Children of The Moon Chronicles: Echo (Book I)

Chapter 1

I opened my eyes to the sound of my brother's footsteps on the stairs.

"Rise and shine everyone!" He called out, his voice echoing on the empty halls.

"Hush, kid. You're going to wake every soul in this house with that voice of yours." I heard Uncle Fox's booming voice from the kitchen.

I stretched and yawned before opening the door and heading towards the kitchen.

My brother, Randall was already there, he greeted me with a toothy grin.

"Yo, kiddo." I said with a warm smile plastered on my face.

He is seven years old, 11 years younger than me and is actually my cousin though we think of each other as brothers. He has hazel eyes and strange hair, it was red with streaks of ash blonde, he really looks like our Oma (Grandmother)

"Good morning, Echo. Have some breakfast. Your Oma will be up soon. She'd slept late, you know, problems with the pack." Uncle Fox handed me a plate of egg, bacon and sausages.

"Problems? Again?" I asked, my forehead creasing with worry.

Ever since my sister's disappearance, the problems become much serious, members of the pack dwindled, some formed another pack, some become rebels, others even joined other packs. Some of our Guardians betrayed us and Hunters are starting to follow our trail, so, we always need to be on the move and ready to fight anytime and some humans are even getting suspicious of us.

"Yes, but nothing your Oma couldn't solve." Uncle Fox assured me though he still looked troubled.

We are shape-shifters and my family had been leading the pack for years now. My great-great grandfather formed our pack, the Children of The Moon, 150 years ago. Today, we're just known as the Moon Pack, lame, I know but well.... we can live with it.

The Guardians are humans who protect our existence and we protect them and their family in return. While Hunters are humans who hunt and kill us, some do it for money while others do it out of fear and sometimes because of what they believe and a few people do it just for fun.

"Were you talking about me?" The three of us turned towards the voice.

Oma stood on the doorway, looking stern with her eyebrow raised. Oma looks much younger than her real age, her face is unlined, her skin smooth and clear, her hair a vibrant shade of gold, though she must have look weird and scary to normal people because of her tattoos. Runic characters covered her right arm, and on her left shoulder is a crescent moon over blue flames, the sign of our pack. Another could be seen on the right side of her neck and on her forehead. The only thing that betrayed her real age was her eyes, eyes that had seen too much. Her eyes are fierce and sad, powerful and bitter at the same time. She had survived the massacre of her family when she was my age, suffered the death of one son, the disappearance of another and the death of her husband. She's the current pack leader and her name is Tora Von Cliffe.

"Good morning to you too, My Queen." Uncle Fox said, his copper eyes twinkling as her gaze met his.

Uncle Fox is not really a relative. He belonged to another pack, the Claws of Darkness and he is the sole survivor of the pack after a horde of Hunters attacked them six years ago. Oma saved him and took him in and he'd been devoted to her ever since.

"Oh, shut up, Fox. Don't change the subject." Oma moved to join us, she sounded stern but the corners of her mouth were turned upwards though she tried to conceal her smile without success.

"Never try to hide your beautiful smile from me, My Queen." Fox teased her.

She sighed and shook her head at him.