The Gifted Luna

Mud clung onto Tiara’s feet as she walked through a narrow path in the woods, her basket heavy with different herbs. The scent of pine and the damp soil grounded her—one of the few comforts left in her world. She leaned down to gather a spring of yarrow when a twig snapped behind her. "This would fetch me more money at the market," she beamed with smiles, carefully placing the herb into her basket. "If only I could..." She was saying when she heard a sound. "Who is there?" She called, stiffened, clutching the basket tightly. But it was only a rabbit, scampering away. She exhaled, out of relief, but the peace didn't last as it was shattered by a screech from the village edge. “Tiara! How long are you going to remain in there?" Vanessa. Her living nightmare. She sighed and quickened her pace, rushing back. Back at the house, a crumbling old structure on the edge of the pack’s territory. Vanessa stood on the porch, arms crossed, sneer in place. “Flowers? You wasted my time gathering weeds while I have been starving, waiting to be fed?” Vanessa sneered, dumping the precious herbs into the dirt. Before Tiara knew it, she got a resounding slap.The force of the slap sent Tiara to her knees. “I am the future Luna,” Vanessa hissed, leaning down. “Omegas do not speak except when given the chance to. They serve. You are lucky my father hasn't tossed you to the rogues yet. You’re a parasite, just like your father was before he died in the mud.” “They help with fever,” Tiara said quietly, lowering her gaze. Vanessa threatened. “I dare you to speak back again, so I can put you in the dirty and bottomless pit that you belong to.” Tiara pressed her lips together, fighting back the tears that threatened to pour down her face. "There are so many chores still left undone and you went into the woods to gather weeds and flowers instead of catching an animal or tending to the chores," Vanessa sneered. "I wonder whom you got your stupidity and weakness from—your mother who loves to exercise power or your father who used to be hail and mighty and yet, could not save himself and his wife." She pressed. "You had better not think of going back to that ruin you call a house without doing every chore that is expected of you!" Garrett stepped out from the shadows, his eyes cold. "Why do you love yelling at this weakling, my dear?" “Leave the mutt, Vanessa. Don't let her bad luck stain your skin. The Alpha arrives tonight for the Great Hunt. If this... thing... gets in the way of the spears, she won't be coming home. Merely touching her can bring you badluck. Or do you want that?” " Of course not, father," Vanessa sharply replied. "Why would you say such a thing?" "You should not speak such unruly words to your one and only child, Garrett." Diane, Garrett's wife butted in. "My child is strong, intelligent and beautiful. Mind the way you speak to the future Luna." She smiled, eyeing Tiara scornfully with the corner of her eyes. "Speaking of that, when do I get to meet alpha Edwin, father?" Vanessa batted her eyes lovingly towards her father. "Soon enough, my darling," Garrett replied. "Sooner that you expect," he winked. The trio spoke, making Tiara feel invisible and inferior. "Ahh!" Garrett suddenly exclaimed. "You should watch the way you to to the woods to gather those weeds of yours, princess," he mocked. "The alpha and other pack members will be visiting the woods soon for the hunt and I do not think that we can afford you being mistaken for the animal that you are, during the game." "Maybe we should stop her from gathering those things, she has so many roles to play in the house." Vanessa suggested. " I really do not care about her existence or survival," Diane said, with no hint of emotions. That night, Tiara curled up in the dirty attic that was given to her in her uncle's house, clutching a ying-yang necklace that her parents used to wear. Her fingers carefully brushed over the necklace as she relived her parents last moments. "May the moon goddess keep and preserve you, my child." Her mother muttered, before she took her last breath. No matter how hard she tried, she was not able to get the bloody faces of her parents out of her head. “I will make sure to find out what really happened,” she whispered. “No matter what it takes.” she vowed. As Tiara clutched the pendant to her chest, she whispered her promise for justice. She noticed that the necklace had a rough part. She turned it over and found a hidden compartment that can be opened. It was an inscription, written in a coded manner. "What is this?" She thought to herself as she tried to decode the inscription. She quickly took it towards the window, trying to use the little light the moon produced to see the inscription. As the moon hit the silver, a hidden seam appeared. With a click, the locket opened. “If you are reading this, it means the danger is still close and it is really not farfetched. Trust no one, not even family. And never reveal your wolf until you find the Moonstone. It will protect you.” Tiara’s breath hitched. Reveal my wolf? She was thirty winters old and had never felt the shift. She was a ghost. But as a howl ripped through the forest, closer than it had ever been. Her blood began to hum with a strange, ancient heat. "How am I even supposed to get the moonstone?" She murmured to herself. Before she could process the message, her uncle’s voice booms from below: “Tiara! Down here! Now!” Garrett roared from below. She hides the necklace under a pile of clothes, heart pounding. " The danger is really close by? Not to trust even family....." These words lingered in her head as she descended the stairs "Family? Uncle Garrett and his family are the only ones I can call family." "Could they have had something to do in their deaths? Did my parents find out something before their death?" "What is going on?" She panicked as she rushed down the stairs that lead to the main house, seeing that the family was all present.