Chapter 9 – Moonlight Whispers
713 Words
Smoke still curled from the ruins when the night fell quiet.
The air reeked of ash and grief. What used to be her home — the small hut where laughter once lingered — was now nothing but splintered wood and fading embers.
Aderin knelt before the ashes, her trembling hands clutching the burnt edge of her grandmother’s shawl. It was all that remained of her — Grandmother Ireti, the only voice that ever spoke gently to her heart.
Her chest ached as tears streaked her soot-covered face. She couldn’t hear her sobs, but she could feel them — deep, raw, and suffocating. The silence was louder than any scream.
She wanted to howl, to call out for help, but even if she did… who would answer a deaf girl cursed by the Alpha himself?
The whispers of the pack still haunted her —
“The rejected one.”
“The cursed deaf.”
“The Moon must have turned her away.”
Aderin stared at the broken horizon until her vision blurred. For the first time in her life, she wished she could stop breathing.
The wind stirred, carrying the faint shimmer of silver dust.
Aderin blinked. The ashes around her began to move, swirling softly like a living mist. A light bloomed from the ground — gentle, radiant, and soothing. It wrapped around her like a mother’s embrace, warm despite the cold.
Aderin’s heart pounded. She looked up — and the world shifted.
The forest disappeared. The night fell away.
Suddenly, she stood in a boundless space of light and stars. The moon hung low and luminous, its glow spilling across a mirror-like sea.
And from within that light, a woman emerged.
Her hair flowed like liquid silver, her skin glowed with celestial fire, and her eyes — oh, her eyes — held galaxies. Her presence was both terrifying and tender, ancient and alive.
Aderin fell to her knees, unable to move. She could feel the power, the holiness, the calm.
The woman smiled softly. “Aderin.”
The voice didn’t come from her mouth. It echoed inside Aderin’s mind, pure and clear — the first voice she had heard in eighteen years.
Tears flooded her eyes instantly. Her lips trembled. “Who… who are you?” she mouthed, though no sound came.
The woman’s gaze glimmered with affection.
“I am Selene — the Moon who watches all wolves. You have walked through pain the stars themselves wept to see.”
Aderin lowered her head, sobbing silently.
“Why me?” she mouthed. “Why give me this life… this silence?”
Selene knelt before her. Her touch was cool and comforting as she lifted Aderin’s chin.
“Silence is not your curse, child. It is your strength.”
Aderin stared, lost.
The Goddess continued, her voice a melody of light.
“The world has mistaken your quiet for weakness, your deafness for flaw. But I made you silent so you could hear the things others cannot — the language of souls, the heartbeat of truth, the voice of destiny.”
Aderin’s tears fell harder. The words sank into her like light into darkness.
Selene brushed her thumb across Aderin’s forehead, and a faint mark — a silver crescent — appeared there.
“This is my gift. When the time comes, your silence will become your roar. Remember this, Aderin Ayelala — you are not broken. You are chosen.”
The light intensified, surrounding Aderin completely. The stars blurred into brilliance until everything vanished.
When she opened her eyes again, she was back in the ruins. The fire was gone, replaced by moonlight that poured over the ashes like water.
The crescent mark still glowed faintly on her skin.
Her grief didn’t vanish, but for the first time, it didn’t crush her.
She looked up at the sky and pressed a hand to her chest, her heartbeat syncing with the rhythm of the moon above.
The wind whispered softly through the trees, bending the flames’ last smoke into a shape — a wolf made of light, howling silently toward the heavens.
Aderin closed her eyes.
She didn’t understand everything, but she felt something she hadn’t felt in a long time — purpose.
The silence no longer felt empty.
It felt sacred.
- Writer
