“Valerie,” Alice said. We were getting ready for Solstice 21st June that was tonight at twelve in the morning on Sunday. I went to church this morning with Val. Val tried to spend every minute with her mother. This was the first time she said other than Richard’s name. I stared at Alice. Finally, Alice’s consciousness had arrived just in time before we meet our deaths. Val quickly went to her side, holding her hand. “Don’t go. Please, don’t leave me alone.”

            I went to my room upstairs to retrieve my guns and knives and to leave them alone. It must be hard for Val because we might never return. I checked whether my gun was filled with bullets. Pierre was on my bed. He looked up at me, jumped to his feet and walked up to me. I kissed his nose. He chased his own tail that made me laughed.

            “Are you ready?” a voice asked me. I twirled to face the stranger. Sam was in my room. He must have come in through the window because it was wide opened. He picked up Pierre and Pierre licked him.

            “Yes, a bit nervous because I had never experience Solstice before. What if everything went the wrong way?”

            He pulled me to sit on my bed, this might probably the last time I’ll ever sit on my bed. “We will do what we’re supposed to do then everything will go as planned. Before we do this, I wanted to tell you this for a very long time but I didn’t have the courage to do so.” He cradled my face, stroking my face as he stare into my eyes. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured. I looked into his blue eyes.

            I put my arms around his neck and locked my fingers tightly. He kissed me. His lips were warm and soft. I didn’t know how long time passed until he pulled away from me.

            “I’ve always wanted to do that,” he murmured, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. “I’ll see you later.”

            I was still stunned by what had happened. He was closer to the window until I walked up to him. Hungry for more, I kissed him. It must be time for him to leave so I let him go. He gave me a quick kiss before jumping down from my window.

            I never kissed a boy before in my life. My mind kept repeating the scene over and over, how it felt like to kiss his lips, his jaws. All those times in the meadow, I never knew that he would want to kiss me there. We danced in this very room on my birthday; we danced in his house in front of his friends on the day I found out about Jamie’s death. He was more than my best friend.

            What did this mean? Had a Hunter and a sabre-toothed tiger ever fall in love in history? I didn’t think so. It was impossible but it was happening at this very moment. If I choose Sam, Val had to get married someday. Val was closer to Daniel every day. Would she end up like me? If I say goodbye to Sam but still be friends, I will never be happy. I would never be in his arms again.

            I snapped to reality. No, now was not the time to think of all this. I sling the gun into the cover on my belt, arranged the knives in my hidden jacket under the cloak and a few pocket knives hidden in my boots. Food, water and iPhone were in my small leather bag just in case if I had to run away. I took a on my jacket first. Then strapped the bag behind me and put on a cloak to cover my bag and jacket. I let the hood fall so later I would put it on. Finally, I wore my boots.

            Today was not like any other day. I called mum just to hear her voice for the last time before Solstice. She sounded normal as she described how Philip was back home and dad.

            Pierre was sleeping on my bed. I kissed him awake. He took a tennis ball in his mouth and gave it to me. He wanted to play. Alright, this would possibly be the last time I’ll play with him. I threw the ball. Pierre ran after it and picked it up with his mouth. I patted him and left my room. Pierre whined at my direction, pleading me to stay. I closed the door and went down to see Val. Val was ready to go but I could see in her eyes that she didn’t want to. Alice wasn’t sitting on the usual sofa anymore, she was in the kitchen, sobbing. Amanda was convincing her that we will be back. I didn’t see her coming in but I was glad she came. She told me that she told her parents that she was going to a sleepover here so she could keep an eye on Alice late at night.

            I put my hand on Val’s shoulder and glanced at the clock. 11.45 p.m. We better get moving. I left a letter for mum just in case if we never make it back and a box that contains with Philip’s Nintendo and dad’s photographs of the tennis court. Val hugged Alice and kissed her before following me to the door. Jamie was already at the door, waiting for us. She was in her wolf form. She grew taller, I noticed. She was almost taller than me.

            Solstice will usually start at 12 a.m. sharp, which was a weird timing. Do wolves carry watches along just to know when to attack the villagers? Sam told me that it was instincts. Like most humans believed, werewolves will change on twelve midnight. In reality, they will just go with the flow, follow their instincts whatever it told them what to do. In Jamie’s case, she wasn’t in the pack anymore and she didn’t follow her instincts since she was craving animals instead of humans. Jamie was able to fight her instincts unlike other wolves.

            We ran to the forest. We met Sam and John, in their human form. The others were already in place. Sam and John created new tigers a week ago. One of the new tiger was a twenty-year-old young man who studying law. His name was Zeke. The first time I saw him, he was afraid of me. He tried to attack me in his tiger form but Sam protected me just in time. Zeke was created by John. I didn’t know why John bit him. There must be something John likes about him when he was human. A few days after he got used to it, he apologized for attacking me. It turns out that he was nice. Sam bit a nineteen-year-old student, Niall. He was able to control himself in day one, which was a rare thing that happened to new tigers. Niall was different in a good way. He was able to understand why they had to eat animals instead of humans. I think Sam bit him because he was intelligent and knew he was special somehow.

            Niall once told me that he studied about mythology in school. Many South Americans and Europeans believed in werewolves. He thought that werewolves change during midnight but it wasn’t true. He came up with a theory that werewolves prefer to change at night so humans couldn’t see what was going to end their lives. His theory made some sense.

            The new tigers were different from other tigers. They were sabre-toothed tiger, but some of the colours were different and the sizes. Some were like the Himalayan tigers, leopard, cheetahs and all kinds. Now I knew how to tell them apart. Sam was the biggest. Kevin and Nick were alike since they were twins. They had strips like normal tigers. Daniel was the smallest and the furriest like a Himalayan tiger. I was sure he could stand in the cold weather.

            Sam walked to me and hugged me. “Are you ready?” he whispered in my ears.

            “Yes,” I whispered back.

            I took Val’s hand and walked deeper into the forest, leaving Jamie and the group. We had to look for the pack and lead them to the group. I took out a gun and looked at my watch. 12 a.m. It was time. Val took out a gun too and nodded at me.

            We walked in the forest for a very long time. I saw a vision of a wolf running towards us. I had never seen that wolf before. I didn’t think the wolf was in the pack the day they nearly killed me. But it was still a wolf. Blood was dripping from its mouth, its eyes were red and it was followed by a pack of wolves.

            It wasn’t the pack we were waiting for. It wasn’t the black wolf who was the leader to the pack. We could dispose of this pack easily. Val and I ran towards the group. I could see that the pack was following us.

            We ran faster, the wolves were able to catch up until we started to sprint. Out of nowhere a few tigers jumped on the wolf from the tree. There were all kinds of sounds, biting, snarling, howling and cracking of the bones. Val and I took care of the leader which was pretty easy to defeat. The pack was small so it happened all so quickly. As soon as the last wolf was lifeless, we gathered all the bodies of young man especially teenagers into a hill. The sight of the hill reminded me of once I watched history channel back home in London. During the World War 2, the Nazis kill off the Jews and gathered the bodies into a small hill. The sights of the hills made me want to cry. I think my dinner was going to make reappearance. Val took out a lighter and burned the bodies into ashes.

            Sam was confused; I could see the confusion in his ocean blue eyes. The other tigers and Jamie shifted human.

            “Where is the black wolf?” John asked angrily.

            “He’s a coward, I guess,” Jamie commented.

            “It’s Solstice and he’s scared that we will kick his furry butt,” Kevin said.

            “Awesome,” Nick joined his brother. The brothers gave each other a high-five.

            “Shut up! Let’s think of this for a moment. Do you think he has a back-up plan or something? Tell me what he wants the most,” Sam said.

            “Human chop and human stew,” Nick replied.

            “Other than food?”

            All of us were silent. It was clear that we didn’t know what he was talking about. Daniel was next to Val. Jamie was next to me. Her hands were shaking and I wondered why. What a fool I was! It was winter. Australia never snow but the temperature dropped so low. Luckily, I was used to it and London was always colder than Australia. Her clothes were thin so it was easier for her to shift. I put my cloak over her, revealing the knives that were arranged according to the blades. Jamie’s cheeks were turning red and normal again.

            “Thanks,” she mumbled. Her hands stopped shaking but she was still shivering.

            Sam sighed and stared at the forest floor. “Never mind about what I said. Let’s check the forest out for the last time before going home.”

            We wandered in the forest for awhile. So far we haven’t seen any wolves. I went closer to Sam. “Was it like this last year?”

            “No. This year and last year was a huge difference. I can’t understand. What is the dog up to this time?”

            Were the wolves hunting some where else? Were they afraid to face us? Either they were afraid or they outsmarted us. Today was Solstice. Today was the time a feast of humans began but surprisingly, not many were dead.

            We ended up going home. The group left for their house. Sam, Val and I were on our way to our home. Val entered the house first, leaving Sam and I out in the front door.

            Sam pulled me into his arms, his lips was about to touch mine when a scream interrupted. The scream was coming from the house.

            Instinctively, I ran into the house. The second I was in the house, the door was closed and locked by itself. Sam was still outside. I took out a gun defensively. The house was dark except for the living room, which was lit up by a lamp. I heard Sam trying to kick the door open. It was useless because Val and I knew that the door was made of iron and the windows were bullet proof. Alice constructed the iron door and bullet proof windows just in case if wolves know where we stay. Now it was the other way around, it was separating us from the tigers. We were trapped inside.

            I slowly walked into the living room. A pack of wolves were there. The black wolf was staring at me. The other wolves were in human form. I looked around for Val and Alice. Alice was smiling, like she was back in her dreamland. Val and Amanda were tied up on the couch. Val struggled to escape. A pair of unfamiliar strong human hands caught my hands and tied them together with his belt. The boy forced me to sit next to Val on the couch.

            The black wolf shifted into his human form. That made Val and I gasped at the same time. Impossible. Now it all made sense. Alice’s sight of him on the other day. His name. Rick. Richard. How he knew our strategies. Our strength. Our weaknesses. The black wolf was Richard all this time. Alice did saw him in human form in the forest but she thought it was her imagination. He killed Gran ten years ago. He nearly killed his very own daughter last Solstice. He bit Jamie and ruined her life. Jamie didn’t see him in human form because he knew that she would recognize him when she saw the portraits hung in the living room.

            Another boy took away our weapons, including the hidden ones. Richard must have known where it was hidden.

            Richard walked to Alice and kissed her in the forehead.

            “How could you do this to us?” Val snarled at her father.

            Richard looked at her. “Valerie, I have been waiting for you for ten years. I have no desire to harm anyone but I have no choice.” He touched Val’s cheeks. Val jerked away. “I am your father. I have to be responsible for you and your mother.”

            “You are not my father. You are a monster,” Val replied.

            He touched her cheeks again.

            “Stay away from her, wolf,” I warned.

            “Sophia Rhys-Deaux, I remembered you a long time ago. Your mother left for England ten years ago. Why? She didn’t want you to end up like this.” He paused to gesture at me. “But you figure out the puzzle after all.”

            “You said you didn’t want to harm anyone, but why Gran?” Val spoke up now. I wished he was closer so I would bite him.

            “Oh Val, you are just like your mother. Why?” He shook his head to himself. I was sure the group was outside already because there were more sounds than before. The noise outside didn’t stop Richard from explaining. “I knew in a few years time, you will be like her. I wanted you to know that I was alive. You were too young that time. So I decided to try to change Catherine just to see whether you can change too when you’re older. I didn’t like her anyway.” He mimics her voice. “Richard, don’t do this, don’t do that. Richard, it’s against the family tradition.” He threw his hands up.

            “That old woman was driving me nuts! So one day, I followed her and bit her. She died too quickly. I thought it was because she was a female. I decided to wait for Val until she was old enough to understand so I could tell her that I’m still alive.”

            I stared at him. He walked to the window and saw Sam, in his tiger form snarling at him as he tried harder to break the window without any success. I was sure Richard wanted Sam to hear too. Sam, no doubt, heard every word.

            Richard continued, “I tried to tell Alice what happened, but I didn’t get a chance to do so because she fainted. When Sophia arrived in Australia, I followed her and her friends to The Curve. One of her friends, Jamie looked strong and healthy, she reminded me of Alice when she was in her teens so I decided to try again.”

            Jamie let out a long howl from outside when she heard Richard. I felt myself pale. “You used Jamie as an experiment?” I screeched and then struggled to let myself free to strangle him. He laughed. I detested him.

            “I guess you can put it as that way. It worked. The first female wolf in history,” he said dreamily. I saw from the corner of my eye, a wolf smiled smugly. “Catherine must have died because of her old age. Others must be because their bodies are too weak to survive in the transformation.”

            I thought of Sam’s mother. She must have been sick when she was bitten. Sick out of grief for her dead husband. “What is the purpose of experimenting her?” Val asked angrily. I could see blood wasn’t in her face.

            Richard smiled and faced his back at us, facing Alice. He kissed Alice. The wolves were secured in their place just in case the tigers were able to enter. I could tell they were uncomfortable to see them kiss. I wasn’t uncomfortable, I was furious.

            “Valerie, we can get out of here. You will have more strength than other wolves. You are special. You will feel fun and freedom,” he said. He looked back at Val for her answer. What did he mean? Stronger than other wolves. Different. Special. One of a kind. Fun and freedom. She was special because she was a Hunter. What if a Hunter that was bitten? A werewolf is a Hunter? A werewolf that can track down every single wolf in the planet. Richard didn’t do this because he loved her, he did this to use her and gained power to be as strong as the Bermudan Wolves.

            “How dare you! I will kill you!” I screamed as loud as I could. I remembered the day Val screamed at me just because I was a Dreamer and I have a better chance of surviving. I was sure she wanted it so she too could be special. “Val, please. I’m begging you. Don’t do this,” I pleaded.

            “You, too are given an opportunity to be immortal, Sophia,” Richard added. This was a trick. He could use me to gain power. Even if he tried, I might die. But look at the bright side. I will be immortal, live forever like Jamie and Sam. What was the point to live forever if Sam wouldn’t accept me? If I had to return to London, I will kill my family and friends. I shuddered at that thought. I spit at him. He smiled. My answer was clear: Never.

            He turned to Alice now. “Alice, we can be together forever. What do you say?” Alice looked at him.

            “Go to hell,” I hissed at him.

            “Forever?” Alice whispered softly but it was loud for me to hear. No! She was going to say yes so she wouldn’t lose him again. Richard nodded in reply and took both her hands to put them on his cheeks.

            She kissed him and murmured something into his ears that Val and I couldn’t catch.

            He sank his teeth into her neck after he replied, “I promise.”