Chapter 5: Cody in the Forest (Cody's POV)

The world went quiet when I disappeared. My body beneath my feet was covered in the red blood of the Ghost. To the Wolf People Clan, the Ghost is a nightmare screaming out into the void of tomorrow. I was severed from my human form; the decoy I created would be called witchcraft by the humans and a rite of passage by my father, Chief Wolfpaw. That's how it is in the mountains, we fly, and we soar, and still, we have no place left to call home. My human form will be returned to me after I have regained enough energy to continue my journey into the Luna Mountains. 

My best friend Lucia Perez, my gods, I wish she didn't have to find out about me. The night she followed me, I had the yellowing in my eyes, and I almost drifted into hunter mode and ended her: her life force, a timeline in my claws. I always admired Lucia, but I never wanted to drag her into the life of the wolf. The Wolf People Clans corrupt everything they touch, or at least we have the potential. We don't pollute the earth or each other, but we tend to corrupt everything, human or man-made. 

When Chief Wolfpaw, my father, took Lucia in, I was less than enthused. I didn't want the responsibility of protecting her from vampires, ghouls, and the other mystical beasts that lay beyond the forests of the Saint Maria woods. But, on the other hand, it's all too good to be true. When our lips touched, I didn't expect Lucia to kiss me back and feel something. But she did; she felt what I felt—the great pull between us. Humans call that an attraction. The Wolf People Clan would call it the love of the luna lovers. It is the role I have always envisioned Lucis playing in my life, but I never thought it would become a reality. And now I find myself off on a crazy crusade in the Luna mountains, searching for the oldest and rarest flower in the world, the luna lily flowers of myth. 

I never meant to abandon Lucia and leave her alone in the woods. But I can't return to my physical body. The decoy I created made the humans start an investigation, and unfortunately, Lucia was caught in the middle. I know she has more than likely been blamed for my demise. But I couldn't risk the humans learning about an old Wolf People Clan trick that not even my father, the Great Chief Wolfpaw, can perform. 

After performing the spell, I didn't want to expose Lucia for what she was. She is a Wolf Clan member now, my mate for life. We haven't mated yet, but under the moon of the goddess Luna, I swore my vows. I vowed to love her until the day I died. It's a strong bond between Lucia and me, and the day I am allowed to be inside her is the day a great reckoning will break through. The Ghost and the legends of old will be after us until my time as Chief ends. It's the way of things. The townspeople say that the Ghost is a science experiment that was let loose on the town to consume children in their sleep.

I have followed the Ghost for many moons now. I can't say for sure what her intention is, but her hunger for female humans and wolves is starting to worry me. The wolves call her my precious Luna. If she gets to Lucia, then my life is over. I have to make love to her beneath the moon on the peaks of the Luna Mountains before the goddess of the moon. It will seal our bonds, complete the ritual, and end the war between the humans and the Wolf People Clan. 

Lucia is a brave soul but terrified of the eye yellowing. She hasn't mentioned the yellowing of the eyes scaring her, for she doesn't have to. This is why I have taken it upon myself to find the rare luna lily flower. I will eat the flowers and bed her. I will feel myself thrust into her and impregnate her.

The scent of my Luna lives within my memories. I am a coward for leaving her to the humans. She is likely the number one suspect in my murder, which is no murder at all, but my getaway. My getaway from responsibility, from my Chieftain title, and a means to my escape. I want to make love to Lucia as a human man. She wants to be a wolf and desires to become one herself. I could do it. I could drink the blood from her wrists and make her human nature disappear. She would be ugly to me then. Her human scent drives me to insanity. It's this insanity that makes me want to enter her and makes me want to be with her.

Her breasts are small, but they will soon be mine. I just have to locate my physical body and regain my strength for that to happen. It is out there somewhere, stolen by that damned jokester, the Ghost. If I were to guess her name, I would call her an ancestor. The Ghost must be the wife of the last Chieftain of the wolf clan. Her soul was never laid to rest.

The pine tree needles prick my feet as my wolf form vanishes beneath the sun. It's exhausting to go back and forth between forms. My strength has almost entirely returned, and my ability to temporarily appear human with it. For Lucia, I want to look like this young man she is familiar with. As a human, I am lean and tall and easily kissed. I have dark brown eyes and dark brown hair, but as a wolf, that all vanishes. My fur is dark, my claws are mean, and the eye yellowing becomes brighter the louder when Lucia breaths.

During our mighty howls together, Lucia sang. When she sang, her voice was carried on the clouds, and she was but a siren to my soul, pushing me over the abyss. When she sang the first night of the howling, I knew I would love her forever and that she would be my forever mate. I knew we were destined to be luna lovers. That's why Chief Wolfpaw took her in. I informed her that she had nowhere left to go and no family to return to. Her grandmother had died, and she had no siblings or living heirs to call home. But she did have me.

My father knew I loved her. My tail twitched when I spoke of her, and the orbs of my eyes grew wider. The moon reflects on a wolf's eye when they are in love or have found their luna lover. The people of the wolf clan fear my love of a human. It hasn't happened in a thousand years. There's an unresting hatred between our worlds. But I believe we can change their minds and fall in love. Lucia wouldn't have kissed me back if she didn't feel the same.

I take out my wolf pipe and light it against the fire. I dance around the fire as a prayer to the goddess Luna to let me see my love, my Lucia, one more time before the sun sets in my eyes. I sense my death is near, and before my death is final, I want to feel my body inside the woman I love.