Lies Under the Moon's Embrace

I was 7 years old when the world I knew died with my father. He'd gone with the King's troops to deal with some rogues, and didn't return alive. My mother, Maggie, broke down, and mourned for an entire year, while my grandparents took care of me. Then, the day after his death anniversary, she packed up our lives into two weathered suitcases, and ignored my cries to stay, and my grandparents pleading not to go, and we left the ruins of our old life behind, and crossed the border back to her ancestral lands. A country I'd never been to, but a place I felt at peace in. She returned us to the Royal Pack. The Royal Pack's territory was huge, ancient, and surrounded by a thick forest. For three months, we existed in the periphery, ghosts in the pack. Mom worked in the archives, her eyes still void of light, as if she were still watching my father die somewhere in the back of her mind. Then, the static of our lives was shattered. It happened on a rainy Tuesday. We were walking out of the temple after morning prayers, the damp scent of pine and wet stone clinging to our coats. A man rounded the corner, his presence hitting mom like a physical blow. He was tall, sharp-edged, and radiated an authority that made the hair on my arms stand up. Then I noticed it, a crest on his throat, on the other side of his marking spot, showing me that he was the head Beta. He stopped dead when he saw Mom. For a long, agonizing minute, the world held its breath. "Maggie?" The man whispered. His voice was like grinding gravel. My mother's face went white, then flooded with a color I hadn't seen since my father died. ''Ethan,'' My mother said back. ''Mate.'' ''Mate.'' He whispered back. His eyes wide with shock and awe. Fate is a cruel architect, and in the Lycan world, it is prone to second chances, a concept that felt like a betrayal to the memory of my father. They didn't jump into each other's arms. They were too scarred, too broken, and too cautious for that. Ethan, we found out, had lost his mate the same year my father died, and he had two children of this own, so they took things slowly. Over the next six months, I watched them circle each other. They met in quiet taverns and walked through the park, while all of us children played, speaking in hushed sentences and laughing at private jokes from their childhood. When they finally married, the ceremony was small, solemn, and devoid of the typical pack's boisterous joy. It was a union of necessity and ghosts. "We are moving," Mom told me the day after the ceremony, her gaze fixed on the horizon. "To the Beta's estate." Moving to the Beta's home felt like entering the mouth of a lion. It was a sprawling manor of black stone and dark mahogany, nestled deep within the inner sanctum of the territory. Right next door the Kings home, and pack house. It was where the true power of the pack lived, breathed, and plotted. The day we arrived, the air inside the manor felt pressurized. Maids took my bags, and showed me to my room next door to Liam's and Trinity's, before Ethan led us into the grand foyer, his hand firmly, possessively on my mother's lower back. "Welcome home," Trinity greeted me, her voice sweet and welcoming. As we settled into the rhythm of the household, I began to see the threads that held this world together. Ethan wasn't just a Beta, he was the shadow of the throne. His loyalty to King Tobias, was a great role model for Liam, who was best friends to Alpha Carter, the future King of our entire species. They were more than comrades, they were two sides of the same coin. One evening, I found myself in the sprawling library, hidden away by the scent of old parchment. The double doors creaked open, and Liam walked in, followed by Alpha Carter. They didn't see me in the alcove. They were discussing the rising tide of rogue activity, the very problem that had claimed my father. But then Carter froze, sniffed the air and looked up, ''Oh, look, it's your new little sister.'' Carter sneered at me, ''Does she always creep around like this without making noise.'' ''I wasn't creeping around. I was here first.'' ''I'm older than you. I was here first.'' ''Leave her alone,'' Liam hit his arm, as I rolled my eyes. Stupid jerks. ''Can you even read?'' He taunted me, ''Or are you just looking at books with pictures?'' ''BOYS!'' The butler, Denis, shouted from the doorway, and we all jumped, ''Why are you in here? You both have training. GO!'' Carter exhaled, ''I can't wait to be King, and then no one can order me around.'' ''Well, not until you get a mate, anyway.'' Liam joked, but Carter glanced up at me, and smirked. ''Not even my mate will order me around.'' ''We'll see,'' Liam shoved him, laughed and ran off. Carter gave me one last look, before he ran away. As the days turned into weeks. I watched my mother transform. She was no longer the frail woman who had escaped the tragedy of my father's death. Under Ethan's love, she became happier and even started putting on weight again. So, I didn't make things harder for her, for moving on. I wanted her happy again. I spent most of my time playing with Trinity and the new friend that I'd made, Lyn, an asian girl, who'd come from another Kingdom with her father, after he met his mate here, and decided to stay. Time began to trickle away, and I found myself aging. I shifted at 13, like every other child my age, but unlike the others, Alpha Carter came to my shift, and his Lycan Dane stayed close to us. Though I suspected it was a request from Liam, who couldn't come due to being on patrol. After returning home after my shift, I found out something strange. I didn't have a power level, which confused my mother, but the Queen commented one night, over dinner, that she didn't have a rank either, after her shift, and that most Luna's didn't have one, because a Luna's rank was hidden until she met her mate, out of protection. For if you killed a Luna, a King never get a second chance mate, which would destroy the Alpha line. ''So, you think she might be mated to an Alpha one day?'' Mom asked, as I looked up at her in shock. Carter laughed and leaned back in his seat, ''What Alpha would want a scrawny little brat like her?'' ''Carter, shut up and eat!'' The King scolded him, but he just rolled his eyes and continued eating. While I spent the rest of the night worrying that I'd be a Luna one day. I just wanted to be a chef. I loved cooking When I was 14, we were celebrating Liam's 18th birthday, when he met his mate, Kelly, a 17-year-old farmer's daughter, who was here with her father, and I suddenly had another sister. I would often think, from time to time, that if my father hadn't died, would I have more brothers and sisters by now? My father would often joke that he wanted 100 children. 3 weeks before my 17th birthday, Liam and Kelly had their first child, Indie. The home became loud after that with Indie crying at all hours of the day, making me grateful for the privacy spells in every room. I was out getting a milkshake to avoid the noise at home, when I bumped into Alpha Carter and his latest love interest, Sophie. They'd gone to school together, and I'd often have to put up with her whenever she'd come over to visit Liam. ''Well, look who it is?'' She smirked, as she looked me over, ''Little Elly. Hon, you really shouldn't eat so much junk food, not even our healing abilities can stop you from getting fatter.'' I thought I'd heard Carter growl, before he cleared his throat, and placed an arm over her shoulders, ''Not everyone can have your figure.'' I rolled my eyes, ''Instead of running your mouth all the time, perhaps you should run on the treadmill once in a while,'' I shot back, ''The only one getting fatter here is you.'' Instead of being upset, she simply placed her hand on her stomach, and glanced at Carter, ''I'm not fat. I'm...'' ''Enough, I'm not sticking around here listening to two women b***h at each other.'' Carter cut her off and started to walk off. ''Alpha, Carter!'' Sohpie shouted and ran after him. ''They deserve each other,'' My Tanya snarled, but I just shrugged and took another sip of my drink, and returned home to chaos.