The golden rays of the early morning sunshine peeked through the navy blue curtains of sixteen-year old Vadina Moran's room, gently caressing her face. As her blue eyes fluttered open, she sat up in her bed and stretched her arms out. Nothing was better than waking up on a Saturday morning without the persistent screeches of her alarm clock. In Vadina's opinion, the entire idea of waking up at an exact time was extremely overrated.

Pulling the covers off of her body, Vadina walked over to the windows and parted the curtains, revealing the sun peeking over the tops of the pine trees. She thought of how it resembled a face watching over her; a warm and friendly one. Like she always did, Vadina gazed out longingly into the woods.

She was about to open the window until she heard a knock on her door. Without thinking, Vadina immediately replied, "Come in."

When the door opened, none other than Vadina's mother entered. "Morning!" She greeted her daughter.

Vadina walked over and wrapped her mother in a hug. "Good morning ma!"

Her mother chuckled, ruffling Vadina's hair and kissing her forehead. "Did you sleep well last night?"

<No, I didn't sleep much last night.> Vadina ruefully thought to herself. But instead of admitting this to her mother, she put on a fake smile and nodded. "Mm-hmm."

After her mother let her out of the embrace, Vadina felt guilty. Vadina Moran had a secret that not even her parents knew about. Ever since her fourteenth birthday, on every full moon she would become a wolf with midnight black fur. Yes, she was a werewolf, but she couldn't afford her parents to find out. The last thing she wanted to do was to endanger them.

Vadina proceeded to sit down at her vanity and tried to tame the black, unruly monster that was her hair. As she ran her brush through it, Vadina flinched as a stick fell out of her hair. Luckily, her mom hadn't seen it, so she quickly stuffed it in one of her drawers before anyone noticed.

As her mother took a seat on her bed, she knit her eyebrows in confusion. "Vadina, why in the world is your bed so uncomfortable?"

Th teenage girl gave a shrug. As her mother sat up, both of them noticed that Mrs. Morgan's pant legs were covered in burrs. Vadina felt her face flush hot with embarrassment.

Her mother gave her that look she so dreaded; the Vadina, you'd better explain now one. "Why are there burrs in your bed?"

"Um....well..." Vadina racked her brain for an excuse. She couldn't tell her mom the truth; after all, last night she'd barely escaped a soldier that had seen her. She had been shot at, the bullet grazing her shoulder in the process. It still really hurt, but luckily Her shirt covered the wound.

"Dina..." Her mom said, using her shortened name.

"Well," A plausible excuse finally came to the girl's mind. "You see, yesterday I was out playing in the old tree house back from when I was in elementary school. I must have brought the burrs in by accident on the way in."

Her mother met her with the same sapphire blue eyes that Vadina had. "You mean the one in the woods?"

Vadina tried to swallow the lump of guilt forming in her throat. "Y-yes..." She felt really bad lying to her mother, but she'd been hearing on the news what had been happening to paranormals lately. Were-kin like herself had up and disappeared from their homes; the peaceful Sasquatch population was mysteriously disappearing; there were also rumors that mutants had been sent off to mysterious facilities and were never heard from again.

Her mother breathed a heavy sigh. "Vadina, I know how much you love the forest, but the forest isn't always going to love you back. Don't you remember Uncle Jim, the one that lost his arm to a wolf pack?"

<Because he tried to take a wolf pup from its mother to keep as a pet? Yeah, I know the idiot.> Vadina thought, but she knew better than to argue with her mother. Instead, she nodded and said, "Okay, ma."

Mrs. Moran started to pick the burrs off of her pants. "I mean, you can still go out there, just have someone with you when you go next time."

"Yes, ma."

Mrs. Moran wrapped her arms around her daughter in another comforting hug. "I love you, Vadina."

The girl smiled to herself. "I love you, too, ma."

As her mother let go and headed out the door, she turned around to tell Vadina, "Oh, by the way, your father's making bacon downstairs for breakfast."

Vadina's lips stretched in a grin from ear to ear. Bacon was easily one of her most favorite foods, especially since she didn't get it often. She quickly jumped up from her vanity and threw on some clothes to cover herself with.They weren't exactly designer brand—in fact they were mostly just hand me downs from her cousin Marley—but they still got the job done nonetheless. Deciding that her hair wasn't going to get much better, Vadina threw it up in a ponytail and bounded down the stairs towards the sound of sizzling grease and the smell of pure perfection.

She jumped into a chair and looked to see her dad had already set out a giant plate of bacon and some orange juice for her on the table. Directly across from her was Mr. Moran, with a giant smile on his face.

"Aren't you going to eat any, dad?" Vadina asked.

He chuckled. "Nah, you know me. I'm good with toast."

Vadina cocked her head to the side. "But you made it. You should at least get some."

"No thanks, Vadina, I'm ay-okay. Besides, my doctor said I gotta lay off the fatty foods." He pointed to his chest. "Apparently my cholesterol is not what it used to be."

"Are you sure?" Vadina asked.

"Positive." Her father answered. "Eat up."

Vadina smiled and scarfed down the meat.

"Hey, I didn't say you could eat it like a savage." Her father joked.

Vadina poked her head up from her plate, her mouth full as she protested, "Bu' Dah...is'so gu'!"

Mr. Moran got up from his chair and ruffled his daughter's hair. "All the more reason to use table manners."

As Vadina swallowed the last bit of bacon, she looked up to her dad. "Thank you."

"No problem." He said happily. "How's school going for you, Vadina?"

She shrugged. "I'm nearing my junior year and I'm still no closer to knowing what I want to do."

Her dad looked at her with concerned eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I guess I don't know what I want to do for the rest of my life." Vadina put simply. "Everybody by now has some idea of what college they want to go to or what career path they're taking, but I still don't even know when third period ends!" Vadina groaned and pulled on the ends of her ponytail.

"Well..." Mr. Moran began, walking over to sit by his daughter to put a hand on her shoulder. "For starters, what do you enjoy doing?"

"I like hunting, playing D&D, learning about animals, reading, daydreaming...but things like that aren't exactly job qualifications, though."

Her dad seemed to take this into consideration, stroking the stubbly hairs on his chin. "What about your friends? What do they want to do?"

"Easy." Vadina answered, "Astra wants to work for NASA; Midna wants to be a director; Fleur is aiming to be a botanist; even Phoenix knows he wants to go into the medical field!" She listed angrily. "I wish someone could just tell me what to do!"

"But that's the beauty of it." Her dad said, spreading his hands. "No one can tell you what to do or who to be. No one knows that information except for you."

"But I don't know! That's literally what I just got done saying!" Vadina protested, slamming her hands on the table, eyes beginning to tearing up.

Mr. Moran smiled and pat his daughter's back. "Don't worry about it. You don't need to know what you're going to do right now. Heck, you don't need to know what your career will be even when you graduate. You've got your entire life to figure that out."

"Really?" Vadina asked, brightening up a little.

Her dad smiled and nodded. "Really."

Just at that moment, the doorbell rang. Vadina was about to offer to get it, but her father was already making his way towards the door. Defeated, Vadina slumped back in her chair and looked towards the doorway.

There were three men: Two were donned in camouflage and the other wore a black suit and sunglasses. The man in the suit held out a badge for Vadina's father to see. "I'm Agent Octavian Langsley of S.P.E.A.R. or the Society for Paranormal Extinction And Removal. Is this the Moran residence?" He asked in an official tone.

Mr. Moran nodded. "Why, yes it is."

Agent Langsley put his badge back into his coat pocket. "We have reason to believe that you are harboring an unregistered Alpha 6-A in your household."

Vadina's father shook his head. "What?"

"A werewolf, sir."

Vadina felt the color drain from her face. How could they know? Vadina hadn't told anyone about her secret. Why were these men here?

"I'm sorry, but you must be mistaken." Her father stated. "We're all human here."

"Mr. Moran, we've detected a wolf gene among your DNA." Agent Langsley informed. "The gene is dormant in both you and your wife, but your child contains the trait."

Vadina's mother came to the door. "Adrian, what's going on?"

"Standard S.P.E.A.R. precautions." Langsley answered curtly.

Mr. Moran tensed up. "Agent Langsley, we'd know if our daughter was a werewolf. Now with all due respect, I think it's about time you leave."

Agent Langsley sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Looks like I need to be the bad guy now." He snapped his fingers and the two men behind him drew very large and very powerful looking guns from their shoulders. "Hand her over."

"Over my dead body." Mrs. Moran growled.

Langsley shrugged. "As you wish."

It all happened so fast, Vadina almost couldn't believe what was going on. One of the men pulled the trigger and Vadina's mother fell to the floor, lifeless. Her father looked back to yell, "Vadina, run!" Before sharing the same fate as his wife.

Acting on complete instinct, Vadina ran through the nearest exit--which just so happened to be a closed window. The adrenaline pumping through her veins gave her enough strength to break through the glass. Even though the shards cut deep, Vadina ignored the pain. She had to get away. She knew that the men from S.P.E.A.R. would soon be close behind. The only chance she had now was to escape into the woods she so greatly adored.

Vadina refused to look back as she continued on, grateful for her inhuman stamina. She'd be able to run like this for a while, but it would only be so long until she reached her limit. Silent tears streamed down her face in honor of her recently deceased parents. In the end, Vadina wasn't even able to say goodbye. She'd never been able to tell her parents her secret, and now she might die because of it. <I'm so sorry!>

The sadness was quickly overcome by a heavy sense of dread and fear. Vadina's heart beat frantically as she dashed through the mass of pine trees. She needed to get away. In the midst of her thoughts, Vadina forgot to pay attention to her surroundings and tripped over a heavy rock at full force, colliding face-first with a tree. She felt a bone in her leg snap.

Vadina's vision began to darken and the grim reality washed over her that she may have lost to S.P.E.A.R. But before she lost all hope, a black lupine face appeared behind a nearby tree.

"Please..." Vadina begged, "Help me..."

The wolf stared at her, yellow eyes glinting.

Vadina flinched as she heard another gunshot echo in the distance. Her heart beat with all the strength and might that it could offer. "Please! I can't do this alone! I'm going to die! Help me!"

As Vadina's vision finally gave out, she could just barely feel the wolf grab her by the shirt of her collar and heaved her up onto it's back and ran off.