THE MOONLIGHT AWAKENING

CHAPTER ONE 

They call me the Alpha of my pack. The protector of my kind. Not going to lie, it did sound pretty good. But in all honesty, this wasn't always the case.

It all began on the night of a full moon, her radiance imblazing her symbolic perfect, beautiful lunar glow over the world.

I'm Jaydon Woods, and this is my story. Fact is, I never thought my life would turn out like this.

Several weeks back, I was just a regular dude living his regular life. I had been employed to work at a local auto repair shop, so my daytime was usually preoccupied. My evenings were usually spent hanging out with friends or catching up on the latest TV shows.

To the common man, you’d think that things would go pretty much as your everyday typical, but you have no idea that a single night was enough to change my whole world.

It was on a Friday night, and the full moon had already started to rise when I left work. I remember feeling a strange pull, an inexplicable urge, so to say, to be outside, under the moonlight.

I ignored the unease that prickled at the back of my mind and decided to take a walk in the nearby woods, a place I often went to clear my head, or what I considered my happy second home.

The night was calm, the air crisp and cool. The woods were familiar, yet somehow, they felt different that night. The shadows seemed deeper and the sounds were more intense.

As I wandered deeper into the forest, the arousing pull grew stronger, a magnetic force that seemed to guide my every step to the point it stopped my brain cells from operating my organs of practical reasoning.

Pain surged over me just like a wave from a flash of lightning, bringing me down to my knees. My vision clouded up; my body felt as though it were being torn apart from the inside.

My hands went to cradle my head; I tried to make some sense out of the excruciating agony. My bones shifted and cracked, my muscles stretched and twisted—as if my very being was being reshaped.

To be totally honest at that moment, it felt like death; however, it was not death that would befall me but transformation.

My senses were sharpened, and I could hear the rustling of leaves, some far-off owl calling, even the heartbeat of a deer not very far away. A great sense of sight enabled me to see in detail the forest all around me, although it was cold.

Looking down at my hands, I saw something different: large, powerful, fur-covered paws. Panic was the next thing to wash over me as I tried to make heads or tails of what was happening to me.

I felt a newfound strength coursing through my new form, a raw power that had me in a conflicted feeling of terror and thrill.

I tried to get up on my new legs after the agony eventually lessened. It took a few moments to regain my balance, then I noticed I wasn't alone.

Out of the darkness stalked a figure, an imposing wolf whose eyes glistened with knowledge. Carefully, he came closer, never breaking eye contact with me. He whispered in my head, "You changed. Welcome to the pack."

I attempted to respond, but it just came out as a low growl. The wolf smiled, a distinctly human noise. "You'll get used to it. My name is Alex, and I am here to lead you."

Guide me? I had no clue what any of this meant—a maelstrom of incomprehensible senselessness and horror filled my thoughts. Alex moved in, sensing my discomfort, which was strange because his presence actually calmed me.

"Jaydon, you are one of us. A werewolf. We kept to the shadows of history, keeping our world in balance with order and preserving only ourselves. You are one, the chosen one, who has been selected to join our rank to claim a destiny declared long ago."

Destiny? Chosen? None of this made any sense.

I tried to scream, but could only manage feral growls and whines. It was almost like Alex knew I had been very frustrated.

"I've just given you quite the onslaught," he said softly. "But you are not alone. We are a gang, and we watch each other's backs. Just walk with me, I'll tell you everything."

Suddenly, as if my new senses were evoked by his words, they opened wide to hear every sound and smell every scent that existed in a world more alive than I had ever experienced.

Alex moved swiftly and silently through the woods, weaving through the trees and I examined his movements to follow suit, getting the hang of locomotion pretty fast. We reached a clearing where a small group of wolves waited.

"Brothers and sisters," Alex announced, "This is Jaydon, our new Alpha."

The wolves all dipped their heads in a gesture of respect that humbled and bewildered me.

Me, an Alpha? I had no idea what that meant, but I could feel the weight of their expectations crush me.

For the next couple of hours Alex and the others went over everything. The prophecy that told of a safeguard who would appear in our time, particularly perilous responsibilities as an Alpha, and danger to our kind.

Alex taught me to shape shift and harness the power within. I found a sense of fellowship, but with thousands times more information. These wolves, this pack - they were my family now. That spawned a new resolve.

Even if I did not know exactly what was expected of me, there is one thing that cannot be missed - and it's this belief: my pack will always protect them at all costs.

The break of dawn saw me on the edge where I could observe light filtering through the trees. Things had undeniably changed in my life, and there was no unseeing it.

But more than ever, this was the first time in my life I felt passionate about something beyond being a member of the race.

The full moon turned me into Jaydon Woods: the night guard, savior of my kind, alpha to all under our roof... and that’s only the beginning.