THE LUNAR KINGS SHATTERED CLAIM

I stood in the small, light hut, my hands shaking as I pressed them against the small pup's feverish body. His breathing was fast, and each breath he exhaled was weaker than the last. I put all my focus into the healing energy flowing from my palms, praying I could stop the spread of the curse that had claimed so many lives before him. “Please, little one,” I said softly, referring to myself rather than him. “Fight”, little one. " I know you can do this.” Just hold on a little longer, don't give up yet. The soft murmurs of my packmates outside the hut came through the walls. I didn't need to hear the words clearly to know what they were saying. They always say the same things, she's going to fail because she always fails. The unclaimed mate can’t even do the one thing she’s supposed to be perfect at.” I pushed harder, begging the moon Goodies for strength. I ignored the quiet talk from my pack and the sweat dripping down my face. But the pup’s body was moving up and down, and his tiny body stopped moving in my hands, and my heart shattered. “No,” I took a sudden deep breath, shaking my head while my voice cracked. “No, no, no." Tears blurred my vision as I gently shook him again, my voice breaking. “Please don’t do this. Please, Moon Goddess, help me!” The door opened quickly, and I turned to see my father, Alpha Rhoane, standing in the doorway. His face was filled with rage and disappointment. “What have you done?” he roared. I took a few steps back, my hands shaking. “I...I tried to save him, I stammered. " I did everything I could.” I said, my voice trembling, my eyes welling up with tears, and I was shivering like the ground would open and eat me up. He stormed past me, lifting the lifeless pup. His expression twisted into one of pure disdain. “You’ve cursed this pack with your existence. Everything you touch ends in failure or death.” The words cut deeper than any blade. I opened my mouth to speak, but the voices outside grew louder as more pack mates gathered, drawn by the Alpha’s fury. “You are a disgrace, Serenity!” my father's thunderous voice roared through the hut, and the crowd around looked at me with so much hatred, like my existence in the world was a mistake or a bad omen. “You bear the mark of rejection, the Unclaimed Mate, and now you've caused another doom. " You are the reason this curse is disturbing us!” my father yelled angrily. The pack’s eyes bore into me, filled with a mix of anger and fear. My throat closed as humiliation and shame washed over me. “No”! I yelled at my father out of frustration,“ I’ve done nothing to bring about this curse” but my voice flattered as I struggled to find my words. “Father, I never planned to kill him; I only tried to help him heal,” I begged him. But my words and pleas don't mean anything or matter to him. I was forced to stand in the center of the pack's gathering grounds. I was shivering, as the pack’s stares cut through me like sharp knives. The crowd didn’t care. Their judgment was written all over their faces. “Serenity Rhoane, Elder Marlow began,” his cold gaze pinned me to one point as he spoke authoritatively, “by the authority of the Alpha, you are hereby exiled from the Moonrise Pack. Your failures have caused enough damage, you are no longer one of us.” I found it so hard to digest what was happening before me, my throat dry as sand as I struggled to speak. “I didn’t bring the curse,” I said; my voice was weak and shaky. No one believed me anyway. They never had. Not even my father. “You have the mark of an unclaimed mate,” a big sign of rejection. " Your very presence brings misfortune," Marlow continued, his eyes filled with disgust. The mark on my shoulder burned under his words as if to remind me of my rejection. My fated mate had walked away and rejected me before I even knew who he was. It was rare among wolves, almost unheard of. And to them, it was proof that I was cursed. I shook my head as tears were streaming down my face. “I’ve healed your wounds. I’ve saved your children from sickness,” I said, my voice trembling. “I’ve done nothing but help this pack.” “Enough!” My father, Alpha Kyden Rhoane roared. His voice cut through the air like a knife, silencing me. He didn’t even look at me as he said, “Your exile is final.” The world seemed to fall apart around me. My feet seemed to crumble as his words hit me. My father, the man who should have defended and protected me, had turned his back on me without a second thought. “I’m your daughter's father,” Remember your promise to my dead mother, I said with heartbreak. “You are nothing to me,” he replied coldly, before turning his back. Alpha Rhoane’s lips curled into a mean smile. “Keep quiet! You are no longer part of the moonrise pack. By the authority of the Alpha, you're hereby cast out. " From this moment on, Serenity is nothing to us,” and she's of no importance to this pack. The murmurs of the crowd grew louder, their judgment surrounding me like a suffocating fog. I wanted to scream, to lash out, to beg for someone, anyone to stand up for me. But I couldn’t. Not when the people I’d spent my life serving had already decided my fate. The guards of the pack approached, their faces looking void of emotion, and I took a step back instinctively. But there was no point in resisting. What could I do? I was just a healer, a wolf without a pack and that is an ultimate disgrace. They didn’t even wait for me to leave with dignity. One guard grabbed my arm while another threw a small bag of my things at my feet. “Leave now,” one of them yelled. I looked back at my father one last time, hoping to see even a glimpse of regret on his face, but there was none. Despite the chaos, he stood firm like a pillar of rock, and I hated him for that. My father ordered two guards to lead me to the pack boundary, ordering them never to allow me anywhere close to Moonrise Pack ever again. The two warriors grabbed my arms, dragging me toward the pack’s boundary. My pleas fell on deaf ears, my struggles useless against their iron grip. As they forced me out of the pack’s borders, one of them sneered, "You’re lucky we don’t kill you for your failures." Without saying a word to them, I picked up the small bag and turned toward the forest. My heart felt like it was breaking with every step I took. The trees ahead looked dark and unfamiliar. I had no idea of where I was going to or where I would stay, neither did I know how I would survive. All I knew was that there was nothing left for me here. The words and the voices of the people who chased me away followed me even as I disappeared into the forest. Their voices followed me like a shadow! “Cursed!.” “Unwanted!!.” “Disgrace!!!.” I sluggishly walked deeper into the woods, the cold wind biting at my skin. The angry voices of the pack faded behind me, replaced by the overwhelming quiet of being alone. I'm completely alone for the very first time since my mother died and left me in my father's care.