SAVAGE PASSION

In the beginning...This is no fairytale...

The blood moon was rising.

Throughout my village, there was a change to the air, a morbid anticipation. The change was small at first, almost inconsequential, then it slowly morphed into a creeping, insidious blackness. The neighbor stopped talking to a neighbor. Mothers hugged their children tighter as they cast suspicious glances about them.

A ripple of unease flowed through the village.

After the first eclipse, there were anxious whispers. Ancient prophesies were uttered in hushed, guarded tones. The second eclipse brought worried looks and talk of preparations to be made. With the third eclipse, all doubt was removed. It was time. The blood moon was rising. The moment the moon was cast in a crimson glow on the night of the fourth eclipse, the village would have their chosen one.

Their sacrifice...for the wolves must be appeased.

Angelika Rose Ramirez POV

From the time I was a little girl, I'd been told the story of the wolves. How they were to be both feared and revered. Generations ago, our village was attacked by a dark force, an army so evil that, to this very day, no one dared utter their name. The dark force was the nightmare that tortured sleep. The foreboding chill down your spine. A shadow swallowing the light. Knowing that no weapon forged on Earth could defeat them, the elders of the village made the terrible decision to fight darkness with darkness. Reaching back to the wisdom of the ancients, to a time before religion or society...to a time when man was more beast than sentient being...the elders drew upon primeval magic.

Five men were chosen. They thought they were chosen to fight. They thought the elders were only blessing them before the battle. They thought wrong. I'd always been taught the elders did what was best for the village as a whole; still, I couldn't help but feel sympathy for the men. Did they know what was happening to them as the elders circled them, chanting in a strange language? Did it cause them pain when they transitioned from man to beast? Did some spark of their souls remain, or was it extinguished?

Devoured by the dark beast which took over their bodies. The five men were turned into wolves, enchanted animals ferocious beasts capable of fighting off the dark force. Darkness fighting darkness. The beasts prevailed but paid a horrible price. The enchantment was truly a curse trapping the men in the bodies of the beasts. Forever damning them. They were cursed. Cursed to protect the village they now reviled. Cursed to live as immortal beasts in the forest which loomed near our village.

Now, hundreds of years later, they still drove back the dark force, keeping my village safe. But they demanded a price...a sacrifice.

When the moon was eclipsed four times in two seasons, there was said to be blood on the moon. It happened once a century. On that night, the wolves entered the clearing,