LOGINSophia
My face turns towards the right while the skin of my cheek stings with the impact of the slap.
My eyes burn with tears, which I refuse to release as my gaze is trained on the floor.
"Apologize to Cynthia right now!" My father bellows causing me to flinch. "How dare you disrespect my wife and your Luna by questioning her actions?!"
My mother died soon after giving birth to me, and my father blamed me for her death. When I turned three, councilmen asked my father to take a second chance mate because his wolf was going crazy without his mate. Even though he didn't want to, he had to find another mate because, slowly, his wolf was going insane.
Since my mother was his true mate, he never wanted to give her place to anyone else, so instead of taking Cynthia as his second chance mate, he married her.
Cynthia is what you can call a true definition of an evil stepmother. She hated me from the moment she married my father and made it clear to me that I was unwanted in her house.
But since she couldn't kick me out, she made sure to make my life miserable at every chance she got.
"She punished Emily for no reason." I speak in a low but firm voice, "She is a small child who just took an apple from the fruit basket."
"She stole the apple." Cynthia glares at me, then turns her gaze to my father and places her hand on his arm, "Emily is a child. That's why it is important for her to learn if she needs something, then she should ask instead of stealing. I was disciplining her by ordering her to fetch five buckets of water from the well, not punishing her."
"I even asked Janet to accompany her and help her with completing her task." She sighs and shakes her head, "I am mother of this pack; I am not cruel as Sophia thinks of me."
"You don't have to justify yourself; I know you." Father wraps an arm around her as she softly cries, "This girl is nothing but a nuisance. It seems like killing my Selena wasn't enough for her, so each day she does something that only hurts others." He glares at me with such hatred that the tears that I was holding back spill from my eyes.
"No food for you for five days, and you will work with the omegas for the preparation of a full moon ball." He puts every bit of his Alpha command behind his words while glaring at me.
"Yes, Alpha." Bowing my head, I show my neck in submission to him.
Strangely, Alpha commands never work on me, but I haven't told anyone about this, especially my father. If I told him then he would find one more reason to hate me thinking I am challenging his authority.
I turn and leave the room, my head held low. As I walk through the halls of the pack house, I feel the weight of everyone's stares. Whispers follow me, but I am used to it. I've been an outcast my whole life. I pass Emily in the kitchen, her eyes red from crying. She looks up at me with a mixture of guilt and gratitude, and I manage a small smile for her.
"I am sorry, Sophia." She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand, "I was hungry."
"It's okay, Emily," I say softly and reassuringly.
Emily is one of the orphans of the pack. Her parents died in a car accident two years back; since she doesn't have any family who could take her in, she lives in the orphanage.
I head out to my room in the packhouse where I live since I am not allowed to live in the Alpha house, ready to start my punishment.
Physical labor is nothing new to me; it's a way to keep my mind off the pain and loneliness that have become my constant companions. As I work, I think about my mother, the only person who might have loved me if she had lived.
And sometimes my thoughts shift to the person whom Moon Goddess has chosen for me... my mate.
My heart clings to the hope that one day, I'll find him, and he'll take me away from this misery.
Something in me tells me that soon, my wait is about to come to an end.
JuneI wake up slowly.It does not happen all at once. It comes in pieces. First the heaviness, like my body is made of something thick and slow to move. Then the ache, deep and familiar, spreading through my limbs like it always does after I shift back.My eyes open, but the world does not make sense right away.Everything is blurred at the edges. Light filters in from somewhere, soft and pale, making me squint. My head feels too heavy for my neck, like it does not quite belong to me yet.I breathe in.Out.My chest rises, falls, and with it, something inside me begins to settle. Awareness comes back in small waves. The surface beneath me feels soft. Not stone. Not cold. Something else.A bed.The realization comes slowly, but once it does, it sharpens everything just a little more.My body aches.Every part of me hurts in that dull, familiar way, like my bones remember being something else not long ago. My muscles feel stretched and sore, my skin too sensitive, like it does not quit
CalebBy the time we get back to the Academy, the sun is already dipping lower in the sky.Everything moves fast after that.Too fast.Warriors take over as soon as we reach the gates. The girls are carried inside carefully, wrapped in blankets, voices kept low so no one startles them. Some of them are barely conscious. Some cling to whoever is closest like they are afraid they will disappear if they let go.I hand June over to no one.I carry her myself.Her weight rests against me, light in a way that does not sit right after what I just saw her do. My arms tighten around her without thinking, like if I loosen my grip even a little she might slip away.“She needs the doctor,” Jake says beside me, his voice calm but firm.“I know,” I answer, already moving.But I do not take her to the infirmary.Instead, I take her to my place, away from the Academy... away from everyone.And right now, I do not want her anywhere crowded.The door pushes open with my shoulder and I step inside, head
CalebI barely register the blood on my hands anymore.All I see is her.June lies in my arms in her wolf form, her body still except for the faint rise and fall of her chest. The cave around us fades into the background, the broken bodies, the smell, the noise of the others moving behind me.She is warm. Too warm. Her fur is damp beneath my fingers, thick with blood that is not all hers.“June,” I say quietly.No response.My arms tighten around her as I pull her closer, lifting her head slightly so it rests against me. Her body feels heavy now, like whatever strength had been holding her up before is gone completely.“Hey,” I murmur, softer this time, my voice meant only for her. “Come on.”Nothing happens.I force myself to focus.Her breathing is there.Faint.Her heartbeat too.Faint but there.That is enough.I shift slightly, adjusting her in my arms, one hand coming up to brush through the fur along her neck, slow, gentle. My fingers sink into it, as I hold on to her.“June,”
CalebTanya’s weight feels like nothing and everything at the same time.She is too light.Too fragile.Her head rests against my shoulder, her breath shallow, uneven, like every inhale is a fight she is losing. My arms tighten around her without thinking as I move through the trees, careful with every step.I cannot run.Not the way I want to.Not the way I should.If I push too fast, her body will not take it... it will worsen whatever injuries her small body is carrying. I can feel it in the way she shifts against me, in the way her fingers twitch weakly against my shirt.She is barely holding on.“Stay with me,” I murmur, my voice low, meant only for her.Her lashes flutter, but she does not answer.My jaw clenches.I push forward, weaving through the forest, my senses stretched in every direction. The path back feels longer than it should. Every second stretches, heavy with urgency.June.The thought hits hard.I push it down.She is strong. I have seen it with my own eyes. I hav
JuneOnce they transform, I notice it immediately.The smell hits me harder now. Rot. Filth. Something sick curling beneath it all, thick enough to choke the air. It clings to them, seeps out of their skin, their breath, their very presence. My nose wrinkles on instinct, a low rumble building in my chest before I even realize it.They are like me.But they are not.Their fur is nothing like mine. It hangs in uneven clumps, matted and patchy, streaked with dirt and old blood. Their bodies look wrong, too thin in some places, too jagged in others, like something inside them has been breaking for a long time. Their eyes shine with something feral and empty.They look ugly.Not just in form.In something deeper.My wolf does not hesitate.I launch at the closest one.The world narrows the moment I move. The others blur at the edges, their shapes and sounds fading into the background. There is only him now. His scent. His movement. The way his body shifts as he braces for impact.He expect
JuneThe moment I saw that man touching that girl, something shifted inside me.It is not just anger.It is not just instinct.It feels deeper than that, like something buried inside my mind suddenly snaps.One second I am June, thinking, feeling, holding on to control. The next, that part of me begins to slip.Not disappear.Not completely.But it moves back.I can feel the rush of heat in my chest, the sharp rise of my breath. But it all feels distant, like I am stepping backward while something else steps forward.I can still see.Still feel.But it is distant.Faint.It is like watching through fogged glass. Shapes blur at the edges. Sounds stretch and dull. My thoughts try to form, try to make sense of what is happening, but they cannot keep up. Something stronger is rising, pushing past them.My wolf.She comes fast. Too fast for me to slow her down. The anger and the need to protect twist together inside me, building until they drown everything else. Thoughts blur.Details f
Lucas My chest feels tight, like I can’t get a deep enough breath no matter how hard I try. My thoughts are a tangled mess, looping back to one thing... one person.Sophia.She didn’t ask to be my sister, but she stepped into that role like it was the easiest thing in the world. She didn’t just show
MikhailShe’s clinging to Alexei, her face buried in his chest, but then she pulls back just enough to look up at me. Her eyes are wide, and there’s something in them that makes my stomach drop.“He killed them all,” she whispers, her voice so soft it’s like she’s afraid of the words themselves. “He
LucasIt starts with this strange, light feeling, like something’s lifting all the weight off me. My chest, my limbs—everything just feels... free.I feel liberated.Then it hits me, this sudden, wild sensation like I’m being yanked out of my body. It’s not gentle. It’s forceful, almost violent lik
LucasI make my way to the ritual circle.The closer I get, the more it feels like something’s pulling me forward, tugging at some invisible thread buried deep inside me.When I step into the clearing, the circle is right there in the middle, carved into the earth like it’s been waiting for centuries.







