Project Hybrid

Version 2 | Chapter 1: Mating Day

It was an unwritten rule in Howl Falls that everyone conformed to the norms. 

It even applied to the genetics of our quaint community. Everyone experienced their first transformation before the age of thirteen. I, however, was the wary exception. From the day I turned thirteen till my sixteenth birthday, shadows and darkness became my best friend. 

But even after my transformation, the town stared at me with wrinkled noses and whispered behind my back. They always said the same thing. They said my mate would be Athan Solano. Genetically, as a hybrid, he didn't conform to the norms of Howl Falls. He wasn't supposed to be among our kind. 

According to rumor, the transformation was accidental (if hooking up with a stranger, knowing doing so was taboo, was considered accidental.) After the elders discovered a wiry girl entangled with the chalky-white trespasser against a tree, the girl was banished from the town. I heard from a friend that she was admitted to a mental facility. 

Meanwhile, Athan was confined to the local clinic to heal from the scratch delivered to his shoulder by the father of the girl. To his kind, if I was right, bearing such a mark was the worst sin one could commit.

If asked, all the women at my school would admit they would hook up with Athan, but they would rather die than be his mate. I, on the other hand, if asked, would've slapped anyone who asked such a scandalous question. I had no desire to sleep with a rogue. 

The scornful stares followed me until my eighteenth birthday, for that night, the moon goddess would reveal to us eighteen-year-olds our mates. It didn't matter now. Their words would either be truth or lies. 

"Don't worry about it." At the sound of my best friend's voice, I hiccuped and nearly jumped out of my skin. We were striding down the hall to the last class of the day—the last class of our high school career, to say the most. "You'll probably end up as the luna." 

I glanced to the side at my best friend as we stopped in front of the door to the classroom. She had an assuring smile, but the frantic act of curling her hair around her fingers said otherwise. Her tawny skin glistened with sweat. 

I stretched my arm out in her direction; my hand seeped across her chest. "Keanna," I said, "you're the one worrying." 

What spread across Keanna's face was a fake smile. It wasn't something you'd display in a magazine. She seemed to have contorted her lips into an awkward shape that caused a chain reaction across her face: her cheeks bulged, her nose wrinkled, her eyes narrowed into a squint. The entire grade had seen this expression at some point in their lives; still, all of my male peers wanted to be her mate.

Her expression softened. "I know," she said and rubbed at her forearm. My fingers grasped the doorframe. I had one foot in the classroom. "I just have a bad feeling about tonight."

I yanked my foot out of the classroom. My pulse was heavy against my chest. The town always said that the moon goddess gifted the Zoidos with a sixth sense. A sensation stirred inside them to warn them of possible predicaments. The elders relied on the family to make decisions for Howl Falls. 

I heaved a sigh and grabbed Keanna by the shoulders. "It's a superstition. Don't give in." 

After biting her lip, my friend brushed a lock of hair out of her eye. "Just in case, can I stay with you tonight?" 

"Sure."

With those words, Keanna and I marched into the classroom. Every student in the room was staring at us. The teacher had a stern hue to his eyes. His fingers drummed against the mahogany podium. 

"Beatriz—" the teacher bared his teeth after saying my name "—it's a delight to know you haven't ditched your last day of school like you said yesterday."