The moon's second daughter

The floor in the Alpha's house never stayed clean. I was twenty-four years old, and I knew every c***k in that marble. I knew which tiles shifted beneath your feet and which corners gathered dust the fastest. I knew the floor the way other girls knew their wolves. "Clara, you're going to scrub a hole through it."Tessa dropped down beside me with some bread wrapped in a napkin. Her red curls were falling out of her scarf, and flour covered the sleeves of her dress. "Eat," she said. "You skipped breakfast again." "I didn't skip it. I was never invited to it." She pushed the bread into my hand.I ate quickly, keeping one eye on the hallway. Because servants are not allowed to sit in the Alpha's house. "Tonight is the Mating Ceremony," Tessa whispered. "Everyone is going. Even us. Even the broken ones huh. “You are not broken." I smiled because I didn't want her to worry. Everyone in Asterra knew what I was.They said it when they thought I couldn't hear them,and even when they knew I could hear them clearly. They all called me the Wolfless One.Every wolf in our pack shifted for the first time before the age of sixteen. Some shifted early. Some struggled until the moon was right. But eventually, every one of them heard the voice of their wolf, except me.I was twenty-four years old, and I had never grown a single claw neither have I ever heard a voice inside my head.When the others ran beneath the moon, I stood at the window and counted the hours until they returned. A pair of polished shoes stopped in front of my bucket. "Oh, did I step in that?" Margaret Crane asked.She lifted her foot from the soapy water and deliberately let the dirty droplets fall across the section of floor which I had just cleaned. "So clumsy of me," she said sweetly. "You'll have to do it again." Margaret was the Beta's daughter.She had perfect hair and a powerful wolf.Of course," I said. "Good girl."She leaned closer and sniffed the air around me. Her nose wrinkled."You don't even smell like a wolf."She smiled."You smell like soap and nothing."Then she walked away, laughing with the two girls beside her. Tessa glared after her. "One day," she muttered, "I'm going to put salt in her tea." "Please don't." "Why?" "They'd hang you." Tessa shrugged. "It'd be worth it." Despite myself, I almost laughed.That afternoon, my mother came to my room.Lady Elara Vold never knocked.She was tall and reserved, with silver eyes that were exactly like mine.. She carried a dress over one arm."Wear this tonight."She placed it on my bed. The dress was dark blue and simple, with a high collar that reached almost to my chin. "It's too warm for that collar, Mother." "Wear it." Her voice left no room for argument.Keep your head down. Don't speak unless someone speaks to you. All you have to do tonight is stand there.I stared at the dress.Why do I have to go at all?Because the law says every wolf must attend.I touched my collarbone through the thin fabric of my old work shirt without thinking.Beneath it was a mark I had since birth.A thin silver crescent.It looked like a tiny fingernail pressed beneath my skin.The mark had always been strange. It never faded. Whenever I was frightened, angry, or nervous, it seemed warm.My mother caught my wrist so quickly that I flinched."Never touch it," she said. I looked at her. "It's only a birthmark." "Clara." She said my name so sharply that I fell silent.For one brief moment, fear flashed behind her eyes.Then it vanished.She released my wrist and walked toward the door.The door closed behind her.I stared at the dress on my bed and wondered, what was my mother afraid of. The Moon Hall was the largest room I'd ever seen.Its ceiling was made entirely of glass, and tonight the full moon poured through it like liquid silver.Hundreds of wolves stood across the marble floor in dark suits and elegant gowns, waiting for the ceremony to begin.I remained at the very back, close to the wall, my collar buttoned all the way to my chin.When the bell rang, the shifting began.I watched it every year, but it never stopped making something inside me ache. Bones cracked. Shoulders rolled. Skin stretched. Silk tore as fur rippled across bodies like wind moving through tall grass.Within seconds, the hall was filled with wolves of every color. Black, white, gray, brown, golden.They panted beneath the moonlight, eyes shining with excitement.I was the only person still standing on two legs.The silence that followed wasn't truly silence.It was worse.It was the sound of hundreds of wolves realizing that I was different."Wolfless," someone whispered.My hands trembled, so I pressed them against the sides of my skirt.Then the Alpha stepped onto the platform.Gideon Thorne was thirty years old and handsome in the dangerous way a sharpened blade could be beautiful. He had red-brown hair, piercing green eyes, and wore a black suit.Whenever he shifted, he became a wolf the size of a horse.But tonight he remained in human form.The wolves lowered their heads when he looked across the room.Then his eyes found me. He stared.For a moment neither of us moved.Then he walked down the steps as the crowd parted for him.My heartbeat thundered in my ears.Something warm and strange began to stir inside my chest.Like an invisible thread had been tied around my ribs and someone had suddenly pulled it tight.I'd felt it before.Whenever Gideon passed me in the hallway, that same strange sensation appeared.I always convinced myself it was fear but now I wasn't so sure.He stopped directly in front of me. "Clara Vold." My throat tightened. "Alpha." His voice carried through the entire hall."For two years, I have felt a bond between us."A murmur spread through the crowd.Every time you walked past me, I felt the Moon pulling me toward you. Everyone here knows what that means.Gasps echoed around the room.My heart leaped.Someone had finally looked at me and felt something.For the first time in my life, I wasn't invisible.Then Gideon continued. "And I will not have it." The hope inside my chest went cold. "I will not have a Luna who cannot shift." His eyes hardened."I will not have a Wolfless Queen sitting beside me while other packs laugh at Asterra." "I, Gideon Thorne, Alpha of Asterra, reject you, Clara Vold, as my mate."The words struck harder than any physical blow. I'd heard the stories. A rejected mate collapsed to her knees. Some claimed the bond tore through the soul like a blade through flesh, leaving a wound that never truly healed.I waited for the pain but nothing happened. Instead, something inside me went... Click.Like a key turning inside an ancient lock. Gideon staggered.His hand flew to his chest.A thin line of blood trickled from his nose.He stared at me as though I'd struck him. "What did you do?" His voice was barely a whisper. "Nothing." My own voice trembled. "I didn't do anything."He straightened slowly, gritting his teeth.The law says you must answer.His expression hardened."Say, 'I accept,' and bow." Hundreds of wolves watched me. I thought about every floor I'd scrubbed.Every insult I'd swallowed.Every time I'd lowered my head because someone stronger had told me to.Every night I'd stand at that window while everyone else ran beneath the moon.For twenty-four years, I'd bowed my head allowing people to decide what I was worth But something inside me had changed.My knees refused to bend. "No."The word came quietly.But everyone heard it.A wave of shocked whispers swept through the hall. Gideon's eyes narrowed. "I don't accept it," I said, louder this time.You don't get to stand in front of everyone, claim me with one breath, and throw me away with the next.My voice shook, but I didn't stop.I'm not a thing you can pick up when you want and discard when I'm inconvenient. You will accept," Gideon snarled. "No." Beta Cole stepped forward. Margaret father wore a look of disgust.Defiance in the Moon Hall, Alpha," he said. "That is grounds for exile.I looked at him. "Then do it.The words surprised even me.Gideon's green eyes burned into mine.For one terrifying moment, I thought he might strike me.Instead, his expression became cold. "Then you are no longer Asterra." He turned his head toward the guards. "Take her out." Hands seized my arms.I stumbled as they dragged me toward the doors.I looked around the hall.I searched for anyone who might stop them.Tessa stood near the kitchen entrance, tears streaming down her face.Several wolves looked away.Others simply watched. Even my mother... She stood against the wall with her hands folded neatly in front of her.She didn't move or called my name.As the guards dragged me past her, I felt something inside me break—not because I was being exiled, but because the one person I had secretly hoped would finally choose me had chosen silence instead.Then, as I passed her, my mother suddenly leaned toward me.Her lips barely brushed my ear. "Whatever happens," she whispered, "never go north." I froze. Before I could ask why, she pulled away.Her face was expressionless again.The guards dragged me through the doors.The moment I crossed the threshold, something burned beneath my collar.The silver crescent.It was no longer warm.It was blazing. I gasped. Then a voice whispered inside my head. Run. I stopped breathing.I'd spent twenty-four years waiting to hear a wolf. Even after being told there was nothing inside me.But that voice was real. Deep,roughand strangely close.Run, little moon.My heart slammed against my ribs.I looked toward the dark corridor ahead.The guards were still dragging me toward the back gate.The voice spoke again.Before they take you beyond the wall.I didn't know who it was or how it entered my mind.Bu t somehow, one terrifying truth settled into my bones.I wasn't alone inside my own head anymore. And whatever had awakened... had been waiting for me.