Pertemis: A Wolf’s Tale novel Chapter 2

Artemis's POV

I froze on my spot.

It happened just so fast that I didn't know what to do. The monster growled, trying to bend the silver bars. It's teeth glowing in the dark, like the razor of a saw, trying to cut the metal bars off. It's eyes were on fire. Red and glowing full of anger and madness.

The monster was no bear, but no wolf either. It was big, two and a half meters at least. It's head was a head of a black wolf, the ones with steroids. The shaggy hair grown out around its neck down to it back and arms like a black warm furry coat in winter. It's chest were human, pitch black skin, but smooth. Though there was skin fur cover it. In the end, its torso looked like an athletic gorilla. Its hands grabbed on the bars, trying to break it off and the claws were the last things I wanted to touch. Sharp like knives but hard like diamonds and they seemed like its hands had grown fangs.

Where the hell did this thing come from? I screamed inside my head. I wanted to scream out, but my jaw kept clenching like it wanted to break my teeth into pieces. I knew what it was, the moment I looked into its eyes. It was a werewolf.

It pulled all my courage, rising the bow and pulled my arrow backward once more. My eyes stared deep into the monster's. My breath was trembling, like a had a minor panic attack. My fingers were about to let the arrow go when a voice came to interrupt.

"ARTEMIS STOP!"

I turned to my side and Leto was there, breathing hardly. I lowered my bow, but the monster didn't lower its anger.

"C-can you explain why you have a werewolf on your island?" I stuttered pointing at the monster.

"I will tell you" she said. "I will tell you everything but please! Please don't kill him."

She was scared. It was written all over her face despite the face she was trying to calm me down. Like a cop trying to take a gun from a criminal through conversations.

"And why shouldn't I kill it?" I breathed hard, about to rise my bow again.

"Because..." She paused, her lips trembling, trying hard not to spill it out. But she looked up at me slowly. "Because he is your brother..."

Every last word of her like a hammer bagging on my ears. I let out a gasp.

"What do you mean?"

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"Ok can you explain for me now?" I sat on the chair, more like threw my self on it.

We'd just gotten back home, but my mind was still somewhere in the galaxy. Thousand of questions were traveling throwing my head that I wanted to split it open. I knew Leto was going to answer me anyway, she had to. But the way she looked, I wasn't sure if she ready to tell the whole truth.

"I-I know this is hard to accept" Leto said, slowly approaching me. "But you have to believe me. I-"

"Mum what do you think you are doing?" I cut her off.  "You can you expect me to trust you when you are having a wanted creature in your island?"

I banged my palms on the table, hard enough to make the cups jumped. I leaned closer to her.

"You have to turn it in." I told her. "I maybe a witness to keep you out. But you can't have that thing here. If the Olympians found out, they will kill you!"

"I-I can't Artemis" she sobbed. "Maybe he's a monster in your eyes, maybe he's a wanted criminal. But he's caring my blood too, coming out from me. How would you feel, when I put Apollo into danger? Apollo is your brother, but Perseus is still yours as well."

"Don't call him my brother!" I screamed. "I don't have a brother like him! And how could you do that mother?"

Every part of my mind was screaming in agony. When I was young, I have been told about different kind of monsters. There was only one that we all had to remember by heart. We are immortal, nothing can possibly kill us. But Chaos did not create a perfect kind. We still have a bane, a weakness. Not the Giants of Gaia or the power of Titan. But the creatures that were called myth and never thought to be  existed, werewolves. Their bites are fatal, the bites are cursed that can send an immortal back to the endless void. It is the only thing that can kill gods.

They were hunted, ceased to extinction. We all thought that none of that legend could walk on this earth again. Our biggest thread was destroyed that finally we didn't have to be afraid of death anymore. Until now, when I just found out that my mother. The one I loved and trusted most to possess a weapon that can destroy all of us. More than that, it was carrying some of my blood.

"If you were in my situation you would have known Artemis" Leto said. "Living alone in an island for eternity...do you think I ever wished for that!?"

She started to break down and I felt guilty for pressuring her. I never considered how she felt. I just believed in one side of a story. I grew up with the hatred of werewolves already craved deep into me. How could I accept something like that? But then again, Leto birthed him for a reason. I knew there was a secret on this island. But I never had a chance to find found, or in fact, I never wanted to dig into it.

"Mother" I held her hands. "Tell me the truth, please"

She looked up to me with those red eyes from sadness and anxiety. Her lips started to moved.

"After I birthed you and Apollo, I thought Zeus would release me from the island. I thought I could leave with you guys forever. But Zeus came and brought you away. For years that I cried, crawling and screaming to get you back. But no one ever heard me."

Her pain and memories started to flood back. I could see it in her eyes.

"Perseus and I was in here, right at this living room. I was watching him playing with the crossbow. I didn't know the arrow was attached to it and it was only of your arrows Artemis"

"My arrows?" I frowned.

"Remember the gift you sent me on your first year of training? The first silver arrow you've ever made?"

I nodded reluctantly, not sure about it cause I have sent thousand of gifts to Leto. I couldn't possibly remember which was which.

Looking at my  blank face, Leto continued the story.

"His father charged into the house, in his true form of an Alpha werewolf. I didn't have time to react when he ran at Perseus. My heart just dropped right there the moment I saw him towering over his son with claws and fangs and full of madness. I screamed for him, and somehow, the scream reached it. Some part of him in side that he slowly overcome the monster within. But I was too late to stop the next."

She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.

"The trigger of the cross bow already pulled. The silver arrow came deep into his chest. Perseus was still there, having no clue what he has just done. His father fell in front of him. In his last breath, he told me 'our legendary can't be lost, Perseus must have it. He has to kill me by his claw, he has to be an Alpha.' I didn't agree with him. It was a curse and it brought pain and misery. You see, although Perseus was an Alpha's son. He wasn't actually an Alpha yet, it can only be done by killing the Alpha. His father grabbed my hand, his eyes insisted me to do his last wish. And then, under the full moon that I held Perseus's hand. The moon turned the young wolf into his true form. He strike down at his father"

I gasped. I never thought of him, the werewolf in that cage have such tragic past.

"How old was he?" I asked.

"He was only three" Leto answered. "To young for him to remember what happened. But when the moon is high and full, the memories you flood back."

"That is why he was so..."

I couldn't form the words. In that cage, that dark aura I felt. This was the reason why. For a moment, hatred of me toward him turned into sympathy. My family already complicated, although I never have a complete family.  My father imprisons my mother and having a punch of step mothers and step bothers and sisters. But at least, I don't have to take my loved's one life. It's beyond any pain that we can bear.

"Now you have heard the story" Leto mumbled. "What are you going to do?"

I stared down at her. If I helped her, which mean I was helping a wanted person. The punishment for me could Tartarus or even dead. Even if I told the Olympian, Leto would insist to die with Perseus. There was no way I could save her. Then, I suddenly remembered something. Sometimes it's ok not to speak. That was when I made up my mind.

"Well, look like I'm gonna stay here for a while."