Chapter 1

Chapter One:

      Lucinda ran endlessly in that thick bush, in a moonless night, she was been chased by a pack of female Beta wolves led by a female Alpha. What she had done to the pack was what she could not tell. The fierce look worn by the Alpha of the pack was meant to devour whatever they were after. In the run for her life, Lucinda mustered some courage and looked back to know how far or near her hunters were, what she saw drowned the pinch of surviving hope in her. She had seen a pack of male wolves standing far off, and looking interestingly at the scene where she was running for safety of her life, but didn't came to her rescue, rather, they showed less concern. Before Lucinda could put to memory what she was seeing, the female Alpha leapt towards her, stretching her paws designed with long and sharp blood thirsty claws, but failed in her attempt to reach the game. Now, Lucinda has lost all hope of survival, she had given up on herself, knowing that she stands no chance to escape the ordeal, but her legs still run tirelessly, maybe they see a future which will be serene.  

      As if hope had disappointed her and have subjected her to a useless fate, Lucinda fell down after stumbling on a log of woods. That she had fell wasn't the problem, the strength to stand was not there. The pains from her swelled right leg was nothing to her at the moment, all she cared for was to live, though, weak to fight for life.

The pack of female wolves had reached her, a six number of Beta wolves formed a circular like fence around her, while the Alpha came inside the circle and stood beside her, probably to take her share of the hunted game. Just as the alpha was about to pounce on her, Lucinda saw herself in a different scene of a different atmosphere altogether, this scene was brighter. How was that possible?, now she remembered that she had also arrived mysteriously in the late scene. 

In this scene stood a gigantic male wolf, who kept a romantic gaze on Lucinda. Lucinda stared in confusion at this wolf, who now spread his arms, intentionally waiting for a hug from his spec. 

                         * * * *     

     "LU-CIN-DA!" Called an unseen, and a soft tap on the lap followed suit, waking Lucinda up from sleep, into reality. 

While rubbing her eyes, Lucinda caught a glimpse of Mrs. Adeline, her mother, a woman at her late fourties naturally endowed as blonde, whose hair was never left without a curl and frontier. 

" Good morning Mom".

" Beautiful morning my girl, hope you had a nice rest last night rest?"

" Yeah!", responded Lucinda almost yawning.

" Thanks goodness you did,... You've got to come down stairs, or you will keep your visitors waiting".

     Sitting herself up on her bed, Lucinda placed a pillow in between her thighs. Seeming more interested

 about what her Mom just said, Lucinda asked,

" Visitors?..."

" Yes", Mrs. Adeline answered, and made her way to the sitting room, down stairs.

     Just as in a spark, Lucinda remembered her last night's dream, she tried extracting something meaningful from the dream, but was lost in a void space of thoughts. All she knew was that she was a werewolf, her mother had told her before, and that she inherited the curse from her late grandma, who was once an Alpha in a pack. Her state in the dream was playing her brain, because she could understand nothing from the dream. Allbshe did was asking question into the thin air,

" Was it just a dream, or perhaps, a sort of revelation?"

Lucinda went to the bathroom for a wash up, which she was due in two minutes time. She tucked her straightened fair golden hair into an old headscarf which served as a covering for her head, leaving strands of hair that fell on both sides of her dummylike face, and started her way to the sitting room. 

     Mr. Gabriel, a chubby man at his sixties, and her wife Mrs. Adeline are parents to Lucinda and his little brother. Lucinda is a twenty- one years pretty lady adorned with an ovary shape for face like her mom's, on her face hunged a celestial nose, down the nose was a pink lips, there was a well slanted shoulder, and a couple of ocean blue eyes, to crown it all, she took after her father in height, she pictured a simple royalty. Alexander, Lucinda's younger sibling, a seventeen years old, was his father's replica, he has a brownish -

black hair as his father's but shaved to bob style. He possessed a round face and a moustache. He is the same with Lucinda in height.

The family had fled from Guidecca in Venice, and had come to Rome, for a fresher and broad life experience. They had fled after ma'am Beanker, the grandmother had died. The death of Beanker, a woman of strength and agility, still remains unbelievable to Mrs. Adeline, she had refused to believe that, to be a normal and God willing death time as argued by her husband. That incident remains mysterious.

It is currently the middle year _ August 2000, in Guidecca, Europe.

                                     * * * *

     A fainted sound of footsteps from the stairs could be heard in sitting room. After a few seconds, Lucinda showed up in expectations. She scanned the space with her eyes, and later stopped when her eyes caught two male strangers dressed in suits, who she concluded 

were the visitors, both seated in a paired / double cushion facing Mr. Gabriel and wife, while Alexander sat in the dining room, a room containing a refrigerator and a set of dining table for four persons, the space is detached from the sitting room with a transparent white curtain. Alexander sat there doing what he liked most,..... Eating!

The cushions in the sitting room was arranged to provide a narrow path from their behinds to the stairs. In the middle was a glass center table. At one edge of the sitting room stood a television set, which could be seen by viewers from any of the cushions.

     " Good morning Sirs", Lucinda greeted, almost bowing in veneration. She quickly walked and join her Mom on a cushion. The women sat facing each other, each in angle 90 degrees.

Mr. Gabriel introduced her daughter to the visitors, and verse versa. He then let the visitors to talk in their own pace.

The vibrant and youngest of the duo, Mr. White, a black man in his early sixties, stood up firmly, addressed the family friendly and continued,

" It's already known to both parents, why we are here, but not same with the wards. we are two elders from a pack, your ancestral family, Lucinda", he looks at Lucinda. 

" I'm quite sure that you must have known about your true self as a werewolf..." 

All was distracted by Alexander, who on hearing what Mr. White said, gasped, and a scoop of desert which he was gulping fell back into the bowl, from his mouth. This made him abandoned the bowl of desert on the table and joined the rest, in the sitting room.

" Um...", Mr. White called back the attention of all.

" As it is usually done, leap years are years in which the young members of the pack celebrate the ' rituals of the Arcadians ', which is on held on fifteenth of this month, August, and........