Chapter 1 - Knowing the unknown
A week after Glow found out she was a werewolf Alpha's daughter being born by a human mother. She felt it within her that the unfolding of the recent events in her uneventful life meant there could be irreversible changes in her life, right from when she saw the first signs. How was she going to live with the reality of being a mythical creature in the world she only knew how to live as a human? For the rest of the day she was unable to concentrate on her chores and homework, she could not find it within herself to eat her meals. After all what Dr. scott told her the last time they spoke in his lab, she had been burning herself out in thoughts, however she was able to accept the changes she was going through, she was able to call in sick for the week and the school had no problems with giving her a few days off. She was a straight A student after all. Mrs. Hillside, her mother, was worried but could not understand what was troubling her daughter, she thought Glow called in sick at school because of her poorly dyed hair, that is now half red half silver, she supported her daughter anyway. She had a night shift at work and that left her alone in the house for the night.
Glow had read a lot about mythical creatures and she had always thought they were cool beings. She had always been amazed by what they could do. Being alone in the house only gave her ideas and questions. First of all, she placed a call to Sean and he responded. She could not hear what he was saying because the loud music blaring in the background only signified he was at the weekend party of the most popular guy in school, Valentine. Glow yelled at the top of her voice, making sure he could hear her, she requested him to come over to her place. He assured her he was coming. Glow climbed up to her attic to grab a helmet and some biking gears, that night was about to be one phenomenal night for her. That night she wanted to test the limits of her new self.
After a few minutes, Sean came over. He was astonished to see Glow fully geared up in a onesie suit, a pair of arm and knee guards, safety boots and an undersized helmet.
"Why did you call me all the way to the outpost? What occasion are you all geared up for." Sean asked, bewildered. He had always known Glow to live a simple and careful life, they have been friends since childhood and glow was always scared to ride a bike let alone a skateboard, but here she was, all geared up without being forced to.
" Shut up Sean, my house from the capital is just a twenty minute drive. Stop sounding like you came all the way from heaven." She laughed out loud.
"If only your body matched the size of your mouth. It's a pity you have a wide mouth and a slim body." Sean sassed while dissing Glow. She neverminded him because she was used to that
"Whatever, I want to try something out, and you have to watch me climb up the roof and jump down from there." Glow chimed ecstatically.
"What are you, some amoeba or a slime that won't die, falling from that height? You are too thin and you might be the modern day Humpty Dumpty in Nesville." Sean could not believe she would be daring enough to even think that in the first place. This sounded like a whole new Glow, not his super careful and fearful friend.
"The roof will not do the job, I can take you to Mt. Everest, If you really want to die." he followed her behind as they ascended the stairs to the attic, then stepped out through the window onto the roof. Just when she was stretching and taking a stance to jump, Sean gripped her arm and pulled her, he must have used his werewolf strength because she ended up landing on his chest. It must have been the way he held her that made her so surprised and her heart skipped a beat. He noticed the stance and closeness then he let go of her arm and cleared his throat. For a brief moment the atmosphere was awkward between both of them, they have never seen each other in that light because sean is gay and Glow never thought he was attractive. Sean spoke first ending the awkward silence between them.
"Sit down for a while let me understand this new craziness of yours." Sean held her by her shoulders and pulled her down gently as he sat beside her on the roof.
"You have been avoiding me since I left you at the clinic, out of the blue, you call me up and ask me to come over and watch you pull off some crazy stunt. What the hell is going on with the crazy wig and wacky outfit you've been putting on to school, in the past week?" He started as soon as they were seated watching the last light of day leave the sky and Betelgeuse made it's entrance to the evening sky.
Glow giggled.
"Can you be honest with me?" She asked, turning to him.
"Do I have to be?" He looked uncomfortable at her statement, because honesty comes with a very heavy price to sacrifice.
"Yes, you should be honest, if you want me to give you an honest answer to your question." She looked at him for a split second before looking away.
" You got me cornered and I don't have a choice anyway. Oh ye Queen, I promise honesty." They both laughed at the sudden outburst of Sean.
"I'm not a queen but....Okay!" After that sentence, she assumed a super serious demeanour, which also alerted Sean that she was about to strike.
"You know about the werewolves and werewolves and you know they are around us as we speak, don't you?" Glow had earlier planned to pull off the stunt in order to get Sean's attention and honesty on the issue troubling her the most, for the past week. Since she couldn't get Doctor Scott to explain further, from where he stopped last week, he was out of town. She decided to go all out and talk to her friend because if his father knows about it, he should too. Now she doesn't have to even do the stunt thanks to her excessively careful and over protective friend, who chose peace instead of her violence. She thought, and smiled inwardly to herself.
"Uhm…uhm – " he started, but was interrupted by an impatient Glow who took the words off his lips.
"No need to stutter and consider lying to me." She said I saw your nails already and "I understood what that basketball hunk meant by 'snack', I was to be the snack, right?" She nudged his shoulders with hers and he gave a deep sigh.
"It's true. There are werewolves and werewolves. And I am a werewolf , as a matter of fact, Nesville and Green Hill are werewolf clans, however, we are the only clan that allow humans to live freely amongst us but the humans rarely settle in the capital because they cannot afford the lifestyle of the werewolves. The capital is where the werewolves base, like a headquarters where they convene. You, your mum and five other human families have dealings in the capital, And everyone knows these humans. All humans are not allowed to roam the capital freely except if you have special permission to."
"Everyone knows them except me?"
" Glow, the other five families are made up of politicians, economic analyst, medical experts and other professionals the council finds necessary. The circumstances surrounding your stay in Nesville is really complicated and I can not tell you all about it, except we ask my dad. The Alpha and his council are keeping the whole truth about your family. My father is only assigned to look after your mum and you. He was even reprimanded for asking too many questions about you and your mum after you were brought here."
"What do you mean by only assigned look after? And what do you mean by brought here?"
" You are not from Nesville, neither is your mum. My dad is carrying out an order of the council. However, believe me when I say, we have come to wholeheartedly like you and your mum. That is the reason why we do not treat you like we are only carrying out a chore. We really care about you and your mum."
"I believe you but I still do not understand, Sean. Do you mean that neither my mum nor I am from Nesville? Where are we from?"
"I can not explain, why are you asking so much question anyway. What is going on?"
" I think my werewolf spirit is surfacing." She told Sean whose jaw flew open on hearing the news. From what he heard, Glow could never be a werewolf because of her father's fault for making a human his mate. They believe it was a punishment from the moon goddess. So hearing this only makes it funny and complicated. Also he never believed that Glow could be a werewolf .
"What makes you think that?" He was as curious as a cat because if this change in her being was true, it was going to mean a whole lot of things. It was going to be fun, but at the same time it was going to breed danger.
"Give me your keys" she asked for his keys because Sean had a knack for using a nail clipper as his key holder. He handed over the bunch of keys to her with the nail clipper. She grabbed it and clipped the nail on her index finger.
"Watch what is going to happen." She whispered loud enough for him to hear as though she was preventing the fingers from hearing she was telling someone else about what they could do. She held out her hand so they could both watch what was going to happen. Sean watched keenly as he was hoping silently that their suspicions were not true.
They both watched as her nail grew back to its previously full form in no time. At this point, It was already dark and the cloud hovering over the moon was out and one could see clearly in the moonlight. Sean held her hand and inspected her nails. It was the best manicured nail he had ever seen on any girl. They were so sharp, pointy, beautiful and shiny.
"The hair is not a wig right?" He passed his hand behind her and pulled off her helmet, then pulled out her hair band. Glow nodded in affirmation. Her silver and red silky hair fell in whorls down here back and was blown gently by the wind. Sean was wowed by her transformation features and he couldn't help himself but run his hands through the silver part of the hair.
"I can even see better without my glasses and I can howl in the full moon, I can only control not howling else I would howl your ears out right now. I can't control the nails from staying long. Your dad thought I had a bad dye day. He never believed it is my hair." She pulled out her glasses. Sean let out a deep sigh.
"Yeah, I thought you were actually trying so hard to impress the kids at school. I never thought Something this wild was going on. Also, I felt the power from your howls, plus my dad told me, I feel you are different, you know, not really a wolf. I have never seen or heard of anyone whose wolf features changed their hair color and their nails are fully manicured. Look at this." Sean flexed his fingers, letting out his werewolf nails for Glow to see, they were more like animal claws, a shade of dark gray.
"How did you do that?" Glow gasped and said excitedly. She took his hand and inspected the claws closely.
"I guess I have no control over my own features yet. " She sadly added while letting go of Sean's hand gently.
Sean told her she was still young and wasn't supposed to have her wolf soul yet, at least until the next year, but since it came earlier, he could teach her what he knew, even if he was not sure it was a mere werewolf soul surfacing in her, he was willing to take the risk. Glow was over the moon with excitement at what Sean promised her.
"However, there are some things I would request you do. Else you might get in trouble." He said in a warning tone.
" What things?" Glow questioned.
" You have to keep your identity as a werewolf down, the kids that bully you are pups of some of the council members of Nesville. If they find out, you have your werewolf soul, you are in trouble." He warned his facial expressions giving more vigour to the words than his voice terrifying Glow because she has never seen him so dead serious about anything.
"Okay, but how will I get to do that, I can't even control my wolf ." The fear of getting into more trouble began to engulf her.
"We will make it obvious, but concealed so that no one can decipher. What I mean is, you need a total makeover, we will add more features to your makeover as your werewolf features appear, because this is only the beginning. Nesville will have a new version of Glow Hillside.'' Sean explained quietly in a voice that was almost a whisper and they both smiled at each other.