Beastless

Episode Three

The feral moon had singled me out!

I knew this because the newly turned had their attention on me. I also knew this because my mother was horror-stricken. But her face was nothing compared to mine when I saw the silvery rays converging on me. I was stiffer than a stick but at least my mouth could still move.

"Mom! Mom, I'm freaking out!" I called out to my mother. I tried to move but the light seemed to follow me wherever I went. Mother was beside me in seconds.

"Peyton, stay calm it's going to be okay. Just breathe," Mother told me.

I stared at her wide-eyed. How could she expect me to remain calm? I couldn't help it, my panic was rising. It was as if the feral moon had chosen me for something. The intensity of the light grew. I gripped my mother's hand. And then something life-altering happened. Something I wouldn't have expected to happen in my entire life.

"Peyton," Mother gasped.

I looked at my arm and the light focused on me wasn't silver anymore, it had turned a light shade of blue and my insides grew hot like I was on fire. But the heat inside me wasn't what I needed to worry about right now. The wolves started to change back to their human form. Everyone seemed to have forgotten the excitement of their transformation.

"This can't be," someone in the back said, "the feral moon never gifts special powers."

"What is this!" a lady about twice my age who just turned back to her human self approached me. "The feral moon has given her healing powers." What!

The lady had scruffy and scary-looking hair. I wanted to run but my feet were still somehow glued to the ground. She was close enough to grab my shoulders which she did, "Tell us, girl, what are you playing at, is this some kind of joke? Where is your wolf?" She was shaking me vigorously now making my jumbled thoughts even more jumbled.

"Get your filthy paws off of my daughter," Mother said. I could see she was as confused and scared as I was. "Peyton, we have to go now." Mother pulled my arm and soon we were running back the way we came.

I ran as fast as my stiff legs could carry me because the others were riled up and they were going to be needing answers so they would be after me in a second. It was bad enough. The angry lady was right, where was my wolf?

I didn't take the wheel this time, I was too stunned to do that. The burning had stopped but the shock remained. I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around it for a little bit of comfort. Mother drove faster than she normally would and touched her forehead every two seconds. I hoped her head wouldn't explode from all the stress.

"You should probably take a bath," Mother said when we were finally in the warmth of our house.

"Really mother? We're just going to act like everything is fine?"

"What?" she said. I understood that she was confused but there was no need to ignore the elephant in the room.

"Mom, are you seriously telling me to take a bath now? What are we going to do about what just happened, we can't just go about with our lives and forget that I was just gifted by the feral moon and not just the normal gift of transformation but healing gifts mother, and I'm pretty sure that has never been recorded… ever."

"Peyton, I just… I need to think right now. Can you please just go take a bath or just go to your room? I need space now."

I stormed off. Even my mother was turning against me.

It was hard in the morning for me to argue with the part of me that was sure last night wasn't a dream. Logic wasn't on my side, or common sense. I clung to the parts I could have imagined – like the light which could have just been the normal feral moonlight, the burn inside of my body that could have been a heartburn circulating my body.

I got out of bed so fast that I fell and landed on one of the wood sticking out of my floorboard. I pulled my leg out and sat on my bed letting the blood flow out. I was too angry to bother feeling anything. Werewolves were supposed to have self-healing abilities for small wounds like this, but since my wolf hasn't surfaced, my self-healing takes a little longer than it should.

I sat on the bed staring at the wound slowly close then I got an idea. I placed my palm on the wound and focused all of my energy and soon enough a blue light erupted out of my palm, warming the wound. When I took my palm out, there was nothing there again. I marveled at what I just did.

Mother wasn't speaking to me and I wasn't going to ask her why, so for the rest of the weekend I moped around unwilling to give myself any more injuries so I could watch myself heal them.

Word was out by Monday about my special gift the night of the feral moon. Strange how word travels very fast. Sometimes if I wasn't thinking of how much I wanted to hit whoever was spreading word that fast on the face, I liked to feel that these words made me rather popular for a latent.

It felt awful to think the word latent let alone say it. Instead of making my wolf surface, I was given the gift of healing. How marvelous.

Wherever I passed people whispered. Something inside of me wanted to walk up to them and give them a healthy punch on their ugly faces.

"Solage!" Oh no.

I had completely forgotten about Ramson and his threat. I felt something move inside of me. I felt a temper and sudden confidence that wasn't mine. "Ramson, my wolf didn't surface," I said.

"Don't you think I know that," he said and gave a very bitter laugh, "why do you think I'm here?"

"If I'm not mistaken, you're here to foolishly prove how strong you are."

Ramson pushed me against my locker and wrapped his hand around my neck. "You think because that f****d up moon gave you some kind of stupid healing powers you can talk to me as you please? I'll have you know that your stupid powers will do you no good, they're just as worthless as you are."

A rage was burning inside of me. Something started clawing and pacing inside of me like an untamed force that I didn't understand, and then suddenly, a growl rumbled from my throat. "Get your hands off me, Ramson," I growled, my voice deeper, more primal than I'd ever heard. "I don't think you're gonna like what I'll do to you."

Ramson laughed. He had no idea what was happening to me. "What will you do, latent?" he taunted, his grip squeezing tighter.

And then, as if in response to the threat, something snapped. Without warning, I sank my teeth into Ramson's hand, drawing blood. The pain seemed to jolt him out of his arrogance and he yelped in pain.