Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

**Delaney POV**

The tree bark bites into my flesh with every heavy rise and fall of my overworking chest. It feels like I have been running for fucking hours when in actuality it’s been maybe fifteen minutes. I force myself to breathe. In through your nose and out through your mouth, Laney. I need to calm the hell down because there is no way I am letting them catch me. Even as their voices echo in the distance as they grow closer. I whimper a little, my false bravado is wavering. 

When these jerks first came across me, they promised they didn’t want to hurt me, but I’ve heard those lies before and I have the scars to prove it. I have lived on the streets long enough to know when someone wants more than they say. I lived through the adage that actions speak volumes and words are useless. Words are just lies without action behind them. And I live a life full of action, at the present, I am tempted to admit maybe it’s a little too much action. 

Of course, it all had to happen tonight of all nights. The eve of my eighteenth birthday. It would be cool if I can hold these guys off until I have at least made it to my eighteenth birthday. Statistically, street dwellers like myself don’t last long. Not in the creepy ass town I have been stuck in all my life. And it’s not that I want to die at freshly eighteen, but these dicks behind me are out for my blood. And I really fucking hate blood, especially when it’s coming from me. 

“Come on, Luna!” One of them taunts. 

These assholes aren’t even chasing the right person. I’m going to die being called by a name that isn’t mine. How fucking poetic. Perhaps it is a nickname for girls in their language? They seem to speak in grunts, so maybe they are defrosted cavemen come to the modern age and they think this is how you get a woman. I snort quietly at my joke.

“Over here!” someone shouts, closing in on me. How the hell did they hear me?

I stoop down low and grab a decent-sized rock, launching it as far to my right as possible, proud of my distraction as I prepare to run in the opposite direction. A hand reaches out and yanks on my wrist and I yelp in fear as I am swung around to meet the angry red eyes of a tall, muscular, naked man.

I look around the others coming closer and a small frightened whimper escapes me when I see they are all naked aside from the two men lingering in the back. I swear on all things holy they HAD clothing on before. Didn’t they? Is this how I go out? Chased by a group of weird-ass naked men with a primal kink?

“I’m not the chick you are all playing some weird, kinky sex game with, and I do not consent.”

The man holding my arms leans in and I curse his perfectly angular jawline and his impeccable muscles. Like seriously, where did this Luna chick find these men? There is a flash of movement and one man, still clothed, looks down at me with an eerie emptiness in his eyes. I recoil from him as he runs his tongue along my neck, grunting and turning to spit out my sweat. Equally rude as it is gross. I don’t taste that bad, right?

“You taste wrong,” he growls. “You smell of her, I will admit that you don’t look—”

His voice trails off as a pain unlike any I have ever felt rumbles through my body like a raging storm. My skin itches and burns as it mutates and rearranges. The man in front of me releases my arm and I drop to my knees, gritting my teeth.

“That’s the problem. We were a little early.” He says. The man squats down before me and takes my chin, pinching it between his fingers.

“Fuck you,” I spit at him as a scream erupts from my lips. 

My back aches and I swear I can feel my vertebrae splintering as they rearrange. Searing heat in my throat forces me to open my mouth to suck in air, but instead of breathing in, I exhale a soft breath and time stands still. A hundred voices speak to me, words I don’t understand as the men before me remain motionless, stuck in the constraints of time where I live outside its boundary.

“In a lifetime meant for one, a queen lives a hundred times over, destined for greatness, bound by one soul, the fate of the world remains firmly in her control,” the words tumble from my lips, words I have never heard or spoken on my own.

 My chest whirs and hums as a throbbing sound grows in my ears. Suddenly my arms thrust wide as a force rips from me, flattening the men and the surrounding trees. A wave of energy spans for what seems like miles, maybe more, and I fall to the dirt feeling exhausted.

It’s not until I witness the slice on the chest of the body closest to me healing that the feeling of dread falls back over me. Something is terribly wrong, these men chasing me, their nakedness, their ability to heal. It feels like fucking X men in real life. I get up and I run as far as I can, not caring to look where I am going as I sprint at an unusual speed. When I glance down, I swear I see paws but force myself to look forward.

My adopted mother always told me that when the darkness is behind you and light lies before you, there is no need to look back, for you can’t see anything in the darkness. Only with light can you move forward. So I refuse to witness the darkness that chases me. Even if I am seeing shit, that seems unreal. I can deal with it when I am far enough away from the monsters in the woods.

It doesn’t take long to get away from the men, considering they were still on the ground when I take off running. I run for as long as I can before I lay down by a small body of water wedged between two large boulders. When I lean forward to see how dirty I look, I fall backward with a scream. I whip my head around back and forth, looking for the wolf that I swear I just saw. Then I see them, the gray paws where my hands should be. I open my mouth to cry out, but a whine echoes off the surrounding rocks. 

My chest aches from fear as I peek into the water again and freeze, looking into the green eyes of a gray wolf where I should be. I see no red hair, no sign of anything human. I tilt my head and so does the wolf, mirroring the movements I swear I am making. Am I… a fucking wolf? I shake my head hard. So does the damn wolf. Did those guys hit me in the head? Or maybe they drugged me. Yeah. That makes much more sense. Though, when would they have drugged me?

A shiver runs through my body as I feel another presence inside my mind and I freeze. What in the blazes is going on? I whine again as I lay down and I feel the raw emotions of me, my wolf, whatever the fuck this thing is that I am. My fur prickles and I whine in a high-pitched voice before watching my body transform back into my normal self.

My life has been chock full of tragedy and scary events. I’ve had loads of those. But this? This shit takes the cake. I thought the group of men in the woods being naked was the weirdest thing. Then I exploded into a wolf. Is that the right way to describe the burst that came from me? Whatever. I’m eighteen, being chased by a large group of naked, impeccably in-shape men, and I was just a wolf. Bursts of energy are the least of my worries right now. 

I force myself to stand and gape at my naked body. Great. Now I’m the naked one. I look around for anything I can cover myself with and groan in frustration when I see nothing. Feeling naked has never made me feel so alone before. Sure, I’m alone when I’m naked, but this feels different. I trust nothing in this forest. If I can turn into a freaking wolf, who is to say the squirrel enjoying its nut and the free show isn’t really a creepy guy?

“Shoo, you little perv!” I hiss at it. Its beady eyes watch me with complete disinterest before going back to chewing its nuts and I scoff at it and its fur-covered little body. Great, I’m jealous of a fucking squirrel.

Since I don't know which direction I'm going, I just keep walking straight. I know moss is supposed to mean something, but exactly what it means eludes me. It wasn’t like I was ever a girl scout or hiker. Not that I didn’t want to be, but because my life went to shit when the only family I had ever known died. 

After a moment of self-reflection and nowhere at all left to go, I try to strain to listen to the sounds of the forest. Which after a fair bit of time, rewards me with the sound of cars not too far in the distance. My happiness perks my steps up a bit as I move with more vigor toward the noises, praying that maybe for once in my life something good might happen.

Like finding a little old woman who wants to clothe me and feed me a home-cooked meal. Maybe offer me a shit ton of money and a brand new car? It’s far from likely, but a girl’s got to dream about something. Especially considering all dreams of naked men in the woods have now officially been ruined.