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LYCONS> © A. L. Kelthian

Dedicated to Ethan; my love, the soldier that fought for and won my heart in the battle of love.

CHAPTER ONE » Jace

When I saw her, I suddenly remembered who I was.

She didn't *look* like much; copper colored hair, searing blue eyes, freckles, average height, and an expression I couldn't name, but as her scent wafted around me, it made me shiver. It made me want to pace, growl restlessly, escape.

It made me want to be me again. Beside me, the grey wolf looked up lazily, flicking a ear at me. But I was all eyes for the girl. She absently tossed a lock of hair behind her ear, her attention enraptured on the zoo keeper. Every time she nodded, her scent came wafting twords me, and something inside me craved to stretch, to breathe, to *change*. To be Jace again. Suddenly, those sapphire eyes were searing mine. I felt my hackles rise as we met eye contact, and my instincts urged me to show some fang at her, show her who was boss. But before I could, the zookeeper was moving her on, twords the backroom where the smell of meat always lingered. The zookeeper placed a hand on her back to guide her, and immediately my hackles rose, and though the growl was silent, I could feel it ripple through my throat, making my tounge curl. The girl was mine. The possesiveness swept through me like a tidle wave, and I shuddered violently as I felt the other side of me stirr. The wolf beside me whimpered in distress, backing away with his tail tucked, ears laid back. I snarled as change rippled through my body, forcing me to the ground, withering as my mucles spasmed. As I shuddered as heat pulsed through me, and tossing my head back, I let out a loud, throat rippling howl. *Ready the pack!* The change was here. And it was time for Jace again.

CHAPTER TWO » Chessa

Dave was on the phone when he finally came home from work. His face was flushed from the late afternoon heat as he swept in, dropping his work bag on the table, hardly noticing me. To the phone, he said, "Caroline, I don't care *where* it escaped, I need to know *how* it happened." Shrugging his jacket off, letting it fall to the ground, he was still as he listened to the person on the other end, presumably this said Caroline. Silently I abandoned my sauteed chicken to pick it up.

"What? ....None?....Well look closer. No bent metal at all?...How about claw or fang marks? ..." As he turned, our eyes breifly met. His grey eyes met mine, and all the sudden his demeanor changed. A smile slipped on to his handsome features, and he wrapped a arm around my waist, drawing me close to his chest.

"Mmmhmm...mmhmm...tell you what, Caroline, you take your camera and take as many good pictures of the scene that you can. Mmhmm...email them to me right away, ok?...Good. Bye." Snapping his phone shut, he slammed it in the table and kissed my brow. "Mmm, what smells so yummy?"

"Chicken, with a sauteed suprise, wolf boy," I answered, accepting his chaste kiss. "What was that about?" Dave hesitated, his blonde hair wet from the drizzle outside as he glanced at his phone. He looked lost for a moment, in what I call Wolf World. Dave and I have been dating for nearly five consecutive years. Just last year did I move in with him to his little house at the edge of town, smack dab next to the forest. We met our sophomore year, and have hit it off real well. As a junior, Dave started interning as a zookeeper at the wolf reserve, and I started budding in my talent for acting. By the time I got a lead in my first Broadway play, Dave had taken over the whole wolf reserve branch. Because of this, our little house was stuffed with wolf stuff. He packed my head with wolf facts and behaviors to the point that I could be a walking Wikipedia about wolves, but that didn't satisfy Dave. The year we decided to live together, Dave took it to teaching me various self defence skills, specifically against wolf attacks, along with basic self defence with my fists and legs. Once I passed his tests, he would take me out to study wolf behavior in person, tracking various packs any chance I was free from my play rehersals. I could name off 5 different packs by the summer was over, and everything about them; which one was the alpha, beta, the lunas (alphas femail mate) or delta, (alphas male mate), who was the best hunter, and who was the omega (lowest and weakest packmember, or the underdog). Dave didn't take that much interest in my acting career, but I didn't mind. He always showed up to each and every performance of mine, and always had some flowers for me at the end. I can't remember one performance he ever missed, even when I was in a traveling cast. Sometimes he would help out the stage crew if needed, making stage sets or going up on the rafters to hoist a large prop up. In the plays that I would hang from a cable cord to fly over the stage or audience, Dave would be the one to make sure my harness was secure before slipping back to his seat. In any case we balanced each other out well, and I was happy with him. I fantasized about him proposing to me, getting married, and raising children, or as Dave would joke, "wolf cubs." We were happy, in love, and I didn't see anything splitting us up in any future. Little did I know how wrong I would be. "One of our wolves got loose," Dave said as he helped himself to the dinner I made. He gave himself a healthy serving of greenbeans, and then went on to fill up my plate as well. "What? Really? Which one?" I asked, and I knew I asked the wrong question. Dave's eyes darkened for some reason, looking out the window over the oven briefly, into the forest. "Smokey," he answered absently, still forking out my green beans. "The black one?" I asked, grabbing his wrist to stop him from overflowing my plate with beans. He glanced at my hand on his wrist, his eyes still distant. "Yeah, the black one." Oh. I supressed a shudder, glancing at the forest in our back yard. Smokey, the unusually large wolf. All the other wolves in the reserve looked like runts next to the big guy, with those searing green eyes. I had made the mistake of making eye contact with the wolf last week when Dave dragged me to work, and every night, those green eyes, contrasting his dark midnight black pelt, haunted my dreams. The part that haunted me was how *human* the eyes looked. Suddenly Dave shook my hand off, passing my plate to me. "I'm sorry, pup, but I think I need to do some work. I should start calling people to work out a search party." Only a little disappointed, I cluched my plate. "Aren't you going to go looking for Smokey yourself? I mean, that's sorta your job." Somthing about my comment made Dave chuckle, his eyes looking over me at his office door. "Oh yes, Chess-a-belle, I will definitely be looking. Thanks for dinner." Kissing my cheek, he swept past me to his office. Before he closed the door, I saw a glimpse of his hunters gun, which he reached for. I shivered, feeling sick. I knew that gun would be for my green eyed wolf.

CHAPTER 3 » Jace

Crouched on the muddy forest floor, burrs in my hair, pine needles prickling my bloody palms and knees, I couldn't remember how I had gotten here. My memory is blurred, coming and going in flashes. I could recall the cold bite of metal in my mouth as my body battled between human and wolf, fingers scrabbling out of my furry forearms. Whining in distress as my wolf form continued to try to swollow back my haman, rearing it's head with a snarl, sending terrible spasims through my body. Cold sweat covered every inch of my body, along with sticky mud and silt. My eyes blinked into focus as my nose, still sensitive as a wolf's, scented in the smell of a pond nearby. For the life of me, I couldn't remember how I'd gotten here. And then, it struck me. The girl. I shivered, and my nose twiched as if she was nearby, my nose straining to pick up her scent. I knew she wasn't normal, and my memory of her scent prickled in my mind, taunting me. She appeared normal, but somthing, *something* in her scent suggested something...*else*. I wasn't convinced she was completely human. But that's not the part that was bothering me. The part that bothered me was that I knew she was supposed to be *mine*. And I would find her, no matter the cost. Sitting up, I hissed at the sting of my gashes on my hands. I was buckass naked, a side affect of not willingly shifting. I knew I'd have to get to a town nearby to get a feel for where I was, since I could have traveled leagues as a wolf; my kind seem to never tire. Then I'd gather the pack. They'd know I've already shifted back, since our pack bond kept us all connected that way, and I know my beta, Shaun, the telepathic one, would have alerted all the others too. We'd continue our hunt, our mission, track down our enemies, as we all had split up to do, and be rejoined. Soon, I'd be reunited with my pack, and things would be back to normal. But first, I'd find the girl. My girl. Tremors ran through me again, and before I knew it, I was standing on four paws again. I growled and shook my pristine black pelt, and scented the air. Without knowing why, I started east, letting my instincts guide me. Guide me to the girl. Let the hunt begin.

CHAPTER FOUR » Chessa

I made Sarah wait an hour before I was able to meet her at the park, a small place the town hall had just erected up a few months ago. It wasn't too big, but enough to attract families and their small toddlers, eager to swing or slide down on the shiny new plastic slides. It was right out on the edge of the forest borderline, that if you went tromping through, you'd get spat out into the next nearby town. It was relatively open, the forest to the west and the road to the north, so it was a popular place for all ages to meet up. Especially with the pizza parlor off across the street. "I thought you died or something," Sarah informed me the minute she saw me tramping up the hill to her. Sarah has been my friend since preschool, though I was a year older. Her light blonde hair was plastered against her skull from sweat, and her light blue eyes searched me over as if looking for clues. "Where ya been, girlie? It's been a rat's age." "I think the saying is 'it's been a coon's age'," I said absently, accepting her brief hug. Sarah hugs were rare as a cactus in Antarctica. She waved my comment off. "Point is, where you been? You've left me to my own devices and that's no fun. Gets boring after a while, you know?" "Between my next big show and the chaos of the missing wolf, I've been running my wings off. Dave has also hired me part time at the reserve, which gives me *zilch* time to be on my own." Sarah raised her eyebrow as we moved to a empty picnic table. "Figures...the wolf has been all over the news. They were even considering closing the park for a bit in case, like, the wolf tries to drag a baby off the swing for lunch or something." The thought disgusted me, and I wrinkled my nose dramatically. "Smokey? He's been in captivity for years; I doubt he even knows how to hunt." But those searing green eyes flashed in my mind, hungry and knowing. I could hardly admit it to myself, but something told me the wolf knew more than captivity...that it was resourceful in ways wolves shouldn't be. Maybe it was the human like eyes? I shuddered lightly. "I'll have to check with Dave, see how long the wolf has been here. I thought he said Smokey was a transfer, but I don't know if he said from where..." I sat there and puzzled it a bit, while Sarah gave me a dubious expression. "You and your wolves. That boy has totally corrupted you." I shrugged. "It's his job." "To corrupt you? Eh, no, Dave is just sorta obsessed about it. Like, if it were me, I'd be researching about your wings instead of wolves and their behavior." My cheeks flushed from her comment. Sarah knew as well as I that my unexplained deformity was a forbidden topic. I'd had my wings since 3rd grade, when they first grew. It started with a horrible fever, which after several hospital visits, the nurses decided it was meningitis, and later said it was bacterial meningitis. Survival rate of 15%. As the fever persisted, I lost use of my arms. The problem first started in my shoulders, where the slightest movement would send me to my knees with screeches of pain. It persisted for months, until my parents noticed my shoulder blades. They looked like they were going to grow right out of my skin. They sent me away to a residential hospital in hopes of a cure. I don't recall much about being there, other than constantly being in pain, and avoiding the nurses. I mean, there was normal fear of doctors and their white outfits and antiseptic smell that would make my stomach turn in nausea, and there is deep seeded *fear*. Years later, after my wings had grown and developed into 5 feet of muscle and golden brown colored wings, I came to realize the fear was some form of animalistic survival instinct. I spent most of my time outside from then on, because staying inside, under a roof felt like prison, and would send me into a panicked frenzy, much like a wolf if it got trapped into a human compound, cut off from the forest. I neglected telling my parents, because the urge for secrecy was so strong I didn't fight against it. They just accepted my strange behaviors, and thanked all the nurses that helped cure my meningitis. I also didn't tell them I had killed the nurse who tried to cut my wings off. Even to this day, I try to block that memory out of my mind. "Oops," Sarah said at the warning look I gave her. I rolled my eyes, and laid on my stomach on the table. I haven't slept on my back for 16 years now, for obvious reasons. "But still..." "Give it a rest, Sarah." I said lightly. "And just remember how privileged you are to be the one of two people who know about it." The second person being Dave. "Righto," she salutes me with a bow. "The honor is all mine. Let's order pizza." She whipped out her cell phone in double time. "Chicka, the pizza parlor is literally right there." I pointed across the street. "I know, but I like to flirt with whoever answers." I rolled my eyes, sitting up again. I was unbearably hot in my hoodie sweatshirt, but it's the only thing that would cover up my wings. I'd gotten used to years ago, and only have fainting spells a few times a year now. Ready for my weekend off, I let the sun shine down on my pale face, listening to Sarah flirt shamelessly on the phone. By the time she hung up, she was grinning ear to ear. "I think I just got us free toppings, gal." "That was basically phone sex in deep dish crust," I answered, shaking my head. Sarah chuckled, joining my sun bathing. "You need a boyfriend." "Maybe I'll ask the pizza guy out if he adds in free breadsticks," Sarah agreed. There was a moment of comfortable silence, as Sarah kept her eyes across the street for the promised pizza and possible boyfriend of the week. I stared at the sky, mentally figuring out what cloud looked like what. Wolf cloud. Jesus on a cross cloud. Wolf cloud. Baby crib cloud. Wolf. Bear. Wolf. I frowned and sighed at the same time, concerned on how many I saw as wolves, and longing to stretch my wings and fly up there and join the clouds. Feel the sun on my wings, feel the air caress them, soaring higher and higher. All the sudden, a dog started barking. It wasn't your normal barking; it was a ferociously agressive one, and I could basically hear the dog saying *danger! Danger!* in each bark. Sarah scowled, saying somthing about keeping Ole Yeller mutt on a leash and muzzle (she had about as much tolerence for dogs as Dave did; if it wasn't a canine in the form of a wolf, he had no patience for it) but I sat up, blinking past the sun as the barking made my skin crawl. First thing I noticed was that the dog was a lot smaller than it's bark suggested. It was a small black and white poochie, no taller than my shins. The second thing I noticed was that Sarah's pizza guy was starting up the hill twords us...or at least trying to. He seemed frozen in place, stuck between the dog that was barking at him, and a line of bushes. Which is when I noticed the third thing. The third thing I noticed was the glowing of green eyes in the bushes. Unmistakable green eyes.... The pizza guy was stuck in place by a wolf...not a wolf, *the* wolf staring him down. The small dog was going crazy, snapping at the pizza guy, while the man himself seemed confused. Sarah grunted and sat up with a irritated huff. "What is going *on*?!" Before I could warn her, the eyes snapped to us, and I found myself staring into the searing, fiery green eyes. My skin pricked, and it was like those eyes were eating my soul. I felt like it was trying to communicate with me. I felt as if I knew the wolf... "Smokey?" I whispered, before I could catch myself. The eyes narrowed, and I sensed the growl before I heard it. Something snapped in me, and I probably did the stupidest thing I've ever committed in my life. I tried to save my wolf.