My Rogue Mate

Chapter Two: The Turning Ceremony

My phone buzzed. I looked down and saw a message from Nate that said ‘Happy 18th, I wish I could be there for your turning ceremony - but I will see you tonight, can’t wait to see you soon my mate’. I smiled grimly. My mother snatched my phone out of my hands.

“Is that Nate? Aw, how sweet - he will make a wonderful alpha! But Aleynia - you can’t get distracted now, let’s get you dressed.”

I was stood in my bedroom, facing a full length ornate mirror. I stood with my robe wrapped tightly around me, my mother grabbed my ceremonial dress off of the hanger and pulled my robe off gently. I looked away from myself in the mirror as my Mother pulled the dress over my bare skin. She brushed it down and circled me, inspecting my presentation. She stopped behind me and placed her hands gently on my shoulders.

“Look at you, so grown up. You’re a woman now.” She said. I slowly looked towards the mirror. The white dress almost blended into my skin. It was so sheer, you could make out every shape of my form underneath it. Silver thread ran through it, making patterns of the moon and the stars. My red hair looked even brighter than usual against the fabric, and my mom had done a great job at my makeup - making it look as though I was wearing nothing at all. I blushed in embarrassment. “Mom, do I really have to wear this? Everyone is going to be staring”

“It is tradition. Everyone will be staring because you are the future Luna, and you have practically already found your mate - so you needn’t worry about unwanted attention. Now let’s go, everyone has arrived”

I took one last look at myself in the mirror and took a deep breath. I put my chin up high, and followed my Mother out of the house.

—

Werewolves change for the first time exactly 18 years from when they took their very first breath. I was born as the sun was just waking up over the horizon, at 5.30am. And so, in the next 10 minutes - I would change for the very first time.

The cold air hit me hard. The snow was fluttering down in flurries of white, and the ground crunched beneath my bare feet. My wolf wasn’t working quite yet, once I changed I would be more resistant to the cold. I walked down the snow covered path into a clearing by my house. It looked out onto the icy lake, fur trees framing it all around. As I entered the clearing, I could see almost a hundred of our packs leading members stood in a large semi circle waiting silently to see their future Luna Aleynia, shift for the very first time. My Mother joined the group and motioned for me to make my way slowly towards to centre. One of the pack elders took my hand and led me to the centre, stopping me just by the waters edge and turning me to face the pack. I looked around and saw many of the packs elders, Betas, my whole family, my favourite Aunt Tess who smiled at me proudly, and those wolves that held important jobs in the pack. They stared at me expectantly.

The elder next to me began her speech, but I was too nervous to listen. I was so caught up in how everyone would be staring at me shifting - I forgot to be scared at the actual shifting part. What if it was so painful? What if it took me a whole hour to shift? What if my wolf was that big terrifying creature I saw in my dream? The whole pack would fear me. My mate would fear me. I shook the thought out of my head.

I looked to my mother who checked her watch, and nodded to the elder.

The elder stepped forward, raising her arms to the sky. “Moon Goddess, we ask you to bring our Future Luna Aleynia her wolf. And ask that it be a powerful addition to the Bright Moon pack”.

And that is when I felt my bones begin to break.

Shifting was more painful than I had anticipated, and get like the longest five minutes of my life. I forgot about the hundred or so wolves staring at me, I could only focus on the pain, and willing it to go faster. My dress ripped apart, leaving me naked on the floor. My body grew fur as my bones clicked into place. I felt a tail growing. And finally, everything stopped. I felt a new being inside me, my wolf.

I turned to face the icy lake, and looked down at my reflection. I wasn’t the scary beast I had seen in my dream. I was a bright silvery wolf, with shiny fur, and deep orange eyes as bright as the sun that was slowly rising in the distance. My fur almost blended in with the snow.

My wolf took over, turned to face the pack members and howled up the the sky. In response, the whole group shifted into their wolves and howled in joyful response. They almost had a new Luna, all that was left was meeting her mate.