The Huntress Becomes the Wolf (Complete)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

~Lucie's POV~

I held in a gasp as my brother hit me again. A fury unlike any other swirled in his eyes as he gazed at me, a look usually bestowed onto a lesser kind, the kind we hunted. Forcing myself back, I let him continue his game. Darcy was taunting me, daring me to take a move against him, however, I wasn't that foolish.

"Come on Lucie! You can do better than this!" Darcy said, a mixture of sarcasm and condemnation coating his tone. He was playing a game of Russian Roulette and he knew it. What confused me was why he insisted on this kind of confrontation if he suspected, like I had, the truth of my existence.

"I don't know why they insist on you being my Second," he said, referring to our parents. "It's not how it's done – it's not how it's ever been! You're a freak. An Animal! You're no better than the werewolves we hunt." From the satisfied look he was giving me, I knew that I hadn't managed to hide my alarm.

"That's just it, isn't it? You're one of them!" No. No. No. Panic flooded through me as the actuality of the situation dawned on me. He knew. He knew everything. This time I didn't wait for him to make the first move, instead letting the instincts I had been fighting all night, take over. Seeing my movement Darcy stepped forward, his body poised for an attack. The second he began to raise his foot, however, I thrust my knee up, causing him to lose his balance. His body began to fall to the ground, but before it could I grabbed one of his wrists. Pulling it behind me, I shifted my position, wrapping my other arm around him into a strong-armed chokehold. Almost instantly he began struggling against me, his movement's jerky as he tried unsuccessfully to break free. As his movements slowed I felt tears prick my eyes. This is exactly what I had not wanted to do.

"I never wanted to hurt you Darcy. All I had ever wanted was to fit in like the rest of you. Do you know how hard it was to pretend to act normal all the time? To be what I was expected to be, and nothing more? I wanted to be just like you, my big brother. Is that so hard to believe?" The tears that had pricked my eyes earlier now fell freely, their paths glimmering in the moonlight from the skylight up above.

"If you leave now, I won't chase after you. Just... let me... go," his last few words came out raspy and far in between. I wanted to believe his words, I wanted to believe in the fairy tale he was attempting to spin in my head. But if there was one thing I understood in this world, it was my brother Darcy. The last of my tears fell down faster than the rest as I tightened my arm around his neck, cutting off the remainder of his oxygen. At this moment I knew that I wasn't going to kill him here, in this moment, but that didn't make what I was doing any easier for my feeble heart to understand. I released him after his movements stopped, and his heartbeat slowed. I placed his head gently on the training mats beneath us and when I was sure of his safety, I bolted.

As I traveled the deserted hallways of my family's Hunter Compound, my eyes darted around, looking for even the faintest inclination that I was being watched. I knew the day that I would have to leave the Compound would come, I had just hoped that it wouldn't have come so soon. But even I had noticed how my powers had begun to seep through. They were getting harder and harder to mask as I aged. The only thing that I regretted was who had been the one that had put the pieces together.

I shook the remainder of those thoughts off as I reached my room. Throwing my door open, I raced to my bed, grabbing my already packed bag from the confines underneath. Without another thought I took the two steps to my window, the escape plan that I had made years ago instantly fluttering to the surface. My eyes barely took in the two story drop beneath my window, my body more than capable of withstanding the inhumane drop.

Propelling myself out the window, I landed with a thud. The sounds of birds departed as my feet hit the ground, my landing having unintentionally disturbed them. Sadly even after all my years of planning for this moment, I had never once planned for anything after it. Thoughts nagged at the back of my head, and for a split second I allowed myself to entertain some of their ideas. A pack. I needed to find a pack. Closing my eyes, I let my senses sore, breathing in the scents of the air. I nearly choked when I instantaneously recognized two of them, both of them approaching me at alarming rates.