Mark of the Moon

Chapter 2

As they couldn’t look at his face, they did not notice the bitter sweet expression of his face while his mind played memories of his tragic past. Only he and the Moon Goddess knew how he had waited for the next Celene. He hoped he could undo his mistakes of the past with her help.

“Bro! you found your mate? You didn’t tell us.” sang Sonu.

The six of them were now returning to Dhruv’s house which was located towards the farthest end of the forest. Dhruv’s pack was called “The Moonstone pack” and the pack was known for their orthodox nature. Most of the pack members preferred to live in the forest. Their pack was self sufficient. They made their own goods and seldom purchased them. They believed that the forest provided them with everything they needed. They had farmers, weavers, healers and people of various occupation that made their pack self sufficient. Their pack had experts in diversified fields of occupation.

Their forest was bordered by city at the north and east side. on the south they had rocky hills towards the west there were few hills with a stream of water flowing towards the south. All the houses were at the middle of the forest where humans did not dare to enter. They had a pack house at the western side closer to the stream where the pack members met for pack meetings and cultural gatherings.

Very few men from the pack, went out to work in the cities surrounding the forest. Whereas the women mostly tended to their children and spent their free time collecting medicinal herbs and brewing potions and medicines required for the pack.

Due to his conflicts with the Alpha – Raghav, who was his half brother, Dhruv decided to live away from the pack. Initially he decided to move to the city. But since he loved living in the forest, he built a house at the northern end of the forest where it met the city limits.

Not waiting for his answer, his friends patted on his shoulders. “Congratulations Bro” they all howled in unison. Myra, his sister wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pouted, “you shouldn’t have hidden this from us. Tell us all about her. What’s her name? Where and when did you meet her? When do you plan to introduce us to her?” she was all smiles as she sprinted beside her brother.

Dhruv looked at his little sister dotingly before dismissing her questions, “I do not want to talk about it. Not now atleast.” None of his friends pursued it further seeing his face turn grim. They knew he always went sullen during discussions of love and mate.

But Sonu smirked, “What a spoil sport!”

Trying to ease the atmosphere he added further, “I wonder what the old man was doing there. Was he really waiting to get his butt kicked to fulfil Dhruv’s wish? Boy! He can sometimes be spooky.”

Rishi replied, “Didn’t you notice? It seemed as if he was sniffing something on the ground. He was bent really low. No wonder we did not notice him.”

“Could he be looking for clues?” Krish asked.

“Who knows? I don’t think we should take him seriously. He is the craziest man of our pack.” Said Dhruv.

To which Myra replied, “Don’t take him for granted. I believe his prophecies. Mom says they have come true before. And I heard from the elders that back when he was young, he was a ruthless Alpha.”

The last statement came as a shock to Dhruv. He had always treated the old man without respect. According to him the old man was crazy and he never understood why the pack revered him. In fact, Dhruv hated him to the core and blamed him for the sufferings of his life.

Myra continued, “But what did he mean by ‘Marking someone with mark of the moon’? Does he want Dhruv to not mark his mate but mark someone else?”

“I don’t care for what he says. I am not going to mark anyone. Rest assured.” Came Dhruv’s bitter voice.

By now they reached Dhruv’s house. It was a duplex villa with a backyard garden that had few fruit trees, wild flower plants and his favourite vegetable plants. He lived there alone. And his friends kept him company most of the times. They were first Myra’s friends who later became his friends too.

Dhruv got ready and headed to office. It was one hour drive from his place. On the way he couldn’t help brood about the topic that stirred in the morning. Indeed he had found his mate at office. She had joined his team last month and was a human. She had no clue that she was mated to him. He had no intentions of getting into relationships. According to him, relationships created trouble and complicated ones life. His parents were a great example of that.

His dad – Aum was alpha of “MoonStone” pack. He was righteous and peace loving leader. But he also knew the importance of building strong defences against enemies. Hence he had well trained Sentinels to patrol the borders and had the fiercest fighter force to keep their pack out of trouble. Once they were attacked by the Shadow pack. In the war that followed, Shadow pack was defeated and their alpha – Rudra was killed. Since then the Shadow pack was merged with the Moonstone pack.

As per rules of the war, the winning Alpha could take over the mate of the lost Alpha. Aum was a righteous man. His mate had died during child birth and his child died after few months. He never wanted to take another wife. At first he had provided protection to Rudra’s widowed wife – Rupa and her child. But this led to a lot of speculations in the public. In order to maintain the dignity of an Alpha, the grand seer suggested Aum to marry Rupa. Thus Aum and Rupa got married though they weren’t mated. Raghav who was merely an eight year old boy did not like Aum. For him, Aum was his dad’s murderer. But Aum always treated Raghav as his child. He also declared him as the future alpha after him.

But Dhruv was born and on his naming ceremony, the Grand Seer jubilantly announced that Dhruv would raise to be an Alpha and beyond. Raghav, who was already jealous of having a younger brother, got more restless as he considered Dhruv to be a threat. All his childhood, Dhruv had seen his brother plotting against him at every possible occasion. His mother, for unknown reasons always sided with Raghav. Rupa seldom spoke to Dhruv affectionately and always doted on Raghav. This created a rift between Rupa and Aum. Aum never understood why would Rupa be partial towards Raghav, when both Raghav and Dhruv were her own flesh and blood. On the contrary, though Raghav was not related to Aum in blood, Aum always treated him as his own. Dhruv saw his parents disappointed with each other. When Dhruv was five years old, he got a sweet little sister Myra. Though Dhruv tolerated Raghav’s schemes against him, he could not let his sister to be bullied in the similar manner. That was when he started distancing himself from his mother and Raghav. But luckily, Rupa seemed to love Myra.

By the time Raghav grew, he had earned his reputation for being a proud and a filthy person without any morals. But no one could do anything about him as he was their future Alpha.

Raghav got his first blow when he found his mate, Jaya. It was love at first sight for him. Jaya was a beautiful lady who was tall and fair. She had a round face with black kohl eyes and gave a noble aura of peace. Jaya felt humiliated to be mated to Raghav. She rejected him. She said that she would rather die single than be mated to someone like Raghav. Raghav’s face contorted with fury that could kill. But he loved Jaya so much that he couldn’t think of harming her.

Since then, Raghav’s heart turned darker and he started acting impulsively in an erratic way. One day when he returned home drunk, he happened to see Aum sleeping in peace. That day Raghav, who considered Aum to be his father’s murderer, strangled Aum to death and claimed himself to be the Alpha.

Much to everyone’s shock, Rupa did not reprimand Raghav for the unfair murder of the most just and humble person of the pack. With Aum gone, Dhruv did not have any reason to stay with the pack and moved to his present house. Though he wanted to take Myra with him, she was close to her mother and did not want to leave her. Out of guilt Myra came to visit her brother frequently and brought along her friends so that he didn’t feel lonely and dejected. Having faced a disturbed childhood and after seeing how both his parents suffered in their marriage, he did not want to commit to any mate bond and complicate his life.