Shades of Moonlight

Chapter One- Happy Birthday

The taste of her first legal drink remaining saccharine then bitter upon her tongue, Luci attempted to position herself upright. This rather absentminded motion was difficult for her as she found her wrists to have been tied down with ruby red satin binds. As her eyes came to adjust to the dim light that encased her in this unfamiliar and unknown location, she understood that she was now a captive. Her ankles and wrists were splayed in such a position that she had understood that whoever had taken her had done so with the intent to keep her placed. Luci was thankful as she scanned her physique as she was still dressed in the same skintight little black dress that she had placed herself in earlier that night-or at least what she had believed to be an action made on the same day. This meant whoever had brought her here had not undressed her; at least to her knowledge. But as she tried the strength of the satin joints, she had only caused the metal frame of the bed to ring beneath her and inform whoever was nearby of her consciousness. 

“Hello?!” She called out in a brittle tone before a sudden set of lights across the room focused hot upon her skin. Jolting away from the sudden and rather violent illumination, her eyes moved back into the new found scene beneath the luminescence as she noted the outline of a silhouette advancing towards her. But before the figure could emerge entirely, she felt a sudden sense of deja vu wash over her and remind her that this man was the last detail she could recall prior to becoming drowsy and eventually unconscious. The handsome man of gray-blue eyes and unruly sable hair moved to the base of her bed and wrapped his thick fingers around the metal footboard as he analyzed her. And just as she had feared, his gaze had been ascending her in lust. 

For a single moment, he took stock in every single aspect of her body; from the tattoo of a dove upon her ankle to the scar on her left ring finger;seven though she believed he had been undressing her with this gaze. It was clear when his eyes met with hers that he had been pleased of her presence as he began to venture further into the light where she could now make out details that were difficult in the club prior to this interaction. Although she was unable to move of her own free will, she felt as though he did not intend on bringing harm to her, and because of this, she did not make a single attempt to scream or break the restraints from her hands. Instead, she eyed this attractive male specimen as he grimaced at her beyond his full lips and blue irises that were both haunting and dominant. But as she looked longer into his eyes, she found those haunting orbs of dying cobalt were nearly left white as if they had been momentarily drained of color. However, as quickly as a blink, she found the faint cerulean shade to return and pierce into her once again. 

“Wh-where am I?” She questioned with a shaky timbre as the man now traced his fingertips upon the metal rim of the bed until he stood at her side. Refusing to answer her for a handful of torturous seconds, she was overtaken by the strong scent of pine having rushed into her nostrils and forced her eyes to close. Her lids would only spring open to the sound of him finally supplying an answer after what felt like an eternity to the captivated woman. 

“You do not need to worry about anything,” He informed her as a deep honey-toned voice left his lips curved on either end until they made a devilish smirk. “As long as you listen and respect me during this process-” 

“Process?! What process?” The unnamed yet irresistible man looked monetarily behind him in confusion before returning his focus to her. But when his eyes had returned to her, they looked to her as if he could not comprehend how she could be speaking to him or perhaps the words themselves had not come out as she had intended them to. Nevertheless, he leaned closer to her until she tried to pull herself from the bindings. Suddenly that sense of security began to fall away from her body as she was made aware that whoever this man was had wanted something she did not wish to relinquish. With her attempts to break the ties once again, she looked away for a moment to witness if her strength was enough to make this escape possible. Yet, when her eyes came back to the man, he was now even closer and sitting upon the side of her bed; at the very location that her hip came into a voluptuous curve. 

“It is only natural to be frightened...but I will be gentle…” He spoke with a look that seemed to confuse the mechanics of her body. She should have resented this man sitting before her as he had taken her against her will. And yet, she felt inexplicably drawn to him as he now returned to his feet and began to pace the room before her, allowing her a chance to make note of the room in total. The bed present alone in the center of the room had been accented by a single mirror overhead a vintage washing basin better suited for a Victorian bed and breakfast than wherever the hell this silver-tongued madman had taken her. But the spine-chilling piece of decor was not the outdated sink or rusted pipes around the mirror; it had been a long wall of glass shielding the identities of a crowd of onlookers. 

“I will only explain this once, so I suggest you listen so I do not have to wrap anything over that pretty little mouth of yours…” He spoke to her in a light threat as her gaze returned to the witnesses looking at her as if they were robotic. While these apathetic gazes had surely made her uneasy, there was something soul-stirring about how they seemed to eye her as if she had been a piece of priceless artwork. 

“They will not help you and there is nobody else who can hear you...I will untie you and cleanse you from the life you knew before then awakening you to one that some see as a gift...and others as a curse…” He clarified before moving to the basin and turning the snowflake shaped handles of the faucet. The sound of running water rested along the uncomfortable silence before he returned to her side with his long white sleeves now pulled to his elbows and a towel now drying his calloused palms. His fingers reached to the knots of her ties and he pulled them loose with ease; making her question if perhaps they were truly as tight as they appeared to her or if a portion of her had wished to remain in his captivity. Questioning her sanity silently, Luci’s own emerald eyes leveled with his as he managed to intimidate her to remain sitting where words would seem to fail them. 

But only for a moment. 

The second his eyes had fallen to her hands, she had slipped down the white sheets and toward the glass where she projected to use the bottom of her fists to try and guilt someone into helping her. She witnessed how they whispered to each other behind the glass, but were heavily covered by the shadows of the room they had been present within. Yet, she continued to shake the window beneath her fists, but they eventually returned their focus to her and were now unshaken by her abrupt need for an escape. 

“I told you, they will not help you.” He explained again, this time without the lack of compassion in his tone, as that had now been replaced with a tone of annoyance. “You are only delaying the inevitable....” He informed her as he was now suddenly behind her, his large physique frightening her as he was well over her height by at least eighteen inches. He had managed to corner her without warning by the state of his broad shoulders and closing steps discouraging her from attempting to make a scene or an escape once again. 

“Are you going to kill me?” She inquired, simply wishing to know her fate before she would be lured into a false sense of security. But her questioning had only caused a chuckle to leave his chest as he now pulled away from her and moved to a fireplace that was unseen until this moment as it had been hidden behind a closed curtain. The figure bent before a small pile of wood before lighting a match and allowing the lit head to share its flame with the lumber, as he would rise and turn to face her again. 

“If I wanted you dead, do you think I would have waited for you to awaken? Why would I risk having to endure your objections?” He asked with the smirk remaining upon his face as he motioned for her to return to the bed in the sitting position. Whether it was out of fear for her life or the hope that it would be spared, she obliged-before watching him pull a decomposing chair beneath his frame. “As I was saying before, some have seen this as a gift...others as a curse...it all depends if you choose to truly embrace it...And I will tell you...it is so much more fun...so much sweeter if you do…” Seemingly unable to remain in one place for more than a handful of seconds, the figure now returned to the fire and stoked the logs before standing-but keeping his back turned to her. 

The man was frozen for a moment before his fingers began to unpin his buttons from their slits and he now stood to her entirely shirtless; with her allowing the insight to a tattoo present upon his chest; a large compass etched over his left pec. Her fingers yearned to trace the outline of the dark ink upon his tan skin, but was reminded of his sinister intentions as he now brought his touch to the buckle of his belt to unfasten this as well. 

“Whatever you think you are about to do-you might as well kill me!” Luci yelled in his direction as he remained in place and continued to undress until he was in only his boxers and a sinful grimace. “Please…” She whimpered as he began to walk towards her, a pain building beneath his eyes as he did not wish to hear her plea for him-at least not in this context. Now trembling as she feared that she would be forced to surrender her virtue to a man who would be unkind and harmful to her already crumbling psyche. 

“I would never force myself upon any woman…” He notified her before leaning towards her close enough so she was able to feel his most recent exhale in the breath of his final sentence. “I would never need to…” Although this phrase had been spoken in a height of embellished confidence, she was relieved as he moved away from her and back towards the fire. 

“Then what are you going to do to me?” She inquired as he turned back to face her for just a second before taking hold of the mantle of the fireplace and having his spine begin to enlarge and break with one vertebrae at a time. Luci was forced to watch in horror as the man fell to the floor upon his palms and his knees before breathing heavily and turning to face her with his gray eyes now replaced with a pair of crimson irises. The man began to claw at the floor before blood produced from his fingernails and hair began to cascade over his body until he was no longer in the resemblance of a man and instead existed as a wolf. 

Having only been made aware of this transition through the pages of science fiction novels or book-to-screen movies, she was frozen in a mix of shock and fear. Immediately, her mind attempted to rationalize what she had witnessed as she believed that perhaps someone had spiked her drink and she was simply still at the bar, passed out from being unable to handle her liquor. But the atmosphere around her having now grown hot from her rise in blood pressure, she was given far too many pieces of evidence that verified this as having been reality. 

The wolf, colored a beautiful midnight black color, approached her slowly as she was unable to do anything more than inhale and exhale in the direction of the beast. Unlike a wolf found within the wild, this creature stood over her naval and wore the man’s piercing blue eyes with flecks of red whenever the animal would lower its snout to take in a scent; precisely her scent. Without the ability to run, scream, or utter even a whimper, she surveyed as the creature sprinted onto the bed and weighed down the portion of the mattress abreast her trembling frame. 

Closing her eyes tightly, she shivered in the presence of what she could only describe to be a werewolf, and questioned if she was going to meet her end at either the long claws that tore into the sheets beneath its paws or the sharp teeth that would pierce her skin and drain her of the one and a half gallons of blood currently circulating through her body. But as she had waited for this fatal moment, she was met with the wolf simply taking in her presence before finally brushing up against her. Similar to the serene feeling of a hot tub or an ice pack to an ache, she found an odd comfort in the soft fur of this creature as it slipped over her skin. Feeling drowsy once again, her eyes began to close as she was met with a sharp pain resonating throughout her thigh until she awoke within the dorm room shared by her high school best friend, Mollie. 

“Whoa...calm down…” Mollie spoke as she brushed her fiery red hair behind her shoulders, removed her headphones from her ears, and dove to Luci’s side as she had awoken in a sweat. “I knew you were sheltered...but damn...did the liquor make you that sick?” She asked as she felt her soaked skin and looked to the sheets stained with Luci’s perspiration. 

“What happened last night?” Lucine asked in a worried tone before taking hold of Mollie’s arms and forcing her to give her her undivided attention. “I can’t..I can’t remember anything-”

Mollie released a harmless chuckle as she used this award-winning smile to shield the pain Luci forced into her with her improbable yet ever present strength. “It’s not like you woke up in some uggo’s bed!” She explained.``There is NOTHING worse than having those rose colored glasses on after the third drink and finding someone who looks like a distant cousin next to you that next morning....” Although Mollie’s choice of comparison was not exactly humorous or comforting to Luci, it did manage to make her believe that perhaps things could have been worse. “You were in the bathroom for a few hours...Shay and I just waited for you and you stumbled out a few hours later…” Hearing this, she breathed a sigh of relief as she realized that whatever she had conjured during her alcohol-fueled absence had simply been possible from her overactive imagination. But as she pressed her feet onto the floor to cross the room and retrieve the clothes she had prepared the night before, she began to feel queasy. Contributing this to what she believed to be a hangover, she collected the items she would then need for her daily cleansing, slipped into her shower shoes, and made her way into the hall. 

However, this abrupt exit had forced her to expel her figure into the hall without any warning to those within its constant foot traffic. As she crossed the threshold of the room, she collided with a figure whom she had never been able to even ask to borrow a pen from; and she was now practically in his arms. 

“You alright?” He questioned as she gave a kind smirk before running her fingers quickly through her hair in nervousness. 

“Paxton…” His brows lifted high to the sound of his name as he was preparing for her to either ask him a question or make a comment-unaware that she was only able to speak one word or two syllables to him at a time, and now she had used both of those up and remained standing like a lovestruck teenager. 

“See you around…” She watched as he looked at the two friends standing behind her, absent the knowledge as to how they were making fun of her peculiar lack of communication. A slew of noises left her throat-none that came close to forming a single word, as she turned back to find Mollie hiding her expression behind a psychology book as she shared in her embarrassment. 

Closing her eyes tightly, Luci quickly made the short venture from her dorm room at the beginning of the hallway to the middle section of the corridor, where the bathrooms had been located. Tossing her current pajamas over the rod of the shower until they were out of view, she turned the faucet of the water until it was pleasing to her skin and stood in shame. Her mind began to recall the feeling of Paxton’s muscles tense as he held her from falling directly onto her face-but also the look of discomfort after she was unable to do anything but speak in guttural noises to the most attractive guy on campus.

Wishing away the regret that washed over her similar to that of the water down her skin, she came to feel a sudden pain upon her thigh. A long red ring had bruised her leg as she tried to explain to herself how it could have happened. But as she brought her fingertips to the raised wound, she came to understand that the dream she had believed to be fictitious and a product of too much Twilight and not enough common sense on how much alcohol she had taken, had been genuine. She had been taken captive, witnessed a man turn into a wolf, and was bitten by him-but this had only made her form more questions in place of supplying herself answers.

But as she had ceased the water and attempted to prepare for her day of classes that would bring her closer to her credit criteria to graduation that spring, she was met with the sight of that same man from the night before lingering outside of the hallway-staring in her direction as if he could sense her. And although she had formed a resentment against him for the pain on her thigh and the capturing of her person, she was also drawn to him in a way she loathed, because it clouded her judgement as well as her ability to remain self aware.