Hibrideach (Book Three *Teen Wolf*)

Prologue

Time is a concept that is lost amongst humanity. People live everyday of their lives as though there will never be an end. As though time is an object they can manipulate through sheer will. They run their bodies into the ground. They put off important events with the promise of tomorrow. They live a life that is both reckless and mundane. Everyday is a gamble, and yet they play it safe.

Charlie envies these people. She yearns to be as blissfully ignorant-- to not know of the hidden dangers lurking in the shadows of the world. She wishes nothing more than to disappear into the Tuscany hillsides and spend the rest of her days basking in the sunlight and beautiful nature. More than anything, she wishes she didn't know that those days are numbered.

Four weeks ago, she left behind her life and friends in Beacon Hills, California to travel to Ireland in search of the one person who might be able to provide answers to her current predicament. By the time she reached Ireland, it was to discover that her mother-- the woman who abandoned her when she  was barely two days old-- had fled the country. It took Charlie three days to track the  woman's movements all the way to Germany where the duo began their own version of 'catch me if you can.' The latest tip led her to Tuscany.

"So, do we have a plan this time?"

Charlie turns her back on the setting sun to stare up at her new friend, Avery Manning. After arriving in Denmark, all her leads went cold and she found herself stranded, and growing increasingly weak by the second, in the Gribskov forest. This is where she met him. She walked around for hours; even used her newfound senses to find her way out but it was to no avail. At some point, her feet caught an upended root of a tree and she faced planted into the forest floor. Unable to gather the strength to stand, she laid there until sleep overcame her. It was Avery that found her curled up into a ball, cold and dying.

He picked her body up out of the dirt and carried her back to his cabin just a few miles out where he brought her back from the brink of death. Lucky for her, he just happened to be a witch doctor-- a healer for the supernatural. She spent three days drifting in and out of consciousness. It only took Avery those three days to figure out that she's dying, and more importantly, that her time on earth is more limited than she thought. He concocted an herbal remedy to keep her heart beating but it's only a temporary solution. There's no way to save her without knowing exactly what's happening inside her body. So, he packed up his very few belongings and all the herbs and minerals he might need, and together the set out to find her mother.

"I'm tired of chasing her," Charlie replies. "Tonight she will talk and I don't care how we get her to do it."

Avery smirks. "You're not nearly as patient as you were when we first met."

"I wasn't as close to death then."

Death has a way of changing people. Charlie stared down death twice before in her life but she came out of it alive. Now here she is and she's dying for a third time. Each passing day-- each morning when she drinks the herbal tea that keeps her heart beating-- she's aware of the time slipping through her fingertips. It's hardened her. The desperate search for answers does nothing but feed a never ending supply of anger to the quietly napping beast within, and the closer she gets to finding her mother, the more the beast stirs and hell have mercy when it wakes.

A/N: Book Three. It will take me awhile to update this again but I wanted to set the basis of the book and announce the title for you guys!