It had been a few days since I first received the bite from Derek and embarked on my new life as a Werewolf. Bar the incident with Erica, which she was still mad at me for, everything had been going pretty well. According to Derek I was making good progress with my training, although he still felt I could use more practise. I was just proud I'd finally managed to bring my claws out on their own. But with the full moon coming up in the next few days and me with school and trying to make it up to Erica, there wasn't a lot of time practise. Bless Derek though, he didn't push and seemed to understand that I wanted to try and make up with my sister. I had mentioned the possibility of him turning her but he'd either not heard me or deliberately changed the subject. I wouldn't be trying again until after the full moon. My guess was he just wanted to deal with one new Werewolf on the full moon before creating another. I could respect that, but I wasn't about to give up. I wanted Erica to feel like me, powerful and renewed with life. It still amazed me that after so many days the feeling hadn't faded. I wondered if it ever would.

I was at home now. Derek had let me go early for some reason, though he had ordered me to go home. I found it odd but since he was the Alpha I didn't feel I had much choice, so I did. I did ask what the matter was, but he said everything was fine and for me to get some rest. I knew he was keeping something from me, but after heading home I figured there was little point in heading back out to try and find him. It would probably just make him mad anyway.

I had planned to use the time to try and talk to Erica, but she was locked away in her room and refusing to speak to me. I'd knocked on her door a few times, but she continued to ignore me. Things hadn't gotten better between us. She'd asked a couple of times for me to tell her the truth and I'd hesitated. Now she'd resulted to the worst punishment she could give me, the silent treatment. We only did that to one another when we were truly mad at each other.

So instead of pushing her too much I retreated to my room and finished off a history paper I'd been working on. It wasn't due for another two weeks, but it never hurt to get ahead of myself, particularly when from now on, one night of the month I'd be out of commission and chained up in a subway car.

When I got that done, I walked over to my closet and began fishing through several bags of clothing. I managed to encourage mom to take me and Erica shopping. Erica had wiggled out of it but I convinced mom to buy her a new stock of cloths anyway. She'd thank me for it once I convinced Derek to give her the bite.

As for me, mom had been so thrilled about me going shopping with her she'd gone over kill on buying me new cloths. I had offered to pay for my own things, but mom refused it and paid for anything that caught my eye saying I could try it on when I got home. So that was what I'd been doing every night after practise with Derek, trying on new cloths to see which I'd liked and which I didn't. I'd picked out a few dresses I liked, some more t-shirts that I added to my ever growing collection and a few pairs of shorts. Mom had even been kind enough to buy me necklace, to celebrate the new me. It wasn't anything fancy, just a silver crescent moon locket. In one half I'd placed a picture of a seven year old me, reminding me where I'd come from, and in the other half I'd put in a picture of a six year old Erica. To remind me who I was doing this for.

Out of the six bags stuffed full of things for me to try on, I'd managed to make my way through two. I was just starting on the third, trying on a short black dress with a wavy skirt, when I suddenly heard something. Like a howl…but not one. I knew what a howl sounded like. Derek had taught me so that I'd know if he was in severe danger. Also, so that I could signal him if I was ever in a similar situation. But what I'd just heard hadn't been like a normal Werewolf howl. More like…a scream. And yet I still felt the need to investigate. Whether it was my Werewolf instincts or just human curiosity I didn't know, but I couldn't help myself.

Leaving with the dress I had on, I grabbed my leather jacket from my bed and quickly threw it on. I then laced up my boots – which only left an inch or two of skin visible on my legs – and took off, rushing down the stairs two at a time. I had a rough idea of where the scream had come from so I knew where I was heading. I decided to leave the car, it would only slow me down. I shouted a goodbye and took off out the door. I ran down the street, leaping a fence first chance I got and taking off into the woods on all fours. I could still hear the scream echoing through my head, guiding me almost.

As I went further into the forest I began to slow, returning to my two legs rather than all fours. Like Derek had taught me I began to use my senses. I was a lot better at using them than my strength or speed. At home, I was getting close to guessing what mom was cooking just by smell alone. Even at school, I could sense what other students had for lunch after one or two sniffs. So I took a whiff of the air, a scent I didn't recognise filling my nostrils. I frowned and continued on, following it.

Eventually I reached a clearing, stopping as a shudder passed up my back. Before me was an old burnt down house, its creepy shadow passing across the forest floor like it was home to Dracula…or something a lot worse. For a brief moment I considered turning back, but I caught sight of something through one of the chard windows. A figure moving inside. My frown deepened, and curiosity quickly got the better of me. I made my way across the opening and up the short steps before entering the house.

The inside wasn't' much better than the outside. Just as black from scorch marks and thick with dust. Vines pocking out through the floor as they began to climb the walls, and moss growing in the corners of every room. "Hello," I called out as I stepped towards the old staircase which looked as if it would give way beneath my foot.

"Hello," another voice said back. Thankfully it didn't come from upstairs but instead from the next room on my left, so I didn't have to try my luck with the stairs. I turned and made my way into what looked like the remains of the living room. A torn-up sofa close to the entrance with a fireplace on the far wall, curtains dangling from the windows and just barely hiding the outside world. I looked around and then my eyes landed on a girl. A naked girl stood in the corner of the room, playing with a mirror from what I could see. I tried to get a look at her face but her fizzy red hair blocked my view. She was whispering something, but even with my focused hearing I couldn't pick it up. Possibly because what she was saying didn't make any sense.

"Hello," I called out again and the girl jumped, letting go of the mirror she was holding as it landed on the floor with a thud, thankfully not shattering for her sake. Then the girl turned, and I saw who it was – now wishing the mirror had shattered.

"Lydia!" I all but shouted as my frown turned to a glare. The red headed girl tilted her head to the side, eyeing me curiously for a moment before her head snapped back up to attention making me step back. Creepy house plus creepy girl. I knew when I was in the middle of a horror movie.

"Who the hell are you?" Lydia snapped as she quickly covered herself up. "And what the hell am I doing here!" she demanded as she looked around the old house before turning her attention back to me. "And why am I naked!"

I smirked. So little miss popular had finally snapped. I'd heard she'd been sent to hospital because of some strange circumstances. Maybe it was because she'd had a mental break down. Now Lydia might have been the last one I'd suspect to have one, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to enjoy it. God knew she'd caused a few mental break downs of her own just through her constant bullying.

"Why are you smiling?" Lydia snapped again, hugging herself.

"Oh, I just like karmic revenge," I said with devilish grin.

"Karma? But I didn't even do anything wrong."

"We both know that's a lie, Lydia. You've hurt a lot of people, including me," I said with a hint of anger as I began to advance on the frantic girl.

"I don't even know you! How do you know my name?" Lydia cried as she stumbled back, landing on her back side before scurrying into the corner as I continued to advance slowly, placing one foot in front of the other as to drag it out. I was going to make her suffer, like she'd made me and Erica suffer. She was clearly delusional, she'd run away from the hospital after all. And she was running around naked in the woods. It would be no surprise if she turned up dead, or if an animal attacked her. An animal like me.

"Why doesn't that surprise me," I snapped as I glared down at the shaking red head. "You walked all over me for years. Called me names, taunted me, you made my life a misery. Well, now I've got the power. And now I'm going to get revenge for every name, every trip up and every rumour you ever started. And I'm going to make it slow. Just like my s–t–u–tt-er," I said, deliberately sounding out the syllables of 'stutter' as I lowered myself to Lydia's level. Then with a growl, I felt my eyes begin to glow their yellow amber colour, as I flexed my fingers and unleashed my claws out. "Now…this is going to hurt," I said smugly before reach to scratch her face with my claws.

But then she screamed and suddenly I was on the floor, hands wrapped around my ears as the demonic scream pierced my ears. It was so powerful and so loud that I lost all thought and all that was left was searing pain.

How was it, even after all this time, even after I became a Werewolf, Lydia still had the power to make me feel this much pain?!

Then the scream stopped but I remained curled up on the floor, clutching my ears. I could feel the blood trickling out, spreading across my hands which held on for dear life. I looked up at Lydia, snarling through my trembling rage. But she was in a trance once more, like before when she first turned around before I'd gotten the upper hand. She stood up, now tower over me like she had so many times before. She looked down, head tilting like before, studying me like I was some wounded animal for her to play with. It truly scared me, that cold look in her eye.

And then she left. Just left. Walked out without another word. I listened as the floor boards creaked beneath her feet until finally she reached the door and it closed behind her. Then she descended the stairs outside and walked off into the forest, leaves cracking beneath her feet until she vanished from my supernatural ear shot all together. I would have followed, gone after her and finished her off once and for all, but whatever she'd done had left me paralysed.

For what could have been an hour I remained frozen on the floor until finally my hands loosened from my ears and I was able to sit up. Gently, I touch my inner ear, checking for blood, but it seemed whatever wound Lydia had created had healed itself up.

Carefully, I got back to my feet, brushing off my new dress as I sniffed the air. Her scent still lingered, but after what just happened, I was admittedly conflicted. I wanted to get back at her, hurt her like she hurt me. However, I was no longer as confident as I once was, and there was a small part of me that said if I went after her the same thing might happen again, if not worse.

But then, my thoughts of Lydia snapped when I heard voices from outside the house.

"She came here? You sure?" I wasn't quite sure about that one, teenage boy for sure, but as to who it belonged to I couldn't quite place it. But the second voice. That was a voice I knew.

"Yeah, this is where the scent leads…but…there's another one here too…" Scott McCall.

Time for some more fun.