She was running.
Whether it be in circles or zigzags, she was running as fast as her feet could carry her.
The sky was overcast not letting a single ray of moonlight through, unbeknownst to her, that was the only reason she was still conscious, but all the bad feelings in the depths of her gut aside, for the first time in her life, she could feel the pull of the moon and it felt great, the power it gave her the ability to run free for once, was exhilarating.
Of course that was her perspective, what she thought was a beautiful thing was actually her gone wild without a transformation, the only thing that was actually stopping her from losing it was the rain clouds that shadowed above, casting a glooming atmosphere over the forest and town on a whole.
"I can't believe this is what she was so afraid of!" She laughed out loud, racing up the tallest tree she could find and stopping on the highest available branch. "I feel so good, so free, like a veil has been lifted from my eyes, I can run without any restraints and go wherever I want! Do whatever I want, it's still my birthday after all!"
Standing atop the tree, something caught her nose, the smell of blood, freshly killed.
And that moment is where her thought process crumbled as she began following the scent by jumping from tree to tree. "Scent.. meat, eat." She clapped her lips together before jumping down into the dark of the forestry and vanishing into the shadows.
"Tera, do you think she's gonna come?" Tara asked her sister playing with her thumbs.
"She promised she would try, but if it's as bad as her mom makes it seem then I don't think she'll be able to make it." Tera replied with a frown."
"Be silent both of you." A man behind them said poking the back of their heads with his fingers.
In front of them, Henry was at a stone altar, with four other men restraining him while another stood over him with a small jar of red liquid in one hand, and a strange knife with the tip of an ink pen in the other.
The man with the items in his hand was covered in blood from head to toe, as was Henry who was laying on the skinned carcasses of several animals and the man was using the knife one stab at a time to carve the image of a five toed paw on Henry's chest.
You could see that the teen was in terrible pain from the way his veins and muscles bulged to the fact that he was screaming aloud.
Surrounding the altar was a gathering of almost fifty people all chanting the same words over and over again. The men were all shirtless, and the male adults all had the paw right above their heart, while the women all had cropped gowns revealing the top of their breasts and also showing the paw in their backs.
"We are Blood-Hounds, descendants of the Sun, the Moon, and Darkness, birthed from eternal fire, and damned by eternal fire." Everyone kept repeating this over and over again all while Henry screamed in agony from the strange liquid being ceremoniously stabbed into his skin.
"Will we have to go through that as well?" Tera asked her sister cowering.
"Of course, once you reach a certain age it's pack law, as long as you're not initiated you won't be welcomed into the pack, and if you're unwelcomed, not even our family can protect you, you're fair game."
Another poke in the head from the man behind them, though this time he growled.
"We are Blood-Hounds, descendants of the Sun, Moon, and Darkness...." Everyone paused when they heard their Alpha roaring to the high skies.
It sounded like a call of warning and despair.
"Without any words, a half of the pack broke away and sped off into the forest while the rest continued chanting.
Just seconds after the half entered the denser forest, there was a series of screams and they came running back.
"Stop the ceremony and flee!" One of them shouted breaking away from the group and taking another route away from the clearing.
"The ceremony must go on." The man with the knife and liquid said seriously, whatever it is, our alpha can handle it."
"It's another alpha and it's already here!" Someone else shouted.
"If it's just an alpha then the collective can take it down, stand yo-"
Half of a body landed in front of him completely mutilated beyond the point of recognition, organs hung from it and the blood came out thick and slow.
"Kay!" Tera screamed as she saw her friend walking out of the forest drenched in blood
"It's the alpha!"
"She is no alpha, she's Katherine's daughter!" Someone else shouted.
"Then.. what is this urge, my body's telling me to turn tail and run away as fast as I can." Tera whispered, taking her sister's hand and taking a step back.
Without heeding to anyone's presence, Kay walked through the crowd of frozen spectators and stood beside the altar for a few seconds, then continued walking pass the man.
"How dare you set foot on the altar in the middle of an initiation!?" The man snapped angrily, but before he could get another word out Kay was standing behind him and his accusing hand was now in her grasp, completely torn off, and a portion of his throat was also gone.
Almost immediately the crowd dispersed in every direction, leaving the twins and Henry, all too shocked to move. Nobody, not even the more experienced member of the pack saw her when she moved, she was like a phantom.
The man was gasping on the ground holding his wound helplessly.
Behind Kay, two hands opened up before locking around her arms and torso. "This, this is because of us right? You you didn't make it home in time to get locked away like you said you always were." Henry held her with all of his strength. "I get it now, you're too powerful to control, too wild to tame, so they keep you away from the outside when the moon's influence is at it's strongest."
"Henry!" The twins both shouted in unison.
"Get away from here! Both of you!" Henry shouted back at them, and they only paused for a brief moment before running off crying.
"Mikayla, I don't know if you're able to understand me right now, but it'd be nice if you didn't kill me."
For whatever reason it was, she didn't seem too intent on hurting him, but she did begin resisting, slowly she began opening her arms and making room, and before he could think of some other way to restrain her, she broke his grip spun and grabbed him by his throat, raising him off his feet.
"K-k-kay! It's me! Henry!.. gahk!" He began suffocating as her grip tightened and tightened.
Another roar came from the forest and the very second she looked over she was attached by two silhouettes, and all three of them crashed metres away from the altar, Henry fell to the ground gasping and sweating before he looked to the side to see Kay being held on the ground by her parents.
She struggled and screamed, thrashing her legs and trying to bite their hands, but in vain, she was completely restrained.
Her parents struggled to keep her down because of her relentless struggling, and were left with little choice. "Vince.. we're going to have to break both her arms to buy time to properly restrain her." Katherine said, already in the process of twisting Kay's right hand in the opposite direction.
"She's killed members of the pack, Katherine, they'll never accept her as their own."
Katherine looked at her daughter and sighed. He was right, they were going to vote to kill her the first chance they got.
They realised something was off when Kay stopped struggling beneath them, and that's the first they'd see it, her normally golden eyes had gone red, and the moon was shining directly on her.
Kay had been consumed by an ancient power.
And the results were disastrous, in that one night, between 12:00am and 03:00am, a town of seven hundred people were slaughtered.
Almost Everyone died, and Kay vanished off the map, for seven years, she was completely gone.
Until two weeks ago.