Spoilt brat. Problem child. Trouble maker. Disruptive influence.

These names followed Natasha from childhood, through adolescence and into her adult life. Fights at school, blazing arguments with her adoptive parents, confrontations in the office; it did seem that Natasha triggered trouble where ever she went. Enforced visits to counsellors and anger management therapists would never make any lasting difference to her behaviour. At times she would feel some small measure of calm after venting her pent-up rage through self-defence classes and close contact sports, but still the daily hassles and constant arguments would persist.

From Natasha's point of view, it seemed that the world was out to get her. The disapproval of her parents, the bitchy comments from her girl friends, the demands of employers; all these things seemed to hunt her, hounding her away from any sense of peace. Nothing she did seemed to make a difference. Nobody was ever satisfied with her efforts. Nobody seemed willing to accept her for who she was.

In the end she gave up trying to please people. Instead she would take what she wanted from life and move on. She became a nightclub prowler - seducing whomever she liked, enjoying their bed for a night or two and then dumping them before they could get too close. She would drift from job to job, earning enough to get by, but with no sense of greater ambition or loyalty to her employers. It was an empty existence, but much easier than attempting to conform to society's impossible demands.

The only constant presence through her early life was Danny Walker. Natasha was greatly amused by her friend's earnest efforts to understand the world. While she would often mock his thoughtful musings, she recognised that he provided the only stable influence amid the chaos of her own emotions. She treasured their intimacy and, in truth, probably longed for a deeper relationship - if only her own stubbornness could let her admit such feelings.

Of course, nothing was the same following events on the night the moon disappeared. The onslaught of the Shadow Realm opened the true depths of Natasha's Rage and led to the triggering of her First Change. Uratha elders found her and tried to educate her in the ways of The People, but Natasha would not accept the truth of her heritage. She refused to swear the Oaths of the Moon and could not find Harmony in her new existence. She might easily have fallen into the grasp of the Pure Tribes, but instead she vowed to walk alone as a Ghost Wolf.