Under the Full Moon's Light Ch.5

"Daniel, wait up!" Arche called out darting between the trees in the forest of their parents' territory.

"Come on Arche! Nothing's faster than a wolf!" Daniel called back, laughing and howling as he ran.

"Ughf, ooww." Arche whimpered as he tripped and fell on a rouge tree root sticking up out of the ground. Landing face first in the dirt. Tears welled in his big amber eyes.

"Daniel!" Arche cried, but his older brother was already out of sight. Arche gingerly stood up and brushed himself off. The large trees loomed above him, their canopies rustling in the wind. Arche turned round and round completely disoriented. Which way had Daniel gone? Which way was home? Tears streamed down his face. He sniffed the air attempting to ascertain the smells but there were so many, they jumbled all together and Arche couldn't tell which smells were coming from where. Arche shut his eyes and squeezed them tight trying to focus only on the sounds instead.

"Arche?" Arche finally heard his brother's voice faintly call out to him.

"Daniel!" Arche called out in response, desperate to find his brother.

"Arche, come here!" Daniel called back. Arche walked in the direction of his older brother's voice. Treading through the dense forest, Arche worked his way to where Daniel was waiting for him.

"Look!" Daniel pointed to a small undisturbed cake sitting on a white plate, the boys looked at each other amazed at their good fortune. Daniel greedily lunged forward wanting to get to the sweet treat before his younger brother. At that moment, however, something metal glinted from beneath a pile of leaves under where the cake sat, catching Arche's eye. Through the overwhelmingly sweet scent, Arche now realised there was a faint metallic one. An image immediately shot into his mind of the large metal traps his father used for hunting. In a flash of instinct, Arche sprinted forward, moving faster than he ever had before, to knock Daniel out of harms way. The disturbance caused the precariously placed plate to fall, setting off the trigger. The trap snapped shut, exploding the plate into white shards, smashing the cake to pieces, and the sound of an ear piercing scream echoed across the forest as one of the traps sharp teeth clawed Daniel across his left eye as he fell.

Arche struggled under Daniel's weight as they stumbled out of the forest. Daniel held onto the left side of his face, blood oozing through the space between his fingers. His face was pale, his breath ragged, and he leaned heavily on his little brother as they walked. Sylvia and Philip were already halfway down the hill running towards their two little boys as the boys emerged from the forest. At the sight of Daniel, Sylvia looked at Philip but he was already headed for the stables. Sylvia picked Daniel up and wrapped his quivering body in her shawl. Taking a free corner of the shawl she gently applied pressure to his injured eye. With Daniel safely in their mother's arms, Arche felt a weight lift off his shoulders and he suddenly felt exhausted. Philip emerged from the stables, wagon hitched and ready to go. Sylvia got into the bed of the wagon with Daniel, cradling him in her arms. Philip grabbed Arche and sat him down on the front bench next to him and they rushed to the human town of Feormetan.

Philip and Sylvia knocked frantically on the doctor's door. Arche peered over the back of the front wagon's bench where he had been instructed to wait. When finally, the door swung open by a man who had a sour look on his face.

"Get out of here, I don't help your kind!" The man said gruffly.

"Sir, please! You have to help my son! He's only 8 years old. Please, sir please!" Sylvia pleaded desperately through sobs with the man. The man looked down at Daniel laying helplessly in his mother's arms, the expression on his face unchanging.

"Alright, get in here quick." The man said quietly, ushering Sylvia and Daniel inside he closed the door. Philip returned to the wagon and sat down next to Arche letting out a long breath. Arche crawled onto his father's lap, wrapped his arms around him, and buried his face in his chest. Philip wrapped his arms around Arche in return.

"It's ok Arche, your brother is going to be alright." Philip said reassuringly.

"Awe man!" A fat young human boy standing close by whined. "It got to it too early! I wanted to get it when it was a wolf!"

"Yeah, how cool would it have been to give Ma a stuffed wolf pup!" a slightly older boy next to the fat child said and the two started laughing.

"You boys better get out of here and go home to your mother if you know what's good for ya!" Philip said in a loud stern voice. The boys stared silently at Philip with a face like they smelled something rotten. Their eyes scanned him down to his tail then up to his pointed ears before they turned and finally walked away, laughing and pushing each other as they went.

Arche burst through the forest, running at full speed he let his senses guide him. He could smell the blood, hear the whimpers of his younger siblings, Arche darted through the dense forest with great agility, quickly arriving at the scene that he had desperately hoped he wouldn't see. Bethany looked up at Arche where she sat on the ground with tears streaming down her pink face, a closed bloody trap and a ruined cake sat beside a broken little boy. Angus laid face up on the ground, his right leg was badly injured, blood gushing from the fresh wound and a bone stuck up out of place. Angus' cries became fierce once he saw Arche and reached up wanting to be picked up by his older brother. Arche took off his jacket and carefully wrapped Angus in it, applying pressure to his injured leg as he carried him just as he saw his mother do long ago.

Charlotte stood outside the stables looking towards the forest where Arche had disappeared. She had never seen someone move that fast before. Within seconds Sylvia, Victoria, Danielle, and Philip came rushing down the hill towards her, but before anyone could say anything Arche emerged from the forest, a distraught Bethany clutching to his pant leg and a small bundle wrapped in his arms.

"Not again!" Sylvia gasped and Philip rushed to the stables. Sylvia took Angus from Arche's arms carefully cradling the boy. Victoria cried out in shock putting a hand to her mouth as she began to understand what had happened to her baby brother, but Danielle stood still as a statue, eyes wide, the color drained from her face.

"We need to get to Dr. Wilkes as soon as possible." Sylvia announced.

"I'm coming with you." Arche informed.

"I'll come too." Charlotte said, not wanting to leave Arche without making things right after what transpired in the stables.

"Alright. Danielle, you stay here and take care of Victoria and Bethany." Sylvia instructed, but she did not get a response.

"Danielle?" Sylvia said in a soft voice, walking over to her.

"Hm, oh yes. Of course mother." Danielle shook her head side to side with her left hand over her scar before crouching down to comfort Bethany.

Philip emerged with the horses hitched to the wagon. Sylvia sat with Angus cradled in her arms in the bed of the wagon. Arche took a seat in the front row next to his father. Charlotte, unsure of whether she should sit next to Arche or not, sat in the second row behind her husband.

Philip drove the wagon as fast as Cletus and Rosebud could feasibly go on the narrow winding forest road. Charlotte clutched her hands into fists and held her breath each time they rounded a bend, certain they would all go flying off into the trees. Relief filled her anxiety-ridden heart as Feormetan came into view, but it departed just as quickly as they entered the town and their speed did not decrease. People leapt out of the way left and right as the wagon barreled down the cobblestone road that led to the centre of town. When they arrived at the old Doctor Wilkes' practice, Philip jumped off the wagon before it came to a full stop, Arche took and pulled back on the reins. Philip rounded the wagon to help Sylvia off before frantically banging on the Doctor's door. A nurse wearing a red dress and white apron and bonnet answered.

"Please ma'am, we need to see Dr. Wilkes right away!" Philip said urgently.

"I'm sorry sir, but Dr. Wilkes is out of town right now." The nurse responded. "And I'm not sure if his cover would be willing to help… your kind."

"Charlotte?" A voice came from within the building and the nurse stepped aside as Richard stepped into the doorway, a friendly smile on his face.

"Charlotte, it's good to see you again." Charlotte's brother-in-law Richard said, directing his attention only to her. "What brings you here today?" He asked despite there being an obviously injured child in front of him. Charlotte confidently placed her arm on Sylvia's back encouraging her to take a step forward. Richard took a small step back at the approach.

"Richard! Please, you have to help Angus!" Charlotte pleaded. Richard finally turned his attention to Angus with a concerned look on his face.

"Yes. Well I suppose you are family. The mother and the child may come in but the rest of you must wait out here." Richard decided. Sylvia followed Richard into the doctor's practice and the nurse closed the door behind them.

Arche sat on a bench in the town square. Looking exhausted as he put his elbows on his knees and held his head. Charlotte sat down beside him unsure of how to start her apology considering the events that had just transpired.

"It's a good thing you're here, I can't imagine what might have happened to Angus if we couldn't find a doctor willing to treat him." Arche said in a flat voice, still holding his head in his hands.

"Of course, I would never want anything bad to happen to any of you, Arche." Charlotte said sincerely. Arche continued to sit silently.

"What exactly did happen to Angus?" Charlotte asked apprehensively.

"His leg was injured by a hunter's trap." Arche answered, sitting up and leaning back on the bench.

"A hunter's trap? I didn't know werewolves used traps to hunt." Charlotte pondered aloud.

"We do. My family are hunters by trade so we hunt all month long, not just during the full moon like most werewolves. But that wasn't one of our traps. It was set to hunt werewolves, a human must have snuck onto our land and set it up. They disguised it with leaves and used a cake as both bait and to cover up the metallic smell of the trap. An adult werewolf wouldn't have been fooled by it, but kids? They're too innocent and gullible not to go for it." Arche said defeatedly.

"Your mom said that this has happened before?" Charlotte asked.

"Yeah, when I was 7. It was the day before a full moon just like today. That close to a full moon and the wolf inside of us starts to stir. With two rowdy kids at home, Ma sent us outside to go run off some of our energy. Danielle saw it first and she lunged for the cake, but in that split second I saw the metal of the trap shine in the light. I pushed Danielle out of the way but the trap sprung and caught her eye. That's how she got the scar." Arche explained. "We live closer to this town than we do the werewolf village so Ma and Pa brought Danielle here to get help. Dr. Wilkes was the one to help her that day. He wasn't going to at first either, but when he saw Danielle, I guess he had a change of heart. I was told to wait in the wagon and I saw the kids who had set up the trap. They must have heard about the werewolf family riding into town like maniacs and knew we'd be looking for a doctor. They talked about us like we were nothing more than animals, calling Danielle 'it' as if she wasn't a person, like her life was worthless to them." Arche sighed looking up at the huge cathedral that sat looming over them. "I know that there are good humans and bad humans. Just like there are good werewolves and bad werewolves. But how any human can look at one of us and think we're the monsters when you have this huge reminder of what the humans did to the vampires proudly standing in your town square, I'll never understand." Arche said, gesturing towards the cathedral.

Charlotte looked up confused, absorbing what Arche had just said. "But, the humans were just protecting the town from the vampire attacks." Charlotte eventually said warily.

"Is that the story the humans tell themselves?" Arche scoffed, shaking his head. "Vampires are vain, practically immortal creatures who care about little else than to remain in their castles adorning themselves with their jewels. They don't even hunt anymore! Ever since peace was struck between the werewolves and the vampires they just pay us to bring them something alive every once in a while and they feed on that! They pay no mind to anyone or anything else." Arche got more and more heated as he continued. "When the humans went onto their territory to mine the stone for their precious cathedral the vampires were a little perturbed about it and wrote a strongly worded letter to the human king, but none of the vampires actually confronted the humans themselves. It would have been beneath them! Oh, but once that cathedral was built the humans wanted to 'apologise' for their rudeness and invited the vampires for a soiree. Well! Being the proud egotistical creatures that they are, some of the vampires actually accepted the invitation. And that's when the humans let their light shine and do what they do best. Destroy whatever pleases them." Arche finished with a huff.

Charlotte stared up at the cathedral; the shadow it cast in the afternoon sun stretched across the square. Charlotte had always had an uneasy feeling about the place, but now, a shiver ran up her spine.

Charlotte was about to start her apology to Arche for calling him a monster. She was going to say that she had been surrounded her whole life with lies about the werewolves and with everything happening so suddenly her thoughts had gotten all mixed up. She was going to say how absolutely gutted she felt ever since the word even came into her mind, but before she could say any of that, a shadowy figure took a final step towards them. Charlotte and Arche turned at the last minute only noticing the figure out of the corner of their eyes before the world went dark as they were knocked into unconsciousness.

Charlotte opened her eyes and found herself laying in a pile of loose straw. There was a strong animal scent that assaulted her nose and she heard the sounds of men talking.

"Oh good, you're waking up. I was worried I hit you too hard and we weren't going to get a show." A gravelly voice said.

"Hey Travis, your plan worked. I owe you a drink!" Another boisterous voice said. Charlotte sat up and looked around. She and Arche were locked in a stable together, only the door had large metal bars crudely stuck into the top of it that went all the way up to the ceiling. A thick black chain was wrapped around the bars and the door was secured with a large padlock trapping her and Arche inside.

"I told you it would! See, just like when I was kid. You hurt one of em' and they all bloody come down here!" Travis retorted. Charlotte recognized Travis as the son of the town's baker and the other men she recognized as men who would frequent the tavern.

"Hey! Let us out of here!" Arche demanded pulling at the large metal bars that caged them in.

"Oohhooo. It sure is mad!" One of the men laughed.

"What do you want with us?" Charlotte demanded, griping the metal bars next to Arche.

"What do we want with ya'? Well, we's just wants to teach ya a lesson about nature is all." The man answered. Arche looked at the men like he was trying to decide what would be the most painful way to kill them.

"What are you talking about?" Charlotte asked, levelling her voice.

"You two lovebirds want to get married and spend the rest of your lives together, but a human can't be with a werewolf! It just ain't natural! So, we're going to show you just how big of a mistake it was to get yourself involved with a monster." The man looked towards the window at the end of the barn; dim light filtered through it. "Won't be long now." He said in a menacing voice.

"What? What exactly do you think is going to happen?" Charlotte asked irritably.

"What are ya stupid or something darlin'? It's a full moon tonight, and in a few moments your precious husband is going to turn into the beast he really is!" The man exclaimed.

"So?" Charlotte asked pointedly. "Werewolves have full control of themselves when they turn, everyone knows that." Charlotte said. She looked over at Arche victoriously only to see him staring at the men with a locked jaw and a death glare. "Don't they?" Charlotte asked quietly.

"Oh sure. Modern day werewolves have figured out a way to 'control the beast', but that takes a great deal of mental preparedness and clarity. Of which right now, he ain't got." The man said, pointing at Arche. "Any second now he's going to transform into the big bad wolf he really is, and when he does he's going to hunt the closest living thing to him. YOU!" The man lunged forward startling Charlotte causing her to stumble backwards, just as the sun set.

Arche cried out and his clothes burst in every direction as he morphed from a man into a large black wolf. The force of the transformation threw Charlotte to the back of the stable, causing her to fall flat on her back hitting her head against the wall. Arche landed on all fours on the ground with a heavy thud. His large wolf body took up almost the entire stable. Arche turned looking at Charlotte with hungry eyes, growling baring his white sharp fangs, he pounced on her. With one massive paw he pinned her to the ground, his claws tearing the fabric of her dress underneath. Charlotte could feel her heart pounding in her chest, and she could hear the men laugh but they sounded distant now. Charlotte struggled under Arche's paw as she tried to wriggle herself away, but Arche was too strong. Any amount that Charlotte moved only caused her dress to rip more until Charlotte winced in pain as one of Arche's claws cut her on a now exposed part of her upper ribs and Charlotte stopped trying to get away. Arche's face slowly got closer to Charlotte's as he growled, she could feel his hot breath on her face and for the first time since he turned, Charlotte looked directly into his big amber eyes. Time slowed down and the world fell silent as Charlotte saw Arche, really saw him.

"You're not going to eat me." Charlotte said quietly enough only Arche could hear, the fear in her chest dissipating. "Because you're not a monster, you're a wolf. Wolves only eat their prey and I'm not your prey." Charlotte reached up with her hand, ignoring Arche's growls she touched the soft fur on the side of his face. "I'm your mate."

Realization flashed into Arche's eyes, his growling stopped, and he took his paw off of Charlotte. The men were now pressed up to the bars on the stable door trying to see what was happening but Arche's large body blocked their view. Arche and Charlotte could hear the men start to grumble about "what's taking so long", and their demands to "rip her to shreds already".

Charlotte pressed her head to Arche's and whispered, "Go, hunt your prey. And when you come home, come home to me." Arche turned towards the door, growling at the men. He lunged, throwing his weight onto the door causing the metal to bend. The men slowly backed away, eyes wide in terror as Arche continued to thrash on the door. With a final blow to the door, chains and lock burst and the door came crashing down. The men screamed in horror as they scrambled over each other running for the exit. Arche swatted the men aside, sending them flying into the walls of the other stables as he ran towards the forest, howling under the full moon's light.