FAIRYTALE

“This…” Sarah mumbled, breaking the silence. “This is the Crescent pack territory?” 

She already knew the answer. It was obvious, through the dirt and ash she could make out the platinum white hair of the Crescent wolves. However, she couldn’t help but ask. Because no matter how much she stared at the photos, it made it all the more impossible. 

“But that’s not possible!” Sarah added when no one answered. “The wolves of the Crescent are the strongest out there! How could they just be wiped out like that?!” 

Bernard had his elbows on the table while supporting his head on his knuckles. The same question was ravishing his brain. As an Alpha wolf, it hurt his dignity to admit it but there was no way he could deny it either. The wolves of the Crescent are the strongest of their species, their entire elimination was impossible - or at least that’s what they thought. 

“Who had such power to do this?” Valarie asked, turning to her husband. 

“I don’t know,” Bernard muttered. 

At the words of the Alpha, the room went silent once again. There was no guessing what or who could have done such a thing. There was only one person alive who could answer their questions, and luckily that person was right under their noses. Ophelia Gregor. 

“She is the only survivor,” Bernard thought out loud. “She wasn’t lost-”

“She was running away,” Sarah unconsciously continued. 

“First, we should talk to the girl,” Bernard said with a heavy sigh. 

“Out of the question!” Valarie exclaimed while glaring at her husband. “You want to go ask a child if her whole pack was massacred!? I can’t believe you even thought of that.”

“It’s not the time to let your motherly side get the hang of you, Val,” Bernard said. “We need to figure out what has happened. This - could change everything. If there is someone out there powerful enough to wipe out our strongest, I would like to know who they are.”

“And you are about to ask that of a child?” Valarie scoffed. “You think a little girl will have your answer?” 

Sarah and Gerald exchanged a hesitant glance as the couple argued. They agreed with the Alpha’s logic, nevertheless, they can’t say they disagreed with the Luna either. 

“How about-” 

Sarah cut in while raising her voice to catch their attention.

“How about we ask her simply how she got here?” Sarah added. “We won’t say anything. We can just let her talk. She’s a child, I don’t think she’ll hide anything.”

The alpha and his luna shared a glance before they both sighed in defeat. Bernard looked back again at the pictures he tossed on the desk. It was cruel. 

Whoever did this was cruel. The sight of the white fur tainted with blood and dirt as they lay dead on the ground. No one deserved to die like this and certainly not the most prestigious pack known. 

“Go get the child,”

Valarie shot her husband a glare. 

“Forget it,” he sighed, feeling his wife’s glare poke holes in his flesh. “I’ll go to her personally.”

~~~~~

‘And they lived happily ever after.’

Ophelia skimmed through the last pages of the book in her hands. She read it again and again, and it was the same every time. She didn’t feel what she should feel - or at least that’s what she believed with her tired and frail mind. A children’s book is a story about a princess in a beautiful dress, meeting a prince from a faraway land and they lived happily ever after. Shouldn’t she be happy that it’s a happy ending? 

Perhaps, she would have felt that way if she had just read the book a few days earlier. It would have turned out differently. 

Her young yet worn-out heart felt dry. She couldn’t bring herself to have the same enthusiasm as Noah who was reading a similar book by her bedside. She couldn’t help but stare at his bright smile with awe and wonder. Did she also smile like that before? 

For a split second, Ophelia felt foreign in her own body. Something was stripped out of her. The essence of her existence seemed to have burned out, leaving her lost and tired. There was so little she understood and yet the lump on her chest was only getting heavier. 

‘It’s suffocating,’ she thought. 

Maybe even more suffocating than when the water filled her lungs. At least, there was going to be an end to this endless misery she felt. This helplessness. What could she do when she was barely 12? Even her wolf seemed to have abandoned her. 

‘Unlucky,’ she thought again as she fumbled with her fingers on her lap. 

“One day Ophelia you are going to be the perfect Luna,” her mother’s voice suddenly tore through her abyss. “You will lead this pack to peace with your mate.”

Surprisingly, Ophelia could recall exactly what she felt when her mother said those words. She felt distant from the description her mother gave. Now, it was next to impossible to believe her mother’s words. If there was even a slight chance of her becoming a Luna, then that chance was no longer available. 

‘There is no pack to lead now, Mother,’ Ophelia silently said, biting down harshly on her lips till she could taste the metallic taste of blood on her tongue. She swallowed her tears. The remainder of her mother made her feel even more helpless than before. 

All she could do was whisper her family’s names before going to bed. 

‘Mom, Dad, Luke,’ she would say every night she tried to fall asleep. Sometimes, she would even say her own name out loud. ‘Ophelia Gregor.’

She feared that she would end up losing even her name. Everything was stripped away from her when she wasn’t expecting it. She was anxious. A morning may come when she ends up without a past, present, or future. She would be nothing in this big world. Not a human and not a shifter, she would be a mole in the middle with no side to call home. 

With every passing thought, she felt more miserable. It ached and there was no way out of the hurt, not even when she tried to read a fairytale book with Noah. 

‘Noah,’ she recalled and turned to her bedside. 

Noah sat comfortably in the devan by her bed, hugging his knees close to his chest with one hand as the other held open the book. Ophelia could see the bright grin on his face and she noticed how he was trying to hold it back.

She couldn’t help but wonder if there has ever been a day when she also smiled like that. One night she had everything she wanted, her parents, her little bother, and her pack. As the first rays of dawn broke loose through the navy night sky, she lost everything. It was hard to believe that there was ever a life before the misery she was living. 

Barely a week passed and she doubted her very existence. 

What was she going to do with the rest of her life?

“And they lived happily ever after.”

Ophelia snapped out of her dwelling at the sound of her thoughts being voiced out loud. 

‘Noah,’ she reminded herself. 

“This book is very cool!” Noah added, his head snapped towards Ophelia. “What about yours? Did you like it?” 

Ophelia subconsciously nodded. She never hated the fairytale, rather, she hated the doubt that it spiked in her mind. She liked it but she would rather avoid reading it again. She held out the book to Noah, wanting to part with it as soon as possible. 

Noah gladly took it before he turned to her. “Want to switch?” he said holding out his book. “It’s about a hero fighting to change the world.”

Ophelia eyed the book hesitantly, wondering if another fairytale would poke another of her fresh wounds. In the end, she took it. Losing her mind for even a second while reading was a better bargain than leaving it to misery to be consumed. 

She eyed the hardcover allowing her fingers to trace the embroidered title. 

“Do you like reading?” she couldn’t help but ask. 

Noah lifted his head from the book in his hands and stared at Ophelia, he turned back to the book as though he was looking for the answer amid its pages. 

“I never get to meet with people or go far away to explore,” he started. “Truthfully, when I found you in the woods, that was as far as I’m allowed to go. You know, my parents don’t allow me to wander very far since I still don’t shift properly.”

“So I started reading about other people who do what I can’t,” he continued. “It helped me experience what I can’t. Wandering through the woods with no destination in sight. Walking among humans in the morning without fear-”

“Things like that.” 

He broke with an awkward giggle as he rubbed his hand over the back of his head. “Stupid right?” 

“No,” Ophelia instantly said. “No, in fact, it’s very…”

“Boring?” Noah added.

“Wonderful,” Ophelia corrected. “I was going to say wonderful.”

Despite the misery, Ophelia felt a minute ago, she was easeful now. Something about his words soothed her mind making it hard to go back to the pain. The way he stated his dreams spiked something in her imagination. The morning sun, the smell of the grass after a rainy night, the last rays of the day. The image formed behind her eyes calmed her. 

She couldn’t help but crack a smile. 

Amid her escape from reality, she didn’t notice Noah’s gaze. He watched as her violet eyes fluttered shut. He wondered what she saw behind her closed eyelids. A happy moment, he hoped. It was the very reason why he got those books in the first place. Noah bought them in hopes that it would ease her mind as it did with him. 

He was proud of his gesture. 

Silently he watched her, not daring to ruin the moment she had in her mind. Her platinum white hair fell to her shoulders, the faint tint on her cheeks as the corner of her rosy lips turned up in a grin. He felt the heat travel to his cheeks making them bright red. He looked away as he faked a cough. 

Ophelia fluttered her eyes open, feeling much better than she did a minute ago. She turned to Noah as he sat cramping himself in the devan avoiding her gaze. 

“I’ll gladly read this,” she said. “Next time let's read some more.”

“Really?” Noah exclaimed, almost jumping off his seat. 

Ophelia nodded with a smile.

“Next time,” Noah said with excitement. “I’ll take you to the library. We have got like a thousand different books. My goal is to finish reading them all before I become an adult.”

“Are you close to accomplishing it?” Ophelia asked, tilting her head.

“No,” Noah said, his voice sounding like defeat. “I barely read 10 books. Most are too difficult for me to understand.”

Ophelia busts out in laughter, the corner of her eyes tearing up. Noah jumped in surprise, taken aback by her sudden laughter. He felt something shift inside him. He turned to stare at his hands as a smile cracked on his lips.

The room fell silent as the two children carried on with their reading session. Both of them enjoyed the peaceful silence as their minds escaped to the fairytale land they held in their hands. 

However, the peace didn’t last as the door slid open. 

Ophelia flinched at the sight of the Alpha accompanied by Valarie, Sarah, and a man she didn’t recognize. She shut the book with a loud thud, retreating to the furthest corner of the bed as she bent her knees close to her chest.

“Hey there, my child,” Valarie said, taking a step forward. She knew how scary her husband can seem from the perspective of a small and terrified child. “Don’t worry we are only here to ask you a couple of questions, okay?” 

Ophelia didn’t know why she turned to Noah for help, but the sight of his blazing iris gave her comfort. She took a deep breath and returned to Valarie. 

“What would you like to know?”