The White Wolf ||A Paranormal Romance||

Prologue

Vali

There should be more blood.

Why wasn't there more blood?

My fingers were holding the wound, my heartbeat too fast as I ran into my home and slammed the door shut behind me. Through the adrenaline I managed to focus long enough to lock the door behind me as if it would make a difference. As if it could stop that... thing.

Maybe if I kept calling it a thing I could pretend that I didn't know what it was.

That I didn't know what was going to happen to me.

I couldn't stop the tears from brimming my eyes, from making them sting and burn. That burning couldn't compare to the absolute torture in my shoulder, the agony I felt with every twinge of muscle. I just... I have to clean the wound, make sure it doesn't get infected.

I sprinted to the bathroom and turned the shower on. With the water as hot as it could go I jumped in fully clothed, allowing the water to scold me. My shoes were still on, my socks soaking in bloody water, the white turning red. I shouldn't have gone for a run, definitely not at night and not in the woods.

I knew what was out there, knew that they didn't care about the laws built to protect mortals from them. Well, at least, not enough to make a difference. I knew what was out there and I still...

Once I was sure that my body was clean, that the wound was clean, I pulled myself out of the shower. I had to put a bandage on it, put disinfectant or something on it.

But when I looked in the slightly fogged mirror I noticed two things.

First and foremost, the wound was healed. There were just light scars left where I had been bitten. The pain was because of what was left in my system, because of what it was turning me into.

Secondly, and probably more noticeable was my hair.

Fuck, why was it going white?

I picked up a wet strand between my fingers and watched as the white crept down inch by inch from my roots.

"Great." I whispered, leaning my back against the tiled wall. My clothes clung to me like an uncomfortable second skin, dragging along my back as I slid down to the floor. Not only was I going to become a werewolf, I was becoming a White Wolf.

I dropped my face into my hands, my eyes closing as I tried to comprehend everything that was happening to me. Comprehend why this was happening to me.

But as my eyes closed even stranger things happened.

I saw something.

A party. A ballroom filled with fair-looking people in expensive clothing. Ball gowns, suits and some form of traditional dress from centuries ago. I saw cloaks and skirts and masks. A masquerade?

My eyes opened and I was back in my bathroom.

My eyes closed and I was back at that party, feeling like I was a part of something or someone else. The music was classical but fast, the food lavish... but the drink. It was blood. Why was I seeing vampires?

Those flashes of another life then stopped with the same velocity as they had started, but only after I changed into dry clothes and decided against calling someone. There wasn't anything that anyone could do for me now.

And I couldn't settle for long enough to get any rest.

Instead I was stuck between staring at my bedroom ceiling and the memory of wolf teeth heading towards me.

This was the world I lived in. I knew that there was a chance this would happen to me and I had promised myself what I would do if it ever did.

The pain in my body was slowly passing, even as I sat up again and stared into space in front of me.

I had promised myself that I wouldn't go down without a fight.

I turned to look out of my window, my now pure white hair in my peripheral vision. There was no way that werewolf would get away with biting me without consent. He thought he was going to just create another wolf when he did, but I knew what the white hair meant. Knew what the White Wolf was.

Their leader, their Alpha of all Alphas.

I smiled as I stood up from the bed. All the stories from people who had been bitten said it was easy to use your new power. All you had to do was lean into instinct and trust yourself.

That wolf had no idea what he had just created, but I was going to make it known.

He may have bitten me, but I would control his every remaining breath.

I would control every one of them.