As the spokeswoman took a breath to begin speaking again, the back door of the gym burst open and yet another security man came marching in. He looked like a part-time bodybuilder, but that was probably because he seemed huge compared to Myra whom he held firmly by the wrist, pulling her along behind him. She was stumbling to keep up with his fast gate so she wouldn't lose her footing and by dragged bodily along the floor. She looked terrified, her beautiful clear blue eyes were full of tears and her hand was turning white from the tight grip of the security man. He continued onto the stage and said to the woman in a gruff voice, 'Found another one in the primary school." Then he stood back alongside the other security guards who were holding me and Jana.

I should probably take a moment to mention that Myra is everything to me. Everything. She is only nine and she is more important to me than anything else in the world. As I looked down I met her usually sweet gaze. This time though all I could see was her looking for reassurance from me. She was looking for me to smile, to tell her everything would be okay and I saw doubt begin to creep into her eyes when I didn't. Then I got angry. Jana was right. We hadn't done anything wrong. They had no right to haul a terrified and defenceless little girl.

"Let her go."

It was the first thing I had said since being caught and my voice surprised me slightly. It still sounded the same, even when it felt like the whole world had changed. All eyes turned to me in surprise.

Somehow my anger kept me calmer than anything else. Maybe the calm feeling came from the fact that I knew what I had to do in that moment. I had to protect my sister.

"You're hurting her," I said in a louder voice, turning to face the man still clasping Myra's wrist. "Let her go."

Everyone seemed to be staring at me in shock, even Jana and Myra. I suppose they thought I would try to deny being a werewolf or maybe just lose control and attack someone. In any case, the muscle-bound man seemed to stunned too do anything.

I looked directly into his eyes. I think a sliver of gold skated across my own. "She is just a little girl. You are hurting her. Let her go," I said very deliberately.

Maybe I just confused him or maybe I just made him aware of how tightly he held her thin wrist. Either way his grip slackened enough for Myra to twist her arm out of his grasp. She stumbled quickly to me and grabbed my shirt with trembling fingers, hiding behind me from what seemed to be the judging eyes of the world.

The entire assembly was still for at least two minutes. So was I. Looking back I realised that they were probably waiting for me to say something. To launch into an eloquent speech about how we were not dangerous and we deserved the same rights as everyone. I'm sure the spokeswoman was expecting something of the kind, possibly with rebuttals already resting on her tongue. I remember standing there, still a security man holding my shoulder and arms behind me and Myra leaning next to my leg, waiting for me to find a way out. For the life of me, I could not think of a thing to say. My mind had gone blank. I was scared. I had Myra beside me, but I had not planned past that. Instinct had driven me to protect the cub, but instinct was no use in convincing these people. In fact, instinct was the thing urging me to wolf out, grab Myra and make for the exit, fighting anyone in the way. I still look back on that moment and think of so many great things I could have said, but at the time I was silent.

Finally, the spokeswoman decided to speak again in that clipped official voice. Such a strange voice to have when announcing the end of the world. She made it seem like no more than a business meeting, announcing that the office was out of coffee, perhaps.

"Now, I understand that many of you may be frightened and wondering what will happen to these creatures now. When the government realised that they would locate many of these wolfbloods using mottled poppies, a new temporary law was implemented. For now, while these creatures take on the form of a human, they are to be given the rights of humans. If they take on their other form, they will be treated as wild animals. Any use of unnatural or inhuman abilities is now a crime. They will be prosecuted according to the severity of their actions…"

There was another outbreak of fervent muttering amongst the gathered students. I think many of them were shocked or possibly annoyed at this new law which considered us humans. To be honest, I almost cheered out. This was a much better deal than I had ever expected. In fact, I would hardly have to change my behaviour at all! It seemed almost unbelievable! I turned to see Jana looking just as surprised as me, with a glimmer of hope hidden in her eyes.

The woman cleared her hope very loudly, clearly frustrated at being interrupted again.

"All wolfbloods will be registered by their DNA and photographs. Any workplace, club or school they are present in must be aware of their nature…"

The rest of her speech droned on about other details. Rules about full moons and hunting, restrictions in work and wages, I didn't really pay attention. I had caught Shannon's eye when and was confused to see that she wasn't as excited as me about these changes. In fact, she looked quite concerned.

By the time I tuned back in, the spokeswoman had finished her spiel. This time another student in my class, Jimmy stood up. He is a bit of a smart mouth, and a bit headstrong.

"How do we even know that they are werewolves?" he said. I was quite surprised. He didn't really like me or Jana and it was definitely strange he was trying to protect us. "I mean, we only have your word that some magical flowers know! I think we would all like some… real proof." Ah. That made more sense. He wanted us to transform. People around the room seemed to be nodding in agreement, even some teachers.

"Well…" said the woman, for the first time seeming to be unprepared, "we do require photographic evidence of them in their wolf form. Anyone who wishes to observe to validate our claims may follow us out to the soccer pitch. Be warned that it may be dangerous or disturbing."

I think the entire school all stood up and ran for the doors at once, not wanting to miss out. The woman collected her papers and click-clacked calmly towards the door as well.

I sighed in relief. At least it was over. Everyone knew and there was nothing more to be done about it. I shook off the grip of the security man to bend down and hug Myra, resting my forehead on hers. The security guards stayed around, watching us cautiously, but they seemed more relaxed because Jana and I appeared unaggressive. I guess they knew now that it was over, there wasn't much we could do. I took Myra's hand and walked with Jana slowly towards the exit of the now empty gym.

"Are you okay?" she said softly.

"I guess so."

"How many times did you nearly lose it?"

I laughed slightly, probably from the stress. "I still think I am about to change."

She gave me a small smile. "Me too."

After that, they did actually manage to take our DNA and photographs. Initially we objected to transforming, especially after the new rules we had just learnt of, but they threatened to shoot us if we didn't cooperate. They found Ceri and Gerwyn after scouring the town. Shannon explained to me later that the new law was a temporary fix because the government probably had no other option. They had found a method of locating wolfbloods, but with the discovering of so many they need a solution. There was no way for them to ship us all out of the country and to imprison or contain us all would be difficult, dangerous and expensive. Killing all of us was also dangerous because ethics was an issue and possible scientific research was too valuable. I guess someone with a bit of sense must have said, "well they've been living as humans for ages, let's just make them keep that up until we work it out".

After that, I'm sure you can imagine, school became uncomfortable. Fear was still present, but it translated into hatred and discrimination. The laws were meant to be fair, but if we reacted in any slightly angry way we were immediately in danger. You see, the teachers were armed with stun guns. If they felt we were out of line, or possibly a danger to students, they were to stop us. I think you can guess how school life turned out. Being bullied and heckled became a norm. For Tom and Shannon too because they continued to hang out with us. I tried to tell them to keep away and avoid it, but their response was that we were a pack and we stick together. It would have been nice if my previous pack had shown as much solidarity…

Anyway, that's how happened. I didn't know then that I would end up on the other side of the world.

Oh, by the way, my name is Rowan.