Her Name Was MaLeeka
656 Words
From the perspective of MaKena
I knew she would change everything before I even pushed.
The pain was worse than the first time. Hot. Deep. Like the moon herself was pulling her from my body. But it wasn’t the pain that made me scream.
It was the fire in the air.
The storm outside howled like a warning, and the wind carried the scent of blood. I was already alone. No midwife. No mate. Just the memory of a man who died by blade and a child trying to claw her way into a world that didn’t want her.
I gave birth to MaLeeka in a cave with ash on the floor and fear in my heart.
She didn’t cry when she came out.
She stared.
Big eyes. Brown. Bright. Knowing.
She looked just like me.
But I felt it—she wasn’t me.
She was more.
⸻
I wrapped her in cloth and whispered her name for the first time.
“MaLeeka,” I said. “It means queen in the old tongue. And you’re going to be one… whether you want to or not.”
⸻
That Night
I didn’t sleep.
I never did after he died.
My mate. My love. Killed by cowards in the dark because he dared to defend me when no one else would. When I told the pack what had been done to me—what he did—they laughed. Called it a misunderstanding. Said I should’ve been flattered.
He didn’t laugh.
He challenged the Beta to combat.
He won the fight.
But not the war.
He was dead a week later.
And I was running.
Pregnant.
Alone.
Marked by shame in the eyes of the world—and something older in the eyes of fate.
⸻
The Dream
The night after MaLeeka’s birth, I woke to firelight.
But the fire wasn’t real.
A woman stood beside it. Tall. Brown-skinned. Barefoot, with silver braids cascading down her back and a crescent moon tattooed between her brows.
Her eyes were my daughter’s.
She looked at me and said, “Her name was mine once, too.”
I couldn’t speak.
She knelt beside the fire.
“I am Ajah. The First Luna. The one who cursed Aurelius. The one whose blood runs in your child.”
My throat closed.
“She will not be safe in this world. Not for many years. When they come, you’ll know.”
“When who comes?” I whispered.
“His wolves. The ones who still wear his mark. They’ll sniff her out. They’ll want to bring her back. To finish what I started.”
“What do I do?” I asked.
Ajah smiled sadly.
“You run. One last time. You run—and you let her become more than we ever were.”
⸻
Eighteen Years Later
I saw them before they entered the woods.
Three men. Dressed in the skins of dead wolves. No scent. No humanity.
Aurelius’s shadow still moved in the world.
They’d found us.
It was MaLeeka’s 18th birthday.
I didn’t let her shift.
Didn’t let her fight.
I shoved a pack into her arms and kissed her forehead.
“Go,” I told her. “Run west. Find the high pine ridge. The Shadowfang territory. There’s an Alpha there. His name is Seth.”
Her eyes widened. “Mama—”
“No. Don’t look back. No matter what you hear.”
She hesitated.
I slapped her.
She flinched.
Good.
She ran.
And I turned to face the men.
I wasn’t strong enough to win.
But I was strong enough to delay.
⸻
They found my body two days later, burned down to the bones.
But my soul?
My soul walked beside my daughter every night she dreamed.
Because blood is not the end.
It’s the beginning.
⸻
Her name is MaLeeka.
And she was born to end the Firstborn’s reign.
Even if it killed me.
- Writer
