1 Prologue

This is the story of how I lived.

I was 17 when I found out I was not fully human. It was in the middle of the night when I felt the change come upon my aching body. I had been running for miles when I fell to my knees in agony that rippled throughout my body. My bones started cracking, and reshaping, my muscles started ripping and mending themselves around the reshaped bones. My senses heightened themselves, I could smell everything around me, from the dirt under my feet to the birds why up in the canopy of the forest to the gunpowder in the rifles the men carried that were following me. All of a sudden I was able to see in the night, I could see the shapes of the leaves, the bugs and animals running from the noise of me running through their home. I could hear the men as they tried to track me. Then I was on all fours running through the forest as silent as a mouse, running from those who killed my family, running from those who would kill me. I run way past exhaustion, until I found a cave to hide in till it was safe. But I knew they wouldn't give up so easy. I was their prey and they were the hunters.

As I hid in the cave, I heard water running somewhere in the cave. I followed the sound until I saw a waterfall in the cave, as I walked over to the pool to have a drink, I saw my reflection. I was a Tiger, a White Bengal Tiger. I had bright opal blue eyes, prominent black stripes on pure white fur that shone in the little moonlight that filtered from the top of the cave where the water entered. I was shocked. How could I be a tiger! What am I? If I am not human, then what am I? I laid down wondering that, when exhaustion over took my body and I fell asleep and didn't wake till morning.

_

Once I woke, I was back to being human. If I had not woken sore and in the cave, I would have thought it was all a dream. I was not human. I was supernatural, and I don't think I could handle that. It scared me. I was alone, family less and supernatural. I didn't know what to do, but dad always said if anything were to happen, I was to run and don't stop. So that is what I am going to do. Run and I won't stop. But first I need to get out of this forest.

I snuck to the open of the cave to see where I was and get a general sense of where I need to go to leave this forest. I could not notice any paths except the one I made as I arrived. I could not tell where I was or where to go next. So, I decided to go east and hope for the best.

I don't know how far I walked or for how many days I slept on the ground, but I never once turned back into a tiger, no matter how hard I tried to. After what felt like days, I finally found a road, I walked along that road, trying to hitch a ride, but no one stopped. Not that I can blame them, I was covered in mud and my parents blood. I was not a pretty sight. But I kept walking, no matter what I couldn't stop, I had to find shelter to hide from the men that are after me. They wouldn't give up so easily.

I finally came upon a town. I knew this town it, was the town my parents came to for supplies when we got low. There had to be a friend of my parents around here somewhere. I spoke to anyone who would talk to me trying to find anyone who knew my parents until I found one, who took me in, cleaned me up, and gave me a warm meal. I stayed with them for years, then people started to realise that I was not aging, that there was something not right about me. I had to move on again. I couldn't stop. I never stayed in one place for more than a few years, I always left before people realised I wasn't aging. But in all this time I learnt how to control my gift. I could change at will, whenever I want, but I still had to change for one night on the full moon. It always left me weak for three days after the full moon or whenever I change, but it was price I was willing to pay to survive. The men still chased me and I never knew why. I just kept running to survive.

I was in London when they cornered me in an alley at night. I couldn't change, as I was in the middle of a city and I didn't want my secret exposed. I thought I was going to die, they had guns trained at my heart and were about to pull the trigger, when a wolf came upon the men and ripped them apart. They had no time to train the guns on the beast before they were all dead. I thought it was going to come after me next but suddenly it just stopped. It sat on its hunches and just stared at me. I didn't move in case it decided to attack me. It just stared at me and I stared back. It was a large animal, larger than a normal wolf, but what was a wolf doing in the middle of London. That's when I realised it wasn't a normal wolf. It was like me. It was a supernatural being. It was also the moment I realised it didn't attack me because it could smell my scent. It knew I was like it. So, I spoke hoping to understand what it wants. "You're like me, aren't you?" I asked. The wolf gave a small nod. I smiled, I finally found someone who was like me. "You're the first one like me that I have met, are there others out there?". Again, it just nodded its head. This was starting to get to be a one-sided conversation. "Are you able to change back so we can have conversation?". I started to hear the cracking of bones and muscle ripping, and then standing before me was a man the size of a bear. Which is ironic since he was a wolf. He had a golden-brown tan and his muscles were pronounced. His eyes were emerald green, and black as night hair. "Hello, my name is Rhys, what may I call you?" he asked in the silkiest voice I have ever heard. "My name is Freyre" I said as I held out my hand to his for a handshake. But instead he grabbed it and brought it to his lips for a kiss. This shocked me as I have had no human contact of any kind in many years.

We spent years together, travelling the world, exploring, and never spending too much time in one place, as neither of us aged. Every full moon we shifted away from any town or settlement we inhabited out of fear that we could have been caught at any moment. As time went by we saw cities emerge and empires fall. With all the time we spent together, Rhys and I became family. He is like a brother to me.

But something happened to him that was all my fault and I could do nothing to stop it. One year when we were in New Orleans, we came on a coven of witches one night in the woods that we shifted in, I was curious about them, so I snuck closer to watch them. Even when Rhys tried to drag me back away from the coven. But I persisted I wanted to get closer and in doing so, I exposed myself to the coven, by doing so I scared the coven. They sent a curse towards me which Rhys protected me from. After he was hit we ran and never looked back, that night we moved on to a new town never looked back until the next full moon. During the days between the full moons we avoid changing in case we were ever court. So, we never realised that the witch's curse took effect. But once the full moon came along, I was forced to watch my brother writher in pain because he was unable to change shape, and there was nothing I could do to help in anyway. It was my fault that this occurred. He protected me, and all because of my curiosity. It has been 115 years and still I have no understanding of what the supernatural world is. During those years, Rhys has tried to teach me about the world but there is only so much that he could teach me. But I was always curious of what is out there. However, he never blamed me for it, even when I blamed myself. That was just the kind of person he is. So, we kept moving around, until we made a home in New York City. We never had to move again, it was such a big city that we could get lost among the people.

So, we made a home for ourselves, we got an apartment and with the money that we invested over time, we had a sizable fortune that would last until the end of time. Even so, we decided that we wanted to work. So, we started our own club, I went school during the day and at night, I open the club to humans and supernatural alike. It was called Guilty Pleasures. There were only two rules in the club. The first being that when a human was in the club, they were not to know about any of the supernatural, and the second was that there was not allowed to be any violence. This is how I lived.