Chapter One

AARYAH

I parked my car just before the boundary of the town where I was born, and just stared at the emptiness before me. It wasn’t exactly a ‘town’, more like acres upon acres of land that spanned widely, housing lots of families in it. One would take one look at its unappealing and creepy boundary and turn away. But I knew what lay beneath the so called ‘emptiness’.

It was crazy how any body who drove to this path, always saw an empty unappealing sight ahead of them. It was crazy, and at the same time, it was quite impressive.

Lakewood was a settlement for a whole pack of werewolves and shared its space with witches. All living with law that seemed so simple, but were still hard to follow.

Just like everyday laws that governed the human world. I especially knew how hard they were to follow, since I had broken the very first one I had been told as a toddler. I could still remember that day like it had happened just yesterday.

My hands tightened on the staring wheel as I inhaled and exhaled, preparing for what I was about to do. "Gùfùh uzò.." I whispered slowly as I concentrated on the land before me. Those spells were as simple as abc and they had been the first spells my mother had thought to me as a child. Opening spells.

The hairs at the back of my neck stood as I felt it, the slight brush of the spells that surrounded Lakewood. Spells that were meant to identify who belonged in there, and who was not welcomed.

A human wouldn’t feel it, but would be swayed and controlled by it. A human would take one look at the crazily Harvard appearance of Lakewood and make a u-turn immediately, not wanting to spend another second close to it, without even realizing what was happening.

A werewolf would not feel it, but would smell it, and easily see what actually lay before them. But if the spells do not still agree with the werewolf, it would still turn them away.

A witch would not only smell it, but see it too. Because the spells were cast by the witches. Not just any witch. But the ones from the Onwa Clan, which is the moon clan. And since the spells were from the Onwa clan, any witch from that clan could not only see or smell the spell. They could feel it, and touch it.

Just like I was running my fingers across the blue strings of smoky light that now filled my car. I smiled as it burst, sending cool force through my hair, as it left my car. Even if it had left, I could still feel the evidence of it's presence around me.

I smiled as I felt the force making the land in front of me hard to enter, give. I wasted no time as I drove through the invisible barrier and into the very beautiful land that was Lakewood.

A place I hadn’t been to in the last eight years.

What could have changed since these last time I came here?

A quick look around as I drove through, gave me the answer I needed.

A lot of things had changed.

It was still as calm as I had remembered, but there were definitely more buildings and the town’s grocery shop had been renovated and made bigger. In fact, everything looked bigger than they had been. I mean, why wouldn't they?

It had been a while eight years already.

I immediately felt nostalgic about being in this place. I had left for a reason, and had had no intention of coming back. Ever.

But a sentence in a letter sent by my mother had me requesting for a leave from my very huge job and tossing clothes into suitcases. I had been halfway across the Atlantic when I had realized what I had been doing.

Come home Aeyrah, something terrible has happened.

The letter had been so short and precise. It had taken me one look at the depth of the ink, to make me realize the stress behind each word. Lakewood may look a little bit backwards, but there were phone lines and all kinds of civilization. I and my mum spoke all the time on both phone calls and video calls. Which was more reason for me to come running back since she had sent a letter instead.

I didn’t bother rolling my windows down as I noticed the handful of people in the streets looking at me, probably wondering who I was.

That was the thing about this place. Everybody knew everybody!

I could swear on the witch’s blood in me that no one could hide in Lakewood.

Somehow, and I guess it was the familiarity of the place causing so many thoughts in my head, I almost asked myself if I would have really stayed away from it all. Forever?

I was forced to stop and finally roll my window down when I reached the second boundary. The main one. The one that led uptown. Which was my actual destination.

“Ma’am please identify yourself.” Came the voice of the security guard who stood next to my window. A quick look at him and I could see his brown wolf glide inside of him. He was a pretty muscular twenty-five year old. And really reall tall.

My type.

I smiled and removed the sunglasses I was wearing to show him turquoise blue eyes that could only be seen on a discendant of the Onwa clan. “Hello.” I said and watched him step back a little and nod.

“Sorry Miss. Its just, I haven’t seen you around this area before.” I kinda liked his light baritone. And the face attached was just something else entirely.

What the hell was he doing working as a security guard, looking like this? I could already picture some other jobs he could be doing…

Urghh..I sighed inside of me and shut down my crazy thoughts. “I guess you would be seeing me around more often then.” I winked and put on my glasses, rolling my windows back up. He gave the signal and stepped away, walking back to his post.

The huge gates opened and I made my way through.

It was really quiet here, I couldn’t even see a single person on the streets, but I could feel their auras in the different places they were. This part of Lakewood was filled with different farm lands owned by the rich families. Which was the place my parents resided. My family were the strongest of witches, and so, were at the very top of the ladder.

It took me about four minutes to get to my destination, as I brought the car to a stop, just in front of the biggest farmland of Lakewood.

The Onwa land.

I was wrong when I said I felt nostalgic before, at the boundary. Because as I looked at the huge mansion in front of me, I was overcome by a sense of over familiarity and a deep sense of nostalgia. So many memories which I thought I had forgotten washed through me.

Before I could dwell on them though, the huge doors of Mansion Lakewood opened, and the woman whom I hadn’t seen in person, for over eight years, stood just at the entrance, smiling at me.

It took me some time before I was able to firm any coherent word, as it felt like everything had stuck somewhere inside of my throat. “Mother.” I whispered into the car, undoing my seatbelt as I prepared to come out of the car.

“My child.” Came her very calm voice inside of my head.

Oh, how I had missed her.

So much.

I didn't waste any time as I quickly turned off the engine and literally ran out of the car. I rushed down to my mother and into her waiting arms, giggling when she lifted me off the ground like I was paperweight and spun me around.

"My little girl!" she exclaimed, making me realize inside of me that I had been really selfish not visiting even once during those eight years.

'My mother." I whispered and squeezed into her more. I didn't care, I just wanted to stay there with her forever.