What The Moon Could Not Control

The Exile

The ride feels like a twenty-minute drive. I have no idea where we would end up, and I don’t dare ask because it might just hurt more.

The van stops suddenly, and I’m being pulled out. I see that we are at the edge of the forest, the borderlands. This is the territory that separates the rogue wolves from the pack, a place where the exiled might not survive.

“That bag contains all that is yours," says one of the guards, pointing to a sackcloth thrown on the ground. “You have until the sun rises to get away as far as possible," he adds as a warning.

“Where am I supposed to go?” I ask with a trembling voice.

“That is not our concern," the guards responded harshly.

They both shifted, their bodies cracking and forming back into massive wolves, all muscle and fur.

With a vicious look, they stared at me one last time, and then they were gone. Running back to the only world I ever knew and can no longer be a part of.

I'm now officially on my own.

I open the bag, and there are a few changes of clothes, a bottle of water and some dried meat. Nothing extra that could help me survive for more than a few days.

I shift into my wolf form, and the transformation hurts a bit less than the last time I shifted. My wolf form has always been smaller and weaker than most.

I run as fast as my body can carry me.

The forest is dark and cold, filled with things that could kill me if I stopped. I can already smell rogue wolves, as their scent is a lot different from pack wolves. These wolves are more dangerous and unpredictable to be around.

I keep running regardless, as I can’t afford to stop now.

By the time the sun comes up, I'm miles into the borderlands. My paws are bleeding. My body is exhausted. I find a cave and collapse inside it, too tired to even shift back to human form.

As the sun comes up gradually, I am already miles into the borderlands.

At this point, my paws are bleeding, and my body is exhausted. I finally find a cave and collapse inside of it, still in my wolf form, as I don’t have the strength to shift back to a human.

I fall asleep instantly.

I wake up to the sight of another wolf standing at the entrance of the cave, a female rogue. Her fur is greatly scarred and matted, her eyes look like those of someone who knows a lot and seem reassuring in a way, but don’t feel like it

“You are from a pack," she says disdainfully. “I can smell it all over you.”

Still in my wolf form, I stand still, only able to growl at her, but her figure still overshadows mine.

“I am not going to hurt you," the woman says calmly, “but I need you to shift back into a human, so we can have a nonthreatening

conversation.”

Slowly and carefully, I shift back into my human form, naked and filthy, but at least I can speak now.

“My name is Kira,” says the woman, as she shifts as well. A woman who looks close to forty in age, with scars covering most of her body.

“You got cast out of your pack?” Kira asks.

“Yes,” I replied.

“Recently”? Kira added

“As of last night, yes,” I replied again.

Kira nodded in confirmation to something that she might have suspected.

“What did you do”? Kira continues to ask

“I existed apparently,” I reply sarcastically.

She actually laughs at that, a harsh and broken sound.

“That is enough reason for a pack to act on,” Kira teasingly responds.

“Follow me, there is a camp not too far from here, about an hour's walk. The camp is filled with other exiles like yourself, and you

will be safer with people than on your own.”

As I have nowhere else to go, I take my chances by following her.

We get to the camp, and it is a place made of shelters hidden deep in the forest. There are roughly thirty wolves around, and they all look scarred and seem broken in some ways. I watch carefully as they move around the camp independently, taking care of their needs as survivors.

“This is life,” Kira turns to me. “No hierarchy or Alphas, no one telling you what to do or what to be, you just simply survive.”

“How long have you been here?" I asked Kira.

“I refused to accept Alpha’s claim, and he decided that I was going to be too much trouble to keep around. It has been five years since then,” Kira replied.

Over the next few weeks, I have learned to hunt, how to fight, and how not to flinch anymore whenever someone raises their voice at me. I have learned the new ways of a world of wolves that don’t live under the Moon’s law.

I started to feel more confident in myself, not someone broken.

I feel a change happening inside of me that I don’t understand yet. Alone at night, my blood stirs up like something ancient wants to wake up. Standing close to anyone in the camp, their mate bonds would flicker just slightly, like it’s being tampered with.

I keep this to myself as I can’t afford to raise an alarm.

One night after a month has passed, Kira pulls me aside.

“Something is different about you,” Kira says. “The other wolves and I feel it.”

“What do you mean”? I reply anxiously.

“I don't know, but be careful,” Kira answers.

“If you are something dangerous, the other wolves will turn on you quickly, and if the main pack finds out you're something they want, they will come for you”. “I can't say more than this, but I hope you understand clearly what I mean,” Kira adds as a warning.

She's right. I would need to be more careful.

A few days after our conversation, away from the camp, I felt that change in me again, the ancient power, and this time, I didn’t suppress it.

I fully let it in.