Alone.

That's the way it had been ever since my pack left me. Sure, I'd been around people, but I'd still been lonely.

On that night, I didn't have a choice; it was my first full moon in Lake Oldoy. I wouldn't return home — Neal and Lis, my foster parents (another thing I'd lied to Ember about), wouldn't expect me back. They knew about me and what I was. They were part of an Agency that protected supernatural teens until they were no longer minors.

As nice as Neal and Lis were, I would never let them close to me. My real parents died in a fire just after I was bitten by an Alpha and transitioned. I didn't know it then, but the secrets of that night would be revealed to me when I least expected it.

I was only 10 the night the fire happened. I thought I'd lost everything and everyone, so I had no option but to seek out the Alpha who bit me. I had no idea what it meant at the time — other than the fact the gaping bite wounds in my side had healed in less than an hour, and I was hyper-aware of everything.

That hyper-awareness had never left me. Even now, as I stalked away from Challis High, the sounds of the town assaulted my eardrums. The urge to truly be alone in nature, rather than alone in a crowd of teens, drove me out of the town and up into the vast woodlands.

It's also the drive of the full moon, I thought as I glanced upwards at that faint, pale sphere in the sky that controlled my life.

My first full moon was torturous, to say the least. Every muscle in my body tore itself apart before reforming into those of a wolf. Yet, as time passes, the full moons become more bearable. The muscles heal stronger. As I learned control, I learned how to transition slower.

Typically speaking, there are several degrees to which a werewolf can transform; it all depends on the situation. But full moons meant full transitions — an inescapable fact of my existence.

Every time the full moon came around, I thought about my pack. Every time, I remembered how they left me with no warning. Every time, the cross over my pack's symbol burnt into my skin. Every time I transformed, I thought about my pack and the people that were in it.

Wednesday's psychic trick had refreshed everything over the past few months. Her hand grasping mine and the images she forced me to relive had rubbed stinging salt into deep wounds. Wounds that I feared would never fully heal.

My pack...

The Alpha, Jason, was a natural leader — though he also balanced being a good advisor too. His other half, Sienna, another werewolf, was sweet and kind. Abi was a banshee, whose inklings about death forever haunted her — only her other half, a human called Zack, could truly understand her. The Betas consisted of Hayden, Ryder, Jade and me. There was also a telekinetic called Ryan and a medium called Storm who were also with us for a couple of months.

The ten of us went to high school in Missoula, Montana by day. But by night, we lived wild in the abandoned mining town of Coloma. We lived wild like that for a year and a half, before I woke one morning and they were gone. Gone without a trace, as if they were never there at all. As if these people who I'd spent so long with were a mere figment of my imagination.

I could hardly believe it; I thought they were hiding from me — ready to jump out and yell, "Surprise! We got ya!" And it would just be one of Ryder's stupid pranks.

But they never did.

Directionless and completely alone, I walked non-stop for four hours from Coloma to a small town called Potomac. There, I spent five weeks wandering the streets, searching for someone — anyone.

That was how I found the Agency; and they found Neal and Lis —a childless, middle-aged couple looking to foster a youth. With help from the Agency (whose name I still don't know), Neal, Lis and I went to live in Atlanta, Georgia. There, a back story was created for me.

A passport, a fake birth certificate, fake holiday pictures, a Saturday job, some basic (unnecessary) education — the Agency pulled out all the stops to make it look like I hadn't been living in a shack in the mountains and going to school in the valley below.

Thinking about it made me feel nauseous.

Neal and Lis and the nameless Agency may have gotten me off the streets, but they sure messed up my sense of identity thanks to all the tiny things they altered. Without my pack and unsure of who Theo Aquila even was. I was stumbling around in the dark; arrogance became an easy way to deflect any doubt.

There were countless things that I wished I could've said to my pack the night before they deserted me. I'd fought with Zack, claiming that he didn't belong with us because he was a non-supernatural.

Two weeks before they left, I started getting close to Jade. Her brown ringlets of hair, her spray of freckles and her beautiful, dark skin still lingered in my mind. If they hadn't left, we would've been even closer. But they did leave, and I was alone.

They left. They're not dead. I didn't kill them.

As soon as I was up in the forest, I changed from my uniform into the spare clothes I always had stowed in my bag, just in case.

The rest of the day passed, the sun dipped behind the treetops, and it wasn't long before the full moon materialised through the thin clouds. The moon glowed proudly against a backdrop of stars and the night sky.

It rose a little more before my transition was triggered.

My entire body shuddered violently, and my jaw and gums ached as my teeth elongated into those of a wolf. My nails pushed out from their beds and stretched forwards, sharpening painfully. Agonisingly, my spine bent as if contorted by some cruel magician. My heightened senses increased even more as I transitioned; the remainder of my clothes tore off me.

I turned and raced through the woods, trying desperately to outpace the memories of the full moons with my pack. Ever since they left me, visions of them haunted me every full moon. It was rare that I gained any knowledge from them, but something was different at that time.

Jason and Sienna ran ahead of me, whilst Jade was beside me — no they weren't. I pushed myself faster and further, but the trace of my pack remained.

Hayden and Ryder fought with one another playfully as they passed me.

"Are you alright?" I nudged Jade as she slowed down.

As wolves, we spoke to one another telepathically, using a combination of our thoughts and our physical actions to communicate.

"Yeah, fine." She shook her walnut brown mane of fur, eyes glowing bright yellow in the moonlight.

She wasn't there but I tried to ask anyway; "Why did you leave me?" The words were stuck in my mouth.

Jade replied, "We're still here," before tossing her head and speeding up again.

Wait a second; I never actually asked her that. Is this a message?

I stopped in my tracks. I recalled Storm, the medium, briefly mentioned that she could send messages around the pack if she could draw enough power from the full moon.

I closed my eyes and mentally asked the question, "Are you still in Coloma?"

Please Storm. I need to know.

After remaining stationary for what felt like an eternity — with the full moon urging me to run and hunt — there was still nothing. Annoyed, I shook my head and inwardly cursed Storm's inconsistency.

Suddenly, a rush of wind whirled towards me. The wind carried words with it and I heard Jade's voice again.

"We were... taken." The pain was evident in her voice; the tears were almost tangible.

"I'll come for you," I attempted.

"No. Don't." She managed to choke out, then I heard a muffled scream and the sound of her being dragged away.

"No!" I yelled, but Jade's presence was gone.

Thoughts reeled around in my mind — all that just happened, was it real? Or was it some sort of sadistic scheme of Storm's?

Except that I couldn't rid my mind of the hurt and desperation in Jade's voice.

I knew that, if I could, I'd swim across the Atlantic Ocean and run over 2,000 miles to get back to my pack. I'd do anything to be with them again.

I'd go back to my old life of living in the wild and petrifying the locals every full moon. We'd move away from Coloma, maybe further north into Canada. I was reborn when I was bitten — I became wild, untameable. I couldn't go on living in a normal house and going to school when my instincts constantly drew me to nature and the wilderness.

Hell, just thinking about being with my pack again made me shiver in excitement.

I let the animal instinct take over and I hurtled through the woods. I had no human thoughts now; not until the moon sank and the sun began its ascent.

I would wake human, that much I knew.

I came to in human form; naked and covered in thin, half-healed scratches. Traces of blood were the only proof that I'd been mauled by some prickly bush in the course of the night. The corpses of a few rabbits lay in front of me — stripped to the bone, fur laying torn to the side.

Jason taught us to hunt animals instead of people. Normally, I could only manage one kill in a night. There were three rabbits whose lives had been extinguished. Control on the full moon was much harder without a pack.

In less than half an hour, I was 'home' again.

"Morning," I greeted Neal as he stumbled bleary-eyed into the kitchen.

"Christ!" My foster father started at the sight of me.

"Nope, not Jesus. Just me," I told him drily.

I grabbed a mug of coffee and began to head up to my room. I'd made it almost halfway up the stairs before Neal stopped me.

"Theo, the Agency told me your plans." He paused, and cleared his throat as I turned to face him. "About going back to Montana."

What the hell? How could they know?

"How?" I asked incredulously, my eyes narrowing.

"They have a medium that watches your thoughts."

"The Agency's stalking my thoughts?"

Neal shook his head. "They told me you're planning to go back to Coloma. Do you know how reckless that is huh? After all the Agency has done? They gave you a second chance. Not every Omega gets a second chance like this, Theo."

I stopped scowling at the carpet to glare at him instead. What did he just call me?

"The Agency is keeping out of danger," Neal continued, "And you're willing to throat all that away on a punt that your pack is still out there somewhere?"

"What did you say?" I whispered with quiet fury.

"I said there's no point going back on a punt." He brushed me off.

That's when I flipped.

I launched myself off the staircase, over the bannister and onto the open-plan first floor —leaving a slight dint in the expensive stone flooring. I paced towards my adoptive parent, adrenaline from the night before still coursing through my system.

"You said I was an Omega!" I growled as Neal backed away. "You said that the Agency is keeping me out of danger — what danger?" I picked up a glass vase from a nearby table and tossed it at the wall to the side of Neal. "What danger?" I repeated, my voice as deadly as the glittering shards of glass that now lay on the floor.

"It's okay, we can sort this all out," Neal struggled to calm me. "It's okay, Theo—"

As I saw the scared look on the grown man's face, my fury dwindled, but only slightly.

"Are my pack in danger? I have to know," I pleaded.

"They are no longer your concern or your pack, Omega," Neal spat the word out at me — obviously feeling like I was no longer a threat now my anger had mostly dissipated.

"Prove to me that I'm an Omega. Prove it."

"Omega wolves have a tattoo imprinted on their back when they are exiled for whatever reason. Turn around," he informed. I turned around and he pulled the neck of my shirt down and I heard a click, which I presumed was him taking a picture of it.

"Here you go," Neal said tiredly and passed me the phone. I saw the Omega symbol — Ω — seemingly carved into my back, another tattoo. I placed the phone on the kitchen worktop and reached around to feel it.

It stood out from my skin like a black brand and was an inch across and an inch lengthways. I was branded with the mark of the lone wolf.

Maybe my pack truly were dead. Maybe the proposition of me having murdered them wasn't quite so preposterous.

Tears stung the backs of my eyes as I raced upstairs without another word.

Omega werewolves were the scorned of the pack; exiled and stranded alone. Natural wolves who became Omegas rarely survived; there's a reason that wolves are pack animals.

I was more alone than I'd thought.

If my pack had left me, as I'd thought, it would be natural that I was an Omega. But if they were taken, as Jade's illusion told me, why was I cast out?

Was it to protect me? My pack must be in danger, I concluded as I locked myself in my room.

Wednesday had mentioning something about hunters coming after me.

A shudder ran down my spine; I'd been hunted before. My whole pack had. They'd gotten one of us as well, a young Beta, by the name of Luke.

We found his body the next day, hanging by the neck from a tree and sliced in half by a silver blade. Silver bullets riddled both halves of his broken body. The worst part was that, due to all the silver, we couldn't even give him a proper burial — unless we also wanted to be burying ourselves too.

I swallowed; he'd been like a little brother to me — to all of us, I guess.

Within the next heartbeat, I decided I couldn't risk putting my life on the line like that. If my pack were still alive, I wouldn't be any use to them dead.

Dropping my bag next to my desk, I flopped down onto my bed. As my exhaustion numbed slightly, regret began to creep back in — though this time it was over Ember.

My guilt was a result of the rude, careless words I hurled at Ember to protect myself. It wasn't her fault that her friend had figured out why the hunters were after me. She was only trying to help me, protect me, even.

I cursed myself, knowing that I should've let Ember, Wednesday and Al help me. Supernatural friends were much better than no friends, after all. And there were probably more supernaturals in this odd little town; it seemed like that kind of place.

Even though I didn't trust the Agency one bit, I had to admit that they had hidden me in perhaps one of the most secretive locations. Lake Oldoy was little more than a speck of dust on a map of the British Isles. I had a feeling that I wasn't the first supernatural to be hidden in this secluded town, surrounded by cloaking forests and towering mountains. It was ideal.

Part of me had to question whether Ember was being hidden as well, especially since she'd confessed to being dangerous.

I began to long to see her again; I knew I'd played my cards wrong in an attempt to get close to her. Blunt physicality seemed the best way to get close to her — but my cocky nonchalance had only driven her away. A chance to apologise to her was all I needed now.

Storm had told me to find her — to find Ember. Well, the medium didn't know her name, but on the last evening with my pack, she told me to seek out a 'friend in the fire'. Ember fit all the criteria and I knew I needed her in my life. Whether that was as a friend or as something more, I don't think it mattered. Regardless, I felt connected to Ember — and not solely because of Storm's message.

"What is it, Storm?" I snapped impatiently; she'd dragged me away from Jade.

"Listen to me, Theo." Storm snapped back, making me focus on her. "I've seen something; something bad, and it's coming to our pack—"

"Shouldn't you tell Jason?" I shrugged. "He's the Alpha. Why would you bother with telling a Beta like me?"

"Because you're the one that's going to have the responsibility when we're gone."

"Gone?" I echoed in disbelief. "Why will you be gone? Where are you going?"

"We won't leave by choice," she said, loose wisps of ebony hair whirling in the wild Montanan mountain winds. "Soon, there will come a day when you will be alone, and you'll need to find someone... Someone you've never met, and they'll be supernatural, but an extremely rare and unique kind — you won't have ever met anyone like them before."

"Do you know who's making you leave? Can we fight them?" I asked, expecting answers that I never received.

"No, I only know you will need to find this person and stay with them — they will protect you more than you might think." She took my hands in hers. "Theo, you will become an Omega. And there's nothing you can do about that — we will be gone, all of us. You'll have to find a way to leave as soon as possible once we're gone."

Speechless, I said nothing, intent to keep listening, trying desperately to retain everything that she told me.

"Full moons will become even more difficult. You will lose your anchor and be lost for a long while," she explained, referring to my anchor being the strength and unity of the pack. "You can't tell anyone of the pack about this; you can't talk to me about it again — I have to be found as knowing nothing of it."

Finally finding my voice, I asked, "Why me?"

"It's written in the stars," Storm said and both of us looked skywards, "Buried deep beneath the constellation of Aquila, there is a message — you will be alone."

"What else?" I begged, needing to know more.

"Seek out a friend in the fire." Was the last thing that she ever said to me.

I intended to follow Storm's advice. I'd found Ember through her cousin Ashley, and now I just needed to get her to trust me.

As I stared at the blank ceiling above me, it seemed to mock me. Without a shadow of a doubt, things would've been so much simpler for me if I'd never been bitten — this whole façade of a house was a false promise of a normal, non-supernatural life.

The memory of my pack refreshed my hurt.

I couldn't believe that they had left me, so maybe they hadn't actually. What if they had been kidnapped by these hunters coming after me — but even so, why weren't they dead already? If they were dead, then I wouldn't have felt their presence during the full moon.

The hunters must have been using them in some way. But what for?

And then it hit me like a sledgehammer to my stomach — what if they're using them to get to me?

But what could they possibly want with me? A Beta, a nobody; now, even worse, an Omega.

My pack had been captured by the hunters — that much I could figure out on my own — and were most likely at that precise moment being tortured for my location. And there I was, lying on a comfortable bed in a warm house with a chance to start over.

Yet I simply couldn't.