Sun and Moon

Before you, the reader, starts this adventure, I, the writer, would like to clarify the nature of this series. This is a fantastical series, and therefore all characters are at least partially fantastical. A writer must write what he knows, and none of my characters are particularly unique. Every character trait, every flaw, every emotion, every physical attribute is taken a person from real life. However, in an attempt to keep their anonymity, all names have been changed and all character traits are blended so that no character is truly recognizable.

This series will feature two major themes: nonhumans and romance, and hopefully will be a long running story with numerous chapters. That means that the story will proceed slowly, and will not dive right into hot sex. I will be making an attempt to avoid the incredible number of clichés often found in series that include these themes, but I will make no promises. I will be using third person limited point of view and changing characters within chapters. Of course, all characters are 18 and over.

Please feel free to let me know what you think and how I can improve. I am also currently self-editing, but am looking for a second pair of eyes. If anyone is interested in helping out, please let me know. This is the first chapter, and there will be a lot of background, so bear with me. I promise things will get more exciting as the story continues.

And with all the preliminaries out of the way, let us begin!

-SilentShadows

*****

Olivia

Olivia watched as Emily, her sister, tried the 12

th

wedding dress on in the small boutique. She sighed as Emily decided against this dress and asked to try on another.

This is exhausting

Olivia thought.

Can't she just pick one already?

"Olivia, what do you think of this one?" Emily asked.

"I love it," Olivia replied, her voice a monotone that clearly showed she was bored.

"C'mon Olivia this is important. It's my wedding day after all."

"You and David aren't even mated. I don't know why you have to buy a dress already," Olivia replied. "Anyway, you won't be getting married for another year or two, not until you are in heat."

"You know why we're here, Olivia, we need to be prepared. Once my scent changes and we know the timeline for my heat we will have to act fast. Jacob's parents are human, and we don't want them asking questions about our relationship, now or later. This way, they won't."

"Whatever," Olivia said and watched as her sister tried on another dress. Olivia's eyes lit up as Emily glowed in the dress. It featured no veil, and a sheer white bodice that started at her breasts and dipped just past her knees. While the dress was strapless, Emily was covered in the most beautiful, form-fitting lace from top of her neck across her dress, along her arms to her wrists and down to her ankles. "Wow. That's the one Emily."

After staring in the mirror for a few minutes, Emily turned to the saleswoman and said "We'll take it."

αβγΩ ∞ Ωγβα

Emily

On their way back to the compound Emily thought about how this had all began. Born into a loving family, Emily had one younger brother and a pair of gentle and caring parents. Of course, that's what she hoped. Her only memory of her family was of holding her newborn baby brother at around three years of age and being happy to have a playmate. She remembered being slightly jealous of her parent's attention to him as well, like all siblings do. The next thing she could remember was being a little over four years of age and in an orphanage. She had no idea what happened to her parents or her brother. The nuns at the orphanage only knew that she had been dropped off at the edge of their door in the middle of a cold winter night, and that Sister Charlotte had discovered Emily sleeping in a blanket on her nightly walk. All Emily could remember was her name and that she was four years old. Sister Charlotte became her loving guardian for the next 3 years until she celebrated her 7

th

birthday on December 3

rd

, the night she was discovered. Emily had brown hair in her memory, but upon arriving at the orphanage she had bright red hair, along with silver eyes and high cheekbones.

At seven years of age a couple came to the orphanage and adopted Emily, and brought her to their home. The couple, named Sarah and Liam, had adopted 3 other children besides Emily: Olivia, Joshua, and Eli. They were the respective heads of their communities, and quickly Emily learned their "true names" of Alpha and Madam Alpha, as well as their secret: they were the leaders of a pack of werewolves. Emily's adopted parents told her the secrets of their kind.

Weres, often referred to as shifters, are humans that can shift into different animals. Werewolves are considered more "mainstream" by the human population, but there are also werepanthers, weretigers, and werebears. The myth of vampires, as well as succubae, actually came from werebats, though they do not shift and live for much longer than any other species of weres. However, humans cannot shift into animals that are much larger than them, explained by the idea that mass is never created or destroyed, or something like that - ergo no "werewhales" and "weremammoths" exist. Weres typically have around double the lifespan of humans, somewhere around 200 years.

The final secret that Emily learned from her adopted parents was that she was a shifter as well. Children were precious to shifters, and sadly, Sarah and Liam were unable to conceive. They decided to search orphanages and state adoption records for orphaned weres so they could have children of their own. The Alpha pair could smell that the children were shifters even before the children themselves knew. Emily was special, however. Most weres "awaken," a colloquial term meaning "to discover one's inner animal and shift for the first time" at one of three times: when they turn 25 years old, when they meet their mate, or when they experience a traumatic event. Once shifting, the young weres' bodies undergo numerous transformations that would prepare them for their mates as well as to better align their human bodies with their animal ones to make shifting easier.

Sarah and Liam assumed that Emily had experienced a traumatic event, probably the death of her family. None of her new siblings could shift, and her new parents assumed that they had not witnessed their parent's deaths, while she had. While weres never abandoned their children, but it was not unheard of for weres to be killed by hunters or even other weres. Emily was a wereleopard, a snow leopard in fact, which was incredibly rare - only around 6,000 snow leopards exist in the wild. It explained her pale skin and silver eyes, but certainly not her red hair. Her entire family assumed that the red hair was a personal preference for her mate-to-be, and her siblings teased her about it to no end.

As time went by, Emily and her siblings grew up. She was happy with her adopted family, and her adopted parents soon simply became "Mom and Dad." Her siblings were all flooding with personality: Olivia was a tomboy who loved to fight and wrestle more than her brothers did, Joshua was shy and quiet with a six sense for other's emotions, and Eli was 6'7'' and practically a teddy bear. Eli was the oldest, with Emily, Olivia, and Joshua in order behind him.

When Emily turned 18 she was in her senior year of high school, and had a difficult decision of where to go to college. She could either go to Washington State University (her pack lived in Washington and nearly all pack members had gone to school there) or she could go to UC Berkeley. She decided that she would go for a campus tour so that she could get a first-hand look at the campus. Within minutes she knew that Berkeley was the school for her.

"Emily!" Olivia said, snapping her fingers in front of Emily's face. "Hello, anybody home? We've arrived."

"Oh, sorry, I guess I just zoned out," Emily replied.

"Well c'mon, let's go show Mom the dress. She'll love it." Olivia ran off with the dress, safely protected in a black sheath. Emily sighed, looking up at the manor her family and the pack betas lived in. She'd missed this place, even though she'd only been gone for a weekend. Emily heard the wind chimes sound as Olivia opened the front door, running into the house with excitement. Oh well, time to face the music.

αβγΩ ∞ Ωγβα

Emily

"So what you're telling me is that you saw your mate, but you didn't approach him or even introduce yourself?" Emily's father, Liam Ađalsteinn asked his daughter in a stern voice before slowly falling backing into a chair across from her.

"He still hasn't shifted Dad, and there were at least three dozen people on that tour. If he caught my scent and shifted in front of all those people in the tour we would have a massive problem," Emily responded.

After a moment of thought, Alpha Ađalsteinn agreed with his daughter.

"The circumstances of finding your mate were unfortunate, Emily, and I'm glad that you were able to think logically and rationally about the situation before proceeding. If I were you I would have rushed at my mate, slung her over my shoulder, and taken her away to somewhere private," Alpha Ađalsteinn said, giving both of his daughters, as well as his mate, a wink. Sarah, his mate, blushed, remembering their first time together.

Their daughters replied immediately and in unison with a loud "EWWWW," and making vomiting noises and disgusted faces.

"Don't knock it, you two," their mother replied. "Pretty soon you'll have mates of your own, especially now that you've found your mate, Emily."

"Yeah yeah Mom we know, 'we'll be in love soon' blah blah blah," Olivia replied in her all-too-typical uncouth manner, mimicking her mother's higher pitched voice.

Alpha Ađalsteinn coughed loudly, focusing his mate and daughters back on the topic at hand. "So, do we at least know your mate's name, Emily? We will need to get in contact with his parents at once."

"No, Dad, that's the thing," Emily replied. "His parents are human. His name is David McGinnis and he's from Ohio - I stole a glance at the tour guide's clipboard on the way out."

"Ok, well you have school in the morning Emily, you can't just hop on a flight to Ohio," her father said.

"C'mon Dad, he's my mate! This is way more important than stupid high school. It's my last year anyways, who cares?"

"I care, Emily, and your mother cares too," her father replied in a stern tone.

"Well what am I supposed to do? Just wait for 6 months until we go to college together? I can't wait that long for him Dad," Emily replied, her frustration at the unfortunate situation coming through in her voice.

"I have an idea. Remember what your brother did to bring his son's mate to their pack?" Sarah Ađalsteinn said to her mate.

"Seriously? A gala? You think that will work?" He replied.

"I know it will. Throw in the promise of some massive scholarship and Emily's mate will have to come. It's perfect: the pack will get to meet our new member of the family and David will be able to shift in the peace and comfort of our land."

"It's perfect Mom," Emily said, hugging her mother. All at once, the three women of the Ađalsteinn family turned to their patriarch, all giving him their best "puppy-dog eyes."

"Alright, alright, I'll set it up," He said after a moment, chuckling as the women all raised a fist in victory. "It will have to be the weekend after next, Emily. That's spring break, and your mate will need the week to come to terms with who he is. Agreed?"

"Of course Dad, it sounds perfect," Emily agreed.

"C'mon, you'll need something gorgeous to wear," Sarah Ađalsteinn said to her daughter, picking up her car keys.

"To the mall!" The duo said in unison, as a weary Olivia trailed behind them.

As the ladies left the room, Alpha Ađalsteinn turned back towards his desk. "Women," he muttered under his breath. "They'll be the death of me, I swear it."