Episode 2

I got home from school that day in a bad mood. I was late to school because I accidentally broke my alarm clock the day before, I got detention, my history teacher gave me a whole crap load of homework and my bike broke down on my way home so I had to walk the rest of the journey, in the rain.

What a great birthday.

So I got home in a bad mood, obviously, but it turned around when I saw the surprise birthday party for me. It wasn't really a party, but there was food, drinks, a cake,my parents and my five year old sister who was busy ogling my cake.

That was good enough for me.

It really made me happy, and I even got a car for my birthday since I was now qualified to get a license.

We had a lot of fun that night and when I went to sleep my parents and my little sister, Gabriella, came and gave me kisses on my forehead.

We love you sweetie, happy birthday' My mother had said before they exited my

room.

I fell asleep feeling content with myself, not knowing how little those words meant to them.

Later that night, I woke up with the loudest possible scream I could have ever imagined.

A scream I couldn't recognise as my own even though it tore right through my throat.

My lungs were on fire.

My heartbeat was frantic.

All I could feel and think was pain. All over my body.

I felt like I was being crushed and stretched at the same time.

Excruciating pain.

It was unbearable. I felt my bones breaking all over my body.

I could feel them dislodging from their sockets only to bend back into new positions.

My flesh felt like it was being torn apart by some invisible forces and moving across my body to settle in new areas.

I could feel the pressure from my insides, like someone wanted to pull my intestines out from within. My rib cage cracked and seemed to have reformed larger than it was before.

My spine bent and suddenly snapped back up, tossing me out of bed.

What was happening to me? I could hardly breathe properly. Or more like I couldn't concentrate or even remember how to breathe since my lungs felt like they had fallen to the pit of my stomach like everything else in my body. I could feel every single thing happening to me and yet it was happening all so fast.

My parents had rushed into my room.

'Sweetie, what's wrong?!" My mother cried.

I couldn't even respond, I was too busy screaming.

I felt needles pierce their way out of my skin only to realise that it was hair. Hair was coming out of everywhere. My arms and legs, even my face. I was beginning to get covered from head to toe in thick long hair strands.

My jaw suddenly snapped open causing a halt to my screams when I nearly choked. I couldn't breathe.

It then hung loose allowing my airways to open up again as my facial bones all elongated, painfully stretching the skin while hair grew on it simultaneously. I was painfully aware of every minor detail that was going on in me, killing me with this torturous amount of pain.

Everything was happening at the same time yet the pain registered individually.

My sister had rushed into the room holding the teddy bear I got her, just in time to see me finish transforming into the monster I had feared all my life.

The monster that plagued me in my nightmares. The reflection in my wardrobe mirror was too much to handle.

After the painful transformation, the look on my parents' face said it all. They were scared of me.

I was a monster and Gabriella only confirmed it.

"Monster!" She screamed as she threw her teddy at me and rushed out. My parents were frozen to the spot until my mother fainted.

'Mom!" I had meant to say, but instead an animalistic sound came out of me. My dad looked at my mom then back at me. 'Get out!" he screamed at me

"Dad?" I meant to say but again, words failed me.

He made a quick grab for the baseball bat I kept near my wardrobe and swung it at me.

He actually tried to hit me with it. My own baseball bat.

The one he'd gotten me. All in fear of what had happened to me.

I couldn't handle it so I jumped out of my window and ran, and ran, on all fours, out of civilization and into the thick forest, as far away from home as possible, afraid of the monster I had become.

But just like trying to run away from your shadow, there was no way to escape this, unless I plunged myself into complete and utter darkness.

*****

I woke up when something fell on my head.

Groaning, I opened my eyes and looked around.

The sun was unbearably bright and hurting my eyes.

Then I saw a pine cone by me, which I'm pretty sure hit me.

"What is your name rogue?" A manly voice asked. I was a bit startled to hear someone in the middle of nowhere but I looked up nonetheless. I saw a man standing a few feet away from me, and I couldn't help noticing that he was butt naked.

I quickly shielded my eyes.

"Argh, dude, don't you have manners? Put some clothes on! That's just disgusting." I scowled trying to shake the image out of my head.

I could feel the slight remnants of a headache as I did that.

"Funny you should say that, have you taken a look at yourself?" I heard him chuckle. Oh no.

That's when I felt the wind hit my skin. My bare skin. I was naked.

I was mortified.

And I was very naked.

I quickly tried to cover as much as I could with my arms, not understanding how the hell I ended up here naked.

The guy just chuckled and chugged a shirt at me. I quickly put it on and it reached mid thigh, which I was grateful for. I pushed back to lean against a tree and pulled my knees up so that I could pull the baggy shirt over my knees to my feet to cover up everything.

The man, by this time, had put on a pair of shorts.

I tried to rack my brain for any memories of how I got here but at this moment everything seemed hazy.

"I said,'' What is your name, rogue?" The man said a bit more authoritative this time. He had a very tall and muscular build with scars lining his chest. He looked like he'd been attacked by a lion and been fortunate enough to survive it.

I was too busy studying him to actually understand his odd question.

"Rogue?" I questioned.

"What. Is. Your. Name?" The man said clearly, getting annoyed.

"Adriane, and you are?" I asked.

The man seemed surprised at my question. It was then that I saw other men coming up from behind him, bless them, they were not naked. All just in shorts. They seemed as though they were scouring the area.

"Beta Shawn." he replied. One of the men said something to him in a low tone which I didn't catch and he nodded in response.

"Beta? Isn't that like a girl's name or something?" I asked. Beta sounds pretty girly if you ask me.

"No it's not, it's a title given t- wait, shouldn't you know this? Where exactly are you from? Which pack?"

He asked me, raising his eyebrows.

"Pack? Ok now you've lost me." I was beginning to think that this guy escaped from the Looney bin.

Probably explains why he was naked.

'How did you get here?"

"I actually don't remember." I said. I tried to recall the last events that led to my being here. The last thing I remember was waking up with a lot of pain ...

"Follow me." he said, sighing and turned around.

And I did. Because I had no idea on how to get out of here.

"Can you shift?" He turned around and asked me.

"Shift what?" Damn this guy was strange. Maybe there are a few screws loose ...

And yet I'm following him.

Like I said, I don't have many options here.

He just stared at me wide eyed before shaking his head.

"Never mind." He said and we continued our journey.

***

"You're a werewolf." the woman named Rose, who had given me a change of clothing at a house Shawn described as the pack house said to me. Rose was probably a middle aged woman, with auburn hair that reached her shoulders and warm brown eyes.

She said it like it was the most obvious and normal thing in the world.

Icouldn't help the laugh that escaped my lips, although it immediately stopped the moment I saw the serious look in her eyes.

"Wait, what?"

After that came a long lecture about werewolves but I zoned out.

I was probably dreaming right now, or I was beginning to lose my mind. Did I actually just hear her say I'm a werewolf?

As in mythical creature werewolf?

Full moon werewolf?

Twilight werewolf?

What on earth was going on?

Rose waved a hand in front of my face making me focus my attention back on her.

"I said did you shift last night?" Rose asked me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Shift what?" I asked rather stupidly.

"Into your wolf, weren't you listening to me?" She asked as her brows creased a little.

"I'm sorry you lost me because I'm a werewolf." I answered truthfully and sighed, rubbing my forehead.

I squeezed my eyes shut and took a deep breath.

I should have woken up by now, I gotta stop sleeping so late. My dreams are just getting too weird at this point.

She chuckled a little just as she was about to say something Shawn entered the room we were in. This time he was wearing a shirt and jeans. He seemed to be in his late twenties. His copper colored hair was tousled up and he seemed sweaty.

"The Alpha requests your presence, Adriane." he said facing me.

"The what? Alpha? " I asked, raising both eyebrows. Oh no, I've been thrown into an episode of teen wolf.

I could feel myself beginning to sweat. "Oh gosh, this shit is real." I said more to myself than the people in the room with me.

Shawn turned to Rose with a questioning look.

"I thought you went through the basics with her," he said to Rose.

"Sorry Beta Shawn, apparently she wasn't listening." she said, turning to face me.

'Ok, no time for that, Adriane lets go, she can do the explaining later." Shawn said and we were out of the door.

***

"So this is the rogue?" The man, named Alpha Derrick said. There was this very powerful vibe around him, even more than Shawn.

Perhaps that's why he's the boss around here.

I don't know what I was expecting when

I was on my way to see the 'so powerful'

Alpha, but it definitely wasn't this

He sat there, on a chair, in normal clothes, looking very human.

"Yes Alpha." Shawn said.

"Interesting." The Alpha said not taking his eyes off me. He looked a bit older than Shawn but handsome nevertheless. He had dirty blonde hair and piercing gray eyes.

Piercing because he was staring at me way too intently. It was a bit unnerving.

"What's your name?" I felt like I was in court, the way the Alpha sat there like a judge and some other men and two women were standing all around, observing me.

"Adriane Clark."

"Come here," he said, calling me closer. I stepped closer to him, but he was still a couple of metres away from me.

Then he started sniffing the air towards me.

Like actually sniffing me.

I tried my best not to show how weird I thought it was.

How weird I thought all of this was.

"That aura ... I can tell you've been living with humans for a long time. Who are your parents, your birth parents?" He asked me.

What?

"As far as I'm concerned, my parents are Robert and Kristen Clark." I answered. They're the only parents I've ever known so his question caught me a little off guard when he emphasized the 'birth'.

"Hm, from which pack?" The stupid pack question again.

"No pack, I just came from a nice quiet family of four, my parents, my sister and I." I said, getting tired of all these useless questions.

He pressed his lips into a straight line, then he turned to Shawn. "Shawn, go get Evelyn." he instructed.

"Alpha." Shawn gave a quick nod before leaving the room.

And I just stood there in awkward silence, not knowing what was going to happen next, staring at the floor and occasionally at the Alpha.

Out of the two ladies present, one stood particularly close to the Alpha with her hand on his shoulder as they engaged in a hushed conversation.

The woman looked at me and smiled, I managed a small smile back.

I guessed that was his wife by the way she kissed him before she left the room with the other lady.

Shawn returned about half an hour later with an elderly woman, Evelyn, I presume. She had all white hair but I believe that that was just her hair colour as she didn't look that old to be grey all over.

"That's interesting, white blood." the old woman in front of me holding my bloody palm said.

She just came in here and cut open my palm which surprisingly didn't hurt. What was more surprising though was the little dagger-like nail she grew from her index finger to cut open my palm with.

It just grew out, just like that.

Now that freaked me out a bit.

And just by the way, my blood was red, not white, so I had no idea what this woman was blabbing about.

'Is she a white wolf?" The Alpha asked, sitting up and suddenly looking very alert and interested.

Evelyn shook her head.

"Not exactly a white wolf Alpha, but I believe she's from the Golden Moon pack, they were the only ones I knew with this type of moon-blessed blood." The woman spoke, waving her hand on top of my palm.

"I thought everyone in that pack died in the fire." The Alpha said knitting his eyebrows together.

"I thought so too, I guess she survived." Evelyn said, staring at me and then back at my hand.

"There's more Alpha." Evelyn suddenly spoke up, drawing circles on my hand with my own blood, that for some reason won't stop coming out of the tiny incision that she had made.

"What is it?" He asked with a curious face.

'She has the Alpha gene in her, it could be possible that that's Alpha Gordon's heir." My eyes shot up from my palm that was still bloody to meet Evelyn's eyes. How on earth was she conjuring all this nonsense from staring at my red hand?

"It's not possible, my father is Robert Clark and he isn't an Alpha, he is normal just like me." I said, I was so confused, it literally hurt to think about my situation right now. I still tried to convince myself that I was normal.

Maybe I was getting light headed from all that blood loss, which for some reason stayed on my palm in a little puddle, not a single drop on the floor.

"Hush child, you're a wolf and the people you were living with before clearly weren't your parents." Evelyn told me.

"Well that's something, I never knew Alpha Gordon had a daughter, I always thought it had been a boy, shame." I cocked my eyebrow at his remark.

I watched as Evelyn took out a little plastic container from her pocket and tilted my hand to let the blood flow in.

She was collecting my blood.

I thought they said they werewolves not vampires.

She closed the lid on the container and turned to the Alpha.

"I'll do some further reading on her blood Alpha. That will be all for now." He nodded at her.

"Well then, if that's the case, you may stay with my pack, Adriane, since you clearly have nowhere else to go. But I would like to keep my eye on you, so you will stay in the guest quarters here." The Alpha said.

"Mavis." He called. Seconds later a girl about my age came scurrying into the room. She had red wild hair and bright green eyes.

"Yes Alpha?" Her voice is small.

"Adriane, this is my niece, Mavis, she'll show you all that you need to know." He told me.

I was still quite overwhelmed with everything that was happening but I managed to speak.

"Thank you?" I wasn't quite sure why it came out sounding like a question butI wasn't able to fully grasp what was going on yet.

He rose an eyebrow expectantly.

What now?

I was lost. Mavis quietly coughed 'alpha' and smiled at me.

"Oh, sorry, uhh ... thank you, Alpha?" I said unsure. He nodded and smiled at me and some chuckles went on in the room and I gave a small smile to Mavis. She smiled back at me.

'Ok, let's go and get that cleaned up."

What? "Clean what?"

She pointed at my hand that had stopped bleeding now but was still covered in blood.

"Right"