The Dragon's Moon

Chapter 1: Trouble

I groaned to myself as I picked up the sounds of wolves around me. Too late I realized that I had wandered onto a pack's territory, and in three seconds flat I was surrounded by seven warrior wolves in beast form.

'Well that was fast.' Sarah, my wolf, said in annoyance, 'Five steps onto pack land and we're surrounded. Nice work Olivia.'

'I told you two that we were heading in the wrong direction.' Melanie, my dragon, said as I felt her roll her eyes, 'But did you listen to me, no.'

Let me explain. I figure that some of you are confused as to how I have a dragon and a wolf inside my head. Well, the answer is a fairly simple one. I'm a werewolf, but also a were-dragon. I'm a rogue that never stays in one place too long, and I have never wanted a pack. You see, my mother was a rogue werewolf, but my father was a were-dragon. I don't like to think about him too much, because he captured my mother and forced her to become his sex slave. Needless to say it wasn't long before I came into the picture, but my mother's 'master' wasn't too happy about having a were-pup running around.

So he told her to kill me.

Now keep this in mind, were-dragons are far more powerful than werewolves, meaning refusing his request would have meant certain death for both of us. However, my mother compromised in order to save my life. She told her 'master' that if she could raise me until I could survive on my own, she would become his mate, willingly and without question.

So, a bargain was struck. My mother raised me until I was nine, and by that time her new 'mate' deemed me old enough to survive on my own. My mother had protested, of course, but as his mate she was now subject to his full power. Against her wishes, I was thrown out of his castle, and from that day on I've been living alone.

I survived off of fast food scraps and what fresh water I could get from rivers and lakes, however rare those were in northern Nevada. For a while things were easy, at least from my perspective. However, that changed the morning I turned sixteen. I shifted for the first time that day, except there was something wrong when it happened. It didn't happen once, but twice. From what my mother had been able to tell me, the first of the two was the standard beginning shift for a werewolf. Sarah formed in a ghostly black body in front of me, and once she ran into my chest the shift began.

Let me tell you this. It. Hurt. Like. Hell! But, after being beaten by my 'father' for the first nine years of my life, I found the strength to endure it rather easily. The part where it went wrong was once I changed back. Almost immediately, a ghostly golden dragon appeared before me, and before I could ask what was going on, she ran into my chest and slowly began to force herself into me. Let me tell you, it wasn't instantaneous like when Sarah jumped into my chest. This took time, and every second felt like an agonizing eternity. I felt like I was a balloon that was slowly being overfilled with scalding hot air. Bit by bit her body fit into mine, and as she forced more of her body into me, the pain and pressure only climbed higher.

Finally, at the point I was about ready to pass out from the pain, it stopped. Unfortunately, I only had about ten seconds to rest before my body began to shift for the second time. This time the speed was roughly normal, and once I shifted back into my human form, I heard my wolf and dragon's voices for the first time. And let me tell you, sometimes I wish that they would just disappear. Sarah is a mirror of my own personality, snarky and aggressive, while Melanie is more calm and collected. Usually she's the one to pull Sarah and I back when we go overboard. All and all it's a sweet setup, if you ignore the constant threat of discovery that hangs over us all the time.

I was brought out of my memories as one of the warriors stepped up to me, his wolf lips parted in a snarl. I knew I smelled like a were to them, but I also knew from past encounters that I didn't smell like any normal werewolf. However, even if they thought I smelled funny, there was no way I was going to reveal that I was a were-dragon. Too many people would come after me for the power I possessed, and I couldn't risk that happening for any reason.