**Introduction**
Deep in the hallows of my ancient city; a city situated in the heart of a continent that gave life to the living in flesh; a place where the legendary dragons came into existence,... in that place our ancestors emerged amongst the people of the world as the wolf blooded ones. We neither knew when it happened nor it's reason but we knew we were hated by the pious humans, who considered us to be less human, demons, savage man-eating beasts, and to them, we were just a myth. They neither acknowledged our existence and we considered them mundane. Our kind had been purged by the humans since the dawn of time and this had brewed the hate between us deeper, that an oracle had been written in the religious books of us werewolves and humans alike, a dark oracle about the destruction of life in an untimely war that would end the existence of the wolf blooded ones. It was a popular prophecy that was known to every heart in Atlantis, except nobody really knew the dawning of the day when the oracle would come true. I was just an ambitious girl, existing looking to weave my dreams and make a place for myself in this uncertain world. My Name is Anathi, and I was born into a family of werewolves. The dark and most hated creatures in this sacred land, where goodness is solely sanctified; my sweet home, Atlantis...
**Chapter One;**
I collapsed on my warm bed and lay there ruminating on the day's events. The evening was warm and I paced to open my window gazing at the moon for a moment. The same lunar mother that had cursed me with this gift that would see my father going to all ends for it. I had seen it all and I was no longer willing to see how far my father was willing to go in order to have me transform. I sat on my bed. I had a horrible headache from the smelly strange herbs the snake spirit had blown in my face. I still shivered. I was still shaken by the day's events. And to think being a wolf blood and seeing my family transform still does not scare me as much as when I saw the woman changing into a snake.
I lay in the bed as my back ached and my painful ankles and joints tormented me from the long journey we had made back home. We had travelled the rest of the afternoon and evening to reach home and we had made it right before ten pm. Right in time for bed because I would be up for school in the morning. I could hear my dad and my sister arguing.
"Dad, you took her to that awful place to see those demonic seers?" She howled in apprehension.
"They aren't demonic, they helped your uncle when he couldn't transform back then and now look at him. He is the strongest of his pack and also he is now the leader of the council."
"Dad, you don't really have to do that to her, just give her time and it will happen!"
"When, she's almost eighteen and she hasn't even given a hint that something could happen. How will I face the world knowing that I have a mundane, for a daughter." He hauled in rage.
"A mundane, HA! I see! Are you ashamed of her because she can't transform yet? And what's wrong with being mundane?" She asked him, her voice sounding shocked.
"What's wrong with being mundane?" She retorted after him.
"I can't believe you, of all people, would ask me that question. Soon, the lassie you see in there that is your sister will be eighteen and she will be expected to find her mate. Do you also think she should marry a mundane person?" My dad raged.
I drifted to sleep as my sister's and dads voices lingered in the atmosphere. They always fought and the fights were never ending.
As I layed in my very bed, the fragrance of roses arose from my open window filling my bedroom air, the smell of those beautiful black roses irritatingly filled my nostrils as I was dreaming a lucid dream. It was unlike any of my other dreams. This dream was plaguing me in the form of a nightmare. It was like a premonition my mind was trying to decipher correctly. I dreamt of it vividly and there was blood, lots of it and other people, dead people. The sun had not risen for two days. It was a blood eclipse. The day mankind is doomed to perish at the hands of a terror group of supernatural animalia who call themselves the Alclan beings. I fought, I sought to save my life and at the end through patience, I had attained victory. To have what is mine. I had what I have always wanted. A lover. I woke up startled, heaving greatly. What was this strange dream all about?. The dream was lucidly similar to the seer's vision I had seen in the swing waters. I figured it was because of my experience at the cave and the fact that some of her evil herbs had not worn off that I was still dreaming strange premonitions. Like this one of the sacred Oracle of the wolfmen. A book that spoke of us creatures turning against humans and eliminating them from existence. It was said this day was doomed to happen but no one knew when and how. As far as I was concerned, humans had the upper hand when it came to these supernatural things. Our natural lives were hidden in the shadows of our normal lives as we went by with our daily endeavours, our dreams, our aspirations, our future plans. It seemed there was more chance of a sun not setting and reigning during the night than there was To the prophecy being fulfilled.
At the crack of dawn I woke up to prepare for school. My brother Samuel was already in the kitchen ransacking the cup
boards for food. He was always hungry.
"Leave some for tonight!" My brother Luke began to say but he ignored and continued.
I went to school to find my best friend Kairi waiting for me at my locker.
"Why are you late today?" She was surprised as I was always early, one of the first ones to show up at school.
"I was tired." I informed her. I was still drowsy from my lack of proper sleep, my bones were still aching from the previous day's journey.
"You weren't at school yesterday. What happened?" She was concerned.
"You wouldn't believe it if I told you!" I replied to her.
"Forget that, I have great news, concerning you!" Her face beamed with joy.
"You know that boy you're always talking about what's his name… Dumuzi, he was looking for you."
"Looking for me?" My heart lit up.
Usually when I arrived on some days, the school was locked and not yet open. The buildings stood gigantic and old like an ancient temple. The paintings of all our pharaonic rulers were pasted on the round walls of the veranda along with their giant statues situated in a line along the walls of the temple-like building. From the very first ruler of Atlantis, to the current ruler; Pharaoh Tetis. I would usually sit by the large veranda in a corner waiting for the school to open and that's when I would see him. The boy I had dreamt of from when I first got my scholarship to study at this prestigious academy. The bad boy. He always wore his hair the way liked. He always smirked at me when he passed me and my heart would miss a beat. Too bad he was just mundane. A human my dad would never approve as a mate. Although I was not into dating and all that and he was not a perfect match to consider when looking for a lover, I kind of liked him.
All my life, I have always been the girl who dreamt of finding real love given that all my school years, I had always been the one to seek love from those who never wanted to give it in return. In my school I was nicknamed 'smoochie' because I had thick lips that protruded my mouth and some just called me the loner because I was an introvert who kept all to herself. I had gotten used to being a loner that being unpopular in highschool did not bother me. I had a few friends, I did pretty ok in my classes. I was top of my stream, yet I was considered one of the lowest socially speaking. I was despised and nobody would have ever dared to dream of even giving me a little consideration as a date. The first ever boyfriend I had was in seventh grade. I was twelve and I felt eligible though I still had not hit the peak of puberty, which was what I would consider a tough patch in my life which if I had the power, I would have erased. He told me he loved me which was deep for a twelve year old and I was scared. He then planted a kiss on my cheek behind the school classroom but when we were in class he humiliated me. He told me it was all a joke and no one would ever want to go out with me. Everyone laughed.
Finding out that the boy I had been dreaming of, acknowledged my existence, pleased me very much.
I stood at my locker day dreaming. That's when he emerged amongst the sea of heads in the hallway and seized me from my pleasant thoughts.
"Anathi...right?" He smiled adjusting his black leather jacket. His green eyes penetrated into mine, making me shy away in nervousness.
"Yeah!" I said withdrawing my biology book. He drew closer to me, making my back hit against my locker. I could feel his breath on my lips.
" I have always wondered what it would be like to talk to you, but I've never mastered the courage to actually tell you how I feel."
To my utter surprise, he held my hand and pasted it on his chest.
"Feel that? My heart only beats for you. I'm so in love with you that you have become the object that dominates my thoughts, goddess, you are my dreams, my life and if I don't get a glimpse of you, my life is incomplete."
He was a known jerk for how he treated others but somehow his vain cold heart of stone found its way into mine. He was captain of the soccer team. We went out on a first date but when he drove me back in his automobile, he attempted to take advantage of me. He parked his large vehicle behind large fields of tall stalks of green and ripe corn and he said he wanted 'time for us alone'.
"Why can't we go hang out somewhere else? This place is creepy!"I insisted.
But he was adamant about not leaving and I was scared of losing him so I went with the flow even though I was deeply uncomfortable.
He made small talk which I found uninteresting and I was oblivious to the fact that he was doing it because he wanted to hide his true nature because moments later, he had his lips fully planted on mine, forcefully and he was almost lying on top of me. I struggled to get rid of him, to push him away but his firm grip on me was too muscular just as his thirst for me was unquenchable. Sadly that night, I had hidden my true self and dressed in skimpy clothes just to please him, to look cool. I mean it wasn't every day a cool and bad popular guy went for a girl like me. I ended up overpowering him, my wolf instincts came in and I found myself fleeing the scene in rage and feeling hurt and betrayed.
"How dare you?" I knew this was bound to happen but at that moment, I found myself beating at the thought as to why I had agreed to come to this place. Boys like him were no good to people like me. We had no social affiliation whatsoever.
He got out of his car. "Come back baby, we are just getting started!"
"Come on Anathi, are you scared? I won't be telling anybody! "I heard his voice echo as I hid in the field.
I was afraid of going in deeper because I did not know where the fields ended or what was on the other side. He did not seem to give up on searching for me either. The moon was almost up and it would be another night, a full moon where I wouldn't get to transform. I ended up giving up, after all I was far away from home, there were no rides on the road we had taken so I couldn't hitch hike. He was my only ride so I went back.
"Bae , don't be scared, why do you run off just like that?" He feined concern.
I didn't answer, I was at the peak of tears about letting all the rivers within me loose, I was ashamed of letting them loose in his presence. I felt the warm substance dripping from my eyelids and he shook his head and smirked.
"It's okay, bae, we are dating now." he said in a cold and uncaring tone while running his hands on my body and digging his gripping his fingers hard into my hind.
"What? How could you? This date is over. It's over we aren't dating!" It had just hit me.
It was really hard but I needed to learn. Although I regretted this very date, I was not going to let it be another sad highschool romance tragedy but a lesson in life. He did not love me. Anyways, what did a seventeen year old high school bad boy know about love? I was just one of the girls he would use as a sex toy and he would leave me for someone else. I realised my prospects were greater than that. This wasn't me, the make up, the heels, the clothes weren't me, the words were not me. The body was just an empty shell of what I thought I wanted to be but I was not entirely oblivious to who I truly was and I was not going to let this monster take advantage of me just for a story to tell back at school so I escaped and ran along the road. He was behind me in his car shouting at me to get in but I refused. He was enraged to the point that he attempted to hit me several times with his car. His intention was clearly to kill me. Now that I knew what he had tried to do to me, he could have gone to jail for attempted rape. At the face of danger, that is when my very first lucid wolf senses kicked in and my second transformation in my entire young life hit me unexpectedly, I didn't even know it had happened. All I remembered was jumping in the air and the next moment I was as fast as the wind. I don't remember much of what happened but the next thing I knew was waking up next morning lying in my room on the floor naked with my bedroom window open. I rushed to close it. I noticed my body was covered in deep red blotches and marks and I had a bad sneeze and a stuffy nose from the grain pollen. I was allergic to corn, to trees, to grass, to dust so definitely spring was my worst enemy. So yes, I remembered the previous night. I had not just dreamt this nightmarish date from hell but I had willingly snuck out of my home to meet him.