Will of the Moon: A Forbidden Fate

My name is Ravyn Violette. I'm the daughter of Alpha Desmond and Luna Zara. You wouldn't know it as an outsider looking in, however. I'm more of a servant than anything. My brother, Niko of course, is their pride and joy. Niko is a year and a half older than me and has always showed exceptional prowess in all the ways that the Alpha's heir should. Niko and I used to be very close but somewhere along the way, he started avoiding me. He became cold in his interactions with me. I was devastated. You see, with the way our parents treated me, Niko was always my only friend. He would often find me hiding myself away and crying, always ready with open arms to comfort me. I'm not sure when exactly it changed. In any case, I don't have time to dwell on things that bring me down. Tomorrow is my 18th birthday and with tonight being the full moon, I will experience my first shift. I wonder what my wolf will look like. I wonder if the Moon Goddess will bless me with a fated mate who can take me away from all of this. My thoughts get interrupted by the sound of my alarm going off. It's five in the morning and I have to be up to serve breakfast to my parents and older brother. I can't believe it's already morning. I was too caught up in my thoughts to sleep. Reluctantly, I stand up and pull myself to my feet. The purple shag carpet tickles my feet as they meet the ground. Getting dressed takes no time at all, as I don't have the luxury of many things to choose from. I slip into a pair of faded jeans and a light purple T-shirt. The inner thighs of my jeans are torn because my thighs rub together when I walk. Also because they're old. I pull my long brown hair up into a bun and then that's that. Time to get to the kitchen. Once I reach the kitchen my day really starts. I quickly start making breakfast. It's a simple enough task for an ordinary family, but when you're feeding two Alpha werewolves, it's a feat in itself. I scramble an entire carton of eggs and fry two packs of bacon. There are biscuits in the oven. 12 biscuits should be enough to feed 4 people. Right? If I'm lucky I might get one. I make a pot of sausage gravy on the stove and I also make pancakes. I'm pretty proud of how well my pancakes always turn out. I've been cooking for my family since I was 12 so I've perfected the recipe over time. I quickly set the table and start laying the food out in the center. Just as I pull the biscuits out of the oven and place them in a tray on the dining table, I hear footsteps on the staircase. Niko is at the table first. He doesn't say a word to me as he begins hastily scarfing down the breakfast I've prepared. Our mother and father get to the table about 3 minutes later and sit down next to each other. My father begins eating just as hastily as Niko. My mother is the only one who says something to me. "Ravyn, wash the pots and pans. Then you can eat". Gee. Thanks, mom. Anyways, I do as I'm told. I quickly start washing up the dishes I used to cook with. By the time I'm finished and turn around to the table, there's no food left. Nothing. Aside from what's still on Niko's plate. Mom and dad get up and leave the table. Niko pauses for a moment. I know he can hear my stomach growling. After about a minute, he shrugs, scarfs down the last of what's on his plate, and leaves. I let out a frustrated sigh and start clearing the table to wash those dishes as well. Once I'm finished, I open the fridge and pull out a cup of yogurt and eat that. I'll be shifting for the first time tonight so I have to eat SOMETHING. luckily my birthday is over winter break. So I'm thankful that I at least won't have to deal with school today. There's no way I could handle that. Now that breakfast is over, I start my other chores; Laundry, yardwork, deep cleaning the bathrooms, basically everything my mother is too good to do and my father is too cheap to hire help for. By the time I'm finished with everything, it's lunch time. Luckily, Niko is out with his friends and the Alpha and Luna are out at some God awful party to celebrate a treaty between our pack, The Amethyst Moon Pack, and our former rivals, The Silver Claw pack. With the family gone, I can actually enjoy a meal for once. I make myself a bowl of ramen noodles with a table spoon of spicy chili crisp. It's heaven. When I'm finished, I wash up my dishes and head to my room. My curiosity is peaked when I find a note laying on my bed. It's in my mother's handwriting. "Ravyn, I almost forgot you'll have your first shift tonight. Don't worry about dinner. The Alpha and I will be gone all day and I'm sure Niko can fend for himself for one night. Be out of the house by 11. I don't want to come home to anything broken". How sweet of her. Hey, I know what you're thinking. She's so cold. But that's actually about as warm as she's gonna get, so I'll take it. Anyways, I end up sleeping for the rest of the day. My alarm wakes me up at 10:25. I climb out of bed and head out. I make my way towards the woods. It's about a 10 minute walk. I sit at the treeline for the longest time, just waiting. I'm honestly scared. I know that shifting is painful. Especially your first shift. I mean, how could it not be? You literally break every single bone in your body so that they can reshape themselves. At around 12:01, it finally happens. It starts in my back. A sharp pain rips through me and I scream out. I fall to the ground as the sounds of my own bones shattering and cracking fills my ears. It takes a while. First shifts always do. I lay there, rolling and writhing in agony for at least 10 minutes before my screams turn into a howl. When the pain finally subsides, I stand up. Except now I'm on four legs instead of two. So, in case you don't know how shifting works, let me lay out the gist of it for you. I am Ravyn. My wolf, is not Ravyn. We're basically two different people. She doesn't have a name yet. I'll pick that out once I see what she looks like. She'll tell me if she likes the name. We can hear each other in our head. Kind of like telepathy. Or Dissociative Identity Disorder if you look at it from a psychological standpoint. I'm in the backseat of my mind right now while my wolf takes the reigns. She runs. And runs. And runs some more. Eventually, she stops in front of the lake to drink some water. That's when I catch a glimpse of her. She's.....wait what the f**k? She's a red wolf. A beautiful red wolf. I don't understand though. Everyone else in our pack have normal colored wolves. Like solid white or solid black or brown. The color of your wolf is usually passed down through genetics. That, or it just matches the color of your hair. It's a little weird but I guess it's not impossible. I mean to be fair, my cousin's wolf is grey even though his entire family are shades of brown. I have to come up with a name for my wolf now. I decide to think about it while she runs some more. Eventually, she falls asleep in the snow. When we wake up, I'm human again. I guess I'm lucky she fell asleep. I don't remember the pain of shifting back. I look around to try to get my bearings so that I can find my clothes. Once I find them I quickly put them back on and start heading home. My entire body is sore and tired. The closer I get to home, the more I start to notice a smell. It's.... delicious. It's the single yummiest scent I've ever smelled in my life. I walk home quickly, letting my nose lead the way. Once I get inside, I try to pinpoint the smell. It smells like.....s'mores over a campfire. But the fireplace isn't going. There was no bonfire tonight. The kitchen is empty. That's so strange. I decide to ignore it and go to my room. After all, I have a wolf to name. Once I get to my room, I pull out my sketchbook and color pencils and start drawing my wolf. I hear her murmur happily in my head. "What do you think about....Ember?" I ask her. She replies back eagerly, "That's it! That's my name!". I smile and hang the drawing up on my cork board. That's when I hear footsteps coming towards my bedroom. Then I hear Niko's voice, "it's coming from Ravyn's room." The door opens and standing there is Niko in all of his 6'3 glory. The smell hits me right away. S'mores over a campfire. My eyes lock with his and my wolf howls, "MATE!". absolutely the f**k not. That's my f*****g brother! Is this a joke?! Niko looks just as thrown for a loop as me. His eyes are full of confusion and he runs his hand through his shaggy black hair, giving me a distressed look as he murmurs softly, "R-Ravyn....". I laugh. "Get the hell out of my room, right now!" Niko gives me a pained look and my wolf whimpers at the hurt in his face. It's just then that we hear our parents open the door downstairs and enter the house. But it doesn't register. We're still staring at each other. Niko, doesn't leave. Instead, he moves towards me. My heart feels like it's gonna explode in my chest if it where to beat any faster. He's inches away from me when our parents walk in. I guess they came to at least check on me. Which, is actually surprising. They see the looks on our faces. They know the look. The look of fated mates truly seeing each other for the first time. Our mom freezes. Our dad grabs Niko by his shoulder and pulls him backwards, coaxing a low growl from him as he turns to see who is interrupting him. It's me who finally says something. "Wh-What the hell is happening right now?"