Chapter 1

The Middle 1880s

The cry of a newborn child was heard from Luna's bed chambers.

"At last! After nearly fifty years, finally, I have my heir." The Alpha Caden said.

He shoved everyone out of his way and went to his wife's bed chambers.

"Where is he? Where is my son?" His beta came forward and began.

"The Luna is health--"

"I don't care. I have waited fifty years. Where is my son?!"

"Alpha Caden--"

He impatiently shoved the beta out of the way when he spotted the midwife carrying a bundle.

"Let me see him."

"A-alpha he-she-it--" the woman stuttered.

"Out with it!" He roared. By now the midwife was trembling. ad mist the chaos a quiet unwavering voice said.

"We had a girl," she said, her lips trembling with fear. He turned to face his Luna.

"What do you mean we had a girl?" He asked, looking at the Luna suspiciously

"The child I gave birth to is a girl." She repeated.

He went white as it dawned on him.

"Since the beginning of time heir after heir has ruled the Antarti pack, never has there been a female in our bloodline. So tell me how this is possible!" He yelled the last part at his beta.

The room was silent no one dared to even so much as blink noisily. The only sound was the cries of the child.

"I'm sorry." The Luna apologized, as though she had control over the gender of her child. He suddenly turned to her and pointed to the baby.

"Whose spawn is that?"

She broke into sobs. "I know no other man," she said

"Liar!" he screamed at her, his face red with anger

"I swear it." She shouted clutching the bedsheets. Then she suddenly started coughing.

"Alpha." the beta tried to intervene. "She just went through quite an ordeal, don't you think it would be best to let her rest."

His attention suddenly went to the baby and he looked at her with scorn.

"Kill it." HE said coldly

The Luna crawled down from her bed and fell at the Alpha's feet as tears streamed freely from her eyes.

"My king! Don't do this. After many years we finally have a child. And I'm passing the age of having a child. Have mercy on me."

The Alpha was unmoved. "Beta. Let everyone know that the child was born dead," he said

Her grip on his clothes tightened. "Please! Kill me in her stead. Have mercy on your daughter."

"That can't be my child. Even if is. God must have cursed you with a girl because of your infidelities."

He spat out that even though everyone knew the Luna would never dare stray from her marital bed and even if she had the inclination to do so, the number of escorts always with her made that quite impossible.

Something seemed to snap inside of her as she rose to her feet and calmly said.

"Or maybe it's your promiscuity that has us cursed," she said, regretting the words as soon as they left her mouth. But the deed has been done, she stood her ground.

As the Alpha glared at her everyone in the room knew she had hit close to home. Too close.

"You will follow your child to hell or wherever it is bitches go." The Alpha's calm voice contradicted his harsh words. Everyone went silent, even the baby as though it felt the tension in the room.

"You ungrateful man." The Luna began and the air in the room ran cold and Eerie. "I dedicated all my life to you, serving you. You lowered me to nothing more than a slave you occasionally shared your bed with, against others and this is how you repay me?"

"Guards!" The Alpha pointed at the Luna "Take her to the dungeons. "

"A son you seek? A son you'll get. Though perfect, he'll be your death!"

"Now!"

He yelled at the guards before storming out of the room. The people left in the room; The beta, the midwife, and the guards just stood there not quite sure what to do. The Luna who now had no trace of the after-effects of childbirth on her seemed quite mystical.

"My good friend." She walked to the beta.

"Luna." he bowed.

"I may deserve this punishment, but she's an innocent child have mercy on her."

"I-"

"No one here will tell." She looked pleading into his eyes. "I will forever serve you."

"Thank you," she said then she walked to the midwife.

"I need your help Brenda." the Luna said, looking at her friend with so much sorrow

"No I can't." she trembled.

"Please." She said and placed both hands on Brenda's shoulders.

"Take her far away from here. He will try but he'll never succeed in finding you. That which kills me will never harm her."

"I will do my best to raise her and guide her as you would have."

"Thank you, Brenda."

She looked down at her daughter for what will be the first and inevitable the last time.

"Beautiful Athena. Like the goddess you are named after, you will fight, you will conquer." Then she turned to the guards, her head held high, looking every inch of the Queen she was, she walked with them to the dungeons.

**

The Alpha came to address the pack. Everyone bowed as he made his way.

"Werewolves of Atlanti pack. It is with great sorrow in my heart that I inform you of your Luna's execution. The Alpha had changed his mind and decided to humiliate her in front of her beloved people.

Audible gasps and cries were heard when the Luna was brought forward by ten soldiers.

"She has committed an unforgivable crime, even for a Luna," he said, looking at the faces of his subject to know their reaction

The gasps became louder. He nodded his head in satisfaction

"To protect her from words of scorn her sin shall remain hidden, she is already paying for her sins."

The Alpha's turned to her as he heard her muttering something audible enough for only he and the guards around her to hear.

As he heard, he ordered for the process the be sped up.

As the soldiers fastened the chains buried in the grounds to her wrists and ankles and doused her in fuel, her chant only became louder.

"A son you seek, a son you'll get. Though perfect, he'll be your death."

The Alpha stood in front of the Luna, his back to the people as he lit the match and smiled and she smiled right back at him as he dropped the match and watched her go up in flames.

Oddly no one heard her scream as she was burnt into a heap of nothingness.

The Alpha had already artfully arranged for lies to be spread to dissuade whoever would try to unveil the reason for her execution.

"I heard she made advances to the beta."

"She was killing children because she couldn't have a child of her own. A wolf in sheep's clothing as humans would say."

"She tried to kill the Alpha."

"Such a pity how everyone admired her and always looked up to her. And I heard she gave the child she bore as a sacrifice to her demons."

"Nincompoops. All of them. A woman we've known for so long and it took just a few whispered words to change their hearts towards her." Right there and then, the rumors spread.

"Silence!" Thundered the Alpha.

"Although she betrayed us all. She has paid for her sins. And I would not soil her by disclosing what she did or speaking badly of the dead. And nor should any of you."

By 'protecting' her image the Alpha knew the pack's admiration and love of the people who'll always see him as the epitome of goodness. Only a handful knew the truth.

On the first day of November, an innocent queen was murdered a new Luna was chosen. In a distance, a woman was running away with a child with soldiers hot on her heels. A cruel Alpha continued to reign. And after 10 months another child was born. The heir apparent. He was named Zeus.