Chapter 1: Regrets

Have you ever made the biggest mistake that haunts you every day of your life? Well, I have. It was many years ago when I was only 6 years old. The memory is so clear that sometimes I feel like I'm again there, standing in the same spot surrounded by fences, and before me, was a blood-red-eyed boy. 

This pair of eyes showed the wasn't an ordinary boy, he was a werewolf. He was a cruel creature that enjoys killing humans like me, by ripping our throats and leaving us for dead. I was horrified when I saw him in his human form. It is unusual for a human to see a werewolf in its human-like form. They are always in their most cruel and scary form, but this one was hurt and was very young, only about 4 years older than me. His blood-red eyes should have been the most terrifying but at that moment they weren't so to me. What I saw in his eyes was terror, scared of losing his life. He was just as terrified as me. His eyes widen in fright, both of his hands trembled trying to pull out a large piece of iron piercing into his chest as he leaned against the broken fence. His frightened eyes looked at me as if he was worried of calling my people.

"Find him and make sure you bring back his head!" I heard a werewolf protector of our village. They were one of our many protectors who kept an eye out for any werewolves' attacks stopping them.

Tears filled the dark-haired young werewolf boy who seemed to be the same age as my brother. He was scared to death. I began to feel sorry for him as if he was a real human, but he wasn't. He was a cold-hearted monster and one day he will be hunting us down just like his older kind.

My eyes were still glued to him as I slowly walked backward keeping my distance from him.

"Please help me," he pleaded. He reached out to me with one hand breathing breathlessly.

My body became still. I couldn't believe what I had heard. The wounded werewolf boy could talk like us humans.

"Check at the back of every house!" I again heard the werewolf protector yell.

Suddenly I felt myself running toward the werewolf boy. He screamed as I pulled the iron from his chest. However, as I dropped the bloody iron from my hand I saw his wound speedily begin to heal. I froze appalled. He now stood strongly before me as if he wasn't hurt and his blood-red eyes were no longer filled with terror but anger. I made a step backward backing into an old building as he stared at me hard as if he was going to kill me. I believed he would for his kind can never be tamed. No human has ever befriended a werewolf. They hated us as much as we could never stand them for killing our loved ones and ruining our lives. I know from that day if I ever live, I'll forever regret what I did years ago when I watched that werewolf boy run away instead of killing me. I did. That night I lost my only brother and my father. A pack of werewolves raided our village that night, and only I, my mom and a few manage to escape into a new land and a new home that was completely surrounded by a very large wall, taller than any trees I have seen.

I didn’t dare to tell anyone what happened that night except for my mom, as I believed I was the cause of that horrible raid by foolishly trusting that werewolf boy and saving him. I had been blaming myself from that day on, and there wasn’t a single night I could sleep soundly without having nightmares about the night.

*******

My body suddenly jumped, and the small bucket of chicken feeding fell from my hand frightened me.

"Got you!" my best friend Delaphine laughed at her action of frightening me.

Her head lowered and her dark brown hair covered her face as she chuckled.

"Why did you do that?" I asked her angrily as I bent down scraping the chicken feeding back into the bucket.

"I saw you were lost thinking about who knows what and I just couldn't help myself frightening you," retorted Delaphine.

"Well, you shouldn't have, your action could have given me a heart attack and I could have died," I got angry at her.

"Well, luckily you didn't because it would be sad that both of us won't be able to put our names in the container today to find our partners."

"What!" I said alarmed finished scraping my mother's chicken feeding from the ground.

"I cannot believe you have forgotten that today is the day we are prepared to find our partners since we're both 18 now," informed Delaphine.

"Oh, I had so much on my mind I had forgotten," I told her.

"Well, come on, let's go and do it now," Delaphine pulled me by the hand. I hurriedly put away the bucket of chicken feeding and ran behind her.

Ever since the werewolves attacked years ago killing millions of people. Our new leader Bazaar who was the one in charge of this land informed us that there were not enough humans to put a stop to the werewolves and so to increase the number of people, as soon as females turns 18 our partner was chosen for us, and we females were obligated to have 6 or more children. If our wombs are unfruitful our husband has the authority to try and impregnate another female. The whole idea of it was sick for I wanted a love like my mom. I wanted a man within my life because both of us were in love, and not because we were chosen to be together just to have children, so, our daughter can continue the crazy childbearing bond and our sons are chosen to fight werewolves. Sadly, there was nothing I can do about it than accept it. It was the leader's rule and those who don't obey him will be put behind the walls to be killed by werewolves.

Red Maccale, I wrote on a small rectangular piece of white paper and slowly threw it into an old iron container that seemed to be the one used for many years. I watched Delaphine write her name and folded her paper as well, she placed her name within the female section happily.

"You both may go now," an elderly lady who was the one responsible for the female container of names informed us as she carried the container away collecting all the list of girls that were suitable to start having children.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so excited for tomorrow," said Delaphine as we both walked over to an apple tree to sit.

It was the spot we would always sit every day, Delaphine spot I like to think for I was forced to keep her company while she secretly watched Ezekiel, a boy she had been crushing on from a younger age while he helped his father turn metal into weapons for our protector of werewolves.

"I pray to God that he will be mine tomorrow," Delaphine said with a bright smile as she reached for an apple from a low branch and bite right into it.

"I hope you get what your heart desire," I wished her.

"Ho-oh.., someone who you can't stand is coming towards us," Delaphine whispered to me.

My head turned to see who it was and my stomach instantly churned noticing it was Turner Cavill. A boy who was also a part of my village before it was attacked by werewolves.

"Let's go somewhere else," I told Delaphine as I quickly got up.

Turner ran in front of me stopping me before I  could move from the tree.

"Red," he greeted me as he gazed into my eyes.

"You look very beautiful in your white dress today," he complimented as always.

"Thank you and goodbye," I told him grabbing Delaphine by the hand and pulled her behind me.

Again, Turner stopped me

"Have you placed your name in the container as yet?" he asked as his blue eyes leered into my green eyes for an answer.

"Yes, I did and please stop bothering me I have chores to complete at home," I lied  wanting to get away from him.

"Let us go Delaphine," I again began to walk away from him the fastest I could.

"He's watching you," Delaphine told me along the way.

"I don't care," I told her.

"I don't understand why you don't like him, he's handsome with his blonde hair and blue eyes and most importantly he is chosen as the top werewolf hunter at such a young age," said Delaphine.

"Turner doesn't like me he just wants me to be his trophy partner," I told Delaphine which was true.

Turner had no interest in my inner self other than my looks, so he could boast to everyone that he was the lucky one to receive the redheaded. I too didn't trust him, whenever he was around me, he gave me a feeling as if I'm hunted by a werewolf. There's something odd about him, I just couldn't put my hands around. All I knew was that he always gave me a terrible feeling about him.

Suddenly, we heard a loud trumpet sound. Delaphine and I both stopped petrified and curious to know what the sound was about. Everyone within the walls ran from their home, business, and whatever they were doing alarmed to the meeting square. It was quite strange to hear the trumpet during the day. It was mostly used at night to warn us that werewolves were nearby and that we needed to lock ourselves in our home from the horrible beasts.

My heart raced in my chest.

"What do you think is happening?" Delaphine voice trembled as she inquired me, too worried.

"I don't know," I answered scared. "let's go to find out."