touch.

"Can you remember what the boy looked like?" Dad asked him.

"I'm trying but for some reason my memories a little fuzzy." He answered, smirking a little.

Dad got up and I followed, I looked down to see dog hair all over my school uniform. "Maybe I should come back another time."

"It'll always be the same, but im not drunk yet tonight." He said still smirking.

"I dont know why I thought I could ever come to you for advice." He ushered me out into the hallway.

"Your obsessed with the wolves." I looked back in the see Quent still seated.

"I'll be right out." He told me before shutting the door.

I pressed my ear against the door, I could only just hear the old mans voice, "I tell you now that words of red moon, from the great spirit was born the wolf and man became it's messenger. In other words the human race was created from wolves. So says the author of the book of the moon." I stopped listening and stood back in case someone opened the door.

A few seconds later dad came out. The drive home was quiet, dad made dinner and I went to bed soon after.

The next day was a work experience day so I had to go with either my mom or dad into wherever they worked. Since the lab mom worked at was top secret I always went in with dad, none of his workmates had kids so it was just me.

Lucky for me he was on the field today. Unfortunately we were working with dead birds, like my father I was allergic to down. Later that night I was in his office working on a book report (he still insisted I do work even if it was work experience.)

His assistant, Tony, came in and dropped off dinner just as some guys ran past the door. "Isn't it kinda late to be going out on a raid?"

"It's that gang of thieves again, they finally found the last of their hideouts. They were tracking the leader this afternoon, a young guy. But then out of nowhere this big black dog shows up, then when they lost site of the guy this other dog appeared."

The old man came crashing through the door, Tony started to leave to help out with the raids, "Hey dad can I go with Tony?" I suddenly asked.

Tony nodded at Dad, "It's alright Hubb, she'll be safe with us." He nodded and I followed Tony out the door.

"Just remember I'm going out with Cher tonight so just drop her back at my place Tony!" Dad yelled after us. I had totally forgotten about that.

They made me put on a vest and helmet, just for safety. After that we were all go.

When we got there I saw four men running across the lines leading out of the city, the men were shooting at them. Tony pointed one out to me, "That one there is the gang leader, the rest can be charged for associating with him." He told me.

The man he pointed at was dressed all in leather, he was tall and had silver hair. The one behind him looked my age, long hair and quite short, the next one up looked eighteen with long dark hair and the last was chubby with puffy brown hair.

We got into a car and chased them along the lines until we got to a large crack in the ground. I saw two jump and one hesitate, the tall gang leader shoved him off, waited a few seconds then jumped, not before someone could fire at him. I looked across to see my dad wrestling with the old man, they had a gun.

Dad managed to push him to the ground just after the man jumped.

Ten minutes later we were examining paw prints in the snow. Everyone but the old man was baffled, "I'm not tracking them for pleasure of curiosity you know? It's for revenge, now do you believe?"

"Believe what?" Dad asked

"That you've been deceived this entire time. By a pack of wolves." He took a drink from his flask.

"Your wrong it's not possible."