12

I gasped and went to grab at my chest, but suddenly the pain settled. Actually, it began to feel kind of nice. Waves of relaxation were washing over me, developing and building up from that one spot on my chest. I picked up the pendant of my necklace in confusion, my eyebrows furrowing when the same burning sensation spread through my fingers, before transforming into the calming tingles.

"Dawn?" Hayden asked, snapping me out of my daze. Looking up, I realised I was still gripping his wrist with my other hand. I apologised quickly and released his arm, glancing down at my chest again in bewilderment when the feeling stopped abruptly.

"What's wrong?" he whispered, leaning close so the others wouldn't hear.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and shook my head, "Nothing."

Obviously not believing me, Hayden focused back on the girls and cleared his throat, causing them to raise their eyebrows at him expectantly. "I just remembered that Mr. Green wanted Dawn and I to go and let him know how I'm doing— we'll be back in a few," he lied.

"Okay, sure. See you in a minute," Indie replied instantly. I was surprised; I thought the girls would ask questions. Hayden gestured for me to follow him outside to a grassy patch with lots of picnic benches— it was now deserted because it was too cold to eat outside.

"Now, tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing!" I insisted.

"Dawn, I'm not an idiot. Tell me."

"I don't know...I just got a weird feeling in my chest."

"Not having a heart attack, are you?" he teased.

I rolled my eyes, "I'm probably just being stupid. It's not a big deal." I turned around, heading back inside: it was freezing out here and I didn't have my jacket. Hayden grabbed my shoulder and spun me back around to face him, and I felt it again, the weird feeling in my chest.

Hayden noticed my gaze at my necklace, "What?"

"I can feel it now, it's really...strange," I breathed. Hayden removed his hand from my shoulder and crossed his arms. My head shot up, "And now it's gone."

"Whenever I touch you, huh?" he smirked.

"Hayden, you don't understand! It's not like that- it's not coming from me! It's coming from my necklace!" I cried, exasperated. I was becoming frustrated; I didn't enjoy being in the dark.

He frowned, "What the hell do you mean?"

"I mean that whenever you touch me, this pendant does something to my skin— it feels like it's burning me until it starts giving off this nice sensation," I explained as best as I could.

"Dawn, that makes no sense."

"I know, Hayden! Don't you think I know that?" I grumbled.

"Well why haven't we noticed this before?"

I thought about it. After a moment, I realised that this was the first time I'd worn the necklace around him. Usually I didn't bother with jewellery when we hung out because we always ended up play fighting or doing doing something messy, like baking or gardening with Jackie, so I tended to avoid wearing things I wouldn't want ruined. I hardly ever wore the necklace at school, either, because I didn't want it to be stolen or broken or something. "This is the first time I've worn it with you around," I said simply.

"Oh... Well, maybe..." he trailed off.

"What?" I urged.

"Maybe we should see what it does if I actually touch it?" I shrugged.

".... I guess it can't hurt," I said, and he reached out, his fingers lightly brushing my skin as he picked up the pendant.

Our jaws dropped simultaneously. The emerald gem stones in the animal's eyes glowed a bight white, and as we squinted under the glare of the light, I heard something thud to the ground. Looking back at the pendant, I instantly noticed that the ivory tooth was missing.

"Shit, it's broken!" I cried. Hayden looked to the floor and searched for the tooth as I scoured the picnic benches, but it was nowhere to be found.

Tears brimming in my eyes, I murmured, "It was a family heirloom— my favourite necklace."

Hayden turned to me and cupped my cheek with his hand. "I'm sorry, Danny, but I promise I'll find it, okay? Let's just go back inside and I'll come back after school to find it," Hayden reasoned.

I nodded and walked back to the lunch hall slowly, upset that my necklace was broken. I unclipped the back of the plaited leather chain and took the necklace off, slipping it into my pocket. Goosebumps prickled on my skin in the cold, so I shivered; Hayden noticed and pulled me closer, tucking my shoulder under his arm protectively.

"I don't understand... Did you see the way it lit up? That's not possible... I think I'm going crazy," I muttered, sniffling.

"I don't know whats going on, Dawn, but I'll make sure that we find the tooth, " Hayden replied.

I sighed and stepped back into the canteen, making my way to my seat and faking a smile for my friends, telling them that the meeting was fine, everything was fine. Hayden joined me, making more conversation with the girls than I was.

I wasn't in a good mood.

>>

Indie

The bell had just rang, signalling the end of the school day. I took the back corridors to the picnic area outside and sat down, waiting. After a few minutes, I heard one of the maintenance doors open, and I stood up, waiting for my visitor.

"What's going on?" I asked him.

"We have to find something important," he replied.

"What do you mean?"

"It's a tooth— ivory —and it fell down around here earlier. There's something weird about it, it was connected to Dawn's pendant, but when I touched it, the eyes of her pendant lit up and the tooth fell out. I need to find it."

"Okay, Hayden, whatever you say," I said, frowning a little.

"You know, I can't wait until I turn eighteen and you have to start calling me Alpha. That's going to be fun," he whistled. I shook my head, smiling, and got on my hands and knees, looking underneath the picnic benches and between blades of grass for the ivory tooth. Inhaling deeply, I searched for Dawn's scent in the wafts of dead grass and rotting wood. Yes! I whooped to myself when I stumbled across the scent and followed it to a patch of grass, a glinting white object softly balancing on a few of the trodden blades.

Found it! I said through our Pack Link.

Awesome, bring it over here, Hayden replied. I picked up the tooth quickly and jogged over to Hayden. He held his palm out, so I dropped the broken pendant piece into his hand. Holding it up to look at it, he seemed to notice something.

"Look," he said, motioning to the top of the tooth, where it had broken off of the rest of the pendant. I did as he said and peered at it closely, realising that the tooth was actually hollow with a small, thickly rolled up piece of paper slotted inside. Using my long fingernails to fish it out, I placed it in Hayden's hand for him to read.

"What is it?" he asked. I shrugged in response. He carefully unraveled the tiny scroll, and held it up to the fading winter sky to read it.

"A power within her, hidden but true. Human by birth, she must be Shifted by her fated mate to become the Catalyst. The first Sign will be in her possession, the others will be hidden. To find the final Sign, first discover the Luna birthmark imprinted on her body."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I exclaimed. Hayden wasn't listening; he was too busy trying to decipher the note.

"A girl- a 'Catalyst'- who needs to be Shifted by her mate," he glanced at the paper, "and is powerful. She has a birthmark- what's the Luna birthmark? This doesn't make sense..."

"Hayden," I said, putting my hand on his arm. "Let's go home and ask the Alpha," I suggested.

"No, we can't show Dad."

"Why not? He'll know more about this than either one of us."

"Because this involves Dawn, so it involves me, not Dad. I need to understand why this was in Dawn's necklace, and why it reacted that way when I touched it."

A thought occurred to me. It was a little crazy, but I went with it. "That note said something about a 'Sign' or something, right?"

"Yeah, the first Sign and the final Sign."

"Well maybe the Signs are clues to who this special girl is," I started.

"Okay, and?"

"Maybe Dawn's necklace is the first Sign."

"If that was true, why would there need to be a 'final Sign'?"

"It's a necklace, so anybody could wear it. That's why you need a less obvious and more personal clue- a birthmark- to make sure you have the right girl," I offered.

"That makes sense, actually. So, this girl... She might not be Dawn?"

"She might be and she might not. It depends on where Dawn got the necklace from," I replied.

"She said it's a family heirloom," he told me.

"Then the most probable explanation is that she's the girl in the writing," I said, brooding over this new information. Something was telling me to look into Dawn's family tree a bit more. The intrigued expression plastered on Hayden's face told me he had the same idea.

"I'm worried, Indie. Nobody has ever been Shifted before, we've only ever been born this way. It's not something that we can just pass onto someone through a bite like in stories. And you know it's been tried before." It was true. A famous story has been told to each Wolf Shifter family about a girl who tried to save her mate: a man who was dying from a painful disease. Driven mad with the urge to save him, she bit him, and when it didn't work, she bit him all over his body, trying desperately to give him the strength and healing of the Wolf Shifters. Eventually, the poor man, riddled with puncture wounds, died from blood loss.

"Hayden, if this girl is as special as she sounds- and if it's Dawn- then you'll find a way. We just need to do some research into all of this." He sighed and nodded, before stepping away from me, heading out of the school grounds. I followed him, and we silently walked home, both of us engulfed by our thoughts.

Once we reached Hayden's house, which was the first on the path to our small, secluded settlement, we parted ways. I carried on through the woods past his house until I reached a huge clearing, one that was packed with small concrete streets and modern houses. Although cut off from the rest of the world, we didn't live like animals in the Stone Age.

Hayden's home was the guarding house, as every Alpha family's house was. It protected the rest of the Pack Village, posing as the first building any attackers came to. It was the Alpha family's role to protect the rest of the pack.

My father was the Beta to Hayden's dad, the Alpha. The two were best friends, as every Alpha and Beta usually were. In most packs, the Alpha and Beta would usually grow up together, forming a close relationship from a young age, as that close relationship was vital for the fighting strength of a pack. Although Hayden and I weren't as close as we should have been at that stage- a year before Hayden became Alpha- I knew we would be a strong team. He defended me like an older brother, and I annoyed him like the good little sister he treated me as. I had heard of his best friend, Dylan, who was a Bear Shifter, but I had never seen him. He never went further than Hayden's house, so no one in the pack, apart from the Alpha family, had ever met him.

Truthfully, I didn't trust Bear Shifters. Most Wolf Shifters thought the Prophecy was stupid, but I didn't.

I believed that one day it would come true, and the Wolf Shifter race would never trust Bear Shifters again.