Bitten

Chapter 1

I would like it to be known that before all this happened I was normal. I had as normal family, a normal house, normal friends. My name is Araguard. Every one calls me Ari. Ash calls me Aria but that's because he thinks that my name's too boyish. I know Araguard is not a ordinary name but that's it. An ordinary girl with an extraordinary name.

It happened when I was 12. Me and my family were walking through the woods when Monty (my dog) started to bark. We couldn't get him to shut up so I decided to investigate. I was a few meters away from the track when out of the corner of my eye I saw a black shape come running towards me. It pounced and pinned me to the ground and I saw it was a wolf. That was the last thing I thought before it bit me. As I lay on the ground screaming the black wolf fled. I was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. The doctor's were confused. The bite was on my forearm was very deep but was healed within the hour. But I would not stop screaming. Pain was searing through every nerve in my body, my bones were like white hot rods, my blood was made of fire. Only one nurse realised what was happening. She knew my bite was from a werewolf. If I stayed at the hospital then I might shift in front of everyone and that couldn't happen. So she told my parents that if they wanted me to get better then they would have to send me away and probably never see me again. So eventually they agreed.

I was sent to join the Pack as they call themselves. I have no memory of the journey. All I remember is the night before we arrived the pain got to a peak. We were in a forest that was bordered by huge cliffs. I collapsed on the all fours, groaning in pain. Suddenly one last shriek of pain escaped my body, ending in a howl. I shifted into a golden wolf.

Nothing could have prepared me for this. I yelped in shock, leaping around trying to see my whole body. After assessing that I did indeed have four paws and a tail, I started to feel full of energy. I ran. My nurse, who had been looking after me all the way there, yelled at me to come back but I paid her no attention. That was one of the most amazing, liberating moments of my life. I had always felt different and now I knew that I was not only different but special. This felt so natural.

My moment of freedom, however, wasn't to last. I was stopped in my tracks by two other wolves. One was grey and was slightly taller than me and the other was brown and about an inch shorter than me.

"Who are you?" a voice asked in my head. I took a step back, unsure about what was going on.

"Hey, can't you hear me? I said who are you?" the voice asked again.

"Look like a new one to me Nate," said a second voice. At this point I was very scared and confused.

"Let's ask. Are you a new werewolf? Nod if you are," as if to demonstrate the grey wolf nodded it's head. That's when I realised that it was the wolves talking. I nodded.

"First ever shift?" the brown one asked. I nodded again.

"Maybe it's the one we got a call about a few day's ago. What was her name? Ariard?" said the grey wolf, Nate?

"Araguard!" I growled in my head. Why was it so hard for people to say?

That made them jump.

"You can speak?" asked the brown wolf.

"Should hope so. My parents didn't spend a whole year trying to get me to talk for nothing," I retorted.

"No one ever learns to speak during their first shift!" exclaimed the brown wolf.

"Looks like we got a talented one here Chase," said Nate. I barked a laugh at that. A werewolf called Chase? The irony.

"Araguard is there any one who brought you here we can talk to?" asked Chase.