ONE

Present-day...

"Lippy? Lippy!"

I open my eyes wide to see the glistening pale blue eyes of Camila seeing face to face.

Pushing my head back from her surprise, I sigh and brush a strain of my raven hair back. I fold my arms over the table as I rest my head on it. "What is it, Camila?"

"Are you okay?" She asks.

"Yeah, I'm just a bit tired," rubbing my face and yawn. "Why?"

"Just making sure because you didn't answer my call like ten minutes ago?"

I lift my head and rub my face again.

"You've been dozing off lately," she sat on the chair across from me. "Last night, did something happened during the patrol?"

Squeezing my face between my arms, I let out another sigh.

Last night was the demon twins patrolling the forest, hunting down ferals and me.

Ferals are monsters that lurk in the forest and come out at night. They are victims of those who get close to the mysterious miasma that appeared two months after leaving the pack.

Glad I won't turn that way, knowing I'm wolfless and I broke up with that prick a year ago.

I had hoped I wouldn't see any of the Blue Moon members, but last night I did.

His name was Wallace, Leah's brother. One year younger than me and hated my existence for making his sister's life miserable. I recognized him behind all his body decaying from the miasma. He has turned into an absolute beast with no emotions or humanity left in him. I tried calling out his name and had asked him if he recognized me. His response was to attack first and kill me soon. If only there were a way to save him; consuming the miasma goes to your heart and brain. It's too late.

I did what any feral exterminator does. With the black-blue flames, I've learned I could do burned Wallace and the other ferals as they engulfed in flames. It was to ease their pain and suffering. It was too late to save them.

It saddens me that I had to kill him, but if I were to stop him, I would, but he is no longer sane. Since the miasma controls your life force, you are dead the second you are contacted with it. The area of the black fog covered most of the forest. Luckily, it's in the swamp region. But what the hell is Wallace doing there?

I need some answers, and the first step is to trace back to the one place I hate to go.

I groan.

"No, nothing," I lie, not wanting to bring up the subject about my life in the Blue Moon Pack. Camila and Takkar are the only ones who don't know I was in a pack. "Tonight, I'm taking the twins with me. You, Takkar, and Shadow stay here."

"Oh, why can't I go?" She whines. "I'm getting the hang of killing them thanks to your special fire." Camila held up a dagger that I had made with my magic as it had my black-blue flames embedded in it strong enough to kill a feral.

"I understand you wanted to use the feral as combat practice in human form, but you can't do that forever, or else you might forget how to shift."

"I won't forget," Camila protest and push a strain of her dark brown short hair behind her ear. "I was born in the Amazon, and we were trained not to forget who we are."

I like her enthusiasm and smile.

I met Camila around the same time the miasma appeared. I was on an expedition with Saye and Arlo, twin demons who I had unleashed from their slumber.

After I left the Blue Moon pack, I went to town and asked a restate agent to find me a house away from any of the wolf packs. Of course, he thinks actual wolves, but that isn't what I meant. It is located within the forest and cheap. I saved all my money while living in the Blue Moon Pack, and I have not spent a dime. Think of it as my emergency money encase some shit happens to me.

For example - me - leaving the pack is an emergency.

The estate agent told me about an old abandoned farmhouse years ago because it has been said ghosts haunts the place.

I told the agent it was perfect, and he just stared at me like I was crazy. I don't mind any ghosts. As long as other people believe it, then I won't be bothered.

I paid in full, making the farmhouse mine. It was a sight to see, but the place is enormous. It has a barn and everything. Maybe I can buy livestock and grow some crops. I can relax and work on the farm to make it my perfect home. While I was doing some carpentry on the house, which I am not a professional at, I found a door that leads down to the basement. The space was empty, but there was another door, but this door is different; wrapped in large chains, has a lock, and it's glowing.

I don't know why this type of door is here underneath a farmhouse, but the people who used to live here probably did some satanic shit. I noticed the dark writing on the walls and the floor with blood.

I felt some superior force coming from it as it pulled me towards the door. This invisible force kept calling to me like a voice in my head told me to open it. My whole body obeyed, and once my finger touched the skull shape lock. It unlocked, sending a wave of energy force push through me, and when two demons, a man and a woman with black wings, horns, and pointy tails, appeared, calling me their master. Said their names are Saye and Arlo.

I couldn't explain what just had happened, but Saye and Arlo only recognized me as their master because my aura is familiar, and magic reminds me of their old master, a Demon Lord.

Everything was spinning in my head when they told me I'm not a werewolf but a half-fox demon. I'm not quite sure at that time I believed them since I didn't know who my parents were. I was alone in the forest since I was a child until Alpha Marcus found me with no memory, only a name from a woman's voice who I assume is my mom.

Sometimes thinking about my past gives me a headache, and I don't want to pressure myself more in thinking of them.

"Why do you always take the twins with you?" Camila is trying to make a point about why I don't take her with me and is envious of the twins.

"Oh, sweet, Camila," Saye poofs herself next to me, her arms snake around my shoulder as her pointy tail is wagging. "Master loves us, and if we are with Master, we protect her, right Arlo?"

The twin brother, Arlo, appears sitting next to me and lays his head on my shoulders, and pulls up a snake-like grin.

"I will go where Master goes." He states.

Camila made an animalistic growl at the twins as they continued to taunt her.

I let out a sigh. "Okay, enough guys," I demanded them to stop, and they did. "Camila, where I'm going, it will not be safe for you. I don't want the miasma to consume you. As you know, the twins and I are demons, so it will not affect us. Understand?"

Her response is that of a childish pout and crosses her arms, and she knows that she can't get close to the miasma knowing of the outcome from the ferals she had encountered.

I stare at her until she gives me a proper answer. Not wanting to argue with me, she relaxes her shoulders and exhales. "Alright, fine."

I smile and reach across the table, rubbing her head in which she doesn't like.

"Hey!"

"You are so cute when you're mad," I chuckle, making her snarl at me.

Camila came to me when I went traveling in the Amazon, Brazil. There were clues of the miasma coming from here, so I had the twins check it out.

Deep in the forest, I stumbled into a village. Houses on trees and it's full of shape-shifting Jaguars who are all women. They wore clothes of that of their ancestors and were glaring at Arlo, who is a man. At first, they were hostile until I explained to them the miasma, as they call it the 'respiração do demônio' Devil's Breath.

The head chief had told me they didn't know where it came from. They learned not to go near it as it had turned some of their people into crazy monsters.

As I was venturing through the rainforest, I encountered Camila, who was fighting with a boy as other kids cheered on with the fight. She was getting beat up badly and might lose the round. The boy then shifted to his Jaguar, initiating his attack, then Camila shifted to hers counterattacked him winning the fight. I wasn't surprised at her winning the battle but that her Jaguar form is different. Different in color.

I had never seen a black Jaguar before that I had asked the head chief, and she told me that when a black Jaguar is born within their pride, they are considered a curse because once they reach the mature age of eighteen and under a blood moon, they become vicious and dangerous.

Seeing how the other Jaguar shifters see Camila as a curse reminds me of myself. She can shift, but she's considered an outsider under the circumstances of being a black Jaguar. Even her mother sees her as useless, while her favoritism is Camila's older sister.

Seeing Camila's life here in pride that she was born and raised makes her feel like the plague. I decided to take her with me. Of course, I had to ask permission from the head chief and her mother, which took a lot of persuasions and manipulated them into taking away the problem child. Which I didn't mean, but they reluctantly agreed. I thought Camila would protest, but she also decided to want to explore the outside world.

I brought her back with me, and because she never left her pride, she is aware of the development of the world, but she hasn't gotten used to seeing the world in her own eyes. I had to teach her from scratch.

After the talk with Camila, we had dinner. I told the others about my departure, and they weren't happy about me leaving, but it's essential since I had to tell a certain someone about her brother and also informed him that one of his own had turned feral. Around that time, after dinner, I suit up in my biker outfit, black leather jacket, white V-top, jeans, and commando boots. I glance at the silver necklace with a mini silver wolf cross dangling that his sister gave him for his fifteenth birthday, the day he shifted into his wolf. I grabbed Wallace's burnt corpse and buried it in my jacket.

I step outside the house while I put on my leather gloves as I look up to see Camila and the others stand there waiting for me.

I grin.

"You should stay inside," I say.

"We wanted to see you off," Camila explained.

I reach and pat her head this time without messing up her hair.

"Takkar come with Lippy?" The gentle ogre, Takkar says.

I smile brightly at him. "No, Takkar, stay and protect home and the family while I'm away, okay."

Takkar's ears fell and his face into sadness. "Takkar is scared you will leave me."

It breaks my heart to hear him say that. Takkar may be significant in size, but his brain wasn't functioning since his birth. His family abandoned him because of his slowness.

The first time I meant Takkar was about two weeks ago when he was stealing bread and milk from inside the house. Thinking some thugs are stealing food, I caught him living in a handmade homemade out of sticks and twigs. Takkar has been alone in the woods for two years. Feeling sorry for the guy and knowing how gentle he was, I brought him home, adding another household member.

I take Takkar's large callous hand into mine tiny ones. With hands like his, he can break a tree in half.

"Takkar, like Camila, I want you safe from the bad fog. You remember what happened if you go near it?" I ask him.

He scratches his head, and seeing how he does it makes it cute to watch. "Oh! You become an ugly monster."

"That's right," I praise him making him jolly. "So, you stay here with Camila and Shadow and protect our home. Would you do that for me?"

"Yes! Yes, Takkar will protect home and my new family!"

My heart couldn't take the cuteness he showed off as it made me smile. How can they abandon such an adorable creature? Then I learned from Nera, a water nymph I made friends with at a nearby lake behind the farmhouse, that ogres treat their offsprings as the next newly born warrior. They are trained the day they can learn to walk and strong enough to wield a weapon.

And because Takkar has a mind of a child and is slow, they cast him out of their clan for being weak. But he's such the sweetest ogre I've ever met, and they treat him like that. They don't know how much of a help he was during the time ferals attacked our home. Not only does my foxfire affected the ferals, but seeing his new family in trouble, Takkar went berserk, ripping them apart from one by one. I guess cutting off the heads or damaging the hearts is the way to kill them. It's those ogres lost for losing a significant asset.

"Master, when will you be back?" That question came from the last member of the family.

I look over at Kaze. He was sitting on his feet, wagging his tail, waiting for my response.

Kaze is a Dire Wolf, a prehistoric animal that is said to be extinct. But while I was traveling through Eastern Asia last week, somewhere in Tibet, in a climate covered in snow. I found Kaze in an icy glacier and rescued him. Like me, he has forgotten who he was and lost his memory, but he senses a familiarity with my demon aura like the twins. Said I remind him of his old master too.

It seems he and the demon twins shared the same master.

I kept wondering who he was and why he kept sealing up his attendants are now my attendants.

"I'll be back in three days, maybe a week, depending on how long the search takes," I say to him and scratch his head. He enjoys my touch as his tail wag faster.

"I will wait here and protect our home before Master comes home," he states.

"Good boy." I smile at Kaze, his name because that is all he remembers. Kaze means Shadow and that is what he is. I know I told him to stay here, but in case things go south, I can call upon him through my shadow.

You can say he's my secret bodyguard.

"Okay, I'll be off," I announce as I start to walk off with Saye and Arlo behind me. "Protect the farmhouse while I'm gone. See you guys in three days or a week." Then using my demon magic, the twins and I disappear in a flash.