Howl At The Moon

E- "16TH MOON"

Helenas pov:

It's the first day of school the bell rings in 30 minutes and I'm halfway there, I could already smell the stench of cigarettes and watermelon vapes from the bottom of this hill I'm walking up. I could smell the sweat coming from the gymnasium off of every human freshman who thought having gym first period meant an easy morning. If you thought that was bad just imagine all the different conversations I'm picking up as each car passes by heading toward the school. And yes that includes Phone conversations too. Finally gaining my wolf's hearing is great and all and this super-sensitive nose is getting a little distracting, I still haven't met my wolf. I'm trying not to freak out and just give her time but I've been longing for this day my whole life! I mean I feel stronger faster and older but what is taking her so long?

As I walked up to the school I could already spot some of the "daywalkers" I normally tried to avoid as much as possible.

"Daywalkers"- are what I call a handful of the popular kids around here. They were the type of people who made going out during the day what id call a living nightmare. Just your normal neighborhood bullies. They are single handily the reason id rather do my chores at night otherwise id just be tripped knocked over or pushed while carrying trays of dishes. And if even one broke on my watch then id be beaten and starved. The last time it happened I had to endure 18 hours of kneeling on uncooked rice until my knees were bruised up like a busted tomato. It was agony. Facing punishment because Ivy The Head cheerleader (A human) dating one of our kind decided it would be funny to trip me down some stairs. One of the pack house guards happened to be walking up at the time I had come crashing down and from his view, all he saw was a clumsy slave girl just making a mess, Or so that's what he called me.

From that day on I've made sure to avoid those blood-sucking daywalkers as best as I can. Life was better that way.

Making my way past the crowded halls was one of the worst parts of my morning. It's only 7:30! why are half of these kids so sweaty already? The stale musty smell filling the halls was giving me a headache. It got so bad when I passed the boy's locker room on my way to home ec. when I passed by I tried holding my breath but then some jock came rushing out and ran right into me knocking both of us to the floor, the wind was knocked right out of me forcing me to take in a big deep breath as I gasp for air, I looked up to see who it was but then something tickled my throat and I began choking on the horrible smell emanating from the open locker room door that was slowly closing behind him. It was Trent that bumped into me. Trent was one of the 3 African American students at Rosemetal highschool. He was a little on the heavy side but a nice guy. Trent had the kindest eyes and his voice was soft making him seem perfectly harmless if he didn't have on his letterman jacket and lugging around a lacrosse stick in his backpack. Of all the jocks on the team, he was the sweetest one.

(I once saw him save a bird with a ripped wing back in middle school.)

Trent was still standing. Towering over me as I nearly choked to death. Even if I used all my strength it would still take a lot just to knock him two steps back. I must have just bounced right off him like a tiny little ping-pong ball.

"How embarrassing! Just how I wanted to spend my moon day, On the floor!" Helena said sarcastically.

"I'm so sorry! are you okay??!..did I hurt you?!" Trent blurted out in a panic.

"Yeah, Don't worry about it...I'm fine." Helena reassured him.

Trent reached out his left arm giving Helena a hand as he pulled her up to her feet.

"Did I hear you say it's your moon day? Well, happy moon day! little wolf!" Trent said enthusiastically.

"Thanks, Trent," Helena said as she flashed a small smile.

"Sorry about crashing into you, I was just in a hurry...Oh crap!" Trent started to explain before running off.

After Trent turned the corner and disappeared from view, I took a look around the hallway to see Ivy and her gang of "daywalkers" heading down the hall, they were still a bit far down the hall giving me enough time to disappear too.

I turned into the open doorway of my home ec class swiftly sneaked over to my desk and slid right in before the teacher even turned around. I took out my completed assignments and extra credit reading form dated and signed, I was hoping to get the teachers to favor me this year so I could get a library pass during regular class hours since I'm already a pretty good cook. I only signed up for this class just to get a free period before my actual free period provided for juniors to study. I figured if I have 2 hours to study in the school's library each day I can pass all my classes and graduate early. Elders and slaved wolves aren't allowed in the pack library for obvious reasons, no one wants a slave to be educated. But I was enslaved by the pack at a very young age and if I didn't go to school I wouldn't know how to do anything asked of me. The alpha saw it as best for me to learn along with the other children of the pack house. I guess he figured it useful if I can cook clean and do homework.

The class went by agonizingly slow afterward we handed in our assignments and Mrs.V granted me the library pass after seeing I completed all the future assignments as well as the summer packet. So now I'm heading to the library to get some reading done. The first bell already rang 2minutes ago and the second one will ring five minutes after which means 3minutes before the halls were clear. I was strolling through the hall leading to the auditorium. As I passed by I could hear someone playing the piano catching my attention I stopped and looked through the passing window. And that's when I saw him. Ozwald Rosemetal, The most handsome man in the universe. And yes!, You guessed it! He is the son of the alpha and a direct descendant of the founding father of the very land we stand on.

"Whoo! that man is talented" Helena accidentally said out loud to herself.

The music suddenly stopped and I looked back over and he was headed this way!

"Oh, Goddess did he see me?! Great job Helena you stalker!" Helena scolded herself.

I took off running turned down the left hallway and pushed the big library door open and ducked in. The door swung shut behind me as I walked down the aisles stacked full of books on each shelf, I then noticed at the back of the library, some old computers four in a row lined up against the wall. As I made my way further down the last aisle I noticed a black door with a large pawprint carved into it, I walked over to get a closer look. When I turned the knob the door opened softly creaking as it widened. The smell of old books hit me as soon as I walked in, it was more than just an old library smell, You could tell these books were years older than the building that stored them. And the thought of all that wisdom at my fingertips just excited me more. I was distracted I had already forgotten about the angel on the piano and how I embarrassed myself. I had found a book on just what I was looking for, "Awakening Your Inner Wolf" a book I was hoping would shed some light on a few personal issues I'm having, You know having no wolf and all...

I heard the door open but I had my back turned to the door as I had my nose in a book any way I didn't pay it much mind. I was currently trying to memorize a recipe for an herbal tea that's supposedly going to awaken the bond between a wolf's mind body and soul, I was going over the recipe over and over in my head when he spun me around and made me look him in the eye. It was Ozwald and he had this concerning look on his face. I wasn't sure if he was pissed off or just really needed something but it didn't look like it was going to be good either way.

"What the hell are you doing in here?!" Ozwald yelled in a rage.

"I. . I'm sorry,... I was just reading" Helena informed him.

"You are not supposed to be in here! And what is this your reading?!" He yelled in her face as he snatched the book right out of her hands.

Ozwald snatched the book from Helena squinting as he silently read the title. Helena stood there waiting for his next outburst when Ozwald looked up at her again holding the book to his side now. He stood like that for a moment just looking at her with this confused look on his face. Suddenly he began to speak.

"How old are you?" He asked breaking the awkward silence.

(Uhm). Helena cleared her throat to sound less weak.

"I'm 16 today" She admitted.

Ozwald looked at her with a strange look and then his eyes changed from a deep dark brown to golden orbs and he grabbed onto Helena with both arms, leaned in, and took a big sniff up her neck to the top of the back of her ear. Helena took a step back but his grip on her wasn't letting her get far. He lingered for a few moments before pulling back and releasing Helena from his hold.

"You know its funny, I always thought you were human" Ozwald confessed.

"You can smell me?! I have a wolf!?" Helena asked excitedly.

"Yeah, you definitely smell like a wolf." "But why don't you know that? Can't you feel her?" Ozwald asked looking even more puzzled than I was currently feeling.

"I don't know, I waited for a voice to appear this morning but there was no voice, I feel stronger and I can smell and hear things I've never heard or noticed to this extent before." ."But It's like my wolf is just running late". Helena admitted in a discouraged voice.

"Or... You're not a wolf!?" Ozwald accused.

"Not a wolf??!" Helena repeated.

"Yeah, It's possible. I have read about other species of mystical creatures living among us. Professor Hines talked about it in advanced studies last year" He informed her.

"WHAT!? I AM NOT SOME MYSTICAL CREATURE!! I'M A WOLF!! JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!" Helena scolded him as she smacked him on his left upper arm.

"Woah! OKAY!, okay...You are definitely as feisty as one!" Ozwald teased while rubbing at his arm.

This was the friendliest Ozwald has ever been to Helena for as long as she can remember. It was nice. Him seeming somewhat normal If even for a few more moments.

"I'm sorry" Helena surrendered.

"It's just... Everyone always acts like I'm some kind of freak and I just thought when I got my wolf id be leaving all of that behind." Helena admitted.

"Well, It's not every day you find a toddler living amongst wolves in the deepest part of the forest" Ozwald added. sliding his left hand down the back of his neck.

"Wait. What??" Helena asked confused.

"What? You don't know?" Ozwald asked adding to the confusion.

"Know what!?! ...Ozwald! What are you talking about!?" she asked.

"You Seriously don't know?.." He asked tilting his head to the side.

"What do you remember about the day you got here?" he continued.

"Honestly. I don't remember" "It's like one day I just existed, I remember you... you were always there playing with me and inviting me to tag along on adventures running through the halls. I remember when your parents would come by to check up on you, and how you'd run to them and they would scoop you up and carry you away as I remained just standing there waiting for you to come back and play again the next day. I remember wondering when my own would show up, But they never did." Helena confessed.

"But what about before that?" Ozwald asked.

"I don't remember anything before that" she answered.

"Well I remember you too back then, You were so new to everything. When my father first brought you home you were no bigger than 2years old, I remember this because it was a few days after my mother fell ill. She was pregnant a month before with what would have been my parent's second child, But something happened back then. I was too young to understand it but my mother had lost her baby. She spent most of that time to herself and when she wasn't shut in her room she was roaming about the castle like a ghost. My father on the other hand chose to bury his feelings in the hunt. And when he heard there were a few neighboring villages complaining about some wolf stealing their cattle and running off into the night, My father decided it was his job to put an end to the wolf and its terror, in his mind it was a battle with his ancestors, One he just couldn't back down to. He described it as a challenge from the moon gods. He chased that wolf for 6 months And no matter how many times he lost that wolf's trail my father refused to give up. One day he got lucky walking around the woods dehydrated and beaten nearly ready to turn back and head home, as he made his way through the woods stumbling around in the dark he heard the faintest sound of an infant's cry. He says he followed that cry all the way to the wolf's den. My father killed the she-wolf cutting off her head and carried it home in one hand with you in his other. He claimed the gods had given him a baby but my mother was so filled with grief she refused. That wolf's head hangs in his office to this day just above his desk." Ozwald explained.

"No one ever really knew just how long you were out there livings amongst the wolves but I overheard my father once say it seemed as if the wolf was protecting you like you were her own pup." He added.

"So what are you saying!? What exactly is any of this supposed to mean?" Helena lashed out.

"I don't... I don't know Helena, honestly, ...I thought my father made up these stories... perhaps to cover up a love child, And with the way, My mother was acting, but as I grew up my father reassured me he shared absolutely no relation to you. And I believe him." Ozwald swore.

"So my mother was an actual wolf?" "Not Warewolf? but an actual wolf? " Helena said in a joking manner but she was still concerned.

"I doubt it, it is not possible to be born human from a wild wolf's womb it's unheard of Helena, there's got to be an explanation out there somewhere, but it looks as if the only ones who would have those answers are my father and well the wolf. But it doesn't seem to be doing much talking these days. " Ozwald joked holding in his laughter.

Helena knew he was right. If she wanted answers they would have to come from the alpha himself. But who was she to question an alpha? The thought of a pack house slave waltzing up to address an alpha about story men praised him for and accusing him of making up some if not all of the details of how she was found or kidnapped and brought into the pack, Was absurd and foolish on her part.

"I could clean his office while he's working late and then perhaps casually bring it up, alpha's usually a chatterbox and especially when the topic of discussion is him." Helena thought to herself.

"Hey!.. hey! ..Helena!, Snap out of it" Ozwald shook her pulling Helena from her thoughts.

"Huh?.. oh sorry," Helena apologized as she began fidgeting with her hands.

"Where do you go when you stare off like that?" Ozwald asked.

"What?" Helena asked.

"When you get all quiet and stare off into Lala land or something, ...I don't know but you do it a lot, I've even seen you staring off in class." He pointed out.

"Oh... I don't know... Just thinking... I guess." she responded.

"Oh, ...You know... You can be a real weirdo sometimes..." Ozwald teased her playfully shoving her as he walked off toward the door exiting the secret library.

Once Ozwald left I continued my search for answers, I looked through the entire top shelf before I finally found something worth reading. Once I found it, A big black old leather journal on the studies of "The WereWolves Trials". A journal that was written by an old pack doctor from Germany. His name was Henry Ridicker, He belonged to one of the greatest and most powerful packs to ever roam this earth. I wrote a paper on him, freshman year. I figured if anyone could fix this it would be him. The journal was #1 of 11 journals he wrote throughout his life documenting his findings on the wolf species. I was only 3 chapters in when I got to the journal entry labeled "The hidden wolf", Dr. Henry mentions something about a few cases of wolves he encountered being too weak to form inside of their human counterparts so they just wither up and die, Dr. henry says that each person he came across that was suffering from this problem had either been rejected by a mate or never did have a mate, to begin with, and their soul was slowly eating away at the host's wolf until there is only one of them remaining. In most cases, the human host survived, however, some Hosts weren't as lucky, and eventually, they lost giving up full control to their wolf counterpart as the wolf devours its host leaving an out-of-control wolf with some identity issues (A wolf in sheep clothing) Literally.

I knew none of this applied to me and my current situation but it still sat there clawing away at the back of my mind. I hadn't even met my wolf yet let alone been mated or rejected. I may be considered weak but that will change once I leave this pack and become my own person. once I'm free to do whatever I want I could train like the rest of them and become someone different. Someone they would all accept.

Closing the book and stuffing it down into her book bag Helena stood up zipping the bag shut before swinging it over her shoulder and heading out of the secret library room and entering the main library once again. As she shut the black door she turned around to see three students in the library now quietly studying, One on the computer towards the wall closest to the door and two more sitting over by the tables with their noses in a book. Helena walked through the library slowly trying her best not to disturb anyone as she made her way out of the main library and out of the swinging door exiting the building.