Nocturnal Prince

1993 – Christian’s POV

Ravenswood – what an insult this city was. I roamed the outskirts of town, watching the residents with hatred and disgust. They had demanded too much for centuries, understood too little.

A shadow standing in front of the town hall caught my attention. A glance at the silhouette made me snort with hatred. The mayor. An impostor, hypocrite, and heretic. How naive the citizens of Ravenswood were, not suspecting that the real danger was not my wolf pack, but their dearly beloved mayor himself. Without him, Avalon would never have fallen. Without him––

“Your Highness, we should take this opportunity to attack immediately,” Youngwoo interrupted my thoughts.

I shook my head. “No.”

“But my king, I––”

“I said no,” I hissed, baring my teeth.

Youngwoo submissively bowed his head and slowly retreated into the thicket of the forest. The rest of his pack departed as well, leaving me lingering a little longer.

“One day, Uncle ...” I thought to myself before my loud howl rose into the dark night sky.

2023 – Vixen’s POV

New decade, new college - this time my fox-shifter existence had led me to Ravenswood. The town radiated something ominous, but I was probably just imagining it. This, or it was just the fact that I was surrounded by too many humans. After all, I had never met anyone like me yet. Either there was only me or other shifters could hide their identity better; I certainly didn’t belong to them.

With my amber eyes and silver-black hair, I looked more like a freak than a normal college student everywhere I went. No one looked like me. And if that wasn’t complicated enough, my lack of aging, now for three decades, was another problem.

Sometimes I wondered if I wasn’t more of a vampire, or was I even trapped in the Matrix? Then, however, the annoying little blackouts happened again and again, in which I transformed into a silver fox usually in the most inappropriate situations. The one or other one-night-stand almost had a heart attack because of that.

Long-term relationships with people were not possible, they all always asked too many questions at some point. So I roamed around like a damn stray, looking for - yes, what for anyway?

The campus of Ravenswood’s college was lined with tall pines and dense copper beeches, the old brick building at the end of the gravel path looking almost medieval. Some students ran frantically to the building, a few others lounged peacefully on the wide meadow areas beneath the trees. A typical campus, one might think. But my fox shifter sense told me otherwise. Something was troubling me, piquing my caution and curiosity at the same time.

“Quick, before we miss Mayor Yu’s speech,” I heard a student excitedly call out to his companion as he ran past.

A mayoral speech at the beginning of college - strange. I only knew something like that for graduation, but well, different state, different customs. Let’s see what this mayor had to say, I had to enroll and choose my courses anyway.

Just before the huge front door, I paused. I was nervous. What if I almost get exposed again? Or worse, what ifI got exposed? People haven’t shown me much sympathy so far, that’s for sure. I took a few deep breaths, focused on the one thought that had always helped me so far: you can always run away again.

I clung to the shoulder straps of my backpack and stepped inside.

The college building smelled moldy and of something I couldn’t quite place. Metallic, almost like ... blood? I shuddered and pushed the thought away. Don’t be ridiculous, Vixen. I followed the stream of excited students down the corridor to the largest lecture hall, which was already well filled.

I took a seat at the back of the room, right next to a good-looking, broad-shouldered guy. He had pink hair and smiled mischievously at me as I sat down. I gave him a small smile back and quickly looked away.

“Why so shy, beautiful?” he said, chuckling.

I rolled my eyes. What a greaseball. Why were most good-looking guys always so obnoxious?

As if he could read my mind, he muttered an apology, followed by something else.

I looked up. “What?”

He smiled warmly at me. “I said my name is Mingi. I didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable because of me.”

“That’s fine. My name is Vixen,” I mumbled back, nervously stroking through my strands of hair.

Even after years of experience with guys and jerks, one or another still managed to get under my skin. Annoying. But okay, just ignore it. But apparently this Mingi had other ideas.

“So, do you know what major classes you want to take here yet?” he asked me with open interest. Okay, maybe I should give him another chance, he seemed to just wanting to be nice.

“Psychology and eschatology. What about you?”

He whistled and gave me an appreciative nod. “Interesting combination. Few people are interested in eschatology. I chose that course, too.”

That’s when my foxish curiosity was piqued. A person who was apparently really interested in eschatology? That was new to me. “What fascinates you about it?” I asked him.

Mingi eyed me closely and pursed his lips before answering. “Death, resurrection and the life that comes after, it’s a family thing.”

I looked at him in confusion. “In what way? Are you gravediggers, religious, or …?”

He laughed out loud and scratched the back of his neck. “Something like that.”

I waited for him to say more, but he looked into the crowd and fixated on a group of other students. They were coming right toward us. I was about to slip away when the group took a seat in the row in front of us and Mingi wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

“Guys, this is Vixen. She’s going to study the same as me,” he exclaimed and I earned some strange looks.

The girl in front of me with the black bob haircut tapped her cheek and lowered her voice. “Ah, so you’re one of those––”

“Tyra,” Mingi interrupted her.

Tyra exchanged a look with him and leaned back. “Didn’t say anything.”

Okay, that was the last straw. My curiosity was literally bursting and I wanted to know more about whatever she was talking about. “Is it that unusual to be interested in eschatology?”

The other three people of the group, two guys and another girl, looked up. The guy with the blue hair was the first to speak up.

“Let’s put it this way. No one who doesn’t have to study this,” he then squinted at Mingi, who downright growled, “chooses this subject. So what family are you from?”

Oh, Jesus, this just got more complicated. And more interesting. Damn. So I decided to fib.

“Amos.” The ninth chapter of the Book of Twelve Prophets. I hoped to hit the mark with this answer.

The acknowledging nod he gave and the slight sighs confirmed my theory. Bingo. There was nothing better than uncovering mysteries and conspiracies in small towns to pass the time. And to keep my fox-shifting ability in check. Oddly enough, when I was dealing with such things, I had better control over my transformations.

The blue-haired guy spoke again. “I’m Puma. You already know Tyra and Mingi, that one next to me is Yong,” he pointed to the little guy next to him, “and the silent beauty next to Tyra is Sora.”

I memorized all of their names and was also kind of happy to have made connections so quickly. And about my new task of uncovering another mystery. I was about to say something in response when a deafening chime rang out and made me flinch.

The lecture hall fell into silence, a pale man with only one eye appeared behind the small podium. His gaze swept over the crowd scrutinizingly, no one daring to make a sound. Interesting. After another long pause, he took over.

“Dear students, I welcome you to Ravenswood College. As probably everyone here knows, my name is Arthur Yu, the mayor of this city,” whereupon the crowd applauded enthusiastically, “As every year, I would like to share a word of wisdom. God gives every bird its food, but does not throw it into the nest.” What kind of strange wisdom was that? “Study hard, learn harder, and above all, stay out of the woods. Thank you.”

I barely noticed the thunderous applause, the last words echoing over and over in my head - stay out of the woods. I had barely noticed that Mingi and the others had gotten up to leave until he shook my shoulders.

“Vixen, are you coming?” he asked, and I nodded.

I quickly grabbed my backpack and slung it over my shoulder to follow them wherever. What was it about the woods? I hadn’t noticed anything unusual when I arrived here a few days ago. No suspicious smells, noises, nothing.

We were walking down the corridor, out onto campus, when the question blurted out to me. “What about the woods?”

The group stopped abruptly, all turning to look at me. Mingi gave me a slight smile.

“Nothing,” he replied.

Puma, however, snorted snidely and took a step forward. “Come on, loverboy. Let her find out. Tonight.”

I looked at him, puzzled. “Tonight? What am I supposed to find out, exactly?”

Mingi didn’t seem to approve of the idea, but Puma and the others pushed him aside and circled me. My fox instincts jumped and at the same time my curiosity continued to grow. What a load of crap.

“Well, you’ll have to figure that out for yourself. Come to the woods tonight. Ten minutes, that’s all you need to walk in. Wait a minute and you’ll find out,” Puma said in a conspiratorial tone.

I narrowed my eyes and took a step back.

“You guys are bullshitting me right now. The mayor––”

Tyra spoke next. “Sweetie, he just said that to avoid nasty headlines about pollution and shit. We’ve had a few conflicts with the state the years before about students littering the woods too much. There’s nothing to be afraid of in there. It’s even very beautiful at night.” She looked at the others and gestured to everyone. “We regularly sneak into the woods to hang out for a bit. You should come along.”

If it was nothing else. I nodded and gave her a small smile. “Alright, I’ll see you later then. I’m afraid I have to go now!” And with that, I skipped down the last few stairs and hurried across campus, back to my new apartment. Tonight I would just be a typical student for once. So much for no new friends.

The hours flew by and Tyra had sent me the location of our hangout in the woods. I was getting ready when night fell. Good, that should do it. I quickly grabbed my phone and headed out.

At the edge of town, I took a quick look around before disappearing into the thicket of the forest. Quickly the branches became so dense that I was glad to have put on a jacket. Thanks to my fox traits, I had no trouble seeing ahead of me at night. I glanced at my phone again to make sure I was about to arrive at the meeting point. Just under a quarter of a mile to go.

Another 200 meters, 100, 50, 10, 5 ... I ended up at a clearing. The moon bathed the surrounding trees in a ghostly white. I looked around, but found no one of Mingi’s people anywhere. Had I taken a wrong turn? Was there another clearing? I quickly pulled out my phone and checked the location. No, I was in the right place. I just started typing a message to Tyra when I heard it. A howl.

A fucking loud howl. And it was closer than I was comfortable with. I let my eyes wander frantically over the surrounding trees and bushes, and that’s when I saw it. Yellow eyes. Not just one pair, but four or five. And they were all focused on me at the far end of the clearing. Wolves.

The bloodcurdling growl made me back up slowly until I reached the edge of the clearing. Then I turned and ran. And all I could hear was the snarl of my pursuers.