Daughter of the moon

Prologue

I remember the first day I met her. My mother and I had moved to the Teigan Territory after Alpha Cedric Benson challenged and killed my abusive father. My father ruled our territory with an iron fist and no one, not even his wife and son, was able to escape his wrath.

Cedric saved our lives that day. My mother couldn't stand to still live in the Red Lake territory, so when Cedric called around to the neighboring pack, Alpha Travis accepted us almost immediately. His son, Caleb, and I became fast friends over the summer. I think it helped. Since I’d never had a friend before, I didn't know how to act; I was always flinching if sudden movements were made near me. I stayed quiet and barely spoke, fearing what would happen to me or my mother if I spoke out of turn… Some monsters still stay with you, even if you know they are gone.

Caleb introduced me to the wonders of comic books and video games. Even though reading was difficult for me since I rarely was allowed to go to school with the other children, I loved seeing all the action scenes played out on the paper. Over time, I got really good at playing video games. It was the one thing I could do that didn't make me nervous or connect to a bad memory with my father.  The school had to make special exceptions for me. They decided I could go to class with the kids in my age group and take the courses I’m lacking in after school tutoring, that year.

I remember being so nervous about my first day of school. Eight years old and could barely read, write my own name, or do basic math. As I walked into the courtyard I started shaking with fear and paranoia. What if the teacher doesn't like me? What if the other students laugh at me or think I’m stupid? I remember having all of these thoughts and fears and not being able to do a thing about any of them. That's when I saw her.

She was sitting on the top of one of the pillars with her curly black hair blowing everywhere in the wind, reading a book that looked way too big for her. I thought she might drop it if she tried to lift it. Part of me wondered how she even got up there, being so small. She couldn't possibly be the same age as everyone else there. I don’t remember how long I had been staring at her, but she looked up from that over-sized book and when she saw me, she just smiled. My cheeks started feeling warm with embarrassment. I didn't know why, back then. I just kept staring like a fish gasping for air. I knew I needed to think of something. I couldn't just stare at her and say nothing.

“Are you lost? This is the third-year class,” I told her. It was the first thing I could come up with. Not knowing how to start a conversation with anyone had its downfalls. I was just too ignorant to know it, then.

“No, I’m supposed to be here,” she stated, smiling at me again. It was so warm and genuine. She tilted her head back down, her nose buried in that massive book. I remember smiling back at that point. Happy with myself for finally being able to speak to someone before they spoke to me. When the teacher opened the door for our class to enter, I gathered up as much courage as I could and offered to help hold her book for her while she jumped down. When she thanked me and smiled at me that last time, I decided then that I wanted to be friends with her. So young and naive… I didn’t know it then, but in that moment, I had fallen in love.

It wasn’t long before I found out why she was placed ahead of everyone else in her age bracket. That first day the teacher had decided that she wanted her own personal assessment test done. It was brutal for me. I kept looking around nervously, eventually staring at the question-filled page on my desk. All those symbols, numbers, and then confusing letters; it looked like an alien language. I kept trying to make sense of it all; I wanted to do something. Anything. Move the pencil like I knew what the blank line next to the letters “N-A-M-E,” meant. But I couldn’t. And just like that, I was frozen again.

After about 15 minutes of staring at the paper, not knowing any of the answers I decided to look around the room again to see how everyone else was doing. Everyone seemed to be doing fine, working out problems and filling in those evil little bubbles on the test sheet. My eyes finally made their way to the girl from the pillar. She already had her test flipped over, her nose inside a different, even larger book. ‘Where is she hiding these things?’ I wondered to myself. 

She must have felt me staring at her because she looked up and turned her head towards me and smiled again. I gave a nervous smile back before returning to my test. To say I failed would be an understatement. I had the worst scores in the class. The teacher had posted the scores on the board for everyone to see. I was wrong when I thought I could escape from being humiliated like I did in my old pack.

Later that afternoon we had self-defense training. I was nervous about looking like a fool in front of everyone, considering that I was still so far behind everyone else and that every time someone tried to throw a punch at me, my first instinct was to curl into a ball and hide my face with my hands. That's when I saw her. The girl from the pillar was sitting by herself, still reading. For some reason it didn't sit right with me, her being in this class with all of us. She was so much smaller than everyone else. What if someone tried to hurt her? Maybe they’d think she was an easy target? I couldn’t stand the thought of anyone hurting her. Nervously I went to ask her if she wanted to partner with me. I was so scared she would say no.

‘This will be perfect,’ I thought to myself. ‘She’ll get a partner that won't try to hurt her, and I won't have to worry about looking like a coward in front of everybody.’ I was so sure this would work; the thought never crossed my mind that she was there for a legitimate reason. I was a damned fool.

To my surprise, she happily accepted with that same sweet smile. To no one else’s surprise, she kicked my ass. Repeatedly. From the moment the instructor said “go,” I was either on my back or flat on my face. She moved so fast, I couldn't make sense of any of her movements, no matter how hard I concentrated. The one thing I did notice between beatings was that she wasn't striking me. She only suppressed my movements, keeping me mostly in place and grappling me, forcing me into submission if I didn't give in.

‘Why isn’t she hitting me? Is she doing it on purpose?’ Directly after that thought, she had me pinned, again, my leg locked behind me, her full weight on my back, like some kind of superstar wrestler, forcing me to slap the ground repeatedly to make the teacher call off the round. I swear I heard them say, “this is just sad,” but I was thinking it at the same time, so I couldn’t tell.

After a while, Caleb finally showed up to training. He had an excuse to be absent for the first day for some physical he had to take. “Of all the people you could choose to partner with, you choose the one who can kick everyone’s butt,” he said while shaking his head, smirking at me. “You fight her then,” I growled at him, my pride bruised. How can someone so much smaller and younger than everyone else beat me?

“Nah,” he laughed, “I like keeping my bones unbroken, thank you.” Right after, he helped me up, but not without laughing like a crazy cartoon villain the whole time. Jerk. “It looks like Alex took it easy on you though,” he said while looking me over. He sounded almost impressed. “She must really like you, seeing that nothing is broken or bleeding.” He helped me dust off my clothes, apparently genuinely surprised I wasn’t hurt more. When I looked up at her, I noticed pillar girl’s face had turned a little pink. Was she embarrassed? Did she really take it that easy on me? Then it hit me.

‘Alex. Her name is Alex.’ I had been too nervous to ask her name earlier, but now that I knew what it was, I couldn’t stop repeating it in my head. ‘Alex. Alex. Alex. I wonder if it's short for Alexandra?’

Not even a single breath after that thought, I got my answer. It was like the moon goddess finally decided to answer one of my prayers; a faculty member made their way on to the training grounds and called out, “Elric Reed, Caleb Steal, Alexandra Storm: come with me, please; it’s time for your after-school studies.” I looked at both of them curiously. “Why do you two have to take after school classes?” I thought it was just me…

“Well, I’m the future alpha,” Caleb said, “so learning how to run a pack one day takes some extra courses. My dad wants me to take them.” With that he shrugged and continued. “And Alex here, she was too smart to stay in her grade level, but they wanted her around kids her own age, so they bumped her up some classes and bring in a private tutor.” When I looked at him as he finished his sentence, I noticed he shivered, like he was grossed out.

“How are you not afraid of that guy?” The look on his face started to freak me out. Who was this guy that had Caleb so worried? I looked at Alex and she seemed so unphased, it threw me off. “He gives me the willies” he said to her as were walking toward the library, shuddering again. At his last comment, her face actually seemed to light up. She was just so happy. “Oh, he’s not scary! He’s really, really smart!” She jumped up and down with excitement as she said that. “Do you know who your tutor is?” I realized too late that she was asking me that question, and I noticed that before I noticed I’d been staring at her absent-mindlessly. Thank goodness she was still smiling. ‘I hope she never stops smiling at me like that,’ I thought to myself.

“Ms. Fletchner… I think.” As I answer, both Caleb and Alex stop in their tracks, looking at each other with strange faces. “Really?” Alex was the first to respond. “That's weird. She usually teaches the younger students.” Then she shrugged her shoulders and continued to make her way to the library. I sighed with relief, thankful she didn’t push it any further than that, as I followed her to the library.

It wasn’t until after I was already there that I understood what those two were talking about. That class was hell. Actually, hell would have been a better place than being with Ms. Fletchner that day. She was awful. Shrill, rude, and out of patience the moment she laid eyes on me. She had a zero-tolerance policy for failure which made her negative ability to actually teach me anything all the better. And by “all the better,” I mean not at all. Upon getting acquainted and me taking my seat, she decided to start with multiplication, something that I had never even seen before, let alone learned.

“I don’t understand how you're not getting this!” She yelled that to me in a quiet room full of other kids trying to learn. I was already fighting off my nervous habit of freezing up. All those eyes on me and my raging tutor did nothing to help. I felt my body begin to tense up again. It was like the test all over again. No… No, it wasn’t. This was way worse.

“This is really easy if you just pay attention.” I was paying attention though. I remember looking up toward Alex to find her staring straight at me, her almost white-blue eyes piercing into me. She looked so angry at me. Embarrassed, I looked back down at my paper, trying, and failing to solve the problem all over again. It was the stupid symbols. Nothing made sense! I remember flinching when Mrs. Fletchner started berating me. “Elric Reed! How are you not understanding what I am teaching-,” she started before getting cut off by a familiar voice.

I didn't even see or hear her make her way over to our table, until she had taken me by the hand; it was so warm compared to my cold ones. The pillar girl, Alex, not even looking at me pulled me out of my seat. I stood there mesmerized that she was holding my hand and fixated on it. It felt like warm calming waves were washing over me. Before I knew it, I wasn’t panicking anymore.

“Just because you don't have the ability to teach him, doesn't mean you get to take your anger and frustrations out on him!” With that, she turned around, my hand still in hers, and lead me back to her table with her tutor. Making our way back to her table, the only voice we heard was Ms. Fletchner’s, completely irate and saying a range of phrases, complete with the “I nevers,” “how dares,” and the classic “those children.” I couldn’t have been happier.

As we arrived at her table, she said something to her tutor in a language I didn't recognize or understand. The tutor though… Caleb was right: he was scary. Tall, extremely pale, long black hair, haunting grey eyes; he was terrifying. Alex though, she just smiled at him like he was someone she valued in her life, so I went with it. The man just nodded and looked at me before giving me a small smile himself. It didn't make him any less terrifying. I smiled back at him awkwardly before he got up and left us alone at her table. Alex abruptly started packing away her things and opened my course books I didn't even realize she had somehow picked up before dragging me away.

“Okay.” She said before looking up at me. “Tell me what parts you know, what parts you think you know, and what parts you just don't understand.” I looked down in shame… “I can barely do addition and subtraction,” I mumbled out, completely embarrassed.

“Oh, that's no big deal, we can focus on that right now then, while Mr. Nether talks to the principle.” She pulled out some blank sheets of paper as I looked up at her, staring in total bewilderment.

“Wait, Mr. Nether?” I looked at her quizzically as I asked the question. She said his name like I’ve known the man for years.

“My tutor. That’s Mr. Nether. He agreed to tutor you as long as the principle and your parents agree. He thought you would appreciate someone actually teaching you rather than just expecting you to know it,” she said while scowling across the room at a still very upset Ms. Fletchner, before returning her gaze to me and smiling. Again, with that adorable smile. Wait. Adorable? I shook the thoughts from my head and smiled back at her.

She spent the rest of our time teaching me how to do basic math, never once getting mad or upset if I didn't get it done right the first time. I found myself hanging onto her every word.  After a while Mr. Nether, the scary tutor, came back with a file with my name on it and a couple of course books. “Young Mr. Reed,” he started with a small nod. “I am looking forward to having you as my student if you’ve accepted Ms. Storm’s offer in me tutoring you that is?”

I looked at my hands embarrassed. “I’m not very quick when it comes to learning things,” I mumbled out. I felt myself starting to shrink back until I felt Alex take hold of my hands again and the familiar warmth washed back over me. I met her eyes and she just said two simple words, “It’s okay.” I looked back over at Mr. Nether who had a small sad smile on his face. I nodded my head in acceptance of his offer.

“Then I will be seeing you in two days. Here are your course books that I think will be a great starting point for you. I want you to do what you can on the first three chapters of each book, and we will review them the following session. I think we have done enough for today so if you kids would like to call it a day, that would be fine with me.” With that he stood up, shook my hand. Before he left he gave a small smile and said, “I really do look forward to teaching you, Mr. Reed.”

After tutoring, I chased Alex around the playground playing tag, while we waited for our parents to pick us up. She was fast, luckily, I was just as fast. Her laughter was contagious… I found myself laughing with her the whole time. When I finally caught her, I think it took her by surprise as we both tumbled around on the ground, giggling uncontrollably.

“No one’s ever been able to catch me before,” Alex laughed while still trying to catch her breath. “That was fun.” She sat up looking around for a moment. “What happened to Caleb? He was supposed to meet us out here after his ‘Alpha lessons’,” she mocked with air quotations as she picked herself up off the ground and dusted her clothes off. As if right on cue, we saw Caleb exit the building looking like he just got out of a two-hour nap. Alex just shook her head and sighed, like she knew something I didn’t.  She grabbed my hand and pulled me with her walking towards Caleb, dropping it just before we made it to him.

“Fell asleep again I see,” she stated, giving him a mocking glare as he sheepishly grinned at her. A small car pulled up into the parking lot, who I assumed was Alex’s father. She handed me a piece of paper before she turned around and left, telling me to call her if I needed help with the homework, or wanted to play again.

As she was getting in her father’s car, Cedric was pulling in watching me smile like a dufus at her. As I got in, he started smiling at me asking me who the girl was. I just bluntly told him the girl I hoped to marry when we were older. With that he laughed at me and drove away.