Chapter 3

Riley froze. The air grew tense and the two of them were just staring at each other for what seemed like forever. Quickly, Riley transforms back into her human form and says, "I can explain, but you can't freak out or tell anyone." Maria takes off her jacket and throws it over to Riley. Riley picks it up and wraps it around her body to keep warm. This wasn't the reaction that Riley was expecting to get, so she was very puzzled. "There's no need to explain. We'll talk more at my home." Maria starts to walk away and Riley follows after her. The whole way back, there were no words passed between the two of them and the only thing you could hear where the leaves rattling and birds singing. All you could see were the outlines of tall trees and the grass brushing against your feet. Then, out of nowhere, you could soon see a parting in the trees which was leading to a mountain. The mountain was only small, but for a normal human being (luckily Riley and Maria were not humans) it would seem a very long way up. "Where are we?" asked Riley. Maria turned to face her and could see that Riley was starting to get very confused as to why she was leading her to a mountain. "This. This is my home. Come on we still have a long way to go." Maria carried on walking leaving lots of questions left in Riley's mind. Riley looked back to the trees behind her, wondering what would happen if she ran back to the pack and told them everything. She knew she couldn't as she had to protect her friend like she has protected her so many times. So, Riley carried on walking and trying to keep up after Maria. She climbed and climbed until she reached the top of the mountain. Her hands were all bruised and cut from the sharp corners on the rocks. Riley could see that on the flat surface, there was a cave that wasn't very big, but could at least fit two people inside. There was a campfire sitting in front of the cave, lighting up the place so you could see. The thing that stood out for Riley was the view. It was like nothing she had ever seen. She could see trees that were all different sizes and colours spread out for miles. She could see a little clearing a few miles away from the mountain. It was where she lived. Her house looked so small from up here but was really very big. She could see the moon shining brightly in the night sky and placing its light on the very top of the mountain. Firefly's danced around her making everything feel magical. She felt free, but soon it disappeared just like the fireflies around her as she remembered that she had to tell Maria about her, which she thought may make her lose the only friend she had got. She turned around to see Maria sitting down on a piece of wood around the fire. Her black hair fell onto her shoulders and her hands faced towards the fire. She looked as if nothing had happened and that seeing someone transform into a wolf was nothing strange or new. This confused Riley and she didn't know how to react or where to begin when explaining.

Back at the pack house, Enzo and his parents were arguing over what had just happened. "You shouldn't be so hard on her." Enzo's dad hit his hands on the desk and muttered something under his breath which Enzo couldn't quite hear. "What do you want me to say? She needs to put the pack first instead of her own feelings."                                                                                     "Did you even know that Riley was being bullied at school?" asks Enzo. Both the alpha and luna looked at their son and in their eyes; you could see that the comment crushed their hearts. "What. How... How do you know?" said the luna in a very quiet voice that Enzo could only just hear. "Her friend, Maria, the one you were planning on using told me when I caught her protecting my sister from them. That's why she didn't want you to go through with the plan," explained Enzo. The alpha looked up and faced his son with rage burning in his eyes. "Who did it? I will make whoever it was pay!" The alpha raised his voice with every word he said until he was starting to shout and his hands were shaking with rage and anger. "We shouldn't be focusing on that right now. Instead, we should be trying to get her back home. I say we send a few pack members out looking for her." The alpha nods his head and tells them to leave him alone. The alpha couldn't believe he was so stupid that he didn't realise that his only daughter was getting bullied. He blamed himself for what happened and decided to take more interest and spend more time with his daughter. He also though of how far his son has come and whether his son was ready to become the alpha.

Over at the mountain where Maria and Riley were, they sat around the fire keeping themselves warm. "So this is where you live. It's... erm nice." Maria laughed at Riley's last comment and they both laughed together. "You don't have to lie. We both know it isn't actually nice." Maria smiled and that was the first time that Riley had actually seen Maria smile and laugh. "Why aren't you freaking out? You just saw me transform into a wolf and your acting like you've seen this before." Marias smile faded away and she turned to face Riley. She could see the confusion and questions running through her mind. "I know what you are, Riley. I've known since the moment I saw you and your brother. I know that you are the daughter of an alpha and your brother is the soon alpha to come of the Red Moon pack. I know you're both werewolves." Riley's face dropped with her mouth wide open. She was shocked and confused as to why Maria hadn't told her or anyone else that she knew what she and her family were. "How can you know what we are unless your... unless your one of us." Riley started to smile at the end of that sentence, imagining all the things they could do together like run through the trees and go exploring places together as wolves, but Marias face didn't turn into a smile, but instead she remained sad and serious. "You don't understand Riley," said Maria, "I'm not like you." Maria stood up and walked to the edge of the cliff, looking at the view and thinking if she should tell Riley who she truly is and what had happened to her. "What do you mean? The only way to find out if someone is a werewolf, is to smell there scent which only a wolf can do so you are like me, right?" Maria sighed and Riley began to get worried and scared of what would next come out of her mouth. Maria kept debating with herself whether or not to tell Riley, but she then remembered what Enzo had told her on the park bench about her being one of the only people he trusted. "My name is Maria Rivers and I am the alpha of the Black River pack, the last living member and the one that was cursed by Salice." Riley couldn't believe what she had just heard. "Oh my god! What, how?" Maria sighed and folded her arms across her chest and said, "Let me tell you about the death of every Black River pack member and why. Years ago, my pack was happy and had just moved from Italy to America and we were all adjusting to our new pack house. We lived on the other side of this mountain. Our house was tall and made out of wood. We had many windows, rooms and floors. The garden around the house was bigger than you could imagine and everyday all the boys and girls would train. We trained how to control our wolves, how to mask our scents and how to fight. Everything was perfect, but it didn't last for long. Soon, we found out about Salice and everybody had to be trained harder and longer. I was given more responsibilities as I was going to be the alpha soon and would have to face problems like this. I had to be in charge when my father was gone. My father was a fierce person and would protect his family at any cost. My mother on the other hand, was more of a gentle person and never wanted to go into a fight, but she would also protect her family and pack at any cost. But, my parents weren't doing anything to stop Salice. Instead, they were just waiting for her to come and attack us. I tried to tell them to attack her, but they didn't listen to me. That's when I took matters into my own hands." Maria stopped talking and looked up at the sky. "What did you do?" asked Riley. She was intrigued to find out what she did, but was also scared as she didn't know what Maria could be capable of. Everything she thought she knew about Maria was all a lie. "I did something that got all of my pack killed!"

After a while of silence, Maria carried on with her story, "Me and my friend called Scarlett wanted to get rid of Salice once and for all. We didn't want her attacking the pack so we decided to make a plan ourselves and that was exactly what we did. We figured out that every coven of witches had a source of power. An object that could give witches enough power to do spells beyond their ability. It had to be small, so they could carry it around with them. That's when we agreed that we would steal the object from every coven in America and build it to become a weapon. We did that for months and gathered at least 13 out of 15 of the objects. Although we didn't get caught when stealing these objects, on our thirteenth coven, it costed a great price that started the battle between the Black River pack and Salice." Maria paused and Riley could see the pain it was causing her when she was telling this story. "If you don't want to carry on its OK. I'll understand." Waiting for a response, Riley kept looking at Maria. "You have a right to know what happened. Everybody does. Anyway, we went to the Blossoms coven. Their leader was Margret. She was also very powerful. When we sneaked into the coven's house, there were flowers everywhere and spell books all over the tables. That's when Scarlett saw it. The object was a little necklace with a golden stone attached to it. While I was looking around at the spell books, Scarlett screamed from behind me and I saw Margret preforming a spell on her. When I heard her scream, I didn't think what I was doing and instead I just acted. I transformed into my black furred wolf and pounced onto Margret. She didn't know I was there so I surprised her, which was my advantage. I tore her limb from limb until my paws and teeth where covered in blood. I growled at Scarlett to get the necklace and start running in wolf form. Scarlett's wolf looked similar to yours, but she had green eyes and was taller. We ran and ran until we reached the pack house. My father came outside running towards us and when he saw me in covered in blood, you could tell he was furious. I growled at Scarlett telling her to put the necklace with the rest of the objects where no one could find them. Once I got cleaned up and back in my human form, me and my parents argued about why I was covered in blood, but I didn't tell them what had happened. Salice soon found out that the wolf that killed her sister was from my pack and she wanted revenge." Before Maria could carry on telling her story, Riley interrupted and said, "Wait, you're the wolf that killed Salice's sister. All of the wolves heard about that. They called you the witch slayer." Maria nodded her head in agreement with Riley's comment. She turned around to face Riley and could tell how interested in the story she was.

Maria then started to carry on telling the final part of her story. "Later on in the night when everyone was sleeping and no one was expecting an attack, Salice did just that. Attack. The witches from Margret's coven joined forces with Salice to take back revenge. They dragged everyone outside and layed them on the ground. Some of us attacked them, but they used their magic and killed those who striked at them. Salice was stood in front of my parents. Luckily, they didn't find me because I went for a midnight run after the argument I had and when I came back, I could see my parents and pack beaten and some slaughtered. Scarlett was also laying dead on the ground. I didn't know what to do, so instead I just watched. She started to kill the pack members in front of my parents so they could feel the pain she did. Anger started to boil inside of me, but I remained where I was. Then she looked at my parents. I could hear her saying that she wasn't going to kill them, but instead she was going to curse them to their human form. This was one of the worst things a werewolf had to cope with. I wasn't going to let this happen so just as she was saying the spell and about to place it over my parents, I ran out of the trees and jumped in front of my parents and that gave me the curse. Salice couldn't believe what had just happened. A big blast of white light and gust of wind circled around me. I had the curse, but also something else. When you jump in front of someone when a curse is being performed when you are doing it for love and only love, you take some of the witches power. That was exactly what happened in my case. Salice knew what happened and let's just say she wasn't very happy about it. She changed her mind and killed my parents and burned my house down to the ground. She left me alive so I could feel the pain and memories every day. No packs came to help or to see what had happened and that is why I despise packs. Soon two people came by to see what had happened. One was a witch and the other was a vampire. They took care of me and protected me from anyone that tried to hurt me. They taught me how to fight and what it was like to be a leader. I know my story isn't a happy one, but that's it." Riley didn't really know what to say. She had heard stories about what had happened to the Black River pack, but none of them were true or compared to this one. "You're a witch, but when can you transform into your wolf then?" Riley asked. "I can transform on the 30th December which is two weeks away from now and yes I am a witch. Look." Maria placed her hand out flat and looked at it. Maria's eyes turned red and a fire in the shape of a wolf appeared on her hand. Riley was shocked and amazed at what she had just done. Maria closed her hand, burning herself in the process and waved her hand at the campfire, putting it out. She put her finger to her mouth telling Riley to not make a sound. Near the mountain, two pack members from the Red Moon pack came and circled around the mountain. They were following Riley's scent, but couldn't figure out where she had gone. They circled around the mountain over and over again, but couldn't figure out where Riley was (luckily for Maria). Soon they gave up and retreated to their pack house. Maria lit the fire with another wave of her hand and looked at Riley. "Can you still use your werewolf abilities?" Maria nodded her head at Riley's question and said, "You should be getting back home. Those wolves were looking for you." Riley shaked her head and told Maria that she didn't want to go back to her home and explained why. Riley told Maria about the argument and about the plan to find out what she was. "I know they were going to use me, but I also needed to know what your pack was like for myself and I needed to find a book that only your pack has," Maria paused and said, "Riley you do know that you can't tell anyone about me and who I am. Not even your family."          "Don't worry. I can keep a secret from my family. Can I ask you something Maria?" Maria nodded her head at Riley as she gathered around the campfire to keep warm. "I want to help you get the last two objects that are full of magic and defeat Salice." Maria looked at Riley and was thinking about what to say. She didn't want her and her pack to die just like Scarlett and her pack did, but she also knew that she needed all the help she could get. "Alright. You can help, but I will not put you in any danger." Maria started to explain the plan to get the last two objects so they can defeat Salice.

At the Red Moon pack house, the two wolves told there alpha and luna that they couldn't find Riley anywhere. "How could you not find her?" shouted the alpha. The two pack members looked at the floor, not knowing how to answer it. "You two can leave us." Said Enzo. The two ran as fast as a cheetah when they were leaving the room. "I don't know where Riley is, but I do know that she needs time to think and calm down. We will send some more people in the morning, but for now we must rest and hope that she is alright." The alpha looked at his son and said, "For you sake and theirs, I hope she is alright." The alpha and luna left the room, leaving Enzo to think of where his sister is and whether she was ok.