The MoonFang Chronicles

Eighteen years ago…

She continued to take deep breaths as she held onto her stomach. The contractions were coming closer together and more intense. Her father was supposed to be coming home at any moment. Another contraction was starting again.

Breathe, just breathe.

She slowly slid down to the floor, resting her back against the couch. She hears her father’s truck pull up.

Thank the moon he’s here.

He walks in the door and is stunned from what he sees.

“Raura?”

“It’s time.” She tells him.

Quickly, he rushes around the room, gathering things he thinks he will need to help.

“Should I call someone?” He asks her.

She shakes her head, “There’s no time.”

He helps her lay down on the floor after putting some towels underneath her for cushion. He lays a towel over her legs.

She lets out a howling scream as the pain rips through every cell in her trembling body. Tears spill out from her eyes as she squeezes them shut. When she tries to open them, everything is a blur. Her heart started to pound against her chest as she tries to keep control of her breathing. She could hear her father trying to say something to her, but it was muffled. She was lost to the world of pain, and then it seemed like everything froze before it all went black.

She didn’t wake again until she heard the most exquisite sound in the world – a baby crying. Her baby.

“Raura, it’s a girl.” Her father says as he lays the wrapped baby into her arms.

“Hello, my love.” She whispered, while stroking the baby’s cheek.

The baby stopped bawling, gazing at her. She smiled.

Becoming a mother really was the best feeling in the world. It made everything make sense. It infused her with strength and clarity. It…

A familiar scent in the air disrupted her train of thought. The scent of a werewolf.

“Raura, there’s something I have to tell you.” Her father says to her, but she wasn’t paying any attention to him at the moment.

It was getting stronger now, so strong that the hairs on the back of her neck stood up.

She looks over to her father with fear.

“You have to leave.” She tells him.

“I’m not leaving you like this.”

“Father please, I can’t protect you right now.”

He gets up and leaves the room, but she knows he isn’t gone for good.

With her baby in her arms, she tries to get up, but she can’t. Her legs are too weak and from the smell of it, she lost a lot of blood. If only she could shift, then she could heal and run, to protect her baby. But she couldn’t.

As she tries to pull herself up again, she hears the shattering of a windowpane.

By instinct she wraps her arms tightly around her baby to keep it from harm.

She had to get away. She had to keep her baby safe.

Before she could, she heard a loud growl and a scream shortly after.

Father!

A werewolf appeared in front of her with fangs bared, she held on to the baby and met the wolf’s glare with one of her own.

“You can’t have her!” She yelled.

She would not let them take it. Not while she…

She felt the searing pain run through her body when two sharp fangs tore into her neck, tearing her flesh.

“Take the baby,” one of the werewolves growled.

“Father?” she tried to call out.

“He can’t help you now.” One of the werewolves tell her as they tear the baby from her arms.

No!

“What should we do with her?” One of them ask.

“Nothing. She’s in no condition to shift so she’ll be dead soon. And the Luminars are getting closer. We should go.”

A werewolf whose gleaming eyes she would recognize anywhere stood above her.

“Goodbye…”

She heard her name, but it sounded distant, almost muddled. Her senses were fading. When her heavy eyelids fell, she strained to listen to the sounds of rustling fur and scraping claws. Before everything went out, she heard the cries of a baby…

Then nothing.

Today….

Faster.

Gabi gritted her teeth and willed herself to move faster as she ran through the woods. Leaves rustling as she moves past them.

Faster.

She was running as fast as her body would allow her, but it wasn’t enough. It was never enough. Sooner or later, they would catch up to her and get her. She had to stay focused. She looked behind her to see if she could see her tormentors. Nothing. She let out a sigh of relief as she slowed down for a moment, allowing herself to catch her breath and let her body rest.

But it wouldn’t be for long. In the distance she could hear them making their way towards her.

Think Gabi think.

She looks around at her surroundings and listens. The gushing of a nearby brook reaches her ears.

Right. There was another path, a shortcut. If she took that, she might be able to get back to the village before they could catch her.

Fueled by the thought of her new strategy, Gabi ran to the brook. She jumps over it and starts to run up the trail. She was still tired, but she had adrenaline pumping through her veins, driven by hope.

I can do this.

Just once they won’t be able to catch her, just once she won’t have to hear them call her pathetic, boring, no good.

Just once.

The trail was a bit of a struggle but Gabi persevered.

She started to see bits of the village; she was so close. Her tormentors left her alone in the village, they never wanted to risk getting caught by the chief. The chief, Gabi shivered just thinking what would happen if she was caught running away by him. She shook her head, shaking all the bad thoughts out. She was going to make it.

All that was left was making it across the ravine and then she was home free. She couldn’t afford just sliding down the slope, she would have to jump over the ravine to the other side.

She quickly removes her jean jacket, takes a deep breath, and braces herself.

Here I go.

She takes two steps back and then launches herself into the air. For a moment she felt like she was flying and was confident she would make it to the other side. But then she started to fall.

“No!”

She tries to reach for the other side of the ravine, hoping maybe she could hang there and then pull herself up. But she misses and ends up rolling down the slope all the way to the bottom.

“Gabi”

That familiar voice coming from a distance gives her the strength to quickly get up, but as soon as she did she looks up to see her tormentors looming over her with nasty smirks.

“Thought you could get away from us, didn’t you?” One of them say.

“That’s enough!” The familiar voice she heard earlier snapped.

Gabi glanced over her shoulder to find Renn perched on the other side of the ravine, her jacket in his hand. He slides down the ravine with ease and moves to stand in front of her before letting out a growl.

This too was familiar for Gabi, the sight of Renn’s strong back and broad shoulders, his long ashen hair tied at the nape. He was always standing in front of her, protecting her. He was her uncle, after all, which was sometimes still hard to believe since he was only two years older than her.

“We were only having some fun with Gabi.” One of them said.

“Just Go.” He ordered.

They lingered around for a moment, but when Renn let out a menacing growl. They ran without looking back.

Gabi sits on the ground giving her aching legs a chance to relax. Renn sat beside her.

“Are you okay?” He asked as he handed her jacket to her, his voice heavy with the same concern that showed so clearly in his deep blue eyes.

Gabi nodded. She knew she would probably have some bruises on her arms, and definitely some on her legs.

“Sure?” Renn didn’t look convinced, “I saw you fall.”

“I heard you call my name.”

“If only I had been faster, I could have…”

“Really, I’m okay.” She says as she lays her hand on his knee.

Renn winces a little as Gabi quickly moves her hand from his knee. His bad knee, when Renn was little my father had tackled him and hurt that knee and it never mended back to normal. It doesn’t bother him when he shifts, just as long as he doesn’t run for long periods of time.

“Sorry” She tells him.

“It’s fine.”

“I’m glad you were there when I needed you, just like you always are,” She says as she looks him straight in the eye.

This seems to make his shoulders relax a bit, but she could still see the concern in his eyes.

“Why did you go so far out from the village?” he asked.

She shrugged, “I just needed to get away for a bit, that’s all.”

“What’s eating you up?”

She stayed quiet for a moment, trying to find the right words to help Renn understand how she had been feeling.

She lets out a sigh before she starts, “Sometimes I just don’t feel like I…”

“Belong in the pack,” Renn finished for her. “I didn’t know you were still worried about that.”

“How could I not? You know how much I’ve tried to fit in, to please my father, to be like the others. But no matter how much I try, no matter what I do, it just isn’t enough. I’m not enough.”

“Hey.” Renn grabbed her hand. “You are enough. You are Gabi, daughter of the MoonFang Chief, the brightest MoonFang that ever lived.”

That made Gabi grin.

“And tomorrow, on your eighteenth birthday, everyone will know that you belong to the clan. You will, too. And after your first hunt with the others, when you bring down your first prey, no one will ever dare insult you again.”

“You really think so?” She questioned him.

“I know so.”

Gabi sighed, shoulders slumping. “But what if I don’t shift?”

That had been her worry for weeks now, ever since she had a bad dream of it. She hadn’t told anyone, though, until now.

“That’s impossible,” Renn said. “Everyone in the clan has shifted before.”

That didn’t mean no one couldn’t.

“You will shift,” he told her, gazing at her again. He touched the tip of her nose. “And I’m sure you’ll make a magnificent wolf.”

The corners of Gabi’s mouth turned up into a smile. Renn always did know how to make them do just that.

“And speaking of your birthday…” He stood up. “I’ve prepared a present for you.”

Gabi’s eyebrows furrowed. “A present?”

“Yeah, you know, the thing people get on their birthdays. I figured I’d give it to you now since you’ll probably be too busy tomorrow. It’s waiting right in our special place.”

“Our cave?”

“Exactly.”

He offered her his hand, and she took it, hoisting herself to her feet.

Renn frowned. “Though maybe you want to go to the village to clean up first.”

Gabi looked at her clothes. Renn was right. She was a mess. Still…

“I don’t feel like going back to the village,” she said, knowing she’d only be scrutinized or laughed at. “I’ll just wash up at the waterfall. Meet you at the cave in half an hour?”

Renn nodded. “Okay.”

~

The water felt exquisitely cool and refreshing against Gabi’s skin. She stood still under the shower, letting it wash all the dirt and all her disappointment from what happened today away, then went around for a swim in the lagoon.

Just ten minutes, she told herself, knowing that Renn was waiting. The clothes she washed needed some time to dry anyway.

As Gabi lay on her back, drifting on the water’s surface, she stared at the azure sky streaked with windswept clouds above. Then she closed her eyes and simply savored the serene atmosphere.

If only she belonged…

Well, who knew? Maybe tomorrow, everything would change, just as Renn had said. Maybe after shifting, she would finally feel like a member of the pack and this forest would feel like home.

Home.

She could see it now – her and Renn running through the woods in winter in their wolf forms then warming themselves by the fire inside a cozy cottage and…

She stopped her thoughts, realizing how dangerous they were becoming. And stupid. Renn was her uncle, why was she thinking of him like…like a mate?

She opened her eyes, blushing at her mistake. Then she straightened up, so her feet touched the ground, shaking her head to get rid of her daydream.

What in Moon’s name was she thinking?

She was about to smack her cheeks as well but then she heard voices nearby. Since she didn’t have time to get out of the water and into her clothes, she hid behind a rock, only peeking out of curiosity when the voices were closer, clearer.

At the sight of the two young women and the young man with them, none of which she had seen before, her eyes grew wide. Her pulse quickened.

Humans?