Unhappily Ever After

Chapter 1 - Broken Things

/\ Song to get hyped if you want. I recommend cranking up the speed until you feel suitably badass ;) Ready? Set? Go.

I wasn't having the best day.

As if leaving my home and family wasn't bad enough, the Moon Goddess had decided to throw a temper tantrum. Every now and then, a lightning bolt would split the sky, and the thunder rumbled in tune. But the worst part was the rain — it poured down from low, black clouds, dissolving the tattered remains of my patience.

My feet shuffled of their own accord, impatient and restless. One shoe scuffed against the tarmac of the road. This was not a good place to stand, I realised. Here, on the edge of the bridge, I was just another shapeless shadow in the night. Chances were, Eira would walk right past me.

Automatically, I sent a tendril of thought into the deepest reaches of my mind, searching for the mental switch which controlled my scent. A brief flicker of command flipped it on. There. At least she could find me if she wanted to. I had no doubt I smelt of sweat and damp cloth, but it was better than nothing.

I knew I needed a shower, but there hadn't seemed any point when I would only get filthy again on the journey. But the rain had a different opinion about my need to wash and wasn't giving me any choice in the matter. I was soaked to the skin and suppressing shivers. Water dripped loudly from my jacket hood, forming a miserable puddle at my feet.

But the rain was useful. If my sister came after me — when she came after me, it would mask my tracks and trail. With luck, she wouldn't even realise I had left the island for days. That gave me time to get far, far away. I could find a place where no one knew who I was, and then I could lie low until she gave up the hunt. It might take years.

It wasn't that she was trying to be cruel. No, Gwen had always been the perfect model of an older sibling. I lost count of the times she got me out of trouble or saved my worthless ass. She just wouldn't understand why I had to leave ... and cared far too much to let me. And that was why I was so reluctant to leave her like this — in the middle of the night, without so much as a goodbye.

But it was this, or let the power-hungry families of this godforsaken island use me against her. I was a weapon in the wrong hands. She had the better claim to the throne, of course. That was why she was the one wearing a crown. And she was welcome to it. But while she had been born first, I had been born male.

 That shouldn't have mattered, of course. But at that time, the laws of succession of the British monarchy decreed that sons came before daughters, and some people saw no reason the werewolf monarchy shouldn't work the same way.  It was a flimsy excuse for the half of the island who would benefit from having my arse on the throne.

That was why I had to leave. When my mother had died, and my father had been declared unfit to rule by a unanimous vote, the families of the island had crowned Gwen. But there had been whispers that it should have gone to me. And I was in no hurry to oblige the culprits.

Because, at twenty-one years old, I didn't want to fill my days with responsibility and duty. I wanted to see the world beyond the island. I wanted memories, and perhaps a bit of danger. Perhaps a lot of danger.

Still, the puddle grew. It reached the soles of my boots and lapped at them eagerly. I didn't really believe that Eira would turn up, not until I caught her woody scent approaching from the north. My younger sister hadn't inherited the ability to turn hers off, and it annoyed her to no end.

She should have been on duty at this time of night. Eira, ever restless, had occupied herself by joining the ranks of the Moon Guard, a force devoted to protecting and governing the island. So, naturally, I was a little surprised when her outline parted from the gloom of the forest.