Moonlight Reckoning : claws and fangs

The bite

Chapter 2

As Liam regained consciousness, he opened his eyes and realized he was sleeping outside on the grass in the yard wearing only his shorts, clearly someone had taken his clothes off. He struggled to sit up as his body was in so much pain, then he looked around and noticed multiple people sitting on the balcony. He was surprised to see all those people there, the balcony had been fixed, and all the people sitting there were keenly staring at him. As he was busy trying to understand what was happening, he saw his uncle nudge the man who had bit him and the man instantly stood up and started walking towards Liam. The man was now wearing a trench coat which made him look even more mysterious and scary. Liam tried to crawl away from the man but the pain was too intense so he just laid flat and waited for the man to approach.

“Hello Liam, my name is Philip”, the man introduced himself in a friendly tone which surprised Liam. Liam just kept quiet and Philip just smiled and gestured with his hand to which a man who was also among those sitting on the balcony, stood up and walked to the other side of the yard where he stood and threw a huge chunk of raw meat. It was clear the huge pair of hind legs thrown at them belonged to a deer that had been killed recently. As soon as the meat landed, Liam's body suddenly moved involuntarily and started devouring the huge chunk of meat. He tried to stop himself but couldn't, it was like the body had a mind of its own and what freaked him out the most is that he actually enjoyed the raw meat and didn't have the urge to throw up.

After a while of eating, he finally gained control of his body and took a long hard look at himself. He had blood smeared all over his body which now made sense why his clothes had been taken off. The intense pain suddenly faded away. Despite his humiliation, he didn't say a word, he just walked towards the house straight to the bathroom to clean himself up. After he was done, he looked in the mirror and was amazed by his reflection. He looked a bit younger and his body, though still lean, was now a bit shredded. He stood there for a while enjoying the view then he walked to his room, put on some clothes and then he laid in bed trying to process all that had happened. As he was still deep in thought, a knock interrupted him and the other person didn't wait to be invited, they just budged in and went straight to sit on the chair that was next to Liam while facing towards him. Liam just stared at the blonde girl who looked just about his age, who was also staring at him.

“Hello, I'm Emilia but you can call me Amy. I have heard so much about you”, the girl gently greeted him as she extended her hand towards Liam, who hesitated at first but eventually shook it.

“Come on Liam, relax, I won't bite unless you ask me to”, she jokingly said when she noticed Liam hesitation but the joke made him even more uneasy. Liam stared at the blonde girl in front of him, then he noticed that she had a clear resemblance to Philip.

“So is Philip your father?”, Liam curiously asked to which the girl smiled and politely said, “No, actually he is my grandfather”.

Liam thought Amy seemed polite, gentle and confident with a very social and outgoing personality. She had a slim body, long blonde hair she had tied into a neat ponytail and a pair of beautiful brown doe eyes which she would rapidly blink from time to time. She was wearing a pale yellow summer dress and pink sandals which perfectly looked good on her.

“It's very rude to stare, Liam”, Amy said softly, startling Liam, who hadn't realized that he was staring. Amy rose and said, “I suggest you take a walk with me”. Liam didn't argue with her because he also felt he needed some air so he followed quietly behind her as she walked outside.

Once they were outside, Amy offered her hand to Liam who slowly took it, then she dragged him towards the forest. They walked for a while until they came to a clearing in the more dense part of the forest. Amy suddenly stopped, turned around and grabbed Liam by the shoulders then tossed him away easily without any warning. Liam somehow managed to swiftly turn his body before crashing on a tree and grabbing hold as if he were a lizard.

“What was that for?”, asked the puzzled Liam.

“Sorry, I was just testing your reflexes and they seem to be real smooth, I'd say you are a natural. I'm really impressed”, she replied as Liam understood that she was just testing him but he was still surprised how easily he had managed to grab hold onto that tree. Then he jumped off the tree and started walking towards Amy who just stood there staring at him.

“You can't possibly be thinking about hitting a defenseless woman, right Liam?”Amy said while hysterically laughing, “And here I thought you were a gentleman”, she added.

“I am the defenseless one here. Anyways, why did you bring me here?”, Liam asked.

“Oh, I wanted to show you something cool”, gestured him to look away, then walked behind a huge tree which was at least eight feet from Liam's back.

After a while, Liam heard a low growl from behind so he turned around to look, a huge brown eyed werewolf stood in the clearing facing him. The beast was at least three times bigger than a full grown tiger, despite its huge size, it was still smaller than the two werewolves Liam had witnessed battle in his backyard. Then he realized that it was Amy so he moved closer and touched her. To his surprise, her heartbeat was very fast, off the charts and her body temperature was also very high.

“Aren't you scared that I might eat you”, Amy's voice rang in Liam's head.

“How am I hearing you right now?”, Liam questioned, “Besides if you were to eat me you would have done it already”.

“You are now part of our pack so I can technically communicate with you telepathically”, Amy's voice rang again.

Amy lowered her head in front of Liam gesturing to him to climb onto her back. She howled, then started racing in the opposite direction of the cabin at an incredible speed. Just then Liam noticed something, his vision had slightly changed and became more sharp, his peripheral view had increased. Despite Amy moving at an insane speed, Liam's vision could easily keep up without blurring, he could adjust his sight voluntarily and could see much further into the distance clearly. After a while, Amy halted to a stop and lowered her head again to which Liam understood, then obediently climbed down from her back. When he looked around, he noticed that she had brought him to the river where he and Danny would regularly come to fish.

When the puzzled Liam kept looking around taking in the amazing view he hadn't seen in a while, he heard Amy's voice, “Be a gentleman, turn around and close your eyes”.

Liam obediently followed her instructions. After a while he had Amy say, “Hey Liam, come over here”.

He turned around and saw her sitting on the huge rock by the riverside while patting her hand on the spot besides her clearly inviting Liam to sit with her. This time she was wearing a black strapless dress and flip-flops.

“So do you like to keep clothes everywhere?”, Liam curiously asked as he approached the rock to sit.

“Not really, I left these earlier today. We avoid leaving our clothes everywhere to avoid other werewolves and vampires from tracking and ambushing us. It's easy to let your guard down when you get a whiff of a familiar scent, so when the enemy manages to get their hands on something that has a scent of your fellow friend, they gain an upper hand”, replied Amy as Liam sat down right beside her.

“Vampires?”, questioned Liam and Amy nodded her head.

“Relax, you have nothing to worry about except if you run into one”, she said with a serious face.

“So how would I know”.

“Trust me you will know. They have a very distinct smell that triggers werewolves”.

“Okay, anyways why are we here”, he asked as picked a small rock and threw it into the river.

“Oh, I have been tasked with training you and I have come to like this spot so we will be spending all that training time here”, Amy proudly said.

“Sorry to disappoint but nothing has changed yet except for my sight which seems super enhanced, and maybe my reflexes too”.

“Already?”, asked Amy, “That's fantastic, usually it takes a week or so for the changes to start manifesting. If your body completes the transition soon enough then I will be teaching you to shapeshift during the next full moon”.

“The next full moon is just in three days' time and you said the change usually takes a week”, Liam protested.

“Usually the sight is the most complex situation and you already have achieved it, meaning the rest won't take too much time and you already possess incredible reflexes”, she replied.

Liam nodded, then Amy proceeded to say, “If there is anything else you want to know feel free to ask”.

“Your grandfather made me eat raw meat and I awfully enjoyed it so does that mean I will only eat raw meat forever because even thinking about it grosses me out”, said Liam feeling slightly nauseous.

Amy laughed, “Not really you only have to consume raw meat once in a while only, to sustain your werewolf system so that you don't lose control and go savage or die but other than that you will still live like a normal human being. Another thing, the raw meat is not always delicate, it's only good when your body is in need of a recharge but after that your animal traits hibernate leaving room for your human traits”, she said.

“Great because I wouldn't like it to be covered in blood every time after eating”, Liam said in relief.

“Don't worry you have total control over your body now and you always will, if you regulate the consumption of raw meat”.

“What about vampires?”, Liam curiously asked.

“Unlike us who survive on raw animal meat, they need human blood to survive and just like us they need to feed regularly or they go savage and die”.

“So when did you become a werewolf, Amy?”.

“Unlike you Liam, I wasn't turned, I was born a werewolf which means you and I are different. Original werewolves are stronger than turned werewolves and turned werewolves require less raw meat to survive”.

Liam kept on asking Amy questions in order to understand more about the werewolf situation. He found out that Philip was the alpha of the pack and he was the one who could turn new werewolves but at a temporary cost, whenever he turned someone his power would drop drastically and it would take him months to fully recover. He also discovered that all the people he had seen on his balcony were actually werewolves belonging to Philip's pack, since he had just turned Liam, he had lost most of his strength so the pack had gathered to protect him. He also learnt that vampires were similar to werewolves, the leader of the vampire coven was the one who turned new individuals and would also lose strength after the procedure.

After a while Amy stood up and said, “Okay that's enough for the day let's head back”.

They both climbed down from the rock and began walking towards the cabin.

“Are we really going to walk back”, Liam asked, “I mean I was hoping to catch a ride”.

“Forget it cowboy”, laughed Amy, “Don't worry you will be just fine and besides it's not that long”.

After a while of walking, they got to the clearing where Amy had shapeshifted, she walked to a nearby tree where she grabbed her neatly folded clothes she had left there earlier.

“So I have to start carrying extra clothes always once I start shapeshifting”, Liam asked directly looking at the clothes on her hands.

“Not unless you prefer to roam around n***d”, Amy mocked him. When they got to the cabin, the sheriff was talking to his uncle and he had brought a few of his men who were still seated in the car patiently waiting for orders. Andy had indeed called the sheriff, so Liam approached and explained that everything was alright claiming that his friend Andy had been under a lot of street and had become somewhat paranoid. The sheriff bought it when he thought of the state Andy was in when he reported, so he wished them a good day then he and his men drove off.

“That was a close one”, said Danny as the sheriff's car vanished into the distance.

Liam looked around and realized all the people that had been there had left, only he, Amy and Danny remained. Feeling exhausted, he dragged his body straight to bed. Liam was jolted up by a loud noise of a heartbeat ringing in his ear, he sat up straight only to find Amy sitting on the chair next to the bed reading a book. His hearing had also enhanced since he could clearly hear her heartbeat from where she was seated.

“I hope I didn't wake you up there, cowboy”, Amy plainly said as she continued reading without even glancing at Liam.

“No but your heartbeat definitely did”, Liam blurted out as he sat up, “Anyways were you smoking a cigar in here?”, he asked as he caught a whiff. Amy shook her head and pointed outside the window, there stood Philip in the middle of the yard enjoying a smoke.

“Seems to me that you are ready to become a true werewolf. So tomorrow night I will teach you how to shapeshift”, Amy said, giving him a casual thumbs up. Then Liam realized he had been out for two days straight and his body felt incredible and very energized.

“Why were you watching me sleep?, that's a very disturbing and creepy thing to do”, Liam uncomfortablely confronted Amy who just threw the book she was reading at him, stood up and then walked out slamming the door behind her.

“Creep”, Liam murmured after a while only to hear Amy screaming from the living room, “I heard that”, she said.

After cleaning up, Liam went to find Amy was seated on the balcony listening to music on her ipod. She was wearing a black top and a yellow skirt with her hair tied into a neat ponytail. She took off her earphones as soon as Liam sat down beside her.

“What are you listening to?”

“County-pop, nothing you would understand cowboy”, she mocked.

“You are a creep but at least you got taste”, Liam teased back.

“I dare you to call me that one more time, I will rip you to shreds”, Amy threatened with a murderous look on her face.

“Sorry, my bad”, Liam apologized, “Anyways let me go and grab us some beers, sounds good?”.

Amy just nodded her head as Liam stood up and walked into the house returning a few minutes later with two beer bottles passing one to Amy. They sat there chatting all day until it was almost sunset when Amy stood up and said, “Liam it's almost time, we should go. Go and get a set of clothes, then we leave”.

Liam obediently went inside the house and emerged a few minutes later carrying a black packpack. The two began walking deep into the forest to a spot where they sat and waited for the full moon to finally arrive. As the time drew closer Amy asked Liam to look away, took off her clothes, put them in his backpack then transformed.

“Should I take my clothes off too?”, Liam curiously questioned.

“No need, the transformation might fail and I don't want to see you n***d. That's why I suggested you bring another set of clothes”, said Amy.

Amy's eyes glowed as she stared into Liam's, she was using her powers to get him to transform.