Moon Fate

When my transformation began, I felt as though I was dying. The pain tore through my entire body, and fire crawled through my veins, burning me from within. My body contorted as my bones snapped and shifted, the thick and unyielding forest around me drowned my screams. I had been here to escape the reality of my old life and free my head of the unending fear and pressure it brought. But instead, something dangerous had found me and it has refused to let go.

I collapsed onto the moist earth, drained of life. My breath was raging, my vision blurring out of focus. Above me, the full moon throbbed with an unnerving glow, and for a moment, I was sure I saw moving shadows all around the forest. I tried to wait and concentrate, but everything went suddenly dark.

When I awoke, everything smelled and felt different. I could hear dry leaves rustling as animals moved through the woods, a wolf was howling in the distance, and the wind whispered as it carried scents I had never smelled before. I felt itchy, and my muscles throbbed with great energy, but beneath it all now was a new consciousness, something so exceptional.

I slowly sat up with my hands sinking into the earth, but now they weren't hands. My fingers had become thick and shortened, and my nails had become dark, scary claws. A shiver ran through me as I scrambled back, my body still felt new, and my mind still trying to adjust to what had happened.

Panic and anxiety clawed at my throat. This wasn't real. It couldn't be.

But just then I saw a man standing at the clearing where I was.

He was tall, his demeanor was very commanding even in the dim moonlight. His silver eyes gazed at me with a passion that sent a different kind of tremor right through me, though I was sure I had never met him before.

"You should try to breathe," he said, his voice was very calm and fixed.

Still gasping for breath, I shook my head to reality.

"What... what is happening to me?". I asked

Slowly stepping forward, he said. "You shifted."

I gave a high-pitched, bitter laugh. "Shifted into what?"

"A wolf." He said with his gaze unwavering.

I looked at him, eagerly awaiting the punchline, waiting to hear him laugh and say that all this was just some kind of hallucination. But he didn't. And within me, I knew already that he was right.

I felt it all, the change and the power. The undisputable pull of something ancient and wild.

The man leaned in close enough that I could feel the heat his body radiated.

"I can sense you're scared." He spoke.

I swallowed hard and managed to ask. "Who are you?"

"I am Ronan, and I'm here to help you," he simply said

I followed him to his abode. It was a small cabin which was nestled deep in the woods, hidden from the world that I once belonged to. Ronan took me inside, his gesture careful and measured, as though he was handling something very fragile.

I wasn't as fragile as I looked. I was just angry, and confused, and above all, I wanted answers badly.

"What the hell is happening to me?" I asked as I paced through the length of the room.

My body still felt weird, because I wasn't fully settled into it. The transformation still sent energy vibrating underneath my skin.

With his hands crossed over his broad chest, he leaned against the cabin wall.

"I know you were bitten". He said as he gave me a piercing look.

I stopped pacing as the memory hit me like a fast-moving train. The excruciating pain in my shoulder, the gleam of eyes I saw in the dark, the sharp pain of teeth digging into my flesh right before everything went blank.

I felt the spot with my hands instinctively. To my surprise, the wound had vanished but the scar stayed.

"What does that mean?" I asked with my voice lower now.

Ronan slowly exhaled. "It simply means you're one of us now." He smiled.

His words made me shiver with horror.

One of them!

I dropped onto the bed as my legs became suddenly weak. This wasn't just a nightmare or hallucination and I can never recover from it, it is now my reality.

Ronan carefully watched me.

"I understand you have questions, and I promise to answer them, but you need to rest, your body isn't fully recovered from the transformation."

I wanted to challenge him, I wanted immediate answers, but I was too spent and the reality weighed me down. My body still felt foreign to me, still new from the change.

So, I closed my eyes and let the darkness and exhaustion take me, for it was the only thing I could do at the moment.

That night, the dreams came.

Glowing silver eyes flashing, sound of howls echoing through the thick night. The feeling of running fast, free, and unchained. Then I heard a voice whisper my name.

I awoke as my pulse raced. The cabin was silent, the fire in the hearth was reduced to ashes. And I wasn't alone.

Ronan sat watching me from a chair across the room.

"You haven't told me everything I need to know," I said in a rough voice.

He tightened his jaw, but he didn't deny it.

"What am I missing?" I asked.

He hesitated for a moment and spoke. "You weren't supposed to survive."

A shivering wave of fear overwhelmed me. "What did you just say?"

"Most people who transform don't survive through the first shift," he explained. "It's too much and too fast to handle, but you did."

I swallowed hard as I tried to process his words. "Why?"

Ronan's silver steady and unyielding eyes met mine. "That is the mystery we need to solve."

All of a sudden, the room felt too small, as though the walls were pressing in. It dawned on me, that I wasn't just different, I was something that wasn't meant to exist, I was something else.

And I had a strong feeling that whoever had turned me wasn't finished with me yet.