{Prologue - Radyn}

Radyn was thrown into the chaotic world of boarding school as soon as he was able to shift. Something about getting a proper education instead of casually looming around the packhouse. As if there was going to be anything that could benefit him for when he returned. However, a promise was a promise no matter how much he wanted to argue back.

There would be no way he could genuinely disobey his parents without getting ditched on the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere. Under mysterious circumstances, obviously. Werewolf parents were...strict. Strict was a rather large miscalculation but you don't want to mess with them. Traditions still hold such an important place within the Werewolf's pack.

Radyn got ready to leave, taking his sweet time to put on the extremely compact white shirt. Must have had another growth spurt. Great. Werewolves tend to be the type to look like they were injected with a whole bundle of steroids by the time they reach adulthood. Another great thing for Radyn to be looking forward to (not).

The buttons were a pain to put together. Especially since the clothing itself seemed filled to the brim and ready to explode. The sweatshirt was a better fit, looser. He turned to the mirror, glaring at it like it was his long lost enemy.

It was embroidered with Theban curses that were used on the Werewolves many years ago. The wolf was informed that the student president that designed their uniform was a vampire. That was to be expected. Radyn hated it with a passion. It reminded him of how their species was created by some resentful witch but that was probably what that bloodsucker was going for.

It was like the school was taunting their kind. He had half a mind to tear it apart. To see the piece of clothing be turned to nothing but a tattered mess was the most satisfying idea that the Werewolf had ever come up with in a while. It would be worth the beating he would get for ruining the expensive material.

He turned to take a short glance of the design at the back. The crescent moon was sewn onto it in flawless white with an emerging figure in the background, roughly portraying a Lycan. The first of their species.

The rest of the current Werewolves were more evolved versions but since their lifespans are usually long, all evolutions or at least most of them coexist together, many in the same realm. The remaining pieces of material were filled with black which was then accompanied by a white shirt underneath with the standard design.

The of the sweatshirt was plain black, the colour of the shadow realm. He went to review the checklist, the only thing missing being dull black trousers. Out of all those expensive and rare items, he managed to forget the trousers.

"For fuck's sake," Rayden whispered to himself. His mother was going to flip her shit when she realises that over the past 2 months, a simple piece of uniform managed to escape his memory. Many things seemed to have been dismissed from Rayden's mind recently, perhaps due to the recent shift.

"Language!" He heard his mother shout from downstairs, probably from the living room. "Get down here, breakfast is ready!'

He wondered how his mother could hear him now but not when he is deliberately calling for her to come up. He shrugged and dressed in some black sweatpants instead then made his way out of the room. There wasn't much excitement flowing in the air, quite the contrary.

The young Werewolf carried himself down the stairs, dread radiating off of him in multiple waves. Before he knew it, his head met with the piece of wall that stood out weirdly once he reached the bottom of the stairs. Fuck. He wondered if there was anything that could make this day worse. He rubbed at his head, a small bump already forming from the impact.

All of a sudden, his dad seemed to have appeared out of thin air or maybe he just wasn't paying attention. Even at his own considerably tall height, he was no match for his father. The Werewolf himself stood at an impressive 6'2, approximately at least. He could never keep track ever since he started getting random growth spurts. Radyn tried to fill his mind with random shit as he stood in front of his elder. The atmosphere around him turned cold.

"Radyn." His father's words immediately caused him to straighten up and face him properly, eyes trained elsewhere. Looking into an Alpha's eyes meant challenge, so he turned his attention away - like to the scene that was unravelling behind him. The elder werewolf grabbed Radyn by the chin, tilting his head upward with a look in his eye. He was being inspected.

"Cut your hair. You look like a puny she-wolf."

Then the Alpha left.

Radyn let out a breath that he didn't realise he had been holding. He reminded himself to calm down and to loosen his shoulders. Being intimidated is a sign of weakness and he certainly wasn't that. As the heir of the NightFall pack and descendant of the first Lycan, Radyn had no time to be scared. Not even of the Alpha king himself.

He calmly strode into the kitchen to grab some scissors. It was typical of his father to find some kind of flaw every time they met, usually followed by some irrational insult. He didn't know why the comment hurt him so much but the sadness soon evaporated into anger.

He cut aggressively at his hair, strands of different sizes falling into the sink. When he was done, he knew it was uneven and sticking out at random angles but he didn't care. 'How do you like me now dad?' Radyn thought to himself, in a twisted way he was happy with the result.

Wandering back into the main room, he saw his little sister jumping on the sofa like a hyperactive maniac. He went to pick her up, a smile etched onto his face. He was distant, his mind wandering into the deepest depths of himself while she commented something about him looking like a lion.

She was only a toddler but had the mind of a 9-year-old. He smiled at her, spinning around and jumping about with her. He had 9 other siblings in total, with him being the second oldest one to leave the womb. His older brother abandoned the pack a few years ago, he wasn't ready to take the Alpha responsibilities that came with age.

"What did you do with your hair?!" His mother exclaimed behind him. Radyn took this time to look in the reflection of the glass cabinet. He didn't exactly look too bad, just like he had a major case of bed hair. He shrugged again. Nothing mattered to him anymore, at least not anything as foolish as appearance. His mother sighed and walked off, muttering curses to herself. Probably directed towards him.

Going to school was a public execution waiting to happen. More accurately, a scheduled execution. It was not the school part that Radyn had been dreading, more like what would happen once he got home during the holidays, which coincidentally marked his 6000th day being alive and the blood moon appearing on the same night.

Still, there were a few months left before that happened. Boarding school seemed rather repulsive with a small hint of boring and a sprinkle of tedious. Of course, the young Werewolf wasn't expecting to remain a moron his entire life but the idea of being near other species and having to address them as his classmate was aggravating.

"Let's go." His father commanded from the front door. Rayden stopped his internal groaning and followed him. After days of preparation, it had been a while since he left the house. Boarding schools are rare, especially mixed-species ones yet their school system was impeccable and the equipment was at it's finest.

He was greeted with the constant ominous atmosphere of the Shadow Realm. No warm rays from the sun or introduction to any sort of bright light. Just pitch black. Complete and utter darkness. That meant that the black-haired Werewolf relied on his night vision to guide the way. The ones that were blind in this realm were the prey, making Werewolves and any other creature of the night the predators.

The constant darkness was something that Rayden had grown into, become accustomed to. Occasionally, he and a few pack members would travel to the more advanced realms to gather resources but travelling between realms are not supported. It caused more breaches in species' territory and those became wars. The conflict was not ideal yet it was a daily occurrence. A reason why the Werewolves' pack was always so close together.

Guards surrounded the area since they are not the only Werewolf pack wanting to claim more land. Wandering off alone was a guaranteed death sentence, almost like offering your head to the monsters that lurk in the shadowy unknown. Rayden's pack being one of them.

"Come. The pack members are waiting for you." His father's voice is sharp and dull in his head. Mind-link. A kind of telepathy that is created through a small blood sacrifice made once a pack member goes through their first shift.

The blood was mixed with the preserved blood of the recent pack members, even the deceased so that a special connection could be built. A bond between the wolves. Rayden had only become a participant of the mind link only months ago and still found it difficult to block out the other members, including his family.

He trudged behind his relatives at a snail's pace. Doing this meant that he got a few glares and the usual 'hurry up'. They arrived at the pack centre where at least a hundred eyes were on him and him only.

Today marked the day of the finally maturing and soon to be Alpha leaving the pack. It was only for a few years but his permanent return meant he would take the burden of being the Alpha King, the leader of the most powerful pack in the realm.

"My son will be gone but once he returns, we will have a new ruler!" The Luna, Rayden's mother, announces to the pack. Distracted, he looks up at the moon. It was a full moon but he didn't need to look to know that. The intense energy running through his veins and the random burst of adrenaline was evidence enough.

The crowd cheered, the sound echoing across the forest, the trees almost trembling under the combined force. Cheers for the Alpha and Luna were never-ending. Rayden should be delighted for them. For himself. Yet he didn't feel anything. Only a hole growing inside him, consuming him internally until he was only a shell of a person.

As gap in him grew larger, so did the gap between his family. He couldn't do what he was expected to do as a soon to be Alpha. He couldn't help wondering if he could have a future where he can be free and be able to wander in between realms, avoiding reality.

Everyone wanted to be Alpha. Right? Maybe he had a sickness. Something infecting him, festering into a viscous disease, trying to take over his brain. It was a quite bizarre thought but from the glares he received from his dear family, they must have assumed that was the case.

"Let the full moon ceremony begin!" The Alpha declared. The audience began to walk towards the edge of the forest, some beginning to shift into their true form. White, black and brown fur appear, standing out from the crowd. The pups stayed back and waited for the return of their carer. Some elders stayed behind as well because they were too old to shift and took care of the young ones.

"Are you going to shift?" Rayden's younger brother asked and looked down at the grass. He was two years younger than his older brother and was still waiting to shift. Radyn knew how much his brother wanted to run with everyone else but he was too young. A few more years could do him good.

"No. I don't think the headmaster would appreciate me coming to school in basically nothing but a few centimetres of torn material." The Werewolf laughed with his younger brother. After all the effort of putting on the outfit, removing was also too much effort.

He joined his mother and father at the front, both of them already shifted. His mother's wolf was pure white. It was tradition that Lunas were usually white to represent power and purity however there have been instances of Luna's being other colours. Alpha's were either black or a dark grey, there was no other colour that they could be. His father wasn't an exception, with a muscular shape, he stood out from the rest of the pack.

Radyn was a grey wolf, well mostly. Most of him was grey apart from the black patches on his ears, underbelly and hind legs. White also managed to make its way onto him, bits appearing on his back. He was like a multi-coloured mess, a canvas that had a few cans knocked over it. One good thing was that he was the size of an average Alpha, which is 3 times larger than the normal canis lupus, huge compared to a non-Alpha Werewolf.

"We fricca alive wið wægn môna. We wagian geond ðurhscînendlic hwæðere r¯æsan swilce man. Sigehrêðig w¯æren dôð heofoncandel gyden, ûser wuldorlic ansund nergend." The Alpha spoke through the mental mind-link. The whole pack repeated the phrase until it became a chant, the whole pack link loaded with pure energy.

Then they ran.

Into the forest, they glided through the trees effortlessly, avoiding the natural hazards like sticks, rocks and pits. Howls pierced through the silence, the sound music to their eyes as most started joining into the natural orchestra. The celebration is supposed to show their love for the Moon Goddess and their appreciation for the powerful form that they were in.

Radyn lagged behind since he was in his simple mortal form. He ended up next to the Omega's the lowest of their rank. The young Werewolf decided that there was no way that he could possibly catch up even with his unnatural super speed so he climbed onto the biggest Omega. He knew they wouldn't complain but he mind-linked them, asking for permission which they replied with a definite yes.

He took this time to admire the sight before him, the sky was calming, like staring into an endless void. Suddenly, a flash in the distance was seen. Vampire. Maybe, he wasn't sure. Whatever it was, it gave off strong waves of power. Radyn ignored it, there was no time to think about some fast blur.

They eventually reached the border of the realm. All the wolves stopped and bowed their heads down as a sign of respect. Radyn was going to leave his homeplace. Just before he entered through the area, he howled up at the moon and the rest joined.

"Farewell friends," Radyn said. He went through the portal.

He found his way to the Neutral realm's portal. There was no going back and Radyn realised that. He goes through the portal. Immediately, he was transported to the front desk in the school. There was a male in the office who gave him a timetable, a map and instructions after Radyn explained that he was a student.

Radyn read through the leaflet. The school was founded by Asmodeus, a half breed that created this school to resolve the conflict bit by bit and unite many different species to live in peace. Interesting, the headmaster is the result of an angel and demon.

He went to the dorm first, adoring the statues of Lycan's next to the other status of animal shifters. The dorm was fairly large, filled with single beds and dark coloured walls. He looked out of the small window only to have realised that it was still night in this world. A great time to have some rest. Radyn settled in his bed and closed his eyes.

This is the new normal now.