The Luna's Howling Tempest

The dark room turned bright when the light suddenly came on.

"Wake up!"

Someone shook the little girl's shoulder rather impatiently until she showed a sign that she had woken up from her deep slumber.

She rubbed her sleepy eyes with her stubby fingers before opening them. In the dark, her hazel colored eyes stared at her father, questioningly. Why did he wake her up when it was still dark outside?

"It's still night time," she said peevishly and was ready to hit the pillow again, but her father pulled her hand instead. "Why?"

.....

Her protest was drowned in the commotion coming from the outside. The sound of howlings and screamings pierced through the serene night. People cursed so loud while begging for their lives.

"Dad, what is happening?" she opened her eyes wide when she noticed that fire had engulfed this house. They were surrounded by fire.

The little girl saw how the flames danced on the walls as the heat suffocated her, while dark smoke disrupted their vision.

"Dad!" The little girl was now screaming at her father since he didn't answer her. He was busy dragging her across their living room and kitchen.

Her small feet couldn't catch up with his, thus her father picked her up without slowing down at all.

Fear coursed through her veins and her heart began beating so fast when her father didn't answer her question. Her mind wired to the worst thing that could possibly happen to her pack. Her lovely small pack...

The little girl closed her eyes tightly and hugged her father's neck as he rammed his back against the burning door, covered with flames, before they stepped outside of the house and the cold night wind hit her face, along with the screams and howls. The sound became very clear now.

The little girl whimpered when she glanced at her scalding hand, she blew on her hand, so the pain could subside a little, though she knew that she would heal soon, since she was a shifter, but still, it hurt.

Her father didn't want to waste even a second and put her down when he slammed his back against the door. He didn't stop when he dodged his attacker and turned blind eyes to the dying people around him, as he did his best to avoid them. He needed to save his daughter.

"Close your eyes, little one," her father whispered to her when the gruesome scene entered her vision under the bright moon light.

The little girl obediently closed her eyes, while licking her hand. She hoped it could heal sooner.

Gradually, the screams and the heat subsided until it became a faded background sound behind them. Even so, her father didn't slow down his pace. The ground beneath him thumped loudly against his barefoot.

And only when silence engulfed them and he was pretty sure that he had created a great distance between him and the slaughtering back at home, did he slow down his pace. He briskly walked through the trees.

"Can I open my eyes now?" she asked. She could feel her father's heart beating so fast and his breath was labored.

"Yes, little one, yes," he said breathlessly.

The little girl blinked a couple of times before she took in her surroundings. Apparently, they were in the woods near the basketball field, which meant they would be in human residences within a few minutes of walking.

"Daddy, my hand hurts," she whined and showed her almost healed backhand.

Her father kissed her small hand and her cheek, but he said nothing, as he kept staring behind his shoulder and picked up his pace again.

The little girl looked around her and whispered to her father. "Were the green people chasing after us, daddy?"

Her father nodded vigorously, "yes, yes."

She furrowed her brows. "It means we can't go back to our house again, daddy?"

"We will go to your uncle's pack, honey." He stopped walking all of a sudden. His muscles tensed up when he caught a strange sound around him.

The horror was palpable in those hazel eyes, the same eyes as hers, and his fear permeated through his skin, cloaking the little girl with dread.

"Daddy?" she tightened her small arms around her father's neck, her hazel eyes looked around her worriedly.

"Honey, shift to your wolf," he said, as he bent down his body and put her down on the ground, yet her arms snaked around his neck, as she stubbornly clung onto him. "Be a good girl and listen to daddy."

He tried to pry her arms from his neck, trying to not hurt her as much as possible. He knew that she was terrified, but he didn't have time to coax her.

"Shift to your wolf," he said sternly. The urgency in his voice made the little girl panic. "Listen to me baby girl," he said, cupping her small face between his palms. "Go to your uncle's pack." Desperation was thick in his voice as he had to send his daughter away no matter what.

"But, uncle's pack is very far," she sobbed, tears welling in her eyes. She didn't like it, because she knew what would happen later. She knew that she wouldn't see her father again, just like she knew that their lovely pack no longer existed. She wouldn't be able to see her friends either.

She knew that once the green people came, they would destroy everything dear to her. She slept experiencing the same nightmare time and again that became a lullaby.

"You have been there a couple of times, you know the way," he said, demanding his little girl to be brave and mature enough to take care of herself. "You have to reach the pack. Don't look back, just run. Promise me you will run."

She looked at her father, tears fell on her rosy cheeks and then to her hand that had healed.

"You are a big girl now." He looked around and realized that they were close.

"I am only six, daddy," she reminded him.

Inside every strong and independent woman was a broken little girl who had to learn how to get back up and not have to depend on anyone.

She shifted into her white beast with so much difficulty because she just started to shift a few weeks ago. Her beast was so small. After all, she was only six years old. She was almost like a little puppy, instead of a wolf cub.

And, when her father said she had to run for her life and not to look back, she did as she was told. But now before nudging her father's warm palm and seeing him shift into his big wolf as well.

The little wolf dashed through the night, and didn't even stop when she heard the howls and bone- shattering noises that filled the night.

She ran until she reached the human residences and was almost hit by a car when she reached the city. People around her looked at her with amazement and some wanted to catch her, but she bared her teeth and hissed dangerously.

.....

She needed to reach her uncle's pack before those green people reached her and caught her. Therefore, she needed to run as fast as she could.

She ran across the streets, and past the small outlets by the roadside and between people's legs, while they were screaming and cursing. But most of the time, people would gasp upon seeing her white fur.

Yet, she kept pushing her limits even when her breathing turned ragged or her small legs became sore.

The little white wolf rushed forward to the direction that she knew. She may be a little pup, but she had a decent memory that came in handy and shrewdness that served her at the right time.

However, her small body couldn't meet her expectations, as she gradually slowed down when tiredness took over her aching joints.

As soon as she did, someone picked her up holding her hump and tossed her inside a car.

She bared her teeth and tried to claw at her attacker, but it was a futile attempt as they shoved her inside a cage and drove away in a different direction.

No, no, no... she needed to get to her uncle's pack.

The little wolf howled pitifully, when they covered the cage with a brown sheet and left her in the dark for hours. Her body would hit the cage whenever the car went through a bumpy road. She even clambered to her feet and tried to bite the steel, yet she was not strong enough.

If she had been as strong as her father, she would have bitten the man that caught her and she wouldn't have ended up in this miserable condition. Or, she could have helped her father to fight the green people...

But, she was not strong enough. Not yet...

================

If you have been treated like a pet for a very long time, there was a high chance that you could become one.

The same thing happened to the little girl when she was caught by a mysterious man that night. Who then tossed her into a cage to be presented as a lovely little pet for a rich man's wife, only to be abandoned after two months when she lost interest in the small creature that would claw her skin whenever she got the opportunity.

Her father told her to not shift in front of humans. That they mustn't know that she existed, or their kind existed in this world, thus she did what she was told.

She didn't shift for two years, or maybe longer than that, she was not sure... she lost track of time and almost forgot about the way to uncle's pack, and now she almost forgot about how to be human again.

The little white wolf lived in a huge, fancy house with scary looking people coming and going as they pleased.

If she was not in the cage, she would be chained in the backyard. No one wanted to play with the small beautiful wolf that would bite your head off.

She would eat and sleep, eat and bark, and eat and sleep again, the routine seemed to last forever until one evening, when she heard a commotion from inside the house.

The same screaming and cursing she heard the night she left her pack with her father, only less of howling, since they were humans and not shifters, but instead she heard the sound of guns being fired rapidly.

The white wolf stood on its four legs, her ears perked up to hear more of what was happening while trying to bite her chain. She saw a man running from inside the house, but then a bullet was fired and he fell face first with a dark hole in his head.

The smell of blood and gunpowder spread in the air and the white wolf yipped, she didn't like the scent. It was the scent of death.

However, she was on alert when someone approached her. He was a man dressed in black sweater and washed jeans, he walked slowly with his blue eyes fixed on her.

The white wolf barked, bared her teeth. She was a little bigger than the first time she was brought here.

The man didn't seem impressed by her hostility, but he crouched down anyway.

"Move, I will shoot." Another male voice boomed behind the first man, but it only made the white wolf growl furiously when she saw that a gun was pointed at her.

"No," the first man said. His blue eyes didn't leave her hazel ones. He raised his hand to prevent the other guy from shooting the wolf, but then his next word caught her off guard. "Shift."

The white wolf stopped growling at him, and stared at him curiously. The order made her revisit a faint memory in her hazy head. Something that was close to home...

The man then extended his hand and released her from her chain that was tied around her neck. She had this chain ever since she arrived in this place.

"Shift now," he said again.

And the next second, it was a little girl, laying naked on the grass, defenseless.

The world is full of monsters with friendly faces and angels full of scars.

"Shift now," his order became firmer than before.

The white wolf blinked its hazel eyes a couple of times before finally shifting for the first time after two years.

And the next second, it was a little girl, laying naked on the grass, defenseless.

Her long white hair covered half of her body, so it saved her from the embarrassment that she possibly felt right now, yet it seemed that fact didn't bother her at all, as she glared fiercely at the man before her eyes.

.....

Curiosity and irritation were a few emotions that he could feel from the little girl before him, but seeing her wearing nothing except for her fair skin, he took off his sweater and threw it to her.

The girl growled viciously at him, but the soft fabric that touched her hand piqued her curiosity as she dived her nose into the black sweater that was thrown at her.

It smelled like coffee. The man's scent.

"She is a shifter," the second man said. He walked closer and stood behind the first man, who was still crouching down before the girl.

"Hm," he hummed.

"What will you do with her?" he asked, pointing his gun at the girl again. "Kill her?"

Hearing that, the girl bared her teeth and threw him a nasty look.

"Put it away, Ethan ," he said in a low voice, as he stood up, but his dark blue eyes were still on the little girl. "Put that on."

Though she was still very young, it was not right to leave a girl naked, especially when there were hundreds of men behind them.

"You will let her live?!" The man named Ethan didn't seem to agree with his decision, but he let her be anyway. "Be grateful for that." He didn't think that she was a threat.

After saying that, the two men walked away, but the attention of the girl remained on the first man, who was walking without wearing anything on his upper body, showing his ripped muscles and his abs. He was very big and looked very strong. His long black hair was tied behind his nape and ended at his waist.

He was a man, who could leave all the women stunned and flushed without doing anything, but the girl was too small to understand all of that, as the only thought that she had was; the man released her and gave her warm clothes, he was also not a normal human, as he knew that she was a shifter, and if she followed him, he would give her more.

With that in her mind, the girl scrambled into the sweater that he threw at her and immediately the smell of coffee engulfed her senses. She scrunched her nose, disliking the smell, but it made it easier for her to find him.

The sweater was too big for her, the long sleeves made her short arms disappear and the edge of the sweater reached her knees. She looked like she was wearing a burlap sack, but it didn't matter, since she had to run after the man.

However, once she set her foot inside the house, which was usually very clean, neat and orderly, she stopped abruptly. It was nothing like the tidy place she could recall.

Blood pooled on the white floor, until its smell permeated in the air, dead bodies were piled on the other side of the room, under the huge, fancy stairs.

Not everyone had died there, some of them were still alive, moaning and whimpering, begging for their killer to have mercy on them, but they were killed anyway.

The girl stood there, watching the scene before someone realized her existence and yelled at his fellow friend.

"What the hell!" He cursed at seeing a little girl, who was staring at the man, who was being killed with a dagger slitting his throat, but the girl didn't show any emotion. She stared at the gruesome scene expressionlessly. "Why is there a child here?!"

All the people inside the room directed their attention toward the girl that their friend mentioned.

She was wearing a strange dress with long sleeves that touched the floor. She was startled a little when she heard the loud voice and finally became aware of the attention she was receiving from the people around her.

Her hazel eyes darted from one man to another, until she found the face that she was searching for.

Without so much as wariness, she walked across the room, her small feet stepped in blood pooled on the floor, yet she paid zero attention to it.

"Stop right there!" One of the men pointed his gun at her, while giving a command for the little girl to stop.

However, she turned deaf ears to the order, while her eyes focused solely on that man.

Ethan immediately raised his hand, signaling the man to lower his gun, as he was slightly curious about what this girl wanted.

The girl walked briskly and only stopped when she was standing in front of Ethan , but it was certain that it was not him that she wanted.

The two of them stared at each other for a while, until his henchman gave Ethan a white shirt and he nudged his arm. "Kessell ."

The man named Kessell took the white shirt and wore it, as he spoke to the girl before him. "What do you want?"

The girl opened her mouth, her lips moved, but there was no sound that came out from them. She was not sure that she could still use her voice, after all it had been years since the last time she spoke.

But, she tried it anyway.

Air rushed out of her throat and her tongue twisted weirdly when she tried to speak. "Take me... you." She swallowed hard before she tried again. Her voice was so hoarse and it hurt her throat, but she wanted to hear her own voice again. "Take me with you."