3

Hayley woke with a stare, to a loud banging noise. Disoriented, she sat up in the bed and stumbled off the mattress. Another bang shuddered the walls of the house she was in. Then a loud roar caused her to move faster, dragging her pants on.

There was a commotion. Seconds later, Alpha Kane came in his room, his eyes blazing and almost blue, signalling that his wolf was close to the surface.

"You need to leave."

"What's happening?"

"My brother is going through the shift. He couldn't handle it. I'm afraid that if you stay here, you might get hurt."

Hayley nodded.

She didn't have to be told twice; she saw how her adopted sister was when she went through the change and wanted no part of this one.

"I have school in the morning, anyway." Hayley said. Even though she was trying to hide it, Kane could still see the fear in her eyes and heard it in her voice as well.

"Come, I'll see to it that you get out safe."

Kane followed her outside, to where the night sky was dark, and thundering from the usual storm that brewed over their territory.

"I'll see you around." Hayley told him, slipping out of his hands and jogging off to the line of trees that separated the pack house from the rest of the village.

As Hayley walked the distant home, she kept glancing over her shoulders at every tree and shrub. Thinking that they were people following her.

There was a snapping sound off in the distant, causing her to pick up pace until she was almost running. Not able to see in the dark, she tripped over a fallen tree and took a nasty tumble.

There was a sound as if someone was laughing at her dismay, then the feeling of a presence close to her. She groaned, trying to get her barring, but the place was too dark and she had to admit that she was scared.

The next thing Hayley knew, a shadow hovered over her while her hands glowed.

****

Hayley's eyelids fluttered open to the sunlight peeking through her curtains. She shifted her slender frame to sit up in her bed, wondering how she got there.

Then last night came flooding back to her mind. Teeth snapping close to her face, her hands glowing and the burning smell of flesh.

She extended her pale arms to examine her palms; they seemed no different, and she felt no different. Which made her wonder if she had imagined last night. Maybe she was too scared because of what was happening at the pack house with the Alpha's brother.

Just then, her room door was pushed in roughly, with a woman standing in the doorway with her hands on her hips. Her hazel eyes were ablaze, and her thin red lips were set in a firm line. But even with all the light that came through the window, Hayley couldn't make out the look on her round face.

"Get up, get up now or you will be late for school." The woman said, her almond-shaped eyes narrowing and her broad nose flared.

“I’m already up." Hayley mumbled.

"Well, go get ready."

Hayley let out a sigh, but said nothing.

"Don't you hear me?" The dark-skinned woman walked over to her bed.

Hayley got up at that, easily towering over her adopted mother, with her 5'9 frame.

"Get to school now. Can't have any dunce in this house. My own child is already worthless, can't have you turning out as such too. Now hurry before your breakfast gets cold."

At the mentioned of food, Hayley's stomach rumbled with hunger. She hurried to the shower, turning on the cold water and standing under it to help her wake up.

She hissed out when the water touched her back, not because of the coldness, but from the unbearable stinging sensation that came from it. Fighting through the pain, she washed herself, then stepped out of the tub dripping wet. When she turned her back to see what could have caused her such pain, a gasp escape her lips.

"Holy Moon goddess." She stared eye wide at her back.

"What the Zeus are those?"

She tried to touch one of the marks, but her hands couldn't reach that far. She shrugged it off, thinking that it must have happened when she fell last night.

There was a buzzing sound coming from her room when Hayley crossed the floor. She realised that her alarm clock was only just going off.

"Ooh, that woman!" She squeezed the small, hard rectangular plastic in her hand. 

"Why did I even woke so early?" She asked herself, crossing her room to her closet where she took out a pair of tight ripped black jeans and a black long sleeve blouse that hung off her body.

After that, she brushed her unevenly chopped black hair, looked in the mirror at her tired green wide-set eyes, then lined her them with two layers of black eyeliner.

She was a self-proclaimed goth, and wasn’t afraid to show it, no matter how much her peers called her freaks.

But she told herself that they were the freak. She was normal and human, which was why they hated her.

"Times up, get out!"

Hayley jumped at the sound of her adopted mother's voice.

"Two second." Hayley held her hand up.

"One, two. Out!"

Hayley hurried from her room, then head downstairs where she grabbed a pancake from a plate before running out the door.

When Hayley made it to school, she was just in time for her first class. Leaving her confused to what the time really was.

"Alright, so here’s how it is going to work. I am going to allow you all 1 hour to write a paper on the shifting process. I don't want any complaining. Head to the library and get started." The teacher said.

Hayley raised her hand, ''what if you can't-'' 

''There is no is can't in my class, Ms Blackwater, you know better than that.''

''Loser.'' Someone tried to pass their stupid remark off as a cough.

''Go on, get to writing.''

Hayley groaned as she followed her classmates to the library, with their teacher following behind them to make sure they made it there. 

The minute he left them, the antics started.

Hayley sat by herself, trying to avoid the tom foolery that was going on around her, but mostly trying to hide from her all-time favourite hating group, Davina and the back up clowns.

As she sat there, she found it hard to even think about the shifting process, and was struggling to put pen to paper. It's not like she had under go the change as yet, so she couldn't speak, or write from experience.

All Hayley could do was blasted Ed Sheeran's Bloodstream on repeat, drowning out the chatter from everyone around her, with her hands behind her head as she relaxed in the chair. It was also killing the thoughts that had been floating around her mind. Thoughts of Alpha kane, which she didn't want, because the more she thought of him. The more she fell deeper for his charms.

''Write!'' A loud roar came, that caused everyone to sit down and act as if they were busy doing their work all along. Everyone except for Hayley. No wolf had command over her, which she normally used to her own advantage.

But what could she even write about? It's not like she knew what it felt like when her bones were cracking during the first change, or how violent one normally got when their beast takes over.