Chapter 1

20 Hours until Dawn

"And has anyone seen Maddy and Rhydian?" Jefferies asked; his pen poised over Maddy's name on the register. Shannon and Tom exchanged a glance. They knew Jefferies was talking to them when he said 'anyone', but they had no clue. If anything, they hadn't heard much from Maddy and Rhydian in a while. They'd basically been blanking them at every opportunity, and it was making them feel very isolated. Shannon could only hope that they weren't cutting them out of something important like they promised they'd never do.

"We've barely spoken to them in weeks, sir." Tom shrugged

"I could try calling them if you want, sir." Shannon suggested, hoping against hope they picked up and didn't reject her call.

"What's this? Goody two-shoes Shannon Kelly is breaking the rules?" Kay jabbed, only to be shut down by a murderous glare from Tom.

"Normally I wouldn't let you, but since Maddy's got a photography presentation worth fifty percent of her BTEC today I suppose we can bend the rules." Jefferies winked at her in a way that told her that his decision could cost him his job. "Go to the darkroom and do it. I don't want the head walking in with you on the phone." Shannon left the room and headed towards the stairs up to the floor with the darkroom, praying that Jefferies' academic concerns were the biggest ones they needed to have.

Without anything better to do, Tom shrugged and sat down next to Jimi. Sam sat to Jimi's left while Liam sat behind him. Tom had noticed Liam seemed to have dropped to the bottom of the unwritten pecking order after the fiasco about him accusing Maddy's family of being werewolves.

"For what it's worth, I hope it's nothing serious, mate." Jimi said, turning to him.

"Why?" Tom asked grumpily. "You never liked them."

"That's true." Jimi shrugged. "Still, they're good people. I remember when we tried to cheat on that English test. I bailed out on you when I was keeping watch. It was Rhydian who got you out and he didn't even ask any questions. You couldn't have picked a better bunch. Look at us. There's a cheater with a neglectful father, a petty thief and a lunatic who thinks werewolves exist."

"Hey, I had a concussion after getting trapped in that mine shaft." Liam protested.

"Okay, I suppose that's fair enough." Jimi reasoned. "But then you shouldn't even have been back at school. And you nearly got us killed twice over your little wild goose chase. The fact that you had concussion can only get you so much leeway. Can you imagine the charges my dad would have pressed if he found out? He'd probably have you up for reckless endangerment for one thing, as well as a whole host of other charges."

"I thought you said he was neglectful?" Tom had to drop his voice to a whisper as Jefferies started reading out the notices.

"He would only do it for the money." Jimi replied. "He wouldn't do it because he cared about me." Tom nodded in understanding and decided to leave the issue alone.

Meanwhile, Shannon had reached the darkroom and taken her phone out of her bag. Quickly, she found Maddy on her contacts list and rang her.

"What?" Maddy's voice was clearly stressed.

"Where the hell are you?" Shannon asked, grateful that she'd even picked up.

"Okay Shan, you need to tell the school that we've had a family tragedy and we can't make it. Just say that Rhydian's here supporting me too."

"Do you want to shock me with the truth now?" Shannon asked bluntly. She was having none of it. First they didn't speak to her for weeks and now they wanted favours. She wasn't doing anything for them without a really good reason.

"Look Shan, I'm sorry we haven't spoken, but this is important!" Shannon heard Maddy briefly drop the phone. There was a horrendous growl and some scratching sounds before she picked it up again.

"Maddy, what the hell is happening?" Shannon asked. There was a long pause before Maddy picked up again.

"Shan, I'm sorry." Maddy gasped. "Look, you need to stay away from my house tonight. And definitely don't go near the den. It won't be like last time where you fell in and were fine. We won't be in control tonight."

"What are you talking about?" Shannon asked.

"Go on Google and search for 'Blood Moon' when you get the chance. It'll tell you everything if you can fill in the blanks." Maddy replied before suddenly hanging up.

"If I have to fill in any blanks, then that's not telling me everything." Shannon muttered furiously as she sat down and brought up Google on her phone. She typed in 'blood moon' and hit 'Search'. What she saw turned her blood to ice. Without wasting a second, she got up and made it back to the classroom just as Jefferies was sending everyone off to their lessons.

"Ah, Shannon; what's the news on Maddy and Rhydian?"

"Maddy's had a family tragedy, sir." Shannon lied. "Rhydian's gone round hers to support her."

"That's a pity." Jefferies muttered. "We'll have to reschedule her presentation. Can you tell Rhydian that the proper procedure when he has to go and support someone is to have the parent or carers in charge of him ring the school up?"

"I'll tell him next time I see him, sir." Shannon nodded.

"Right, well off you go then." Jefferies returned to the paperwork in front of him. "You're late enough as it is, and you have science next. That's your favourite subject, isn't it?"

"It's joint first with Maths, sir." Shannon replied.

"Well, you'd best go then." Jefferies reached over and pulled another document from the mountain at the side of his desk. Shannon backed out of the history room and made her way quickly to science. As everyone sat down, she quickly opened Google again and reopened the page she was on before. She hit the first link, desperate to understand what she was learning about.

"Wow, they should really stop letting absolutely everyone edit Wikipedia." Shannon muttered as it told her that its blood red colour was a result of the moon being in alignment with ginger haired school nerds. She closed that page down and opened a proper science link.

'The Blood Moon is recorded to take place commonly, but once every five-hundred years it is especially prominent. Its bright red colour is caused by the moon being in alignment and close proximity with Mars, the red face of which reflects off the moon and is illuminated by the remnants of sunlight radiating from the side of the Earth that is experiencing day. This unusual combination of energies is said to drive any member of the canine family insane. Domestic dogs have been recorded to exhibit increased aggression while wild species such as the grey wolf have been recorded to be seen being ten times more aggressive. On this particular blood moon, more wolf hunters were killed than ever before and pack territory wars turned into fights to the death. On the last recorded of these blood moons, howling was heard in the basements of homes, prompting a flurry of rumours about lycanthropes and other-'

"That's the wrong battery, Shannon. Stick to that one in front of you." Miss Parish said as the phone was snatched from Shannon's hand. "You can have this one back after the lesson."

Shannon couldn't even focus through science. As Maddy had said, the blanks were filling in. Tonight, everything with canine DNA was going to go insane. Maddy and her family would wolf out like every other full moon, but it wouldn't be like it usually was. This time, they would become feral, snarling monsters with no control over their wolves. Shannon had no doubt that the Smiths would have readied the den for tonight, but what about Rhydian? Would they have taken measures for him as well? What kind of measures were they taking? How would he react to them?

"Shannon, you've gone pale." Miss Parish looked over from where she was trying to explain simple circuits to Katrina. "Are you okay?"

"I don't feel well, Miss." Shannon wasn't lying. The panic was creeping in and it was making her feel worryingly sick. Suddenly, someone grabbed her and hauled her out of the classroom. She was too weak to fight back as they basically dragged her down the corridor and threw her into the toilets. She ran into one of the cubicles and gulped in big breaths of air. Once the shaking had subsided, she managed to straighten up and walk outside. The person who'd just saved her was waiting patiently.

"Are you feeling better then?" she asked.

"Thanks, Kara." Shannon said breathlessly as she leaned against the wall and slid down it until she was sitting on the floor.

"What's wrong?" Kara asked.

"Maddy had a massive family loss and Rhydian's gone to support her." Shannon lied. "I just feel like I should be doing something too instead of sitting here in school."

"I know that feeling too well." Kara shrugged as she sat down next to Shannon. "My mum found out her sister died last week. She went into a breakdown and I could only watch."

"I'm sorry that happened." Shannon reached over and briefly hugged Kara. Kara returned it and then stood up.

"I'll tell Miss that you've gone to sit in the Darkroom for a bit to cool off. She might excuse you from the lesson and let me take you your stuff." Kara walked off leaving Shannon alone. The chilling thoughts were creeping back in. If Rhydian couldn't cope or the Smiths' countermeasures (whatever shape or form they came in) failed, what would happen to him? Also, what about other Wolfbloods in the area? What about Jana?

Author's Note: This is the first chapter to Blood Moon. Since the Honesty trilogy is finished, I'll start putting up more chapters as promised. Thanks for all the support on this story so far. To properly answer one of the questions I've been asked frequently, Blood Moon is set between season 2 and season 3. Apart from Maddy being there, it will be fully compatible with the actual canon of the show. The next chapter will be up soon, so I hope to see you all there.