Chapter One

It was six o’clock on a Monday morning. The only two signs of life up yet were two high school juniors running at such an inhuman speed that they almost looked like blurs.

The sky was a light and pale baby blue with colorful streaks of yellow, red, orange, and pink coming from the vast body of water outside of the city.

The two teens ran through the deserted city toward the ocean that was getting ever so closer by the second.

“Sarah! Wait up! I can’t run as fast as you!” One of the juniors shouted to their companion. It was a boy and he was falling behind.

“That’s your own fault Sam. The only time you run is either during school or during a hunt.” Sarah called to him, not slowing down one bit.

Sarah had a ‘mission’, so to speak, to accomplish and she wasn’t going to give up until she got it done. She’s a stubborn girl that doesn’t back down from what she wants or turn down a challenge. It’s a surprise that she hasn’t gotten herself killed yet.

No less than two minutes later, the two teens stopped on a grassy cliff overlooking the ocean and beach. The ocean was a beautiful blue color with the light and cleanness of the beach complementing it.

Sarah gave a sigh of relief as she saw the red tip of the sun start to climb into the sky. “We made it just in time.” She said as she smiled, mission accomplished. She loved to watch the sunrise over the ocean; it was one of her favorite places. And since she had to run through a forest to get to the cliff, it was always deserted. Sarah liked to come here and think sometimes, or just to get away from the world. She was never disturbed or bothered here which gave her serenity of mind. It gave her a place to relax.

Sarah plopped herself down on the edge of the cliff with her feet dangling off. She turned to look at Sam and saw that he was staring at the sunrise as well with awe. “Told you it would be worth the run. Now come on, sit down, I thought you were tired.” She turned back around to face the view as she felt Sam obliging.

Sarah was wearing her dirty blond hair up in a high pony-tail. If her hair was down then it would reach her hips. She was wearing a white spaghetti strap top with grey running shorts and sneakers. Her brown eyes were scanning the surface of the water as the seagulls arose and started flying about, squawking like they always did.

Sam, unlike Sarah, had bright red hair with a couple dozen brown strands mixed in with it. His emerald eyes were specked with a tiny amount of gold. And even though he didn’t run all the time like Sarah, he still was well built with a good amount of muscles.

Surprisingly enough, Sarah didn’t have any muscles though she ran all the time. Running was her favorite thing to do, and she was glad she didn’t gain any muscles from it. She was strong, but she thought that if she had muscles it would take away from her femininity and beauty.

“I don’t know how you do it. If you could, you would run every day; all day. I mean, come on. It’s the crack of dawn, literally, on a Monday morning, no less, and you’re this active? I just don’t get you.” Sam breathed, exhausted. He might have taken it a step too far with the dramatics by falling to the ground and lying down with his right knee up and his other leg lying down.

Sarah rolled her eyes and scooted over closer to Sam. When she saw that his eyes were closed and that he was breathing in equal breaths to calm himself down, she brought her hand up and ran it through his shaggy hair, effectively messing it up. This got Sam to open his eyes. He watched as Sarah laughed and brought her hand out of his hair.

“Eww. You’re all sweaty.” She said as she wiped her hand off on his muscle shirt that was one size too big.

Sam laughed as well and said, “Oh, like you’re not?”

“No, as a matter of fact, I am not sweaty. It takes a lot to get me to break into a sweat since I run so much.” Sarah said proudly.

Now it was Sam’s turn to roll his eyes. And after he did so, he brought up his left wrist to find a black watch on it. The time read six thirty.

Sam sat up and put his arm around Sarah, getting her shoulders and neck sweaty from his sweat.

“Eww.” She said as she tried to get his arm off, but he held a strong grip.

Sam looked out into the rising sun one last time before saying, “We’ve got to go. We don’t want to be late to school, now do we? The last time we were late to school because of something you dragged me into, we wound up in detention and my folks weren’t too happy about that.”

Sarah pouted and said, “You didn’t have to come with me, you know? It was your choice. I would have been just fine without you.”

“You would have been killed if it wasn’t for me! You were cornered in the subway station by five gang members when I found you! You should be grateful you’re still alive!” Sam shouted at her. He then paused and thought for a moment. When he spoke next, his voice was calmer, “By the way, you never did tell me why they were so angry at you.”

Sarah seemed to shrink. She looked down at the ground. “They were stealing from this little old lady and pointy a gun at her head. I told them to knock it off. When they caught sight of me, they discussed it upon themselves and came up with the conclusion that I was hot and that I now belonged to the leader of the gang. When I refused they cornered me and pointed the gun at me, threatening me that if I did not ‘pleasure’ the leader, than they would shoot my head off. I could smell it; the bullet in the gun was pure silver. I would have fought them off but being that close and inhaling the scent of the silver full on was too much and it weakened me. That’s when you came.” Her mumbling was so quiet that if Sam was not a Lycan, he would never have been able to hear it.

Sam scanned her body with his eyes. When his eyes rested upon her face once more he asked, “Hot, huh?” When Sarah nodded, he frowned and said, “You should have told me that before we left. If you had I would have done more than beat them up. I would have killed them for even thinking such impure thoughts about you.”

Sarah rolled her eyes and hugged Sam. “Sam, I love you, but you’re too overprotective. Though I do have to admit, you did save my butt on that one. But don’t make that ego any bigger than it already is or you’ll suffocate me.” She said.

“Sarah, you’re like a sister to me. How could I not be overprotective? The thought of someone hurting you kills me.” Sam said. He then sighed and stood up, pulling Sarah up with him. “We have enough time to go back to our homes, meet up, and get to school if we hurry.”

Sarah nodded and with that the two of them made their way back through the city. Both of their houses were down the street from each other, which was a plus.

About twenty minutes later both were out of their houses and half way toward the school. They had ten minutes to make it otherwise they would be late. But they had plenty of time so they found no need in running.

Both Sarah and Sam hated their uniforms. The school’s colors were black and white. How emo and gothic can a school get, right?

The girls’ uniforms were white button up shirts with long sleeves. The shirts had black cuffs and a black collar. The skirts were pleated black plaid with white in it. They had to wear white stockings with black dress shoes.

The boys’ uniforms had the same types of shirts as the girls’ but with a black tie. They had black dress pants and black dress shoes.

The students were allowed to make…modifications…to their uniforms, just as long as they wore them. The girls were allowed to show cleavage or their bellies and belly buttons. They were also allowed to roll up their skirts to make them shorter. The boys were allowed to have their shirts undone or completely open, whether they had an undershirt on or not. They could also loosen their ties or undo them completely and just leave them hanging around their neck. For both genders, jewelry, belts, chains, etc. were acceptable.

Sarah, like most other students, made altercations to her uniform as well. Sam, however, didn’t see what the point was so he didn’t bother. Sarah’s skirt, like all the other girls’ came to just above her knee. She actually cut and sewed it to make it shorter so now it was halfway in between her knees and hips. Though you couldn’t see any of her skin on her legs because of the white stockings, you could still see her leg shape better. She undid the top two buttons of her shirt and the bottom two buttons. This gave her the ability to show off her belly and her stubbed belly button.

Sarah had her dirty blond hair down. It was flowing in the wind, but luckily it was flowing behind her, so it wouldn’t get in her face. Her skin was so nice and tan that the guys always looked at her twice. But if they weren’t in her pack, she didn’t give them a second thought.

Members of the pack weren’t allowed to socialize or interact with anyone that was not a Lycan or that was an enemy of the pack. This had a few reasons that were still unknown to Sarah as of yet. But one reason was obvious; your secret can’t get out if there’s no one to tell it to. The more time you spend with a human, the easier it got to trust that person with your secret, thus endangering the whole pack. Not to mention, you could slip up and spill something important by accident that could be linked with your secret. So it was safest just to stay away from the humans, period, to interact with them as little as possible.

As Sarah and Sam walked into the school’s campus, they instantly went off to go meet up with their friends. They usually hung out with about three people. Two of them were guys and one was a girl. Their names were Lukas, Mike, and Vanessa. There were plenty of other Lycan teens that attended the high school, but it was better if they split up into several groups, as to not raise suspicion. Also, different people have different interests and personalities. Just because two people are Lycan and of the same pack doesn’t mean they get along. Though most of the people in the pack get along quite well.

As Sarah and her friends talked before the bell rang that signaled that they had to be in class, she was unaware of the pair of cold black eyes watching her from a distance. Sam, however, took notice. Since he was facing the owner of the pair of black eyes, he glared his green pair at that person. The person returned the glare.

“Sam, are you listening? Mike asked you a question.” Vanessa asked Sam, starting to become worried. She turned around to see what Sam was staring at, and when she saw the boy that owned the black eyes her eyes widened. She saw that he was now staring at Sarah’s back again. Vanessa turned to the others and said, “Hey, let’s get inside. The bell’s gonna ring any minute now and if we get there before everyone else then we’ll have the first pick of seats.” She started walking away from her friends and into the building, with them following closely behind.

Sarah, however, stopped in front of the building and said to her friends, “You guys go on ahead. I have something I need to talk to about with Max.”

“You want me to come with you?” Sam asked her as he stepped toward her. The rest were facing her now.

Sarah shook her head and said, “No need. If anything comes up that could endanger me, I know Max will be there to ‘protect’ me. After all, he is Marcel’s son, that’s gotta count for something. Max’s really strong, so I’ll be perfectly safe. You four go on ahead and I’ll catch up with you in the classroom.”

“Alright. See you there.” Mike said as the four turned and started walking away.

Sarah could tell that Sam was reluctant and hesitant to continue. He was worried for her, that was nice of him but she was seventeen. She could take care of herself. Once her friends were inside, she started walking over to another group of Lycan; four of them were in this group. Max was in that group, he was like the leader of the teen and kid Lycans, and he was a great leader and would someday tryout to become the Lycan leader of the pack when his father was no longer able.

The boy with the black eyes saw this as the perfect chance to swoop in. She was alone and from her friends. He started to make his way toward her. Everyone stayed out of his way for they knew who he was, and were frightened by him.

Too bad for him though, he would have to wait until Sarah was done talking with Max.

“Hey, Max.” Sarah said walking up to Max and getting his attention.

“Hey Sarah, what’s up?” He asked as he stuck his hands into his pant pockets.

“My mom wanted me to thank you for your help on Saturday. It would have taken us forever to get the remodeling done without you. She also wanted me to tell you that if there’s anything that we can do to make it up to you, we’ll be more than happy to help.” Sarah said.

“That’s okay. It was my pleasure to help. Besides, I had nothing better to do. It was either help you out or listen to a lecture all day by my dad. You’d think as the pack leader he’d have something else and better to do.” Max said.

“Gee, thanks for letting me know that helping my mom and I was just an escape from a boring day.” Sarah said sarcastically.

“Awe, come on. I didn’t mean it like that. But really, if you were in my position which would you have chosen? I didn’t just choose to help you out because I didn’t want to listen to my dad talk; I did it because I wanted to do something nice.” Max said.

“Alright, well I guess I’ll see you third period.” Sarah said as she walked off.

“See you later.” Max said and then returned to talking with his friends.

Sarah was lost in her thoughts about who knows what when she heard a voice call out to her, “Hey! Watch out!” She turned to look at who had said it but soon found herself in a man’s arms a few feat to the right from where she had been.

Sarah looked up to see the boy’s face only to find that his face was turned to look over his shoulder. She too looked over his shoulder to see a blinded boy on a skateboard loosing control.

When the boy finally turned his head to look at her she couldn’t believe what she saw. Her breath got caught in her throat. She saw black eyes. She had never seen such before. She looked at the boy’s face. His skin was a pale color, his hair was a raven black and shaggy, he had dark eyeliner around his black eyes, and his lips were a pale color.

“You okay?” He asked. His voice sounded perfect.

Sarah forgot how to speak for a moment, but quickly recomposed herself and found her voice. She nodded and smiled. “Yeah. Thanks. If it weren’t for you I would have gotten myself run over.”

The boy smirked and said, “No problem, just try to stay out of trouble next time. It would be a shame if you got hurt.” He released her from his arms.

Now was the time that Sarah took in the rest of his appearance. His tie was so loose that it was almost falling out of its knot, almost. The first few buttons of his shirt were undone to reveal his well chiseled and muscled chest, and he had chains hanging from a black belt around his waist. She took note that he was extremely pale, but it seemed to compliment him nicely. She then realized just how muscular his arms that were once locked around her were.

“Don’t worry, I will. Usually I can hear pretty well but I guess I was so deep in thought that all my senses decided to stop working.” Sarah said. “I’m Sarah by the way.”

“Damon.”

“Are you new here? I haven’t seen you around.” Sarah asked. She had totally forgotten the whole no socializing with humans rule. This boy intrigued her, and he was a tad mysterious, which she liked.

“I arrived over the summer. And ever since the first couple months of school I’ve been, let’s say, causing the teachers some trouble.” Damon said.

Sarah grinned. “Good. They need to get shaken up some more.” She sighed dramatically and said, “I’m afraid that no matter how much I liven things up, the old bats still go back to being their original boring and senile selves.”

“You were causing them some trouble as well?” Damon asked with his right eyebrow raised to be hidden by his black shaggy mess that was quite cute on him.

“Yep. But the teachers at this school don’t appreciate anything we do. I try to make the class more interesting and what do I get? Detention. I swear, the only thing that teachers like to do is give out detentions and suspensions, not to mention pop quizzes and tests that they know we haven’t studied for.” Sarah said.

“You’re a junior, right?” Damon asked. When Sarah nodded he continued, “So am I. Who knows, maybe we might have a class together.”

“That’d be cool.” Just then the bell rang. “Crap, I’m gonna be late. I guess I’ll catch you later. Bye Damon.” Sarah said and then ran into the building, leaving a now smirking Damon.

“This is going easier than I thought. She’s quite the friendly little girl.” Damon said as his friends caught up with him. His eyes glinted with a hint of red, but that quickly vanished once he and his friends made their ways inside the school buildng.

Lives would never be the same again, all because one boy liked the smell of a certain girl's skin.