1 Chapter 1

The girl wrapped her arms tight around herself as she walked briskly through the ally way. It was not yet that late in the year but the night air was still chilly enough to cause a cold nip when the wind was blowing. With each cool gust, she felt like it was was going straight through her clothes and brushing against her skin underneath. She kept telling herself It was a only a little further that she had to go, then she wouldn't have to deal with the wind.

This was how she deiced that she wanted to spend the evening. Not with her friends who had wanted to ask her out to drink and go karaoke and drink the night away to celebrate her birthday. No, she decided that she wanted to trek through the cold in order to enjoy the full moon.

As she made it to the end of the ally and took a right turn that she knew would lead to the abandoned building that was her favorite spot to enjoy the moon from, she tried to drown out all the unfamiliar sounds that were going on around her. If she didn't, she knew that she would immediately become too scared to keep going and feel the urge to turn tail and head back home.

It had been a rough month though and she really needed the moonlight tonight. She didn't know why it was that during a full moon she would magically feel better if she sat right where the rays would hit, her body was just weird that way. She had tried to ask before if others could relate to how she felt but gave up when they started calling her weird among other names and making fun of her for it.

Compared to some things, she didn't really think that it was strange to enjoy the moon so much. Others enjoyed soaking up the rays of the sunshine and that helped them to feel recharged so wasn't the same as appreciating the glow of the full moonlight?

with every seemingly heavy foot that she put on a new metal rung, the stairs creaked ominously under the moonlight and she felt her heart pounding through the fingertips touching the cold railing. Was she going to fall? The stairs gave an illusion that it would not support her weight despite not even being a hundred pounds.

After she was on the second floor, she just needed to avoid the weak spots and holes in the floor. One wrong step and would fall to the floor below. Even though she had done it countless times, each step she took made her heart pound as she held her breath. She could only trust her feet to remember where each weak point in the floor was.

She couldn't stop the content sigh that escaped her mouth as she leaned her head against the window when the moon light washed over her. It felt as if every little bit of stress and ache she had disappeared the moment that she felt the moon's rays.

Her enjoyment was cut short however by the sound of scuffling that came below. She froze the moment she heard what sounded like something heavy hitting the floor followed by a low growl sound. Wasn't this place supposed to be abandoned? No one had ever come around before so why now?

She hunched down so that she was below the point where the moon was shining in order to make it more difficult for anyone to find her in the darkness. Her heart was pounding in her chest but her curiosity was getting the better of her as she felt the urge to move closer in order to determine what had made that noise.

The silence didn't last long before more thumping, growling and gnashing sounds could be heard from below where she was. Whatever was going on it hardly sounded good nor did it sound like anything that a human would be capable of. Celeste inched closer anyways as she tried to peek through the holes that were in the wood floor she was carefully balancing on while trying to make sure that she didn't end up hitting any of the rotting spots which would cause her to fall through to the ground below.

When she did finally see something, all she could make out were a number of large bulky shapes that looked as though they were tussling on the floor. By the movement and sound, it seemed like it was more than one fight going on and the odds weren't in favor of one side that seemed out numbered.

The scuffle didn't last long though before a sharp piercing sound as though something was in a great deal of pain echoed through the walls before everything became quiet again.

Never before had the girl heard such a horrible sound in her life, it was bad enough to cause her to stop mid-step and freeze from how horribly her ears were ringing from it. A thick metallic and slightly putrid smell began to float through the air as well, an indication that something had been injured or killed.

In her moment of distraction, she misplaced her left leg and before she knew it she felt the floor cave under her as she fell to the first floor. She was took shocked however to make a sound but she couldn't prevent the thump noise that followed her hitting the ground.

She knew that it was too much to hope that whoever was hadn't heard the noise when there was a number of low growls that followed the thump. She didn't dare move though as she couldn't still make out what or who the shapes were. She was afraid that any sudden motion might make them react to her the same way that they had to the unmoving shapes that were on the floor.

The light on the first floor was rather limited but she could tell by the way that they moved and shifted closer to her that by the shadows that they cast on the wall, they were far to tall and bulky to be human, or at least they didn't resemble any human that she had seen before.

Their tones were hushed and sharp as well, but she couldn't quite make out what they were saying even though it was evident that they were talking about it or at least she assumed so as it felt like all eyes had turned to her.

"What is the meaning of this." A deep voice boomed from somewhere near the entrance. As though a spell had been cast all shapes shifted to one side or another so that where Celeste was still stuck in a uncomfortable position was in clear line of sight from where the wolf had come from.

"Alpha, it would seem that there was a little rat scurrying around in here. We don't know if she's with them or not." a hard but not as deep voice answered in response to the question.

"A rat?" The voice answered back, questioning whether he had heard correctly. Even though he made no noise as he walked, she could tell as the darkness crept closer that he was moving, or rather stalking towards her. The moving shadow on the wall also indicated that whatever it was was closer to standing in front of her.

He didn't move very far however, only to the point where the moon shone into the building from the cracks in the roof. She couldn't stop the sharp intake of breath that followed when she saw the creature that was standing in front of her.

The look on his face said that he was anything but kind. His size spoke of power, control, and dominance as he surveyed her. Unlike her, it didn't seem like this creature had any problem seeing her despite how dark the building was.

"Interesting." he remarked as he raised his right clawed hand, running his tongue over it to clean a red substance that had gotten on his mottled black fur. Celeste could only imagine that it was blood because of how deep red it was. Whose blood though was the question.

The creature was about to speak again but froze for at that moment the moon had shifted in the sky enough so that the light shone over Celeste. This caused a strange spell to come over the creature as his eyes widened in disbelief though the hard expression on his face didn't change in the slightest.

"Mate." was the word he spoke next as he stared at the raven haired girl. He said it in such a low whisper that it was almost carried away by the wind and only those who were nearby were able to hear it.