Chapter One

When she was a child Felicity dreamt about being free. She and her mum would run through the forest for hours, not thinking about what comes tomorrow, just enjoying the moment and being together.

But that was a long time ago, she reminded herself, sitting in her chair looking between the three monitors in the Foundry. She was alone down there, while Oliver and Diggle were out patrolling the city streets. Being alone though didn't stop her from getting distracted. She knew she had a lot to do, but her mind kept drifting back to her secret. She wanted to tell the others. They were her closest friends, after all, but she couldn't. It was too dangerous. They wouldn't understand, would they?

I mean, they could kill me. Or worse, not like me anymore. [I'm not entirely sure about this… Kill me… or worse, not like me. It doesn't feel right, but I'm struggling to come up with anything else right now!] Losing her easy friendship with the two wasn't worth it. No. She wouldn't go there. At least, not yet.

Instead, she thought about the first day she had met Oliver. He had come into her office with that terrible lie about a latte on his laptop. She remembered being struck by his figure appearing in front of her, and his deep blue eyes watching her with such intensity as she babbled on and on. That's when she fell in love with him. She could see his smile in her mind. She knew it was her babbling that prompted it, which at the time almost made her pause. That was a different reaction. She was used to people rolling their eyes and huffing, genuinely exasperated at her lack of ability to control her tongue. But not him. He had smiled, and it was like a ray of light.

Ever since that day, she had watched over him. Each night, she would arrive at the Queen estate after dark and hide in the shadows between the trees at the edge of the gardens closest to Oliver's room. She knew she had to be careful, the Queen's security was extensive, with guards regularly patrolling the perimeter, as well as cameras. After joining the team she would stop to check on Diggle, too. And when the team had begun to expand, Roy's house joined her route. She didn't stay long at the last two, though. Just long enough to make sure everything was okay, and then she would high tail her way to Oliver's.

She was eleven when she had found out who she was. Or rather, what she was. It had been an accident. It still felt unreal, like she had been sleep walking. However, she remembered vividly when her mother had come in to wake her in the morning and she had struck out, reacting instinctively, and clawed her mother's shoulder. If it hadn't been for the quick reflexes afforded to them due to their odd genetics, she was sure she would have ripped her mother's throat out. She had screamed and scrambled away, looking between her mother and her hands in horror, but by the time she looked back to her mother, to where she was sure she would see gushing blood and torn flesh, there was nothing but four vivid pink lines, like scars, which faded further even as she watched. It was her mother's smile that did it. She recalled being beyond confused (after all, she had just woken from a dream that had the clarity of a memory, but was impossible, and then almost trying to claw, claw, her mother to death, but there was no evidence of it except for the blood on her hands, and her mother was smiling at her).

And then the explanations had come. She hadn't wanted to believe it at first, but eventually she had had to accept it. She was a wolf. A big, black wolf with luminous blue eyes.

When her and her mother had ventured down the stairs after a very long chat, her poor father had a second almost heart attack. (The first had been when he had found out that his wife was a wolf.) And now, it seems that his daughter had inherited her mother's… condition.

"Felicity!"

Oliver's bark snapped her back to reality and caused her to jump, stiffening instinctively.

"Huh?"

"Is everything okay with you? You seem… distracted. I had to call your name about ten times." The concern in Oliver's tone was mirrored by his furrowed brow and the slight down turn in his lips.

"No. No, everything's fine. I promise. I was just lost in my head a little. Dug too deep into some memories of childhood. Not that there's anything too dig into, exactly. I had a normal childhood. Wonderful, but normal. Of course, because why would it be anything other than that. It was just great. Mum and Dad were great, everything was great. Yup, great. And normal. And I'm going to stop. In 3...2...1…"

"You've had a long night, Felicity." It was John who spoke. "Why don't you go home and get some rest?" Oliver nodded in his direction, obviously agreeing with him. She knew she wouldn't win anything by trying to argue so she agreed, turning and shutting down her systems, before saying good night and heading out.

She stopped at home quickly to change into some warm clothes and grab her pack, which she put her clothes and hid before becoming a wolf so she had something to wear for the journey home in the early hours of the morning, before heading back out. She stopped at Roy's and saw that he and Thea were safe and sound, and then ran quickly to Diggle's. His lights were out, but his car was out front, so she knew that he was home and safe, too. She jogged to the outskirts of the city, where the concentrated buildings gave way to the park. Here, she ducked into a thick patch of shrubbery where, after making sure the coast was clear, she stripped and quickly stuffed everything into the backpack, which she shoved under a bush and covered with leaves and twigs, before closing her eyes and allowing the Change to happen. One moment she was freezing and human, and the next her senses were sharp, her body large and lean, and most of all warm. It took a second to acquaint herself with her animal form, but then she was off, bounding along the familiar route that would take her to the Queen estate, and to Oliver.