HUNTED

Aila grabbed a few books and piled them on top of each other; she balanced the tall pile and descended the spiral staircase. It took a lot of her concentration for the books not to fall or for her to misstep. As soon as she made it safely to the ground, she headed towards the fireplace and sat on the fur rug covering the floor. Although there was a perfectly good desk on the side, she preferred her little spot and the warm memories that came with it. With her legs crossed, she opened the first book in the pile.

The book she picked up seemed ancient in her eyes from the tattered leather-bound cover, the weaved stitching on the side that was loose and on opening it, a sweet, musky smell wafted in the air as her fingers delicately turned the darkened pages. Aila knew to be gentle with such a book, and from reading the title, she realised why. 

ORIGINS : The Moon Goddess, Queen of Night.

If Aila needed to start from anywhere about her newfound werewolf powers, reading about the Moon Goddess seemed like the perfect beginning. Malia mentioned her in an awestruck way earlier, and on her parent's memorial painting, the Moon Goddess was also mentioned. This meant that she was an important figure in the werewolf world, and now she was going to find out why.

After skim reading a few sentences and flicking through the pages, she soon found that there was a lot more history to the werewolves than the mini-history lesson her dad taught her. When she flicked to the last page and found the chapter, it dated the year 1918, proving that the entire book revealed the crucial events of the werewolves. However, she was not about to read through a book she knew would take more than a week to read the information provided.

Flicking back to the first pages again, she began at the beginning, where it spoke about the origins of the werewolves and how important the Moon Goddess was in protecting their people.

It read:

'The origins of Werewolves dates back to 3000 BCE (Before Common Era) when the Gods were celebrated and praised with feasts and banquets. The Moon Goddess, Selene, was one of three siblings, Helios, the God of Sun and Eos, Goddess of the Dawn; though they are significant figures for day and night, they were looked upon as the lesser of, the more commonly known Gods such as Zeus, Athena, Apollo and others.'

Aila pulled back from the book. She was a little shocked that the Moon Goddess, who was such an important figure in the werewolf world, was found in Greek mythology books in the human world. It was a startling revelation that the Gods could, in fact, be real, though she wondered where they were now as religion certainly had changed since then. Aila looked back down at the book and began reading again, only to be startled when the double doors opened again with Darren walking through them with a dustpan and brush. 

She hid the smile that twitched at her lips as she watched him bend over and clean up the mess he made. She let her long locks fall into place, covering half of her face when his eyes tried to burn through her. However, she was unconcerned by his presence as long as he kept to himself. 

Glancing back down at the text, she continued to read.

'However, a rising power began to emerge quickly along the lands, slaughtering anyone they came across. This power was of stone-cold killers that lured humans to their deaths with their captivating, good looks. The creature was a lamia- a vampire. Civilisation quickly learnt the destruction the vampires left in their wake and the revolting revelation that they fed on the blood of humans. Though there were less than fifty of the creatures, in the beginning, their bloodshed was that of the hundreds and increasingly into the thousands.'

Aila sucked in a sharp breath. Gabriel came to the forefront of her mind with his stunning good looks and his piercing blue eyes with speckles of red in them. She remembered the first time she met him and how she instantly found his presence alluring before he used compulsion on her. Aila rolled her eyes at the last thought, then nearly jumped after hearing Malia growl in response to Aila's thoughts.

  "What? You cannot deny that he is good looking. He's not Damon, of course, but he is still good looking." Aila defended herself.

Malia grumbled about how disgusting a vampire was before she settled back down in the depths of Aila's mind. Aila chuckled at her wolf and her defensive attitude towards her, thinking of another guy than their mate. Shaking her head, she glanced to the right and realised that the fire was lit. She looked around, wondering when that was set alight and how she never noticed someone prodding at it. 

So that was why she felt a little warmer than what her hoody was offering her. Aila eyed Darren on the side, who looked to be nearly dozing off in his upright position against the wall. She definitely didn't see him warming up to her and trying to be friendly by lighting the fire. Either way, she felt more comfortable with the flames by her side. 

Aila gazed into them in a daze, longing for her mother to be there and teach her everything she needed to know. Malia whined with heartbreak; the thought of their mother was too much for her, so Aila dismissed the fleeting thought. She glanced back down to the book and continued reading.

'Though the vampires seemed to be indestructible, the hearts and beliefs of mankind were strong. One of the creatures travelled to a fisherman's village and took the life of the chief's daughter. After hearing the horror stories of such creatures, they did not believe it was true until one of their beloveds was left dead with puncture wounds in her neck. The tribe mourned and begged the Gods to help them. But none responded until the day of the full moon. The blessed Moon Goddess, Selene, visited the chief in person. It was said her beauty was otherworldly, and no artist would ever be able to capture such a sight that was she, the Queen of Night. 

The Moon Goddess bestowed the whole tribe with the gift of the wolf to defend themselves against the vampires. With their new powers, the tribe set off righting the wrong of the sinful acts the vampires divulged in. After hunting many down, they halved the creature's numbers into two; the arrogance of their own powers was their downfall. However, the dwindling numbers soon spiked up at a rapid rate. The vampires were not only able to procreate but turn humans into their own, which they did to increase their numbers. 

The chief of the tribe prayed to the Moon Goddess, asking for more powers to gather more warriors. His wish was granted, along with the Goddess choosing multiple tribes she deemed worthy of such a gift to protect the humans. The Queen of Night also left another gift for the chosen ones, which was for their ancestors to be protected against such a creature. The gift could be passed down through the generations. This left the werewolves praising the Moon Goddess who helped save them from such a terrible fate of the vampires.

After years of trying, the werewolves found that they could not destroy the vampires, for there were too many. They learned to coexist with one another once the vampires formed a hierarchy. With the new king on the throne, he disciplined any who were out of line and could not control their thirst for human blood. Though there were still many cases of their cruelty against the humans, they were less relentless in reducing the human population. Thus, the stories of vampires and werewolves began but turned into legend and horror stories as the humans soon forgot the existence of such deadly creatures.'

Aila put the book down on the rug; her thoughts went from the Moon Goddess to the vampires and how Gabriel was allegedly a royal. 

"To think, the sole purpose of the werewolves origin was to protect humans from the vampires," Aila muttered aloud.

"It seems not all humans forgot about us, though," Malia added, referring to the hunters. 

Aila nodded her head in agreement. She then searched through the pile of books for any history on the hunters but came up empty; she wondered when the Hunters Association was formed. If they had one of many compounds, she was curious to know how they were under the radar from the government and where their income came from to afford such a group. Shaking her head, Aila knew she would not get any answers, and her priority was to learn about being a werewolf.

Piece of cake.