Chapter 1

White hot, forked and jagged lightning flashed through the blackening sky.

The contrast was striking.

Thunder shattered the quiet; the deafening noise echoed in the dense forest and eerie length of the road. Rain relentlessly fell in thick sheets of grey droplets. The wind's force stripped branches clean from the trees and swirled around the debris in a frenetic heap. The darkness of the night obscured the nocturnal animals prowling towards their dens.

Delicate fingers traced the edge of the frosted window, the coolness seeped through the wool of her gloves.

Another clap of thunder jolted the girl's body in fright. Her hand disconnected from the glass and retreated to her lap.

The girl, Melody LaCroix sighed uneasily at the ferocious weather. These kinds of nights always unsettled her. The constant whirlpools of storms reminded her all too much of her past.

She tore her gaze away from the frightening scene outside and instead focused on what laid before her.

Her new home.

The headlights struggled to cut through the downpour, but Melody managed to catch the rickety sign flicker by.

Welcome to Tensers.

It was a very small town, surrounded by dense forest and extreme weather, tens of miles away. The nearest town, Venice's Creed, was a lengthy five-hour drive away, which also had the main hospital for the area. Less than eight-hundred people lived in the Tensers situated north-west of the country.

Most people would hate a town so small and isolated. Melody was one of those people. She hated the cold weather, the alienation and the habitat of the country. Her childhood had been awful in Anchorage so she hoped the quieter town could be better.

However, she could not complain—no matter what the circumstance was. Her and her brother needed to move to Tensers away from the capital city. It was one of the key reasons why they moved away so far. The constant foster homes she was transferred back and forth from was exhausting until her brother was able to secure guardianship.

It had been a complicated process.

The memories were too raw to stay, so they moved as soon as they earned enough money. For a fresh start.

"We'll be there soon," her older brother, Mino mumbled absently.

He steered the truck on the road with extreme caution as he navigated through the ghostly town. After venturing down some streets, Mino announced they had arrived.

Knitting her eyebrows together, Melody scrutinised the ordinary building. It was a standard two bedroom-two bathroom solitary house on the edge of town.

Utterly isolated.

Melody glanced at her only sibling as he stared at the house with glassy eyes and a contorted facial expression. Her brown eyes flickered back to the new home; she began to feel that gut-retching feeling in her stomach.

A new home, as damaged orphans.

She grabbed his hand and gave it a small squeeze for reassurance. He returned the gesture with a weak smile.

Since having to spend their time away from each in foster care, their sibling bond loosened and they struggled to share things with each other.

So, the brother and sister just kept their nightmares to themselves.

Mino was not how Melody used to remember. He was now a closed-off, quiet person who rarely expressed himself.

Ever since their parent's death, Mino built impenetrable walls around him. Like Melody, he was tossed carelessly through the foster care system. His mental health declined into a rapidly dark place. Separating from Melody affected him badly, leading him into an alcoholic haze during the early years of his adolescence.

It was years until Mino finally recovered and was deemed responsible enough to take guardianship of his baby sister.

"Come on. All our things are already here." Mino's voice sliced through the thick silence between them. "We'll unpack in the morning." His dark eyes searched her in the dim light face as he spoke. "Okay?"

"Okay," Melody answered. "Can I get the biggest room?" she added with a small smile lingering on her cold lips.

He shook his head before he opened the door and headed out into the roaring storm.

She followed and her hair instantly whisked around in a crazed frenzy as the wind whipped dangerously. Icy rain pelted down with unforgivable force; her face stung as the cold air nipped at her vulnerable skin. She shivered violently as she struggled to steer herself to the door.

Not so welcoming.

Mino suddenly wrapped his hand around her upper arm to guide them to the front door. Slamming the door shut, the howls of the wind instantly dulled.

They both hung up their coats before Mino directed her to her new room. She noticed the sluggish steps and dark bags under his eyes were evident from the lack of sleep. After all, he had driven most of the eleven-hour trip to town.

Melody hesitantly stepped through the door, not at all impressed as she mumbled quietly, "This better be the biggest room."

Unamused, her brother quickly wished her goodnight and left.

Silence settled in her room beside the soft sound of the rain easing outside. She sighed to herself and searched through the brown boxes for her warm pyjamas.

"Finally..." She mumbled when she the articles of clothing. Melody slipped on the thick, flannelette clothes along with fluffy socks and a warm windcheater.

A lonely howl suddenly called out in the moonless night, startling her.

Inhaling sharply, she inched closer to her large bedroom window. She peered outside and realised that her room faced the rear of the house, positioned before the backyard.

Only the backyard wasn't protected by a high, sturdy fence.

Rickety wooden stakes with thin chains connected to the tops of the rotting wood was the 'fence'. The entrance of the Wolverton forest was visibly close and anything prowling within it could easily break it down.

Another howl of a wolf rung out again in the night. She gasped at the noise and held a hand over hear thumping, erratic heart.

Melody had always feared them and was very aware of their nature. She had experienced their feral viciousness first hand.

When Melody was younger, her family was visiting a friend of theirs. Being young and curious, unwatched by her parents and Mino, she wandered into a nearby forest around dusk. To put it frankly, she saw a grey wolf and naively thought it was a dog. Melody got too close and accidentally provoked the wolf. The wolf attacked, mauling her small, defenceless body. Thankfully, after hearing her screams, her father shot the wolf but it managed to get away.

The nasty scars around her stomach were still prominent as were the memories; fresh in her mind. The incident had made her now very wary of everything nowadays.

Suddenly, she caught movement from the forest edge, snapping her out of her thoughts.

Melody staggered back at the sudden sight of a pair of glowing vibrant golden-yellow eyes. They glinted in the soft glow illuminating from a nearby outdoor lamp. It seemed to stare back at her as it slowly prowled forward out of the line of the dark forest. The thick, matted grey fur covered its massive, coiled body.

It growled, the rumbling noise making her heart accelerate and fear tenfold. The large wolf snapped its strong jaws and lowly dipped its head. The hackles rose, ears flattened against its skull and snarled, flashing its rows of pointed canine teeth.

The stance was threatening and powerful. A short, frightened scream left Melody's throat when the wolf let out a loud bark; the noise resounded through the forest. She closed her blinds with such force that she almost ripped it off its hinges.

Her hands snapped up to her head, fingers intertwined themselves in her hair. Flashes of the wolf that mauled her rebranded themselves in her brain; the sickening image of the wolf's teeth gnashing at her as strings of saliva and her own blood dripped from its muzzle.

"Melody? What's wrong?" Mino yelled, barging into her room with alertness. He strode up to her and checked her. Seeing nothing physically wrong, he asked Melody why on earth would she scream.

She gave him a weak shake of her head. "Sorry, I just—" She cut herself off. She no idea what to say to Mino; how could she say that she still stresses over the horrid memories of the incident all those years ago.

"Mel, what happened?" He demands sternly, cutting her train of scrambled thoughts.

Melody sighed and pointed to the shaded window. "I saw a wolf, this huge wolf and I..." She trailed off realising how stupid she sounded. "I-I just got frightened."

Mino opened the thick curtains and peered through the window.

"I don't see anything," he mumbled as he surveyed the area vigilantly. "But Mel, I promise you we're safe here, okay?"

Melody felt unconvinced but nodded anyway.

"Alright, well goodnight," he said warily as he kissed her forehead before leaving her room.

She bit her lip in hesitance before slipping into the bed and flicked out the light.

Letting her brown eyes adjust to the darkness, they moved to the window. She softly cursed when she realised forgot to close them when Mino opened them up.

Trying to keep her mind peaceful and body relaxed, she gazed at the sky with interest. She realised the storm had completely passed and revealed a vivid, picturesque frame of the sky.

A sheet of dark midnight blue coated the sky like thick strokes of paint, dusted with an abundance of twinkling stars providing the only light in the night. It was so clear; she could see all of the clusters of stars forming enchanting constellations.

Tensers' sky was so beautiful compared her previous homes. Melody was never often able to gaze at the stars in tranquillity; being locked up in a windowless room prevented her from having the luxury.

Melody hoped to look around tomorrow but had a hunch there wouldn't be much to see in this town—she prayed there was at least a library or bookstore.

Slowly, she fell asleep listening to the rain beginning to fall down once again, light wind sounding strangely harmonic and the constant longing howls of the wolves in the far distance in the mountains.