Chapter 3

Around an hour and a half before midnight, my mom called everyone in the kitchen except for me. Before my mom went in the kitchen, she told me to wait at the end of the living room, so, I couldn't hear what they were saying. 

Still, I could hear loud and clear that my mom was whispering something to them, but I was miles away from the kitchen. 

'Let's go outside. The ceremony can begin.'

'What ceremony?' I asked myself in silence.

I was already startled by how well I could hear all of a sudden, and now it got worse. They had secrets for me yet to be discovered, but I would find out soon what they were.

I just went along and went outside when my mother asked me to.

Every member of my family was there already with a glass of wine in their hands to toast for my birthday. Still, what did my mother mean by the ceremony? 

One of her secrets again. Just like the building project at first. 

I rolled my eyes and looked up at the dark starry sky.

The full moon lit up the garden all the way to the pine forest. Suddenly the worst pain struck me. I had never felt this before. 

What was going on? 

I knew it wasn't my usual pain. This wasn't just feeling like falling on the ground. This pain made my body burn so hard that I screamed like never before. 

At a moment, I thought it wasn't screaming anymore. It was howling. I flipped at that moment. I knew I was right about what I heard, and a shock wave went through my body.

When I looked down, I stood on four pure white paws. I started running from agony. My family applauded at the house. Why would they applaud me? When I was a creature of the night.

At first, the running was quite clumsy and difficult, but after a while, it got better and better.

A while later, when I was deeper in the forest, a weird feeling crawled up in my head. It felt like a headache at first and I heard a voice laughing.

'A creature of the night. Are you crazy?' 

Startled, I looked all around me.

I ran harder and harder. I never ran this hard. This was impossible. 

In the meantime, the voice kept ringing in my head.

Was it really in my head? I was still in doubt.

About one thing, I was sure I had a lot of questions that needed to be answered.

'I can help you with a lot of them.' The voice said.

Could I believe her? I wasn't sure about that, but I just listened.

'Hi, I am Ava. Your wolf. Let's start over.' 

I made an agreeing sound.

'You could use your thoughts to talk.' She laughed a bit and continued explaining.

Are there others?

'Indeed there are.' 

'There are so many you can't count them one on one finger. We just live among humans, but because we have big territories our houses are a bit further from civilization.'

Tell me a bit more about you please.

She starts talking, and I listen full of interest to her story.

'It all starts with the beginning of our kind.'

'You won't believe it. We started out just as wolves. A bit bigger than usual. Then, a bit later, evolution also made us more and more human.'

'That was where my first life started. Back then we just lived in little self-made wooden houses.'

'I remembered I had the same color that I have now, pure white, but before I could shift into a human, I was gray.'

'When I became 18 I quickly found my soulmate. A partner who is bound with you forever. Chosen by the moon goddess.'

'He was pitch black.'

Just like Yin and Yang.

'Indeed. We were different from the others. We have had a difficult time through the years. Then, one time, the fight was so big. We always fought because I didn't want children and he did. That night, I got drunk and went to a tavern. I met some other man and cheated with him on my soulmate.' 

'Don't understand me wrong. It hurts like hell.'

'Directly when my soulmate saw us, we went to a witch to break our bond. He was heartbroken and so was I, but we betrayed each other and going there was our best choice for a normal life. We thought back then.'

'Then it became difficult. Instead of breaking the bond. She put a curse on us.'

'In my second life I had two mates. Both were pitch black. I had to choose one. If I didn't choose the right one, The one who wasn't would die.'

'A war came between two then called tribes. The Taka and Inva tribes. The Inva tribe was also mine. But back then, it had another alpha. He was my true mate, but eventually I chose the other one. He was the wrong one. So he died from a heart attack.'

'Then I became werewolf queen because the moon goddess chose me. It was a great responsibility.'

'When time went by, the curse kept torturing us. But each time my other life tried to break the curse, they chose the wrong mate and the curse went on.'

'With time the curse was called the black and white curse because of our wolf's colors.'

'You are a very special and important wolf, Tiene. You are in charge of breaking the curse. I hope you don't mess it up. This is a great responsibility and no joke.'

I get that and I will do my best.

'One more thing. I am reincarnated in you for a reason. You were no wolf, but I made you one.'

' For now I have to go. Don't forget to learn to close off your mind link. That's something I can't help with. We are almost in our pack borders. Also, I have to rest. Goodbye, we will talk again soon.'

I felt tired of the overload of information. When I ran home, I saw I was standing again on two legs. It felt so good to be human again that I ran home.

I never knew our territory was this big. Because I kept running and running through the forest and then when I came almost at the end of the woods, I saw lights. That was probably our house.

Then, just before I arrived, I heard other wolves talking into my head. That's what Ava meant with the mind link.

Also, if I hadn't been a wolf and my parents had been. I..... I was probably adopted.

With that question, I ran into our house and everyone looked worried my way.

I almost forgot about the mind link. I hoped they hadn't heard what I was thinking. It felt really uncomfortable that everyone heard my thoughts and I heard that of a few others. Hopefully, I can learn how to close it soon.

Too many eyes were on me. The attention was too much and, without saying a word, I ran upstairs.

In my room, lying on my bed, other thoughts went through my head.

About how it would work in school.

I hoped there were not many wolves at River College.

I only know that my family were werewolves, but the rest was still unknown territory.

I couldn't fall asleep with a head full of questions, so I decided to close my eyes and just try.

A bit later, I think I heard someone coming upstairs and coming into my room. I kept my eyes closed and tried to sleep more. As tired as I was, I chose to keep sleeping and didn't open my eyes when I felt my mom's hand on my face.

'Oh my girl. Are you OK?'

I still keptfake sleeping and didn't answer her question. 

I must have been crying from confusion in my sleep.

Not knowing that I had cried, I felt a bit uncomfortable. 

My mom whispered fast, "good night" and gave me a kiss on my head and went back downstairs.

When I heard people going away, I felt a bit sad deep in my mind. They were probably going to their houses.

I won't see them for a long time now, since they live far away. They lived all in America, in Forks, and they just came here to Belgium if it was my birthday or some special occasion.

I would miss them so badly and I didn't even say goodbye but, I wasn't ready yet to talk to them.

I would have to wait for another year to tell them what had happened.