"I feel terrible." Fenrir announced on lovely Monday afternoon, only a few days after fen's second full moon.

"Huh?" Mango replied.

"Dae did warn me about this one." Fen admitted bitterly. "No moon, it didn't set in first time around but gosh do I feel awful."

"No moon? Is half a months gone already?" Mango realized.

    "Yep," he breathed, leaning dangerously over on they're way home from school that morning.

    Mango pushed him back onto his feet. While thinking about the time she had known him. Almost three whole months. And he could just walk up to her and say things like that, because he trusted her. Yet she still kept her distance and he only knew her by her alias name.

    "Hey, there's something I should tell you." She admitted.

    His yellow eyes were steady, despite the pale color of his skin. They were almost hungry, like he was waiting for this moment.

    "Yeah?"

    "It's about that ghost we saw in the woods."

    He stumbled again, over a flat concrete slab, in the middle of the sidewalk. She glanced up and saw they had come to the orphanage.

    "I'll tell you tonight, broken sign post." She sighed, backing down last moment.

    He frowned. "Okay, I'll see you then."

    "Bye." She waved and he disappeared.

    Fen wasn't sure what to think about this situation.

    "Who is that?" Matron asked him as he took off his shoes.

    "Who?"

    "The orange haired girl! Are you friends with her?" She scrutinized.

    "Um, yes. Is something wrong with that?" He dropped his backpack. Fen did not like the heavy serious tone she was using.

"Fen I want you to stay far away from that girl you hear me?" She closed the blinds.

"What! Why?" His jaw dropped and Matron scowled at him.

"She's a delinquent, and has been to juvie on multiple occasions. I hear she's stolen from kids and adults alike, I don't know what she's told you but I don't want you socializing with those types of people!" She ordered.

Fen stood there a few moments before nodding numbly and heading up to his room.

His heart thumped wildly in his chest and all he could hear was those words ringing in his head over and over again.

Liar. Thief. Betrayal.

Mango was not the sweet girl he thought he knew. Just like his brother.

Mango was having other problems.

She was staring up into the cruel, unforgiving eyes of her foster mother as she asked the question again.

"Well do you have an excuse?"

Mango stared numbly at torn remains of the room where she used to sleep.

Feathers were scattered across the floor like skeleton bones. The mattress had large rips in it, and the carpet was reduced to kitten fluff. The scene made her feel cold inside. A police officer was eyeing her coldly, hand cuffs in hand, as he held up a handful of shreds stained a light brown color.

"Dried blood, there's animal fur around the perimeter as well." He asserted.

"I...I..." Mango had no answer. It looked like an animal had attacked her home.

"I told you officer she was trouble didn't I? I mean look at her record!"

"This isn't my fault!" Mango argued.

"She lies to me all the time! Every week or so I find my stuff holed up in her animal den, she steals from me constantly!" The woman argued.

"Excuse me miss, you're under arrest until further notice." The police officer sighed, looking bored with all life as he slung out a pair of handcuffs.

"No!" Mango shrieked. "I'm leaving, not again!"

She bolted out the door, slamming it against the wall and running for all life was worth.

And she never looked back.

Fen waited all day, he waited until the moonless sky rose, feeling like a skeleton with no bones, he dragged himself out of bed. Then took a jacket and stumbled out the front door.

It was worse at night, he had no night vision and was stumbling around in the dark.

The woods was calling, he could hear noises, loud ones. 

They didn't bother him, he was a wolf. Nothing scared him.

Until a loud piercing howl split across the trees and suddenly Fen realized just how put out he was. He was not a wolf, because there was no moon, no pressure to turn him into another form.

But he kept going, Mango was waiting, and even if she was a thief she was out here alone with real wolves.

But then he reached the broken sign post she wasn't there.

"Mango?" Fen yelled, hoping for an answer.

There was none.

Another eerie howl echoed off the hills and sent shivers down Fen's spine. He righted himself, realizing he was about to nod off again.

Then he was wide awake when that howl was answered by a lion's roar.

Deciding to try something, he threw back his head and howled himself. It left him feeling dizzy.

The lion's roar answered him, closer now. And then again, even closer.

But then a huge black wolf stepped out of the foliage and growled deeply.

Fen swung around, not knowing what to expect. It wasn't another werewolf, just a regular wolf. But what should he do?

At first he just stood there, staring at it. Meeting it's steady yellow glare with his own. The wolf didn't look threatening, until it bared it teeth.

And then a giant manticore jumped over his head and landed on top of the elder wolf.

A fight issued immediately, the wolf was on top, biting down onto Mango's leg as she howled in pain, the two giants rolled around the clearing.

Fen scented blood, thick and fresh, the metallic taste rolling off his tongue. But he was helpless to do anything. Without the moon he couldn't transform.

What is stereotyped as a curse was now a gift that he couldn't use to save his best friend.

"Stop!" He screamed. They didn't, the wolf tore a huge gash down Mango's side with his bare claws as she turned to snap at him and miss.

Mango's yellow manticore eyes rolled back into her head and she slipped back into human form. Falling to the ground and bleeding heavily. Fen jumped in front of her just as wolf kept for her neck.

After a few seconds when nothing happened, he felt the beast's breath on his ear.

And Fen didn't dare open his eyes, until he heard a howl coming from farther away.

He gathered up Mango in his arms, she opened her eyes weakly then winced.

"Fen..." She groaned.

"Stop, don't say anything." He took his hand away soaked in blood.

"I should have told you sooner..." She huffed. "Then I wouldn't have gotten myself into this stupid mess."

"I've got to get you to a hospital." He mumbled, picking her up and she moaned again.

The Mango grabbed his shoulder with such force he almost dropped her.

"Listen to me!" She growled miserably.

"That ghost we saw in woods a few weeks ago. I know who she was." Mango pleaded, Fen kept moving, but he didn't interrupt her story.

"That was my mother. My real mother. She was murdered at a party one night and I haven't seen my dad since. So they put me in the foster care system."

"Mango now isn't really the time, you're only hurting yourself." He said quietly, her story plucking his heartstrings.

"STUFF IT!" She winced again. "My real name isn't Mango it's Karen."

Fen noticed she was losing conscious again but was fighting so hard, her head rested pitifully against his chest. They were almost to the Park's Entrance where he could get a telephone.

"Today my I came home and my room was torn to shred but I swear I didn't do it, some animal must have gotten in..." Karen nodded off strongly for a second before shaking her head.

"My foster mother kicked me out, if I go back I'll be arrested and sent to a new family." She replied quietly.

"Why are telling me this?" He asked quietly, walking as fast as he could to the telephone only meters away.

"Because you're my friend darn it! I should be able to trust you like you trust me." Karen was crying. "But I'm so so, idiotically stubborn."

Fen was trying to keep cool, but inside he was immensely relieved. She was not a thief, and even if she was Karen wasn't pretending to be his friend.

"Sh, now that you've got that out I'm going to call the hospital okay?"

"Fine, you stinking wolf boy."

A few hours later he was in the waiting room. The receptionist was giving him the stink eye. He was just a ratty-looking teenager, all alone in a hospital waiting room at midnight. Maybe she was just tired and needed a coffee. But it was creeping him out.

The door  burst open and Matron burst in, burning him down with her fiery glare.

"Fenrir Mactire! Do you have any idea what time it is?" She hissed under her breath.

He stood laughing nervously and running through the speech he had prepared in his head.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, growing kinder.

"One of my friends was attacked by a big dog." He didn't meet her gaze but he could feel her stared boring a hole through his head.

"Why were you out and about anyway?" She ordered.

"She was having a hard time, and needed my guidance." Excuses sound much worse when you actually say them.

"In the middle of the night?" She scoured, not believing a word of it.

He nodded, biting his lip.

Matron ran a hand through her brown curls, which were usually up in a bun and collapsed in a chair.

"Oh my heavens, I thought you had run away like your brother did." She looked ready to cry.

Fen felt a stab go through his chest. "No! I would never."

"I believe you darling, come here." She wiped her eyes and squished him in an awkward hug.

"My God I hope your friend is worth it. What's her name anyway?"

Fen though long and hard. "Her name is Mango."

Matron peered up and him incredulously. "You've got to be joking."

"That's what she prefers to be called." He held his hands up. "There's another thing as well."

He explained to her about the situation about Karen having no place to go.

"No, no. Heavens no. I can't just take in another child and expect everything to be all right?"

The door burst open and a nurse pushing Karen in a wheelchair came out. Fen's heart soared when he saw she was alright.

"Hey how are you doing?" He asked quietly, she cracked a lazy eye open.

"I feel, like I've been pumped full of sedative drugs and sewed up with a thread and needle." She spat.

"You're doing fine then." he grinned, and looked back over to Matron, who was staring at him with an open mouth.

"Are you miss Weedlebee?" The receptionist asked, thrusting forward a clip board.

"Yes." She squeaked, looking at the medical bill.

Fen pleaded with her silently to sign in.

She glared at him darkly.

Then her hand lifted and scribbled her signature.

"I'm going to regret this." She sighed.

Karen was secretly grateful he helped her. She would never admit it aloud though. And slept soundly that night. In the bunk bed that used to Dae's. Matron did not want that but it was the only bed she had left. It was a happy ending.

Except that Daemon was still out there, and waiting for the moment of the destruction of the seventh moon. He had not forgotten.

He had not forgotten at all.

__________________

Did I doo gooood? Yes no yes no?

How'd you like how I brought her real name in? Gouda cheese? No Gouda cheese?

Such a long chapter though finally