Bound by the Moon

Unseen, Unwanted

– Tashay –

I sat in the corner of my tiny room, knees tucked to my chest, the moonlight spilling through the crack in the curtain like a secret I wasn’t supposed to hear.

I hadn’t moved since I came back from the forest.

I hadn’t cried either.

Not because it didn’t hurt. Goddess, it hurt. But the ache went too deep for tears. It was the kind of pain that just settles into your bones and makes itself at home. Like it had always been there, just waiting for something—someone—to trigger it all at once.

I met my mate tonight.

And he looked at me like I was nothing.

---

I reached up and touched the locket hanging around my neck. The one thing of my father’s I still had. It wasn’t much—tarnished, scratched, almost cheap-looking—but it had weight. His weight. When I pressed it to my lips, it felt like maybe he was still with me somehow.

He would’ve never let this happen.

He would’ve never let them shove me into this forgotten corner of the house, like I was some orphan they pitied rather than the daughter of an Alpha.

When he died, the world shifted.

My stepmother made sure of that.

She stripped everything from me—my training, my rights, my voice. I was no longer the future of the pack, just a girl who cleaned up after others, served food she wasn’t allowed to eat first, and slept in a room too cold to be called home.

Still, I’d clung to one thing: hope.

Somewhere, I believed the moon goddess hadn’t forgotten me. That there would be someone—my someone—who would see past the dirt under my nails and the silence in my eyes. Someone who would look at me like I mattered again.

And tonight… for a moment… I thought I found him.

---

My wolf had known instantly.

She surged the second we saw him. The pull between us was undeniable. Like gravity, but deeper—spiritual. Like we’d waited entire lifetimes to stand across from each other.

And he looked at me.

Really looked.

Like he saw me.

I felt my soul reach toward him. I didn’t know what to say. Didn’t trust my voice not to break. But I thought he would come to me. Say something. Anything.

But he turned away.

Just like that.

Didn’t even ask my name.

Didn’t look back.

My wolf whimpered once—low, guttural, betrayed—and then went silent. I could feel her tucked deep inside me, heartbroken and withdrawn. She didn’t understand. Neither did I.

Had the goddess made a mistake?

Did he not feel it?

Or worse… did he feel it and still reject me?

I had seen the flicker in his eyes. The shock. The recognition. The bond. But there was something else too. Hesitation. Maybe even disgust. Like he saw the way I was dressed—the worn clothes, the unkempt hair—and decided I wasn’t worthy of him.

He probably thought I was just a servant girl wandering the woods. Someone he could ignore.

And he did.

---

The wind howled outside. The pack house was quiet now. Everyone else asleep, resting in their warm beds.

I was wide awake.

A thousand thoughts spinning in my mind, none of them kind.

What if this was it?

What if that was all the moon goddess had planned for me?

A single moment of hope, dangled in front of me like a cruel joke, only to be ripped away without explanation?

I closed my eyes and tried to summon the image of his face. The strength in it. The pain. His eyes had looked tired, like he carried his own scars. But even so… he walked away.

No words.

No name.

Just silence.

And I was used to silence.

But I never thought I’d get it from him.

---

Maybe I wasn’t meant for anything more.

Maybe I was just the daughter of a fallen Alpha, forgotten and fading like the last whisper of a legacy no one cared to remember.

But something inside me—soft and stubborn—still refused to die.

I don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

I don’t know if he’ll come back.

But if he does, I won’t beg.

Because no matter how small they try to make me, I still carry my father's blood.

And I am not nothing.