The day of the ceremony arrived and Liam was stressed. With getting the supply back on track, the preparations for the ceremony, and the time of the Blood moon curse rapidly approaching, Liam was having a hard time keeping control of his inner beast.

It simply wanted to rip, tear and demolish all the problems before it. Liam had to explain that not all problems could be solved with violence.

It didn’t care.

Calming the beast once more, he stepped out onto the prepared stage. Below him stood his pack. They were separated into sections. Most of the pack were set a ways back. The pubescent kids and their guardians in an enclosed area set aside.

The parents were there to control their kids in case they got out of control as it had been observed that most of the time, even under the stress and terror of the first transformation, the wolf will not hurt its family.

‘Most of the time’ a morose thought briefly went through his mind.

He shook himself out of old pains and focused on the present.

The night was beautiful. All the lights in the compound had been turned off. The only source of light was the luminous moon, its coruscating rays lending an air of mysticism. 

When the full orb of the moon reached its highest peak, Liam threw his head back and howled. A haunting tone, one that spoke of his loneliness, that spoke of regret, that wished with every breath for a companion, a tone that hid a melancholy, hoping that it would one day be answered by an equal.

That would not be today. Today, all that answered his call were groans of pain and the gasps from the spectators gathered around.

The kids were changing.

Liam watched carefully, making sure each of the little ones was coming though alright. For some reason he had a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Clank”

He heard the sound of metal giving way and his head snapped to the origin. One of the chains holding down the youths that had just changed, broke for some reason.

Unfortunately, this was also the one closest to where the spectators were standing. Normally this would not be a problem as most of those gathered here were experienced werewolves who could easily subdue a rampaging youth.

Most.

Liam saw the raging beast lunge for the defenceless human woman who was under his protection. He froze as the memories from that day came flooding in.

No… stop this… control yourself… you are stronger than this…

Why!!...

Monster! ...

Mama!!!!...

“No” His voice grew in timbre as he broke out of the spell “Not again”

Everything was going according to plan. Until they weren’t. Ariana’s ploy had been simple. When she discovered what the ceremony was, and where it was supposed to take place, things were relatively easy for her to set up.

She was already amongst the crew doing menial tasks so it was easy for her to set herself as one of those to prepare the grounds. She sabotaged the chains for the holding cell closest to the spectators and sprinkled a tiny amount of wolf’s bane plant around.

In higher concentrations it was lethal to werewolves, but in small doses it only made them extremely angry. What she spread wasn’t enough to even affect adult werewolves, but for adolescents, who have not built up a resistance and are already in a highly stressful state from their first transformation? It was more than enough to make them feral.

All that was left was to show up, stand close as she could to the sabotaged cage and make sure she was wearing a perfume laced with Solanum Lycocarpum. Wolf’s Apple, as it was more commonly known, was very attractive to werewolves, so it ensured that the new werewolf would go after her first.

She watched as the beast broke its chains.

She watched it sniff the air.

She saw it snarl and bound towards her.

The emergency device was in her hand, but she needed to wait for the Alpha to come close to rescue her. So she waited.

The beast howled as it leapt over the fence. 

Still she waited.

‘Why hasn’t that stupid Alpha done anything yet … What is he waiting for?’

Her breath caught in her throat. 

The beast leapt. She saw the gleam of its vicious teeth as they approached to close around her neck.

‘I waited too long… I’m dead’

Her life flashed before her. She closed her eyes. 

“Bang”

Instead of piercing pain, all that greeted her was warmth. She gasped and opened her eyes. She was in the arms of the Alpha.

She looked up at his eyes and she could see his rage. His normally sapphire irises now an enraged crimson. His full lips stretched in a ferocious snarl, exposing massive canines.

She watched as his mere dominant presence cowed the mindless beast. His very aura makes the previously ferocious creature as tame as a lap dog.

Her mind was in turmoil as she was led away and everything put in place. She had succeeded, he would definitely be closer to her, if only to check up on her.

She should be jubilating. So why was her only thought …

‘I want to be in his arms again’