Chapter 13

            It was nighttime, the moonlight was covering all around her with a silver glow. Melissa was laying on a field cover with blue flowers, which extended towards the horizon like a blue silk blanket. The sky was covered in a black curtain, her body was bathing under the silver moonlight. She was completely naked; her long black hair was covering her breasts like waterfalls covering the mountains. 

            She saw Adel to her left and a shadow to her right coming towards her, they got close in no time. Kneeling in both her sides. They started caressing her body, Adel's touch was cold as ice, but her body was trembling succumbing to the burning inside her, nonetheless. The other figure was doing the same, but his touches were like fire, none of them were so extreme that she felt pain but that sensation, Oh! the sweet and sublime sensation of their touches. She felt like freezing and melting at the same time. Her body was reacting to their touches, their hands were all over her, exploring her, caressing her.

            They were in her face, her abdomen, legs, breasts. Going down into her stomach, her pelvis.... Until they get lower and lower at the same time. She moaned and jolt back reacting to their touches, the pleasure. The feeling of both inside her was too much for her. She was jerking back and forth. Her body was moving by itself. This sensation was too much for her to bear, until she exploded.

            Melissa woke up jumping from the bed. "What was that dream? What was that feeling?". She woke up drenched in sweat, to find herself completely naked in her bed. Her clothes were next to her. "Did I take them off or I never put them on?" She thought confused.

            She rose from the bed, "I need a shower immediately". This time she had another dream, a different one. This one felt real and good at the same time. She stood in front of the mirror, and she felt strange. As she approached the mirror, she could see that her eyes were different, her two silver moon eyes were surrounded with a mixed of red and gold rim around them, her pupils were completely dilated and black. She could see her jet-black hair with a hint of red in it. "What is happening to me?" she asked.

            She went to take a shower, still feeling aroused from the dream. She needed a cold shower to calm herself. She opened the shower and got under the cold water. She always had problems with looking at her body, liking herself, she never felt pretty or desirable.

            The dream had been too much for her, still feeling the lingering sensation of the dream she tried to touch herself but felt ashamed in doing so. Instead, she finished to take her shower.

            Anastasia knocked at the door "come in," Melissa said while wrapping herself with a towel.

"Good morning, Melissa" Anastasia said while starting to set Melissa's table. 

"I'll have my breakfast later" said Melissa while pretend to dry herself checking in the mirror if she could see her eyes and her hair again, but they were back to normal. Am I hallucinating? Melissa thought and continued drying her hair.

"Do you want me to get your clothes out?". 

"No need Annie. I think I'm going to wear just some black jeans and a T-shirt. I can pick them out myself thank you". Melissa was thinking about asking that "special" question and she felt the fluster in her cheeks.

"Annie how do I know that I'm awakening?" Melissa said tweaking her question. "I mean is there any specific changes, feelings or sensations that let me know when is time? She asked eyes still in the mirror, avoiding Anastasia's gaze.

"Well… your body starts to feel different. Are you feeling different right now?" asked Anastasia putting a special and delayed tone to the word "different".

"Well, I had a very strange dream yesterday. I woke up drenched in sweat. I stood in front of the mirror and my eyes were red, black, and gold. I barely could see the grey in them. My hair had a red-looking tint, not normal". Melissa said while thinking about how different she looked in front of the mirror.

"Like I said there's a lot of changes that are going through your body right now. Maybe that dream was a representation of your body reacting to that change. You can feel the dreams so vividly like when you are awake".

"That makes sense" Melissa said lost in thought. That will explain how her body felt. "I.... I also woke up naked. I felt strange, I had to take a cold shower".

"Don't worry Melissa. Is there anything else that I can help you with?". Anastasia asked while looking at her. 

Melissa could tell that she was smiling as she looked down embarrassed. She could feel her face burning red and she knew exactly what Anastasia was thinking.

"Melissa everything that your body is feeling is normal," said Anastasia, "you don't have to feel ashamed by anything that has to do with your body. And when you aren't human every feeling is a hundred times more powerful. I'll give you some privacy now, and she left the room".

"Privacy?" Melissa asked while realizing exactly what Anastasia meant by that. "There's no way I can do any of that". Getting up and away from the mirror she remembered, it was only yesterday when she was completely naked in front of the mirror, that for the first time she was admiring herself, really admiring herself. "Maybe that was the cause of my dream she said." Getting her clothes from her closet.

            Finished dressing she went down the stairs. Taking her right towards the kitchen "Are you going to have breakfast now? There're some bagels with cream cheese and coffee served for you" Anastasia said while setting everything on the kitchen counter.

"Thank you, Annie," Melissa greeted while grabbing the bagel and the cup of coffee. She kept walking towards the garden to get to the left side of the house where the garage was.

            Flavio spend most of the time in the garage when he didn't have anything else to do. Always waiting for any orders that Melissa will give him or anything that Rembrandt needed.

"Good morning, Flavio" said Melissa smiling towards him and sitting in the wooden chair while setting the cup of coffee in the long and skinny table while taking a bite at her bagel.

"Good morning, Mel" said Flavio with warmth on his voice. Flavio was in his middle's 40's tall and lean, but at the same time muscular, his once brow hair now had a lot of grey patches mixed in them. His brownish complexion made a perfect set with his almost burnt caramel eyes. He was really handsome and because he was quiet most of the time that gave him a mysterious aura.

            He cleaned the grease on his hands, knowing exactly why Melissa was there for. Melissa without hesitation started "I talked to Annie yesterday, you may know by now everything that had happened to me the past days. Please Flavio I need to hear your side of the story. Who are you? where did you come from? What are you? and what's your position towards me?"

Flavio was stunned by Melissa's directness he was taken aback for a moment, but he felt happy inside.

"Yes, Melissa" said Flavio "I spoke with Anastasia, she told me that you wanted to speak with me. Even though my story is not as sad as hers". He said while sitting across Melissa scratching his hair at the same time like thinking were to begin.

"I was born in a humble family, we were happy, we were together. We lived in the outer skirt of the country. It was my mom, my dad, my brother, and me. I don't remember when, but my father started to change drastically. Now that I think about it, I think he started to change when my brother came of age. He changed from a caring and loving father; to this cold, mean, and ruthless man.

            My brother was two years older than me and we always played together. One night we were sleeping, and I could feel my body starting to sweat. Everything was burning inside me. The pain was unbearable. That was the first time I turned into a werewolf. I was scared and I went to look for my brother he saw me and smile kindly. He said that this was normal that we were born in a family of werewolves. He called my dad it seems that he was waiting for me to transform I was the last one".

"Now we are all complete and we can rule the world". My father said and chills ran down my spine.

            My mom knew my fathers' intentions she didn't like the idea of having us fight the, at that time alpha werewolf. But she knew that she couldn't do anything to stop him. My father wanted to dethrone the alpha and he knew he couldn't do it by himself, so he waited patiently for us to transform.

            We were having dinner one night, when suddenly we were surrounded by the alpha and more than a dozen of werewolves. The alpha knew my father's intentions and he brought the fight to us. There were so many, but we were strong, we all transform into our wolf form and the battle started.

            It was a fierce fight, but we survived. We killed every single one of them and my father finished the alpha. My mom in the other hand was badly hurt. I remember her last words: 'make our kind's life better. Make a difference in this world, may my death not be in vain' and then she died.

            My father didn't seem bothered by her death. After my mom's death we decided to part our ways, we didn't want to live under his dictatorship any longer. It seemed that we were together for my mom's sake, like she was the glue that was holding us together. But with her gone there was nothing to hold us together anymore.

            He was a ruthless alpha, I learned later on. He killed many and destroyed many more. Until the day he met his fate.

            My brother was always the pacific one, he didn't like getting to any fights he didn't even like to be involved in the savage ways of the werewolves. I hear that he settled in the other side of the country, and that he had a child and a wife. Until one day he was ambushed and almost killed. After my father was killed, the titled of the alpha went to my brother. Because my father was not killed by a werewolf, his death didn't count as a defeat. The title of alpha passed down directly to my brother. He was tricked into that fight; he was finally defeated, and the title of the new alpha went to a cheater if you ask me.

            I didn't know anything about it until it was too late. I was tired of the fighting. God I was so tired! I ran away from everything, and everything came back to me with a vengeance, like it was a curse.

            I spent many years in my wolf form hiding in the forest, running away whenever I felt in danger. One day while hunting I saw a beautiful creature, bathing in a river. She was stunningly beautiful, her skin shone like diamonds underneath the moonlight. It was the most perfect woman I have ever seen in my entire life. It was indeed a beautiful sight.

            She looked at me and attack me directly bearing her fans at me. The beautiful sight that I had seen disappeared in a split second. I was caught off guard.

            I saw her red blood eyes, glistening into the night. She was hungry for blood, she was thirsty. Her rage was too much. We fought for a long time, but no one succeeded. I guess I could have killed her, but I didn't I wanted to fight her. But the strength of that beautiful creature was out of this world. I felt weird inside, I have never felt this way until that day. I felt this warmth sensation inside me. You can say it was love at first fight".

            Flavio smirked, the dark expression that he had at the beginning of the story changed completely as soon as he started talking about this woman. Now his face lit up like a candle in an obscure night. He was really in love with her, and Melissa knew exactly who she was.

"Anastasia" said Melissa with a smile in her face. She was happy to know that Flavio had found the love of his life in Anastasia. Melissa couldn't really ask for more. She was really happy for them. It was like they complemented each other's pain.

"I was a lonely werewolf; she was a lonely vampire. That was the night of your last life. She was destroyed, hurt, in pain. She wanted to die that night and she found me. She told me her story. I didn't care what she was, the heart wants what it wants, I guess. We both knew at that moment that we belonged to each other. That we will do everything in our power to make this nightmare stop once and for all. We vowed to defend you and keep you alive one more life so you can decide our future".

            Melissa was awe, listening and looking at Flavio. Like a daughter looks at his father. Him and Anastasia were the only two people that really seem to care for Melissa.

"What about Rembrandt" asked Melissa, she still didn't know was the part that he was playing in all this.

"Rembrandt is the grandfather of the body that you're in. He is a sleazy man. He is hungry for power he wants to keep everything and leave her with nothing".

"Does he have anything to do with my past life?

"No, he doesn't. He doesn't know anything. I'd like to keep an eye on him just in case".

"I would appreciate if you did that," said Melissa. Thinking about what to do next. Her birthday was yet to come, and all the cards were still at play. "What about the real Melissa's parents. Did they love Melissa?"

"They did, very much so, Anastasia is very meticulous about that. She knows that you have suffer too much, and she wants to give you all the happiness that you been stripped off. Even though they couldn't be with her all the time, they really loved her. After they died Rembrandt had his ways. He stated that you were too young and too afraid to take care of everything, including the company. He filed a conservatorship until your 21st birthday as you know. He has taken control of everything since then".

            Melissa thought that maybe it wasn't too bad listening to his story. Anastasia was right after all. She also knew that Rembrandt was a greedy man. She has almost changed her heart about everything. "Flavio you're all the time close to him what do you think I should do with the company".

"I don't know Melissa," said Flavio. "Is your decision.... I think you should do what do heart tells you to" Flavio said with a pause. "But me personally. I don't like greedy people or selfishness in anyone. I just don't think it's fair. I got tired of the fighting, and I settled. But I will fight if I see that something is not fair. I'm leaving a happy life now even though a storm is coming. I will fight until the end, knowing that everything will be better. Then, I can die in peace".

            Flavio's words rumbled in Melissa's head. Listening to his story made her feel that another piece of the puzzle was in place. Now she needed one more piece. The man in the shadows. Who was he? What he was? Was he a friend or a foe?

            Now she needed to find him. Confront him and find out exactly where he was standing in all this situation, she never had fight before but if he came to kill her, she will find a way to kill him first.

"Melissa, come with me". Said Flavio standing up from the chair and walking out the garage. He stopped facing towards the trees standing tall at the side of the house. "I would like you to meet someone". He finished.

            Melissa's body turned to stone as she started to tremble. She could feel his presence, the same presence of her dreams. She turned the gaze towards the trees where Flavio was looking, and then she saw him. There he was, the final piece of Melissa's puzzle.