Chapter Two: An Unexpected Visitor

 "Luna Ashley! To what do we owe this unexpected visit?" my dad boomed as he opened the door. "Come In! Come In!" he ushered Luna Ashley and the security warriors with her. I thought to myself, "Well, that answers that question." 

But then again, the question of "why?" resonates in my head. Why is she here? Why do I look like her "mini-me"? Why does my mom look pale, like a vampire just swept through here and drained her dry? Why is my normally stoic dad suddenly fidgety with his eyes darting everywhere but in Luna's direction?

As Luna Ashley enters our humble home, she looks in my direction and smiles, nodding her head as if to prove that she was right to come here. 

Everyone went and found a place to sit except for her warriors; they stood directly behind her, looking intimidating. They stared straight ahead, unmoving, as though they had become fixed statues.

"How can we be of service to you, Luna Ashley?" mom asked with a slight submissive bow of her head to show respect.

"I received a report from my husband's Beta that was quite unexpected and surreal," the Luna began. As she looked around, she zeroed in on me again before asking, "What is your  name, young lady?" I leaned casually against the wall because we didn't have enough seating for guests. I looked straight into her eyes, "Claire McClay, Luna," I responded without the customary submissive nod and without losing eye contact with her. 

There was a low grow from one of her warriors as my mother reached behind me and forced my head to bow towards the ground, "Show the Royal Luna the respect she deserves, and please do not choose now to be obstinate," she whisper-yelled at me. Not that it mattered, we were werewolves, for Goddess's sake. If she wanted only me to hear her words, she just had to mind link me.

As I pulled myself from her grasp, I realized her warning was more for Luna's benefit than mine. I looked over at the Luna and nodded in her direction as I apologized, "I'm sorry, Luna Ashley, for being blatantly disrespectful. I will mind my manners in the future."

"Oh, Claire, there is no need for such formalities between us. You do not have to submit to me and use my official title to address me," she responded in a matter-of-fact tone. 

I stood up a little straighter, coming closer to my full height of 5'10", almost eye to eye with the Luna. I leaned my head over to nearly rest on my shoulder, furrowing my brows. 

With irritation evident in my voice, I asked, "Well, if I am not to use your formal title, how am I supposed to address you if I have something to say?"

The answer she gave immediately and without thought had me staggering backward until my rigid back was flush with the wall behind me. 

"You can call me Mom," she said with a sugar-sweet smile. I looked hard at her trying to see the joke but could feel no disruption in her demeanor or heartbeat. She meant the words spewing from her face as truth and open honesty.

"Yeah, right," I scoffed, "Thanks but no, thanks. I have a mom, and I'm not really in the market to replace her just yet," I smirked as my eyes fell on my parents' faces. 

My smile dropped like a hot potato and fell straight into the pits of my stomach. Something was seriously wrong here. I was raised as an Omega, and it's all I have ever known. There is no way I was even remotely related to Luna Ashley. Hers was a royal lineage, and mine, well, not so much. So why would she assume she could even insinuate that I was her daughter?

"Claire," Luna Ashley softly said my name. As I turned my head back toward her, away from my parents, she continued, "You seem to be the only wolf in this room that has more questions than answers," she stated plainly. 

As she was talking, I took a closer look at her, scrutinizing her features as if I were seeing them for the first time. My resolve began to falter when I realized there seemed to be more similarities in our outward appearances than differences. 

I asked myself what this could mean…for me, for my family…everything.

I slumped to the floor, sliding down the wall as though its sole purpose for being there was to support me as I began to realize the ramifications of her absurd request. 

Before I could say anything to anyone, Luna Ashley continued, "After the Beta came to me with your description and mannerisms, I had no choice but to investigate further to satisfy my curiosity and calm my wolf. Because if you are who we think you are, you are just as much her pup as mine. Please, Claire.”

She reached her hand out to me, but I pulled away, "I am your mother, your real mother. Please, come home with me," she said with a slight quiver in her voice.

I jumped straight up from the floor, where I sat, hugging myself for personal support. 

I glared at Luna Ashley, "Absolutely not! This is MY HOME!" "THESE ARE MY PARENTS!" I gestured toward where my mom and dad were, who had conveniently made themselves scarce, leaving only Luna Ashley and me in the room with her statue-like warriors.

The Luna tried one last time to convince me that I was wrong and was not an Omega. But instead, I was royalty. "Claire, every female in my bloodline dating back to the first of our kind, created by our Moon Goddess herself, has been a blessed wolf. Each one wears the Birthmark of the Goddess, shaped like a crescent moon on her collarbone, just beneath the place that holds her mating mark.”

” And once the mating ceremony is completed, the Blessed Wolf and her mate share the Gift of the Goddess. The birthmark joins the mating mark to create something unique to the two of them," she stopped to take a deep breath.

The only sure sign that I had been abducted was Kathy, her "fake" daughter. Kathy replaced me by being switched, but the kidnapper missed that most important and revealing sign, the Royal Bloodline Blessed Wolf Birthmark. Kathy had no birthmark whatsoever anywhere on her body.

The entire time the Luna was giving her history lesson, I was lost in my head, trying to make some semblance of sense so I could irrevocably refute her ridiculous claims about me. Although I do have a birthmark just below my collarbone, and it is in the shape of a crescent moon with what looks like a star in the middle, that changed nothing! I was still Clair McClay, Omega of Silver Moon Pack. Those personal facts were not about to change, and neither would I. 

But that didn't stop me from being completely confused. I looked at the Luna, noting the hope in her eyes that shimmered with unshed tears as they settled on me. 

"With all due respect, Luna Ashley, I am staying here with the only family I have ever known, in the only house I have ever lived in, around the very few friends that have shown me even an ounce of compassion throughout my life," I stated wholly resolved in my announcement of clarification. 

"Please leave. Go back to Royal Moon, back to your Alpha and children, back to your life before this cruel joke was played on you!" 

At about this time, my parents felt it necessary to rejoin the discussion with their two cents worth. Just as they entered the room, before either of them could utter the first syllable, the Luna pinched her lips together into a fine-lined smile. 

She thanked them for their hospitality in indulging her curiosity and allowing her to take up their time. She turned quickly and left out the front door without a backward glance before heading off Silver Moon's property and returning home.

I released the breath I wasn't even aware that I had been holding in until that moment. There was a palpable heaviness in the house after the Luna left. It seemed like a high level of tension, sadness, disappointment, regret, and fear all rallied into one massive, room-occupying emotion.

When no one spoke after the Luna had been gone for at least five minutes, a voice in my head said, "Claire, address the elephant in the room."

"Mom, Dad, help me understand. I mean, yeah, there are some striking resemblances, but you are my parents. Why didn't either of you defend me as your daughter, defend our family from the shame and ridicule the Royals are capable of doling out? How could she, or anyone else for that matter, grossly mistake me as her "long-lost daughter"?" 

But there was no answer forthcoming from either of them. They seemed too busy getting their stories straight through mind link to acknowledge my presence, much less realizing that I had asked them several questions.

Shaking my head in utter disgust and disbelief, I left my parents to their private conversation and headed towards the stairs leading to my bedroom. The closer I got to that first step, my frustration tolerance levels dramatically decreased, while my anger exponentially increased. By the time I reached the first stair, I was stomping my way through the house and up the stairs to my room. 

I knew that my anger would get out of control if I didn't do anything to diffuse it. For some reason, the sounds of doors slamming have always calmed me down. Maybe it's because the sharp sounds drown out my inner dialogue, or perhaps it's the sheer force I use to ensure that whatever door has met my wrath is not only shut but shut with authority. 

The last time I was this angry, I opened and slammed the kitchen cabinet doors so hard that they came straight off the hinges. I paid for that tantrum when my dad got home and made me replace each one with new panels, hardware, and hinges by myself.

When I reached my room, I shoved the door open with such force that it swung all the way around and hit the wall behind it, rattling the wall so badly that the picture frames hanging in the hallway between my room and my parents' room flew off the picture hangers and shattered against the banister rails. 

I went to lay on my bed, hanging my head off the edge upside down, thinking about how this one day i was by far the most frustrating, intriguing, and depressing day I have ever had. 

My last thought before sleep overcame me was that tomorrow, Mom, Dad, and I would have a great laugh over how insane today had been. Then my life would tick right along like it always had before, and everything would be right in my world again.

I am rudely brought out of my slumber by the sound of my bedroom door being slammed open for the second time today. 

"Claire, wake up! You have a hell of a lot to do and precious little time to do it in," she yelled over her shoulder as she made her way to my tiny closet, throwing everything out of it onto the bedroom floor. "You need to get your lazy self out of that bed and start packing before you no longer have time, and you lose everything not ready for transport," she directed.

"What the hell, Mom? What's going on?" I screamed at her. She finally turned and faced me before saying in the coldest, most heartless tone I have ever heard from her mouth, "You need to gather your belongings quickly. We sold you back to the Luna of Royal Moon Pack. She is on her way here to retrieve you and your meager belongings". 

Wait?! What happened?! Did my mom just say that I have been sold like I am a piece of property and not a family member? What is going on right now?! I looked around incredulously wondering if I entered the “Twilight Zone” or was all of a sudden thrust into “Bizarro World”.