‘Why did I run’ Dustin asked himself as he moved through the trees like a shadow. As a werewolf, moving through the forest should be easy, but it was agonizingly slow compared to what he was used to. But that’s what happens when you’ve got two crossbow bolts sticking out of your back. It wasn’t helping that they were coated with wolfsbane. He wasn't sure how long he’d been running, but now he was sure that his pack was dead. He could remember he’s Alpha telling him to run, but he could help but feel like he should have stayed. Maybe he could have helped. ‘No’ he thought to himself ‘don’t go down that road.’

He was suddenly brought out of his thoughts as a sharp pain exploded through his left side. He instantly knew he’d been shot. He fell to the moss covered ground. He cough and black blood covered the ground. The wolfsbane had reached his blood stream. Soon, he told himself as he felt the poison spreading. As he forced himself to his feet, another bullet hit him in his back. Normally he would heal from this but the poison was making it impossible. He silently cursed the Hunters. He had no idea why they hunted his kind, but they always did. As he rolled onto his back and looked at the sky. He couldn’t help but think the stars looked beautiful that night.

He felt his mind fading. Whether from the poison or blood loss he didn’t know nor did he care. As he felt the cold embrace of death, he smiled at the female hunter that moved toward his dying body. She had her rifle aimed at him.

“Do you ever wonder why you hunt us?” he asked as he lost himself to the dark clutches of death.

The darkness. It was peaceful. Dustin just sat there in the dark. He didn’t know how long it had been, but he didn’t really care either. Within the darkness, he felt peace and within that peace he gained an understanding of what it truly meant to be a dead. He’d thought he understood well he was alive, but he’d barely scratched the surface.

Suddenly he felt something coming. Like a heartbeat, but he could see in the distance he could see light. It was a welcome change. It seemed like an eternity before the light arrived before him. As he looked at the light, he realized that it wasn’t a light but a woman that gave off a soft white light. To call her beautiful would be an injustice. She was perfection. Moonlight white hair and eyes like stars. Her figure was alluring. She watched him with an alien interest. But like the rest of his time in the dark, he didn’t feel anything. They sat there watching each other.

“Greetings,” she said in a voice that could put angels to shame.

He tried to respond, but he realized that he couldn’t make a sound. Not that he’d ever felt like trying. He didn’t have a body so he wasn’t surprised. The light woman seem to realize this as well. As she quickly continued speaking, “I’m sorry for not coming sooner, but I was busy with other things. But I’m here now so I’ll make this quick.”

She paused for a moment then continued, “My name is Lystra. I'm the goddess of the moon. Wolves have always been my children and werewolves even more so. I’ve been watching you for a long time. You have the qualities of a true wolf. You’re loyal and strong. You’re prowess in battle is truly one of a kind, but you can be gentle when you need to be.”

Dustin was at a loss for words. Even if he could speak, he wouldn’t know what to say to that. He was in the presences of a goddess. As she complimented him, he felt a sharp pain flare through him. He could still remembered how he’d run and left his Pack behind. Left them to die.

Seeming to sense his thoughts, Lystra spoke again, “and because of this I’m going to send you to a new world. It’s much younger than your old one. That means that Magic will be in the air and so you’ll be much stronger there. But with the new power there will be new danger as well.”

At the thought of being able to live again, Dustin could help but be excited, and adding the promise of more power made it even more so. He wondered what she meant by magic in the air, but didn’t think on it too much because he find out soon enough.

“I’ve already picked the family you’re going to be born into. I think you’ll like them. Our time is coming to a close, but before you go I have to warn you that in this world Werewolves don’t exist. So you’ll be one of a kind. Fair well my child, and live well because I’ll be watching.”

With that, he slipped back into the darkness. But this time he could feel himself moving through it, and when he stopped he felt, for the first time in what felt like an eternity, warmth. As he oriented himself, he remembered that the Goddess Lystra had said he would be born into a new family. He quickly put together that he was in his new mother’s womb. He had no idea how long he’d be in there or what awaited him on the outside, but he was sure that he would face it head on. Never again would he back down. Never again would he be afraid. Never again would he run from those who depended on him.

After so long, he felt like he was being crushed. It took him a moment to realize what was happening. His new mother was going into labor, and he was soon gong to enter his new world.

It was a long time before he felt the shocking cold of the air. He felt strong hands under him. It took every bit of his self-control not to growl at whoever was touching him. Then came the noise. It battered against his sensitive ears. He could smell blood, but he guess that he had just been born so that smell was normal.

As he focused on what was going on, he heard someone panicking and screaming that he wasn’t breathing. He wanted to laugh until someone slap him on his behind causing him to yelp. It was a pitiful sound that made him want to laugh. He want to know who had dare hit him, but then he heard an enchanting voice.

“Give me my son,” the voice said as he opened his eyes. He felt himself being moved around, then he found himself looking into the eyes of the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Even though she was covered in sweat and looked pained, she was stunning. He instantly knew that this woman was his mother.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

He had long black hair at that moment was in disarray that made her ocean blue eyes all the more alluring. She smiled at him as he looked at her in awe. He wasn’t sure why but he raised he baby hand and touched her cheek.

“Hello my son,” she said with a voice that could melt the icy heart of the devil himself. As she spoke, he could hear a commotion coming from behind him. He was curious as he tried to turn toward it, but his mother had his head securely held.

“Where is he?” a rough voice came from behind him. Suddenly, a man’s face appear in his line of sight. The man looked to be his mother’s age with light blond hair and piercing grey eyes. As the man looked at the baby, his demeanor change completely. His sharp gaze softened and he seemed frozen with emotion. It wasn’t a huge guess that his man was his new father. His father was well built with large but lean muscle.

His father reached out and stroked his hair. He was a gesture that if Dustin had to guess was something that he rarely showed and when he didn’t it was toward his wife.

“He has a powerful gaze just like you, Morzan,” his mother said as she looked into the softened gaze of her husband.

“That he does,” the man known as Morzan replied as he watched his son stare at him.

Suddenly, an elderly man entered behind Morzan. Held out a small stone the size of his son’s fist. It was an identification stone. With it his son would be given a name from the gods. Morzan being a warrior by trade hope his son like him would be named by Ronan the war god. Quickly, he held the cold stone to his son’s forehead. Then the stone did something that no one in the room had ever seen before. Even the priest that had brought the stone, watch in shock. Normally the stone would glow softly and show the name of the child before reshaping into the crest of whatever god had named them. Morzan’s stone was in the shape of two swords crossed over a shield. Well his wife’s was in the shape of a bloomed flower. But the newborn boy’s didn’t just glower. It shined like the sun with silver light, and from the light came a figure of a woman. As the people save exhausted mother, realized what stood before them they all drop to one knee. Never had anyone there in their wildest dreams imagined that one of the divine would personally come to name a child. But the priest was even most shock because he knew first who the goddess that stood before them was.

The goddess looked at the child and the child looked back. To everyone’s dismay, the goddess smiled at the child as he watched her and smiled back. She reached out and touched the child’s stone after that she turned toward the people in the room and spoke, “treat him well.” And with those words, she disappeared and with her the stone hung around the child’s neck by a small silver chain.

After a few minutes, Morzan moved toward his wife and son. His wife looked a shock as he felt. He pushed his thoughts aside as he touched his son’s stone. What he saw within made him to gasp in surprise. As his wife watched his expression go from shock to pride then to confusion, she could get over the fact that the goddess Lystra came a personally named her son.

“What is it, dear?” She could barely contain herself, but she knew that it was tradition for the father to see his son’s name first where as if it was a daughter she would see it first.

He looked at her with wide eyes and said, “His name is Lycan.”

She knew there was more, but from the look in her husband’s eyes she knew that he was trying to understand something he’d found in the stone. As he gestured for her to look, she couldn’t move fast enough. As she looked within, her son’s identification stone she understood.

Lycan Snow: son of Lord Morzan Snow and Lady Lucinda Snow

Race: Werewolf

Age:???

Strength:??? Speed:??? Agility:??? Stamina:??? Endurance:???Intelligence: 211 Wisdom: 283

Chosen heir of Lystra Goddess of the moon

Both parents looked at their son with both pride and question. They had the idea that he could understand them. And the fact that he was one of the Chosen was something that would shock the world. One thing that scared them was that he wasn’t human like them, and they had no idea what a Werewolf was. Morzan had traveled most of his teen and young adult life. In that time he had never heard of such a thing. But he could guess it had something to do with his physical stats being blocked.

He looked at his wife who gave his a smile, but he could clearly see she was exhausted. He took a moment to admire her beauty. As she sat feeding their son, she had gain a motherly aura that to him made her all the more beautiful.

He quickly ordered everyone to hurry up and get out except for the priest. As the room fell silent, he looked into the priest eyes. The priest was his uncle and looked back at him with the same grey eyes.

“I hope you know what just happened,” Morzan asked with a tired voice.

“I know that your son is the first to be named by the Goddess Lystra in over a thousand years. And from the look on your face, I take it he is one of the Chosen. But his stone looks wrong,” the old priest answered as he looked at the stone that hung around the sleeping child’s neck. Well most stone’s where in the shape of the Divine’s seal. But the child’s was in the shape of a snarling wolf head.

“I think that the change of the shape is because of his race,” the priest looked at Morzan in shock, “his stone says that he isn’t human, but it says that we are his parents. How is that possible?”

The distress was plain in the voice of the young lord’s voice. He look to his uncle with pleading eyes. He knew well that his wife had been faithful not only because the stone said that he was the child’s father, but because his wife had been a maiden when they had married only a year before his son was born. He had the scars on his back to prove it.

“What do you mean,” the priest asked softly as he looked at the child sleeping next to his nephew’s wife, “if he isn’t human what race is he?”

“His stone says he is a Werewolf,” Lord Morzan replied as he looked at his sleeping wife and son, “in my travels for father, I never once heard of such a thing.”

As the priest thought about it, he cast a series of healing spells on the Lady of the house. He was always fond of Lucinda more so then his nieces. She wasn’t just beautiful, but she was gifted in management. She had a charm around her that made it almost impossible not to get along with her.

“I know in the old tongue,” the priest said as he looked at the child, “’Were’ means man. So it stands to reason that he is a man-wolf. Although, I also have no idea what that means. Only time will tell I guess.”

With that, the old priest told Lord Morzan that he must inform the King that a Chosen had been born, but warned him to keep the child’s race a secret until they knew what it meant.