The Young Luna

Book 1: Chapter 2

My parents had to stay behind to talk to the Alpha, and my brother disappeared to do god knows what, so I decided I had enough time for a quick visit to the skatepark. "Hey losers, are we going skating or what?" I asked my friends.

Dom, Jared, and Chris all turned to face me. "You heard the Alpha, Bree, we have a curfew now." Dom frowned.

"Don't be a p***y, Dom." I rolled my eyes at him, the other boys laughed at me.

"Hey, I'm not a p***y" Dom snapped back, "but some of us aren´t the Beta´s daughter."

"That just means she´s going to get in more trouble, not less i***t" Chris hit back. I pumped my fist with Chris, as we laughed at Dom. Dom turned almost as red as his hair, as he narrowed his eyes at us.

"Fine, let's go. But I'm not going for long" he finally caved. The boys and I laughed at him, before heading toward the skatepark. Jared had a spare board in his car, like always, so we stopped by his car first so I could grab it. We then made the ten-minute walk over to the nearest skatepark.

"Oh no, look who's here" Jared commented, nodding to a group of other teenagers hanging out on one of the ramps.

I groaned, "great, just what I need." Sitting on one of the ramps was three older boys that went to my school who´d bullied my friends and me since we were about twelve. I got the brunt of their teasing as they went to my school and I was the only girl. I couldn't wait until someone in my friend's group shifted and could beat their asses once and for all, but until then we couldn't do s**t.

"Ah look who it is, Marty" the main asshole, Todd, snorted when he noticed us. They all walked over to us. Todd and Marty were twin brothers -equally as mean as they were ugly. They hung around with two other guys, Mac and Seth.

"It's the bum fun gang" Marty laughed with his brother and friends.

"The guys all stick their d***s up each other's asses while they´re dyke watches" Josh haunted at us. My fists clenched at my side, but I didn't say anything -I was sick of getting my ass beat by these dickheads. I thought about telling my parents once but quickly changed my mind after my brother had seen the guys harassing me and laughed along with them.

I would just have to wait until I shifted and could beat the s**t out of them on my own.

"We just came to skate" Jared muttered in annoyance. I glanced at my friends, and I had to agree we were all losers. We were misfits in the greatest respects -obsessed with comic books, and sci-fi tv shows and pretty much all got good grades... well except me. But even though we were all werewolves, we were pretty much the definition of losers. So no one was ever shocked to find out we were all bullied.

"What did you say four-eyes?" Todd demanded, giving Jared a little shove backward. I took a calming breath as I thought about how to get out of this situation. I just wanted to leave without getting beaten up. But I didn't think there was much chance of that.

"Don't call him that" Dom snapped

"Shut it, nerd," Marty said, shoving Dom to the floor. As Dom fell, he dropped his phone and it smashed into the ground. He shouted in upset as he grabbed it to see the screen completely shattered. His eyes watered as Todd and the others laughed at him. Dom's parents refused to buy him a phone, so he worked part-time for six months in a fast-food restaurant to be able to afford his phone. He tried to turn it on but it didn't work.

"You broke my phone" Dom whispered, tears falling from his eyes.

"Oh f**k" I whispered under my breath, knowing s**t was about to go down.

"What you going to do about it, nerd?" Todd jeered.

"Look we don't want any troubles, we´ll go," I said, hopping to diffuse the situation.

"You broke my f*****g phone!" Dom shouted, between his tears. Chris and I exchanged a look, as Jared looked around trying to see if there was anyone around to help us. But we weren´t that lucky.

One second we were all standing there, the next the assholes attacked us. My head hit the concrete ground when one of them pushed me over. They didn't care I was a girl, they´d happily beat me up. I tried to push Mac off me, as he held me to the ground, but it was pointless. I was extremely strong for my size but that did nothing once I was already pinned.

He smiled sadistically at me, before punching me straight in the face. I screamed in pain as my cheek throbbed. I instantly began to cry. I hated crying, but I also hated feeling so pathetic and small. I just wanted to have a fair fight for once, but until I shifted that was never going to happen against the four dickheads who were the school football stars.

I lay on the ground, crying like a pathetic kid, as I heard the noises of pain from my friends. I pulled myself into a fetal position as I cried, trying to at least protect myself. But the fight didn't last for long, and soon the bullies all ran off laughing.

Chris was the only one who didn't cry, he was the strongest and bravest out of our friendship group. Dom was still crying over his phone, his nose bleeding slightly Jared´s eyes watered as he looked over his broken glasses.

"You okay Bree?" Chris asked me, kneeling beside me, I sniffed, wiping my eyes, as he helped me to my feet.

"I want to go home" I whispered, feeling both my face and my ego bruising. Chris squeezed my hand, before walking over to Dom and Jared. He helped them up and the four of us walked back to the pack silently. "I can't wait until I can shift, then I'm going to beat the s**t out of those motherfuckers" I growled out, once Jared and Dom had gone home. Chris and I lived on the other side of the pack, so we walked back together.

Chris was my closest friend -I loved Jared and Dom, but Chris and I had been friends for a lot longer. Wed originally went to school together, but then my parents moved me to another school close to the pack, as it had a better sports program.

"Yeah but if we go back and beat them up, then we´ll be just as bad as they are" Chris replied. I looked up at him and frowned. His blonde hair was swept back and his green eyes shone. As a kid, I always hoped I would shift and find out that Chris was my mate, but after being friends for so long, I quickly backtracked on that. He was my best friend and more like a brother than a boyfriend.

"Yeah, but it would feel damn good to beat the s**t out of them just once" I argued.

Chris chuckled softly, "yeah I guess so."

We reached my house first and we both came to a stop. "What are you going to tell your parents about that bruise coming?" Chris asked, placing his finger gently on my cheekbone and grimacing. I shrugged out of his touch and pulled my baseball cap further down. "That's not going to work Bree" he frowned.

"I'll just tell them I fell off my board. It's worked every other time" I shrugged.

Chris sighed but nodded. "Yeah. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Depends on this whole Alpha Zev bullshit. My parents are really obsessing over it." I rolled my eyes and glanced at my watch, "you´ve got ten minutes to get home before curfew. I'll see you later."

"Sure, bye Bree." He gave me a small wave before made a move to walk away.

"Hey, Chris" I called after him. He turned back to me with an eyebrow raised in question. "What do you think about this war thing?"

"I'm nervous. A war this big has probably never happened before. When we join -when not if- I'm probably going to fight. By the time the battle begins, I should have shifted. I'm all over the place at the moment, I don't think my shift is far away."

"I want to join the war" I admitted.

"A lot of people are going to die in this war, Bree, you know that right?"

"I know... but I don't feel much like a normal wolf lately. My father said the atmosphere of war will be so violent, it might bring a lot of the young wolves shifts out"

"Really?"Chris asked in shock.

"Apparently the instinct to protect ourselves will bring out the shift quickly. A self-preservation sort of thing." I explained. "I want to be part of the war so I might finally shift."

"Don't worry, Bree, you will shift when you're good and ready," Chris replied with a wink.