Voices of the Moon

Chapter 5

Whispering Willow, New England

~Selena~

"I'm a what?" I say for the third time in five minutes.

Ashlyn sighs. "Okay, I know you're surprised and all but do we really have to go over this again?"

I nod and she says,"Fine. You are a werewolf, a human with a wolf inside your head. They can talk to you when you start to shift, AKA turning into your wolf form, when you turn eighteen."

"And you're my sister?"

"Yes, we were special twins, given powers and protected by the Moon Goddess. You were taken away from the pack at birth when our parents were killed. They seperated you from the rest of the pack, but now I can talk to you, and soon you should be able to communicate with all of us through your thoughts."

I nod slowly, still unable to believe everything that happened. After I was freed from the cage, Ashlyn and the others brought me on a plane to here, America. We are now in a place called New England. Emily had shown me pictures of all these places, but they are even more amazing in real life. There are green trees and moss everywhere, and the house where Ashlyn lives is practically a castle. There is even an entire room next to hers that is completely for me.

The best part was getting to go outside, and see everything especially the animals. They all seemed to like me and Ashlyn started laughing and saying I had a gift with animals when one of the birds landed on my head.

Ashlyn says that I will have to start school soon, but before that I need to heal and get caught up on my schoolwork. That shouldn't be a problem,though; Ashlyn says that one of the gifts we got from the Moon Goddess was extreme intelligence. Apparently we got other gifts, but we won't discover those until we turn eighteen and learn to shift.

I also learned that one of the reasons the cage always hurt was because it was made of silver. Ashlyn says silver is very bad for werewolves. She says that the silver in my back from the whip will be there for the next year, but then it will disappear when I turn eighteen. She said that when you turn eighteen, you get a fresh start.

I wonder what Emily would think of all this. I told Ashlyn about Emily, and how her death was my fault. She says that it's not my fault and that Nicholas was always lying to me. I hope she's right, but I don't really believe her. There must be something wrong with me if Nicholas always said that. I decided that I would try and keep my distance as to not hurt anyone like I did to Emily. I also am slightly afraid that they won't like me.

When I asked Ashlyn where Nicholas went, she said that she didn't know. They "took care" of most of the people upstairs, but Ashlyn said Nicholas and a few others got away. Ashlyn said that she doesn't know why Nicholas took me yet, but that she will find out. She says Nicholas and all the other people were rogues, werewolves without a pack. Not all rogues are bad, but those ones were.

"Hello? Lena? You listening?" Ashlyn says, waving her hand in front of my face. Ashlyn decided to call me Lena since she said Selena took too long.

I nod and she says,"Good. I was just about to explain mates. Conner, can you help me out here? I never really had any parents to explain this to me."

The boy who was with Ashlyn when she came to rescue me nods. His pack apparently is back in Britain, but he came with us to America for a short amount of time. He said it was because he "wanted to see all of America's fast food chains."

"Well," Conner begins,"there are these things called mates. They're kind of like your soul mates. Basically, the Moon Goddess pairs you up with a person, and you fall in love with them. You do all these weird love rituals, and you usually can find your mate by their smell. Or when you touch you get special feeling things."

I nod and Ashlyn says,"And...you forgot one thing..."

"On yeah!"Conner exclaims."If your mate dies or rejects you, will will live out the rest of your life in both emotional and physical pain, sadness and loneliness, unless you magically find another mate, which is rare."

"Wow," I say quietly.

Ashlyn must hear me and says,"Yeah it might kind of be a lot to take in at one time."

I nod again and quietly say,"Yeah. Can I go for a walk?"

"Sure, just be back before dark."

I walk out of the house and run into the forest, breathing in the fresh, pine filled air. It feels good to be free.

_____________________________________________________________________

~Ashlyn~

"Wow she sure is taking this all in pretty well," I say to Conner.

"Yeah," he responds. "You know you're going to have to look out for her at school. She seems kind of naive for being locked in a cage her whole life."

"I know. I will personally break every bone in the body of anyone who hurts her," I growl.

Conner raises his eyebrow at me. "Wow, you sure are pretty tough for a girl."

I punch him in the shoulder and say,"That tough enough for you?"

He looks mock surprised. "Ouch! I didn't know you could hit like that, girlie. Anyways," he continues,"I'm going to have to go back to my pack in Britain."

I frown at him. "Seriously? You came all the way here and are just going to leave again?"

"Sorry,"he says,"but my pack needs me. I'll keep an ear out for Nicholas, and I'll come and visit some time."

I reach up and pull the hat off his head and put it on. "I'm gonna have to keep this as an incentive to come back," I say.

After some strange looks at me, Collen finally agrees. "Alright, I'll be back soon for my hat," he says, and walks out the door.

I can hear his truck pull away, and for some reason all I can think about is how cute his messy hat-hair looked when I took his hat. I sigh, flop onto the couch, and reach for the phone.

"Madison, I found my sister. You wanna come meet her?"

"Count me in, Ash. I'll be right over."