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aeonsoul234 . webs . com

and in the photo gallery click the album titled "Lacrimae Luporum" to see images of OCs and other pictures that I use for reference in this story.

PROLOGUE

Wolves... Humans believed that we had died out over 200 years ago, but we never did. We had just found a way to keep ourselves hidden from everything; from everyone. They said that the humans were the ones that destroyed Paradise... but I never blamed them. From what I've seen, they didn't know what they were doing.

In the end, it wasn't the ones with physical strength that survived... It was the ones with inner strength.

We were forced to hide our true selves from the humans.
We were forced to make ourselves appear human...

Some of us lost ourselves in this process and they started to really believe that they truly were human, while others couldn't bear to have their life of freedom as a wolf taken away from them.

Sometimes I wonder if this was the right thing to do...

Sometimes I wonder if I can even call myself a wolf at all anymore...

My name is Tsuki, and this is my story.

CHAPTER ONE:
Dreams

As far as the eye could see, there was nothing. No trees, no mountains, only earth. On top of that earth was a thick blanket of snow, which was still slowly falling. It was calming, yet somehow painful. I could see the tracks on the ground leading up to a white wolf lying down on the snow. By his mouth lay a withered flower. As I saw his face, I couldn't figure out the expression on it. He either looked as if everything had been taken away from him and he had nothing left or as if he was at peace.

The white wolf's voice echoed in my mind. "They say there's no such place as Paradise. Even if you search to the ends of the Earth, there's nothing there... No matter how far you walk, it's always the same road. It just goes on and on... but in spite of that, why am I so driven to find it...? A voice calls to me. It says... search for Paradise..."

The white wolf closed his eyes and I felt his spirit begin to leave him. It had begun to rain, but the eyes of the wolf remained closed. Beautiful white flowers were blooming all around him in the moonlight. Suddenly the snow that was beneath the wolf turned into water. His body sunk into it. As the wolf looked up at the sky from the water around him, the moon changed from a blood red color to a beautiful white color.

Then darkness...-

"Hey! Would you wake up already?" said a familiar voice.

I groaned and opened one of my eyes seeing my older brother standing before me. I turned around to face the wall.

"Get up, it's already past seven... You've been napping for three hours." Tsume said as he shook my shoulder.

"Why bother... Not going to do anything else today anyways... Like always..." I said.

"I've got another raid planned for tonight that I'm leaving for now if you're looking for something to do." Tsume said.

I was silent for a couple seconds before turning around. Tsume looked at me with one eyebrow raised, awaiting an answer. I sat up and stretched before letting out a sigh.

"So?" Tsume asked.

"You know that I never go on your stupid little raids. I don't see why you even have to do this anyway. Can't you just get job like every other person? I mean we could-"

Tsume interrupted me. "We're not normal people, remember?"

"I know... But that doesn't give you a reason to go to extremes and start a freakin' gang-"

"Alright, I get it, you don't want to come. That's the last time I'll ask you then." Tsume said as he started to walk away.

"You know, one day if I ever say yes, I know you're not gonna let me come. You're just asking me because you know I'm gonna say no and I won't be able to say that you didn't offer." I said.

Tsume stopped for a second when I said this and then began to walk away again. I got up and ran up to him, hugging him from behind. He stopped walking as I did so.

"Be careful, okay...? I don't know what I would do if I lost you..." I said.

I always got like this when Tsume was going to leave on a raid with that stupid little gang of his. I remember when we first came to Freeze City... We were hiding out in our true forms at first. We got noticed way to easily and learned to mesh in with the humans. Something drew us into this armpit of a city... a scent... We were just following the sweet scent with our noses at first, trying to find out what it was. If I concentrated, I could still faintly catch it, but now things are different. We ended up just staying here since it was easy to survive. Then Tsume decides to start a gang instead of getting a job that any normal human would do...

"I'm not going to die, Tsuki. It'll take a lot more than any of those stupid humans and their guns can do." Tsume answered.

I sighed and let go of him. He turned around and gave me a tight hug, kissing the top of my head as he embraced me. I looked up at him with a worried look on my face.

"Don't give me that look... You know I hate it... I'll be fine." Tsume said.

He let go of me and rustled my hair.

"Hey!" I said as I fixed it.

"Stay out of trouble, okay?" Tsume said.

"You're one to talk..." I said, crossing my arms.

Tsume smiled and shook his head before he walked off. I walked over to the windowsill, sitting down on it and watching everyone below. Gehl, the youngest member of the gang, saw me and waved. I forced a smile and waved back. He was another person I was worried about. At a mere thirteen, he was already in a grown-up gang. I never understood why he went with them anyways. He could always just stay behind with the rest of standby. When they got into their cars and were out of sight, I walked back onto my futon. I laid down on it and stared at the ceiling above me, sighing and closing my eyes. After about an hour and a half of failed attempts at sleeping I got up. I was too worried about Tsume to try and sleep... and that nap had thrown of my sleeping cycle. I got up and walked over to the windowsill. I jumped out of the window, landing almost soundlessly on the ground. As I got up and looked at the moonless sky, I let out a sigh.

"We need to get out of here..." I said to myself.

I put my hands in the pockets of my coat and started to walk away.

I heard my name being called followed by a rush of footsteps. Izu, one of the men in Tsume's gang that was on standby, ran up to me.

"Where do you think you're going?" Izu asked in between gasps for air.

"For a walk. Don't worry, I'll be back soon." I said.

Izu's lip curled to the side in disapproval. He looked like he was about to say something, but he turned on his heels and made his way back to the warehouse. I turned around as well and started walking. I had no idea where I was going. It wasn't like I was hungry or anything, I just needed to clear my head. After a while of walking around, I caught a familiar scent. It was the scent that had first drawn Tsume and me to this city. It kind of smelled like flowers... I started following the scent, but as always, I lost it after trying to track it down for about two hours.

"Damn it..." I muttered as I kicked an empty soda can on the floor.

"Something bothering you?" asked a stray cat that sat on the bench next to where I was walking.

I stopped walking and looked at it. "This city is what's bothering me... I feel like I'm going nowhere being stuck here..."

"Well, I don't really think a place with tight spaces and tall buildings is really a good place that a wolf should call home... Don't you agree?" the cat said.

I sneered at the cat a little.

"You're the fourth one I've seen today, you know." the cat said.

"Fourth? What do you mean... The only ones here are me and my brother." I said.

"How interesting... Maybe the reason why you and your brother came here will soon reveal itself to you." the cat replied before stretching as it got up.

I stood there, a little dumbfounded at what he had just said.

The cat bowed its head a little. "Good evening to you, young wolf."

"B-Bye..." I said.

I was still lost in thought. More wolves? In Freeze City? Why hadn't Tsume and I run into them yet? I shook my head and decided to start walking back to the abandoned warehouse that Tsume and I called home. I was taking my time walking back as I caught another scent. I hadn't smelled this scent for years, but I knew exactly what it was the minute it flowed into my nostrils... Wolf's blood. Shortly after I caught the scent, I heard gunshots in the distance. I started running towards where the blood was coming from. I stopped in my tracks with my eyes wide as a white and red blur rushed passed me... It was another wolf... And this wolf looked exactly like the wolf that was in my dream. The white wolf was followed by a large female dog with a navy blue coat.

I was about to pursue the wolf, when I heard the sound of a gun cock back.

I turned around to see an old man in a brown trench coat holding a gun.

"Don't you move, girl." the old man said.

I stepped back a little. The old man's eyes were locked onto me.

"Girl... You're not a girl... YOU'RE ANOTHER WOLF!" the old man said, his voice growing louder.

I jumped to the side as he shot at me once, and dodged another bullet that was shot at me by jumping to the other. As I took off running, the old man fired another shot at me. I yelled in pain as the bullet lodged itself in the back of my left arm and stumbled onto the floor. I ducked under another shot and then quickly picked myself up while clutching my left arm. I turned the corner into an alleyway as the old man pursued me on foot and jumped from wall to wall of the alley to scale the buildings.

"Damn it..." I heard the old man mutter as he looked up at me from the bottom of the building.

I didn't take much time to look back at him before I made my escape. I stayed on the rooftops of the buildings since they were my only safe zone. The old man continued to pursue me on the ground, looking up as I jumped from rooftop to rooftop.

"You're not getting away!" the old man yelled.

He fired another shot at me as I jumped and it grazed my right calf. I yelped and clumsily fell when I landed on the next rooftop.

"Shit! What am I gonna do?! I can't go straight back to the house... but if I run around for too long I'll bleed out..." I thought.

I looked up at the dark sky... Of course the only day I'd get attacked was the time of the new moon. No moonlight meant no help for my wounds or extra strength to help me get away.

I had to out maneuver and out run him. I made it look as if I was going to jump for building directly ahead of me, but turned at the last second and made my way for the building to the right of me. It was going to be a long jump and every step I took made my right calf ache. I growled a little and picked up speed to make the jump. As I got to the edge, I pushed off of my right foot with all my might. I landed on the rooftop and continued running, making my way back to the warehouse with as many twists and turns as possible.

By the time I got there, I was exhausted. My vision had started to blur and my pace had slowed down to a wobbly speed walk. The blood from my arm was seeping in between the fingers of my right hand that held it. I didn't even bother trying to stop the bleeding coming from my leg. My breathing was heavy as were my eyelids.

"Stupid humans and their guns... That's the last time I take that excuse from him." I thought.

As I approached the warehouse, two people ran up to me. They were part of the members of Tsume's gang that were on standby. I knew they'd be out looking for me by now. Whenever Tsume went out on raids, he always told the people on standby to watch me.

"Tsuki, where the hell have you- Ah, shit! What the hell happened to you?!" one of them said.

He picked me up and ran towards the warehouse.

"He's... He's not following... Is he...?" I asked, looking up at the man who was carrying me.

"No, no one's there. You're gonna be fine, Tsuki." he answered.

"Fuck man, Tsume is gonna kill us when he gets back!" the other one said.

"I'm... fine..." I said as coherently as I could.

I'd lost a good amount of blood getting back to the warehouse. I had no idea that I had wandered so deep into Freeze City when I was chasing both the scents of that "flower" and the other wolf. I tried to sniff around for the scent of the old man or the wolf, but my own blood was the only thing that flooded my nostrils. I looked up the human who was carrying me.

He looked back down at me. "Whatever you do, Tsuki, just don't..."

His voice faded. I couldn't hear him anymore. His face as well as everything around me had turned into one big blur.

"I'm just gonna... nap for a little..." I answered.

I heard the human call my name out before everything went black.