The Cursed Luna and Her Fated Mate

Celeste’s eyes fly open as her alarm blares. Normally, she would hit the snooze button a few times to catch a few extra moments of sleep and relaxation, but today was no normal day. Today was Celeste’s 18th birthday! She hurried down the hall of the pack house and into the first shower stall. She was early this morning and actually got to use a bit of warm water. She wrapped herself in a white bathrobe before heading back to her bedroom to get ready. Celeste blow-dried her wavy platinum blonde hair and threw on some blood red lipstick and lined her big icy blue eyes with a dramatic cat eye. She put on a black lace blouse and a pair of leggings before strapping on a pair of combat boots. She stopped to check the mirror; beautiful. She fixed a few strands of her hair before heading out to grab breakfast. “Happy birthday, Celeste!”, her mother chimed as Celeste walked into the pack house dining room. She found a breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs awaiting her; Celeste’s favorite meal. “Oh mom, you shouldn’t have,” said Celeste. The Earthfire Pack was the poorest in the wolf kingdom, and could hardly afford to serve bacon. As daughter of the Alpha, Celeste knew how dire things were for her pack, and she always attempted to be as frugal as she could. She felt a pang of guilt, but her mouth was watering at the heavenly sight of her birthday breakfast. “Nonsense, Celeste. You deserve to be celebrated every now and then,” mom said with a smile. Celeste took a seat with the plate her mother had prepared and practically inhaled her meal. She really needed the meal, her frame was becoming too slender, too frail. Celeste often gave up meals so that the younger pups could grow stronger. After cleaning her plate, Celeste headed back to the kitchen to wash her plate off, but her mother stopped her. “Celeste, stop, it’s your birthday! Besides, you know you’re going to have to start accepting help sometimes if you are going to be the Luna of this pack,” her mother chided her, before taking the dishes from her hands and washing them off in the sink. “Why, mom? The other wolves love and respect me because I treat them with respect. Part of that is being willing to do any and all of the work around here. Yes, I am the Alpha’s daughter, but I don’t think of myself as superior,” said Celeste. “Our pack will need a leader, Celeste. That means that sometimes you have to give commands, take charge, and stand firm. If you are always doing chores you won’t have time to be a Luna,” said Celeste’s father as rounded the corner from the hall, surprising Celeste and her mother. “Oh, and happy birthday Celeste. We can’t wait to celebrate with you after school,” said her father. The other wolves were starting to trickle in and grab breakfast. Most of the families in our pack were taking shelter at the pack house. It was the only building on our lands with running water and heat, and it was the most solid building. Many of the wolves living in the house had their own home, but it was no longer in livable condition. Celeste threw on a jacket and grabbed her backpack and packed lunch before heading toward the door. “Bye mom, bye dad!”, exclaimed Celeste, as she headed out toward the dirt road. She wanted to take a quick walk before heading off to school to clear her head. Now that she was 18, Celeste was excited to meet her wolf for the first time. The full moon was coming tomorrow, and now that she was 18 she could meet her mate any day now. Celeste reached a path through the woods and stepped in, sniffing the air. It was a crisp and cool October morning, the perfect weather for a hike. Too bad she had to go to school, she thought, before turning around and heading back to the pack house. By the time she returned, the other kids were standing out front waiting. After only a few minutes of standing around, the small, rickety old school bus pulled up. There were only 10 school aged kids in our whole pack. We all hopped in and sat down, making ourselves comfortable. Earthfire pack used to have their own school, but it was heavily damaged in a storm before Celeste was even born. Unable to afford repairs, and unable to afford teachers, Celeste’s father struck up a deal with their neighboring pack, the Blood Moon Pack. The Blood Moon Pack was the wealthiest pack in the kingdom, and the cause of most of Earthfire’s problems. Earthfire was always on the poorer side, but back then it was not in the state of disarray that it was today. Celeste’s great-great-great-great grandfather, Alpha Harold, decided that he was tired of the pack having to struggle; the pack had a small ruby mine in the north most portion of their territory. He decided it would be best to attempt to sell the gems in the human world to raise up his pack out of poverty. Conducting business with humans is dangerous for wolves, and illegal. The Alpha of the Blood Moon Pack, Alpha Joseph caught Alpha Harold heading to the human world, and confronted him. Alpha Joseph threatened Alpha Harold and the pack, and charged him with a fine that our pack could never pay off with an unreasonably high interest rate. They continued charging Earthfire for everything, including a hefty sum for allowing their children to attend their schools. Blood Moon has taken nearly every dime that Earthfire has earned for generations. This has caused tension between the two packs for years. Both of Celeste’s older brothers should have been the future Alphas, but both had died after fighting with members of the Blood Moon Pack. Celeste knew since the death of her brothers that the Goddess wanted her to solve the problems of her pack. She scribbled down ideas in her notebook. Her main goal was to appeal to the King of wolves. Her father had attempted to send messengers along to arrange a parlay, but the messengers always disappeared. Most of the pack believed that Blood Moon intercepted them and murdered them before they could reach the palace, but no one quite knows the truth. Celeste zoned out as she tried to think of more solutions to saver her pack. She was jolted back to reality when the school bus halted to a rough stop in front of the Blood Moon High School. “Hooray, another day in h*ll”, Celeste muttered to herself before stepping off of the bus. The other four students her age hopped off behind her, and the bus took off toward the Blood Moon Elementary School for the younger pups. “Rhiannon, Seth, Trevor, Astrid, good morning. Sorry I wasn’t talkative on the bus, I’ve just been doing a lot of thinking. My time is coming, and I have to make things right for our pack,” said Celeste to the group. “Happy birthday, Celeste. There is so much pressure on you now, beautiful. Just celebrate you for a day!”, Rhiannon replied enthusiastically before pulling on black rose out of her bag, and handing it to Celeste. Celeste’s favorite flower, she couldn’t help but beam at the thoughtful gesture. Celeste pulled the thorns off of the rose before tucking it behind her ear to wear for the day. Celeste took a deep breath and turned toward the front door. “Alright guys, let’s get this over with,” said Celeste, leading the group into the school.