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Prologue - The Prophecy
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2024-10-29 19:42:56‘When the true one reveals themselves under the red moonlight, it shall cause a world of darkness and the start of a suffering.’
The prophecy was made during the Dark Ages. That time, the most monstrous and powerful werewolf called Fallen Beast began terrorizing the nearby villages and killed hundreds of people. The Beast, however, was then killed by a group of hunters.
Feeling threatened, the werewolves attacked them back, dragged them through the village where other villagers ran for their lives. The terrible news forced humans to train to hunt instead of hiding in despair.
Driven by revenge and disgust, the hunters then pursued more supernatural creatures and massacred them mercilessly. Witches were burned, vampires were staked, and werewolves were shot with silver bullets. Fear soared from the big war, sending the signal all around the world that the supernaturals were no longer safe, regardless of where they lived.
The creatures of the night who made it alive gathered once again to make a pact: stay away from each other’s lives, avoid killing humans no matter what to prevent another war, and scatter themselves to minimize the chance of being hunted again.
Before parting, one of the oldest witches gave them the prophecy to assure their safety hundred years from then. It became a sacred guide for the supernaturals to survive and live through.
Witches often traveled across the world and avoided staying permanently in one place. Vampires snuck into the big, cold cities and lived alongside the humans. Werewolf tribes chose small towns, dominated by forest, as their hiding place.
To protect ourselves, werewolves were trained to control our transformation, powers, and hunger, repressed the beast inside when Full Moon shone brightly. The most challenging thing was when my great-grandfather, Harold Whitlock, decided that it was best to hide amongst the humans.
Hiding in a plain sight might sound like a perfect plan to protect our identities, he once said. No hunters could track us down if we trained ourselves to be more like our human side. No one would be hurt—not us the werewolves, not the humans.
He was wrong.
***
Bab terkait
Lady Moonlight Chapter 1
The round and wondrously bright disc was hanging in the clear and starry night. Chords of moonlight gleamed across the sea of trees. It was that time of the month when the moon would appear more gloriously beautiful than ever. For werewolves, Full Moon was both exciting and frightening. It used to be a challenging moment for werewolves—half human, half wolf—to face a Full Moon, as it was the exact time when they would turn into their wolf counterpart. Now, hundreds of years after the Dark Ages, werewolves had mastered to control themselves. Full Moon became a celebration of life. Every Full Moon once a year, the tribe would gather at a small clearing on the hill, with each family bringing a peace offering for the Moon Goddess—which we believed to be the reason why we found each other here, why we were blessed with such a good life. The other Full Moon was still celebrated within the family or pack. On a Full Moon in one October night six years ago, I had my f
Lady Moonlight Chapter 2
“Earth to Thea.”Fingers snapping in front of my face made my eyes blink repeatedly. When I finally got back from reminiscing the event from six years ago, I realized that I was sitting on the dining chair with Mom’s cooking on the table.Nathan, who already walked away from the table after bringing me back with his finger snaps, laughed. “Stop daydreaming. It’s night already.”I scoffed and continued to devour the steak on my plate.“Did you hear what I just said, Thea?” asked Dad.Flash backward to five minutes ago. Dad was talking about how Full Moon was approaching. We would do another celebration, but it was the sixth year for our family to celebrate alone as we moved away from Grassmere, where most of Dad’s tribe resided.“I did, but do we have to do that every year?” I groaned.“Of course, Honey. It is to show our gratitude to the Moon Goddess for blessing
Lady Moonlight Chapter 3
The last thing I wanted to do in the most boring event in the history of werewolves was to meet the very people who forced me to run into the woods in tears and almost got killed in the end. If my brother wanted to blame someone for our migration, he should look at himself and his pack full of jerks first.I tried to tell my dad that it was okay to celebrate Full Moon on our own, but he seemed to make up his mind. It was all thanks to Selene who just had to reminisce all the good things we had in Grassmere.I was lifting some stuffs in Ashborne High School gymnasium when I accidentally knocked down a stack of boxes that my friend Olive Hartwell arranged five minutes ago. An uncontrollable strength was unleashed alongside my anger that one of the boxes was dented.Gasping, I quickly kneeled down to fix it. The box contained sets of gold-colored draperies that would be use to decorate the gymnasium. In exactly four days from now, there would be a homecoming party
Lady Moonlight Chapter 4
After waking up with a new bandage the day after I had my first transformation, I remembered asking my mom where the handkerchief that was used to cover my wound were. She admitted that she had thrown it out, but I managed to rummage through the trash bin to take it back.The white handkerchief turned red because of my blood. I had to wash it numerous times to get its original color back, but the best I could do was to leave a faded red stain on it. At first look, nobody would notice that it used to be blood because it looked like some kind of splattered paint.Going back home, I found Selene hanging out with Nathan in front of the TV. I walked past them and went straight to my room. I crouched by my bed and took out a turquoise box containing some memory stuffs. The handkerchief was rested well inside the box and it bloomed a smile on my face.After six years, I couldn’t believe I would meet the boy again, who already grew into a gorgeous, tall boy with t
Lady Moonlight Chapter 5
I was staring at the handkerchief for the millionth time when I heard footsteps approaching. Two knocks on my door were enough to send me into a tidying up frenzy. It wasn’t safe to bring the handkerchief around, so I put it back to the box along with other stuffs and slid it under my bed. My door was opened as soon as I jumped on to the bed, posing as natural as I could.“Hey, Mom,” I grinned widely as my mom opened the door. She couldn’t just find out that I had been keeping the dirty handkerchief she had thrown out before. She would ask questions and that would end up with me having to tell her about Carson.“Someone’s here to see you,” she said.Another figure appeared behind her. A boy with a neck length, black hair smiled radiantly as our eyes met.“Elliott?” I gasped. I got on my feet and just received the hug from his muscular body, still with a bewildered expression. “Elliott Calloway?&r
Lady Moonlight Chapter 6
When I was into my deep thought, I heard Elliott shout.“Oh, look!” He almost jumped excitedly. He looked over my shoulder and then walked past me. “It’s a spring!”I caught up with his steps. From the distance, I could see a small waterfall above a pool of spring, glistening under the moonlight. The sound of the water was serene and soothing. The stones were reflecting the luminescence of the moon. It reminded me of this one spring in the middle of the woods in Grassmere, but this spring was wider and deeper. The waterfall just made it more exquisite.I had gone around these woods before, but I never realized that there was a beautiful spring here.“Do you remember when we were kids, there was this tale about Moon Goddess descended to the Earth on the night of the brightest Full Moon?” Elliott asked, almost with a whisper because he didn’t want to ruin the nature’s sound.Mom used to read it to
Lady Moonlight Chapter 7
Dad wasn’t amused hearing my story about how some people were hunting deer at night in the woods that wasn’t even a hunting ground. Elliott, who joined the dinner, backed up my story. “The place was perfect for gathering, but we don’t think it’s safe,” he said. I really thought he would hold on to his ‘hunters-don’t-exist’ view in front of Nathan, but fortunately, he went with what I suggested. “It’s forbidden to hunt outside the hunting ground,” Dad said. “I should report this to the Sheriff.” “And tell him what?” Nathan chimed in, with his mouth still full of mashed potato. “That two teenagers—one happened to be your daughter—snuck into the woods at night and witnessed the shooting?” Here we go again. Nathan gaslighting someone on the dinner table wasn’t really a new thing. “Yes, that’s exactly what he should say,” I insisted, ignoring how the wording could put Dad into shame for having a teenage daughter going into the dark woods wi
Lady Moonlight Chapter 8
The decoration for the homecoming night was already 80% finished, making it a forbidden room for any students other than the committees. It was decorated with black, gold, and silver color. Sparkling star decorations were hung on each corner, the paper lanterns were arranged as an arch in the entrance, and gold draperies was put as a background for the photo booth. The high ceiling was covered with black cloth, which would be luminated by light projector, making it look like a sky full of stars. Olive was raving about it this morning, but she couldn’t help after school because she had to take her mother to the clinic. So, she listed all the stuffs that needed to be done today and sent it to me. A little advice for those who bore missions from Olive Hartwell: do it right or have her knock on your door at night just because you put the wrong size of cups on the table. At the same time, Mom also sent me the list of groceries I had to purchase for the Full Moon.
Bab terbaru
Lady Moonlight Chapter 21
I was stunned by his first sentence. He already made it obvious since last night that he stayed because he wanted to keep an eye of me, but he kept denying it himself. “So,” Elliott stretched his arms in the air, “You better tell me before Olive comes out of that door and drags us in.” With a mixed feeling, I brought my feet back to the very spot where Ronny lost control of himself. It was clean as if nobody left their blood on the asphalt. Elliott started to sniff around, crouching next to the place where I left wolf Ronny sprawled in pain. I was glad nobody else was around to see this weird kid snuffling the asphalt and the bushes. “Yeah, a wolf was here,” said Elliott as he got up, “or Lycan or Beast—whatever it is your Dad called him. I can smell his body. There was blood in here but somebody cleaned it up perfectly.” “Do you think the hunter might have done it? Taking Ronny away and cleaning the crime scene?” A slow breeze made the hair o
Lady Moonlight Chapter 20
It was strange seeing Ashborne in a normal daily activity after I experienced an awful event in a public place last night. Police were called, but there wasn’t anything reported on the news this morning. It indicated that they didn’t find anything worth investigating. When Selene said that there wasn’t anything in the parking lot and Olive speculated that the gunshot sound was a firework, I was almost convinced that I was hallucinating about seeing Ronny turning into a werewolf and Carson firing a silver bullet at him. For the record, it wouldn’t be the first time that the people around me tried to guilt trip me about something. Nathan told me that I wasn’t hurt by a hunter six years ago. Dad was pressed by his position as a Tribe Elder and didn’t want to cause a panic, so he kept asking me to repeat the details of the attack to assure himself. The only good thing that came out of it was Dad finally decided that it was indeed a hunter and we had to save ourselves.
Lady Moonlight Chapter 19
At the moment, I almost screamed, “What the hell?! Are we some kind of cleaning service now?!” After the nightmare drained me, I had no energy to proceed a complain. Had I known about the job details, which included doing tiny little errands, I probably wouldn’t have signed up with the homecoming committee. There’s no way I would do this again for the proms next time. My voice croaked, “Noooooo!” as I laid myself back to the bed and took another pillow to cover my face, but Olive, being the annoying early bird that she was, snatched it right away. “Just so you know, Thea. I had to go home with those boybands because the school area had to be sterilized!” She whined. “To repay all of that, you have to be with me until we’re done cleaning up.” I groaned indignantly. If I didn’t know better, I could’ve growled loudly to make scare her away, or at least, to make her step down from my bed. “You went home with Jim last night. Eleven-years-old you wo
Lady Moonlight Chapter 18
The Full Moon tonight looked brighter than I had ever seen before. Standing under the moonlight, I spread out my hands, receiving the warmth and rays that made me feel stronger. The Children of the Moon, people once said about werewolves. Ever since the Dark Ages happened, werewolves adjusted their lifestyles, including everything about transforming and not calling themselves 'Lycans' anymore.When I was enjoying the moonlight, a blood-curling scream was heard from the dark woods behind me. I was frozen for a second, realizing that it was my mother’s voice, screaming for help.“Mom!”Panic ran down my body as my feet started to move fast. Deep into the woods, I followed her shrilling voice to the spring. A silhouette was seen standing on one of the big stones on the edge of the water.“Mom! Are you okay?” I asked through my panted breaths as I slowed my steps down. Coming closer to the body of water, I could see it glistening
Lady Moonlight Chapter 17
The mention of the worst species of werewolves sent the room into a frenzy. “There is only one Beast that we know of,” Nathan recovered himself from a shock, “and he died hundreds of years ago.” “I’m not talking about the Fallen Beast. I’m talking about its descendants,” Dad clarified, and then he glanced at me, “and I think your friend is one of them.” A hard gasp came out of my mouth. I still could not believe that Ronny was a werewolf, and now Dad said that he was the descendant of the vilest and most brutal creature of Lycanthrope that caused the biggest war in the history? “If such creature existed, we should have known. Even Thea could have sensed it," said Nathan. Very smooth. Nobody realized that he was belittling me with those words, except me, of course. It happened all the time that everybody would normalize setting Thea as the lowest example. "It was called 'Fallen Beast' for a reason. He was an exceptional Lycan who showed differe
Lady Moonlight Chapter 16
You would expect the former Elder Tribe to act as fast as he could after hearing about how one of his kinds was severely hurt in a public place. My dad, however, didn’t move an inch. The cold breeze swirled around the living room. The more silence my dad made, the more I sunk into the grey couch. “‘Again’?” Surprisingly, Elliott was the first one to break the uncomfortable silence. “He was shot before?” I nodded. Elliott didn’t know the whole story, so I waited for a cue from my dad to spill more, but he looked unbothered. He stared blankly at the coffee table. His minds were probably wandering elsewhere, but it was exactly how he would look like when he had to make a decision. “How? You just found out that he was a werewolf,” Elliott chuckled. It certainly beat him that he didn’t know what happened, but he put a wall around his raging curiosity out of respect for my dad. “Does it matter now? We have to help him,” I sniffled, and then stared a
Lady Moonlight Chapter 15
After I had my first transformation, it wasn’t exactly rainbows and unicorns. My life as a full wolf had just begun. The first few months, shifting was the most painful. The wolf part of me took the dominance as soon as the Full Moon appeared. Dad said I had to let it out because it would just hurt me inside out if I kept holding it in. The thing was, I always fought against it. Even when I learned to shift whenever I wanted, I just couldn’t take full control of me, which was why it always resulted in a big pain. Nathan told me the only way to have a smooth transformation was to make a deal with it and make it a win-win situation for both of us, otherwise we would lose at some point in this inside battle. Seeing Wolf Ronny in front of me with an uncontrollable fury and pain in front of me took me back to those days. I was only a kid, but I had to go through it to win. It seemed like Ronny was unfortunate enough not to have someone like my dad to train me. If
Lady Moonlight Chapter 14
When Burn to Ashes finished their second song on the stage, I was already on my 14th ‘I told you so’ to Olive. I wouldn’t stop until she finally admitted how good they were. “You win, Thea, so please stop saying that,” Olive gave up. “Yes, they’re good and Mrs. Keener looks happy. Are you satisfied?” I still didn’t wipe the smile off my face. “Very,” I said. “This unreasonable bad blood between you and Jim needs to stop, to be honest.” “Sorry, I don’t take any more of your non-sense requests,” Olive scoffed as she folded her hands. Her eyes went elsewhere and she grumbled again. “Ronny’s finally here. I’m going to smack him for troubling everyone this afternoon.” I blocked her way with my body. “Give him a break, Olive,” I said. “That’s what team is for, remember? You cover for someone, being a reliable back-up.” “You’re starting to sound like my dad before the big game,” she sneered. “Yo, team! One for all and all for one!” I giggled
Lady Moonlight Chapter 13
I was waiting for Olive to come when Dad arrived from the Sheriff’s office. He was holding a brown paper bag with a frown across his face. “Are there any news?” Mom who was just came back from the laundry room to take my jacket looked worried. Before he replied, he looked around. “Where’s Nathan?” “He already left with Selene,” I replied. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that he would leave me alone even though Olive and I could fit into his car and we could go to the school together. “The Sheriff confirmed that the bullets in Rick’s rifle were indeed silver,” Dad notified. “The good news is he didn’t seem to have any idea what were they for. He just thought that Rick liked to experiment on hunting.” “There’s nothing good comes out of this,” I whined. “Dad, he was a hunter—a werewolf hunter. It can only mean that the man who was with him was a hunter as well. God knows how many more of them out there.” “Yes. It was probably Sam Johnson,
