THE SEED OF THE MOON GODDESS

Aria's pov

The morning ray flashed across my face.I groaned and rolled slightly, but the light followed, burning hot against my eyelids. The light was sharp, and invasive, like it had been waiting for me.

I felt something cold pressed against my back, causing my body to quiver at the sensation. I didn't know were I was, but it felt like I was lying on damp ground with leaves clinging to my arms, grit and stuck to my skin. My mouth felt like it was full of mud and sand... like I had bitten my tongue on a nail. I tried to swallow and ended up gagging instead.

A headache throbbed in my head, and I could feel my heart beating so fast, I winced, clutching my temples with my palms, my hands were shaking as I tried to breathe through it.

“What… what kind of nightmare did I have?” The words rasped out of me, almost soundless.

I blinked my eyes open, and for a moment, everything blurred. Green light, shadows, tall shapes swaying in the distance. My lashes fluttered until the shapes sharpened into trees...endless trees surrounding me.

My chest tightened. Where am I?

I sat up really fast, I felt a sharp pain stabbing me, behind my eyes, I groaned, and clutched my head again, it felt like the world was spinning around me. I tried to catch my breath but it was like the tighter I tried to hold it, the faster my heart beat.

My hands brushed against the coldness of my bare breast, and that was when I realized I was naked... completely naked. My legs, my arms, even my belly was covered in dirt. My skin was caked with mud, bruises forming over my hips and ribs, scratches blistering on my thighs.

I quickly put my arms over my chest, curled up like I could shrink inside myself. A strangled sound broke from my throat as I pulled my knees up, wrapping myself together, trying to cover what I could.

My hands immediately flew to my neck, and it was completely empty, at this point I realized that, it wasn't a dream... everything actually happened, and then just like that, the memories came flooding in...Savannah’s grin, her hand yanking at my chain. The snap of metal.The sudden fire crawling up my spine.My bones cracking, my skin tearing open, my scream twisting into something monstrous.The room going still. Then screaming. Everyone screaming.Kian’s face, pale, stunned.

I rocked back against the ground, shaking my head violently, my hands gripping fistfuls of my hair.

“No, no, no...” My voice cracked. “That wasn’t real. It couldn’t have been real. What exactly happened to me. When I looked at my reflection in a glass last night, I looked like a... a...”

The words tangled in my throat.

No that can't be, because in Ravenstone, humans didn’t just turn into werewolves, not unless there was a curse or a bad reason... infact for as long as I have been here, there has never been an account of a human turning to a werewolf. Werewolves are born...not made.

Then why did I remember claws? Why did my body still ache like it had been ripped apart from the inside?

I ran my hands down my arms, over my ribs, my thighs, as though I had to touch every inch of me to remind myself that I was still human. My fingers shook over the bruises, over my bare flesh.

I wanted to vomit.

“Oh God,” I whispered, curling tighter. “What’s happening to me? What am I?”

My heart swelled and sank. I drew quick and shallow breath, gasping with each breath, like my lungs wasn't functioning properly. Hot tears streamed down my face, with dirt, and smeared mud on my cheeks.

I rested my forehead against my knees and tried to rock myself on little motions. But the images wouldn’t leave. The sound of my scream turning inhuman. The way their faces had shifted, from cruel amusement to terror. The way no one had reached for me, not even Tammy.

"Am I cursed?...What the hell am I?" I screamed out in frustration.

"A werewolf," a voice from behind the tree said, startling me.

My head turned around to it, my body shaking back involuntarily. I could not make out his face, but only a hand reaching up out of the shadows, with a pair of baggy jeans, a faded polo, and slippers.

I paused for a moment, deciding if I should take it or not, but what choice did I have, so I grabbed the clothes out of his hands, pressing them against my chest, and hastily putting them on. My fingers scrambled on the buttons, my hands kept shaking and I nearly dropped the shirt twice.

After I had finished dressing up, I cleared my throat, my voice small.. “Who… who are...?”

Before I could get the words out, a person came out from behind the tree.

“Lucian?” I whispered, my voice laced with disbelief.

Lucian never talked to anybody not even his fellow outcasts. He lived far from the heart of Ravenstone, always alone. People called him Solivagus. The loner. I’d catch him standing just beyond the school fence, half-hidden by the trees, watching a few times, but I’d never thought much of it… until now.

“Why are you here?” My voice faltered as I was asking the question.

He moved slowly, bridging the distance between us, his eyes were fixed on me like he was trying to pierce through my soul. "I think what you should be saying is...thank you."

I opened my mouth and no words came out, I was trembling, my hands were clammy. “Th… thank you.”

He just stood, staring at me, then he put his hands into his pocket and pulled something out.

My necklace.

I froze for a second, "how did you find it?"

He didn't reply, he just held the chain in his fingers and swung it like it was nothing, but to me it was everything.

"Here," he said, giving me the necklace.

My heart was beating so fast as I took it from his hands, my fingertips brushed his in the quickest touch. I felt shivers run down my spine, but I just cleared my throat and said, "thank you again."

And with that, he turned and started walking away without another word.

"Wait" I screamed in desperation, "please... wait.”

He paused in his step, but he didn't turn around.'

I took a deep breath, trying to control myself "Earlier you said I am a werewolf?"

He turned and nodded his head, "Yeah, that was what I said."

"But how... how can I be a werewolf, I'm human."

His eyes roamed over me for a few seconds,without a single word , and then finally he said, "Are you?"

"Am I what?" I yelled in frustration.

"Human?" he responded with a faint smile.

I took a deep breath again, "please why won't you just answer me directly."

He bit his lower lips, "Well when you stop denying and fighting it, you will accept who you really are."

"But humans can't be werewolves, isn't that like a taboo, and abomination?"

He walked closer to me, his boots making no sound on the wet ground. He bent down till our faces were nearly at the same level, his eyes pierced into mine. "That's correct," he replied

My eyes open wide in fear, I could hear the sound of my heart beat... fast and unsteady. "That makes me an...an abomination?"

He smiled and got up, "maybe... maybe not. Go find out who you truly are...when you do, you will have all the answers you need."

He turned again to walk away.

"But I can't go back out there, what if the news have spread, they will eat me alive...why don't I just...go with you?"

He paused again, and turned back to me, "The world is a scary place, Moon and for you to survive it, you must learn to conquer your fears."

"Moon! who is moon?" I thought out loud. My name is Aria, I snapped back, more anger in my voice than I intended. "Not Moon."

He smiled...just a little curling of his lips, “isn't it?" he asked.

"No it isn't," I replied back confidently.

"Hmm," he said bitting his lips, "How sure are you?" his eyes roamed all over my body, "Go home Moon and face your fears... You never know...the world may just surprise you."

And with that he turned to leave, leaving me speechless, but then he stopped again, "Oh! Protect that necklace like your life depend on it and never take it off your neck ever again."

And then he went off into the forest and I stood there in mud, barefooted, my heart beating hot, my fingers clenched to the necklace and my head full of a lot of questions which I could not answer.