Prologue

ELLA

The land was completely ruined, with no signs of living creatures on its earth, not even a bug or an ant, and it seemed unlikely that new life would ever grow here again.

"Here would have been your home if you weren't fated to a demon," Mom said angrily.

She then sped up, leaving me behind.

_____________________________________________________

CHAPTER ONE

ELLA

For as long as I can remember, I've always been here—deep in the woods—just me and my mom. I've never left the woods, and I've never met another werewolf besides her.

At age 7, I was curious why we had never left the woods, so one day I decided to ask Mom.

"It's safer here," she said, refusing to explain why.

I would ask her again and again, desperate to know and hoping she would tell me why. However, she would always give me the same answer, and I had grown to accept that she would never tell me.

"It must be good being able to fly as far as you wanted from the depths of the woods whenever you liked." Lying on my back, I talked to a goldfinch perched on the back of my hand. A bright yellow-bodied bird with black wings.

It chirped at me, and I took its response as a yes, despite not understanding its language.

"Luckily for you, little Goldfinch. My mom never let me leave the woods. I wish my mom were like yours, learning to let me go." I said in a sad voice.

I'm surrounded by many other animals: squirrels, turtles, rabbits, and even skunks. The skunks won't spray you unless you're nice to them.

I giggled as a squirrel began to rummage through my hair, looking for a chestnut it thought it had hidden there.

The small animals in the forest are so fond of me that they always surround me. Mom says it's because I have a beautiful heart, and they sense that I will not harm them.

"Ella," I heard my mom call from our home.

"I'm coming." I sat up, and the goldfinch flew away.

"See you again soon," I wished the little creatures before taking off.

I arrived at our home, which was made of sticks. The only room was a bedroom with a single straw bed that Mom and I shared. The roof was made of zinc, which was so old that it sometimes leaked whenever it rained. If we wanted to bathe, we had to go to the river.

Mom was outside at the mud stove, preparing dinner.

"Talking to your little animal friends as usual?" Mom said with a smile, roasting the fish she had caught by the river, when she noticed me.

I nodded, returning her smile, but what I truly wanted to say was, ' If you'd allow me to leave this wood sometimes, then I wouldn't have to befriend squirrels, birds, and any other small creatures.

I don't have a problem befriending them. I enjoy their company. It's just that I wish sometimes I could talk to someone who was my age and get a real response without having to guess what it meant.

"Please pick the leaves from the catalpa tree so I can start sharing supper," Mom instructed me.

All of the leaves on the lower branch were gone, and I couldn't reach the higher one. Looking up, I saw a woodpecker nesting with its baby.

"Can you please pick two of its large leaves?" I kindly asked her.

It flew from its nest, snapping the leaves from the branch with its beak. I caught them and turned around to see Mom watching me, a big smile on her face.

I brought the leaves to her and sat on a rock as she finished preparing supper.

"Here you go." Mom gave me my roasted fish.

Mom is a beautiful she-wolf in her 40s. She has long brown hair and beautiful light brown eyes.

I, on the other hand, had my father's blonde hair and blue eyes. That's the only thing she talked about regarding my father: that I looked like him.

I wanted to know more about my father, but after seeing how crushed Mom was when she spoke those few words about him, I kept quiet.

A sudden burst of thunder made me flinch.

"It's going to rain soon; we must go inside," Mom urged.

Having polished off our meal, we went inside just as the sky began to drizzle.

Momentarily after, it began pouring heavily outside.

Mom and I lay face to face, staring at each other on our comfy straw bed. I smiled at her.

"I can't wait to be 18 tomorrow," I said excitedly, remembering it would be my birthday.

Mom said that when I turned 18, I would no longer be a child, but an adult. It may be stupid not to be able to wait, but I knew that once I was 18, Mom could not stop me from being a little too far from the house or leaving the woods— just like a mother bird is unable to stop her fledglings from hopping out of their nest to live on their own after growing their feathers. I would never leave my mother like that. I just want to be free to go wherever I want to.

Sadness filled my heart as I saw deep worry in my mom's eyes.

"What is wrong, Mom?" I asked anxiously.

She turned her back towards me.

I sat up immediately and gently laid a hand on her shoulder.

"I have something I have to tell you, El," she said sadly.

"What is it, Mom?" I asked, impatient to know.

"Tomorrow is the full moon," she responded softly.

I did not understand what she meant about tomorrow's full moon. There had always been a full moon before, so why was tomorrow's full moon suddenly bothering her?

"I know, Mom," I answered.

She sat up and began to burst into tears. Having lived with my mother for years, I couldn't say when I'd ever seen her cry, which now made me extremely worried.

"You're scaring me, Mom," I said, terrified.

"I don't want to lose you tomorrow, El." She spun to face me.

I wiped away her tears with my fingers.

"You're not going to lose me, Mom." I hugged her.

"I will never leave you."

Mom knew me like the back of her hand. I assumed she knew about my plan to venture out of the woods the second I turned 18; that had to be why she was so worried.

Her arms then quickly went around me, hugging me back so tightly that I found it hard to breathe.

"Once the full moon appears brightly in the sky tomorrow, the evil Alpha will take you away from me," Mom said in an extremely terrified voice, and her entire body shook uncontrollably.

My eyes instantly widened in shock upon hearing this ominous news.

"And you will have no choice but to go to him," Mom finished.