I wanted so badly to show my true colors and attack the idiot but I couldn't expose myself. That would be way worse than Derek never getting what he deserved. No one could ever find out about my extremely heightened senses. They would know I was different and then they would run a thousand different tests on me.

I'd forever have to hide this strange yet amazing part of me from the rest of the world. And I had no one to tell. My foster parents couldn't tell me what was going on with me. They wouldn't understand. Only my real parents could know. Maybe... But I didn't even know where they were, let alone their names or why they had abandoned me as a baby. Or maybe I was bitten when I was younger…

"Well? What do you have to say about that?"

I turned towards Derek with an angry glint in my eyes and just smirked, shook my head, and walked away.

It took every bone and muscle in my body not to punch him.

"Mr. and Mrs. Peters? I want to meet my real parents," I stated.

They exchanged glances. "Rhydian, don't you think it's a bit early?" My foster mother replied.

"Early? I've never once asked about them. Not once! Please tell me who they are. I want to know them. There's some things I want to talk to them about..."

"Things we couldn't answer?" My foster father raised a brow.

I nodded. "You know, genetic stuff..."

"We will try, but we don't even know their names. I doubt we will be able to get in touch with them..." Mrs. Peters explained.

I frowned. "Right. I understand." I stood up, disappointed.

My foster mother took my hand in hers and looked me in the eye. "We love you. We will try to make this work as best we can."

I nodded. "Thank you."

I walked into my room and shut the door quietly behind me. For whatever reason, my heart was pounding. I felt enraged but I didn't know why. I breathed heavily in and out, trying to calm myself down, but it only made it worse. Noise filled my ears: my parents whispering about me, the clothes running in the washer with buttons hitting the sides, water rushing through the pipes, people mowing their lawns from miles away. My head was under an incredible amount of pain and my gums hurt too.

God, why does everything hurt? Why are all my senses on haywire?

I wanted to cry out for help but what if this is another part of my strange abilities? I had never experienced something quite so weird.

I struggled to get into the bathroom connected to my room. I looked in the mirror and almost fainted as I saw my eyes changing from blue green to yellow. I took a few steps back, staring at my face. The veins on my neck and face were changing to black and pulsating. I put a hand to my mouth. That's when I also noticed my nails had changed to claws. This is notnormal...

I felt like maybe I should call 911 but something in my gut was telling me this was not a normal thing people experience.

I ran to my bed and curled up in a ball, shaking, scared to death about what was happening to me.

How could my biological parents give me up for adoption? Did they know I would experience this? With no warning? Or maybe it wasn't genetic at all...maybe I was some sort of mutant.

Eventually I calmed down and everything was back to normal. Well depending on your definition of normal...

Anyway, I decided to shrug it off. Maybe it was a hallucination. In fact, I convinced myself to believe that was what it was.

Of course, I wouldn't be telling this story if it was a hallucination now would I?

Well, the next day was a full moon. I had always felt drawn to it but never this much. It made me feel strong and excited. However, that being said, my senses were heightened more so than usual which made it hard to focus on much of anything so I skipped school and ran in the woods all day.

I came back home around the time I would when school let out.

My foster mother broke the news to me. "Rhydian, I called the adoption agency. They said there is no way to contact your biological parents."

"What?"

"I'm so sorry. They never left any contact information..."

"So they just expected me to live without ever knowing them? Without telling me what the hell is going on with me?"

"Rhydian..."

"Fine. Great!" I yelled angrily as I bustled up the stairs. I slammed my bedroom door. Suddenly the phone began to ring. I saw on the caller ID that my school was calling. Mrs. Peters answered before I could.

"He did what?" She sounded pissed.

I locked the door and sat down on my bed.

"Rhydian! I swear!" She knocked on my door.

I didn't make a sound. A tear rolled down my face.

I didn't move for hours. Just sat and stared at the wall blankly.

As the moon rose, I felt something rising inside of me. I looked at it with wonder and suddenly I felt different. The energy coursing through me became overwhelming, and then I changed.

That was all I remembered from that night. Transforming into a wolf. It felt amazing; it felt like I was made whole.

But then I woke up the next day, lying on the floor, in the midst of my torn up sheets, papers, broken and scratched furniture, everything in that room was ruined. My jaw dropped open as I realized that I must've been the cause of this destruction. I noticed the claw marks around the room and took a sharp breath in as I remembered that I made those.

Needless to say, I had to switch foster families as my previous foster parents claimed they couldn't deal with me anymore. At the time, I was devastated and confused, but that night changed my life for the better. I never really felt like I fitted in anywhere until I met Maddy and her family…They were like me. And finally I understood where I belonged.