Curse of the rejected

CHAPTER 4

“There she is,” Alpha Ethan said as he saw me with the already familiar grin on his face.

“Please, Alpha Ethan,” Mom started, her eyes pleading as she squeezed my hands. “I need you to take care of her. She’s been through a lot, and I don’t want her to go through the same thing I did. It would be my biggest regret to send her off to a place where she would be treated the same or even worse when I can’t look after her.”

“Mom,” I called, a little embarrassed at her words.

“Take care of yourself, my love,” she told me, pulling me for a hug and kissing my forehead. I wrapped my arms around her in return, reining back my tears as I pulled away and Ethan acknowledged Alpha Logan, telling him that we would take our leave.

True to Ethan’s words, both packs were not that far from each other. It didn’t take a long time before we made our way to Forestclaw Pack.

“There’s really nothing much to see now that it’s dark. Just try to get some rest, and I’ll take you around tomorrow,” Ethan gave me his word, and I nodded.

“This is a new beginning for you, Blair. You’re now in charge of a whole pack as their Luna.”

~

“And this is the pack school,” Ethan introduced as we got into the building made of bricks, filled with children and their teachers.

I couldn’t help but notice how the children had bright smiles on their faces whenever they saw Ethan, some of them standing up and running towards him for hugs.

“These children are the future of the pack, so we put a lot of our resources in letting them know things from history and train in combat from their young ages. You get used to them attacking you once in a while when they think they’re stronger than you,” Ethan laughed at the thought of that, which brought a smile to my face.

When he took me on a tour, letting me meet everyone that he believed I would need to interact with along the way, he took me back to the house and sat with me in the kitchen as we had lunch together.

“So, how’s the thought of being a Luna sounding to you?” he questioned.

“It’s a lot of responsibility,” I admitted. “I’m not sure of getting used to it as soon as I’m supposed to.”

“You don’t need a deadline for getting used to it. In fact, the mating ceremony can wait until you’re ready,” he said.

I smiled, almost surprised at how patient he was being with me and wondering if he would have been that patient if he didn’t know what my father had done to me and my mother. As soon as my thoughts started to go there, I shook them off and tried hard to remind myself that not everybody was my father.

“I would love to explore the pack alone next time,” I told him.

He nodded in understanding as he said, “That’s perfect. That way, you’ll get to interact with everyone without me having to butt in all the time.”

I laughed at his joke, announcing to him that I would go out to the pack tomorrow, and he didn’t see a problem with it.

The next day, I set out for the pack, finding pack members and talking to them as freely as I could. Sometimes I would shy away and avoid some of them, bur it soon came to me, and I waved at everyone I came across. Word had traveled fast that I was to be the Luna of the pack, and they all recognized me. It was overwhelming, being referred to as the Luna all of a sudden, but I would have to get used to it.

“Hi,” I said to one of the teachers at the pack school as I got into the classroom where the younger children were.

“Oh! Hi, Luna Blair!” The teacher greeted, causing the children to look in my direction. Some of them smiled at me while the others simply stared at me.

“How’s everyone doing? I just came to check up on you and the kids,” I said nervously, stepping aside as if that would shift me away from their gazes.

“We’re doing pretty great, that’s very kind of you,” the teacher answered.

I nodded, awkwardly telling her to go on with her teaching as I made my way into other classes and out of the school and towards the famous river in the pack that Ethan had taken me to yesterday.

I dipped my foot in the water, a sigh rolling out of me as I relaxed my tense muscles.

I sat there for a while until noon came, and I decided to leave for home. On my way back to the house, I heard a swift and sharp rustling of leaves, but before I could turn around to investigate, I was hit in the back of the head by something dull, causing me to crash to the ground as pain exploded in my head and caused my vision to blur until darkness to fall upon me.

~

I grunted as I opened my eyes, my head in splitting pain as I figured that the sun was starting to set.

“What…” I mumbled to myself as I sat up and felt something sleek against my hands and my neck.

I brought my hand up to my neck and took a swipe, looking down at my hands and hyperventilating as I figured out what was all over my body, the invading smell of its iron quality attacking my sense of smell – blood.

“No, no, I don’t…” I touched the back of my head, where I had been hit earlier, but there was no open wound, and this blood seemed to be everywhere, from my hands to my neck.

The blood wasn’t mine.

“What the hell happened?” I asked nobody as I looked around, coming to a sudden halt as I saw a pair of legs shooting out from a bush.

I rushed towards the bush to find a child completely soaked in his blood. The blood was his, and his chest was torn open.

“Oh, goddess!” I exclaimed. “What the hell happened to you?! Oh, no, this is bad.”

I placed the child on the floor, foolishly trying to close up the cavity in the child’s chest as the smell of the child’s blood flooded my nostrils, almost making me puke out whatever content of my stomach there was.

“Wake up, wake up, please!” I begged, holding the child to my chest and finally deciding to take him to the pack hospital, but before I could stand up, I heard the horrified screams coming from a woman.

“Murderer! The Luna of Forestclaw is a murderer! She has killed a child!”