Shaun’s POV
13 Years ago
“Mom! Mom!” a young Shaun shouted with glee, racing past the front door wuth his brothers following behind him. He flung himself into his mother’s waiting arms, giggling with great joy. “I found you first!”
Scott came in second, followed by Seth, who looked to be the most exhausted. They did the same as their brother, capturing their mother in a tight hug.
Their mother, a beautiful woman with long flowing golden hair wrapped her three sons in a hug full of warmth and joy. Combined, their happiness could be felt throughout the whole house.
If only they could have been prepared for the terrible things that were to come.
“Alright now boys, what did I say about playtime?” their mother asked with a playful smile. One after the other, she tapped a finger on their noses, eliciting playful yelps. “It’s time for a bath to get rid of the stinky and dirt.” She pinched her nose and fanned the air, ensuring that her voice had become high pitched and nasally.
The three boys groaned. “No!” They cried in unison, but it wasn’t enough to their mother from taking all of them deeper into the house with the intentions of getting them all sparkly clean and ready for the night.
When they got to the room, their mother turned to them. “Now boys, take off your clothes while I go fill up the bathtub with warm water, okay?”
“Okay!” Shaun said enthusiastically, clearly having forgotten his earlier resistance to bathing. “Will you tell us bedtime stories after?”
“Of course, but you guys are getting too old for bedtime stories, you know. It’s time for you guys to start reading more books and writing reports on them,” she said before disappearing into the bathroom. The faucet turned on, then the boys got to another round of playing instead of doing what they were told-as children often did.
Their mother wasn’t very happy when she emerged from the bathroom. “I remember telling you boys to get ready to take a bath!” She looked a little angry, but because she wasn’t one to usually do so, the boys didn’t take her seriously.
She opened her mouth to speak, but froze as a loud bang sounded from outside, followed by a blood-curdling scream.
Everyone in the room went still, even the boys. It was like they had sensed the impending danger, and moved to the nearest source of comfort they could find. They latched on to their mother’s waist, trembling.
“Mother,” said Seth, “what was that sound? Why was someone screaming?”
“Very scary,” uttered Scott, already looking like he was about to burst into tears.
“I-I don’t know boys, but let’s hope it’s nothing too serious. Maybe the person saw a rat or . . . something . . .” her voice went lower as something outside the window caught her attention. She quickly went over to it and checked outside.
Night had fully descended outside, so all she could make out were the shadows of shrubs, trees, and the neighbouring buildings outside the villa. She was just about to move away, thinking that it was probably just nothing after all and just a trick of the night, when another bang reverberated nearby. This time, it seemed to be from somewhere close and inside-like in the hallway.
The kids jumped again, squealing at a strangely unified pitch.
Their mother left the window and watched the door, already having a bad feeling like there was someone waiting outside. Also, a shadow bled underneath the room door, eerily still.
“Who’s there?” she called out, stepping closer to the door.
“You have a package from the Alpha,” said a deep masculine voice from the other side.
The woman didn’t let her guard down, because something still didn’t seem right. “You can just drop it outside the door, thank you.”
“He said you have to receive it as soon as possible. I don’t want to impose, but I’m just following orders.”
“As your Luna, I’m telling you to leave it outside.”
After a terse moment of silence, the guard yielded. “Alright ma’am. As you wish.” Shuffling sounds followed, then receding footsteps.
She waited for an extra moment for good measure, before going to the door and opening it-
A small scream left her throat when she saw that she had been fooled. There was no package, and worse yet, someone still stood in front of the door, their lips curled up in an evil smile.
“No,” she whispered, eyes widening and her jawline going a little slack. MShe tried to quickly close the door, but the person lunged forward and kicked it back, sending her stumbling backwards in a panic. She turned to her three boys quickly and signaled for them to move away.
But the children were shocked, and remained frozen to the spot. Eyes wide with fear, they watched the stranger push their mother to the ground and lock the door behind them.
The stranger’s face was obscured by a mask that covered his face halfway, leaving only his mouth exposed. This mouth remained frozen in a harsh kind of smile, the type that only forebode evil and chaos. They had never seen anyone look so wicked before.
Shaun tore away from his brothers and rushed to stand in front of his mother. “No! Stay away from her!” he shouted bravely at the stranger, even though he was trembling all over. He didn’t know how he would defend his mother, but he could at least try in his own little way.
The only thing the intruder did was stare at him, before laughing wildly in his face and grabbing him by the neck, squeezing.
“No, Shaun,” their mother screamed, rising to her feet. “Let him go!” Her eyes blazed with fire as she started to transform into her wolf form. “Leave my son alone!”
“We will not stop until the world is rid of these abominations! Children born under a full moon are destined to be monsters,” said the intruder, squeezing Shaun’s neck. The poor boy started choking and struggling to remove the attacker’s hand, but he wasn’t strong enough.
Their mother, now equipped with her claws, lunged forward to the attacker, and slashed him across the arm, spilling blood everywhere. This threw the attacker off-balance, and he released Shaun, who fell to his knees releasing bouts of harsh coughs.
“You will all perish tonight,” said the intruder, bringing out a dagger and holding it out in front of himself. “I shall see to that.”
“I do not know who you are, or why you are here, but I promise you, whatever you have been told is not worth you embarking on such a wicked mission. This family has done nothing wrong,” said the boys’ mother, trying to reason with the man even in the face of danger. She was known for this-her diplomacy, and her status as a pacifist. Often, it had been said that she was the one who tempered Daven’s affinity for violence with her kindness, and had proven this by setting would-be wars with merely soft words.
“The time for reasoning is over! Now is the time for retribution!” shouted the intruder, before he lunged forward, aiming for Shaun who was still on the ground.
“No!” their mother screamed, throwing herself in front of her son and placing herself in the direct path of the assailant’s blade. All that consumed her mind was protecting her children, whether it meant defending herself or not.
The assailant’s blade pierced into her neck before anyone could make sense of what was happening. In response, her claw raked across the front of his chest and the bottom half of his face-it seemed like a futile attack at the time, but her plan wasn’t to kill him, but rather to ensure that no matter what, he would be found once the wounds on his face were seen.
The boys screamed as they watched her mother slump to the ground, eyes fixed on them.
“I love you,” she said, smiling sadly. Tears slipped out of her eyes as she took her final breaths.
And then, she was no more.
–
“We always knew that your thirst for power would bring you dangerous enemies!” the boys’ aunt said to their father the day after the attack, anger evident in her tone. She was dressed in black, mourning the loss of her twin who had been very much her soulmate. “Now that she’s dead, are you happy? Has your undying thirst for power been sated?”
Daven said nothing. His head was in his hands as he sat in his office, as still as a ghost. He had come into his children’s room right after his wife had been killed, but by that time, the intruder had left-having no more time to complete his initial mission. He had sent out his men to search for the killer, but so far, they had found nothing.
“As you have nothing to say, I’ll be taking my nephews away to my pack, where we can at least guarantee their safety,” said the enraged woman. “I will take your silence as an agreement.”
Drowning in grief and self-hate, the Alpha of Moongrowl, and the newest widow in the pack, could not find the strength, or the right words to utter a response.
And so, he lost his sons as well.