1

“Don’t play hard to get, play hard to forget,” Aurora mutters as she stands on the field staring up at the podium. “Unfortunately I failed both, I didn't play hard to get and apparently I am easy to forget too.”

Aurora Wells stands at the side with a glass of champagne in her hand, her blank eyes fixed on Maverick Prill and Phoebe Brian who are standing beside each other on the stage and welcoming guests from the other packs.

“What is Cliche? It is your everyday life, I am so tired of seeing this, they look so much like the perfect couple, the kind of ones the councils want, I am sure they are glad,” A familiar voice says sarcastically before the person stops beside her. “Do you want to get out of here? We can go to my dad's attic and discover some cool things.” Easton says beside her and Aurora shakes her head at her best friend, the best kind regards of friend she can ever get.

Sometimes she wished that she was mated to this nice ass fine man instead.

“No I can manage,” She says. “Besides, Luna isn’t supposed to leave the welcoming occasion in the middle of the ceremony.”

Yeah, that's right.

She is Luna of Moonlight Pack, she has been Luna for the past three years and the man standing on the stage with his arms wrapped around another lady is her mate and that has also been going on for the past three years.

“Ugh. Aurora, stop this. It has been three years since he announced you as Luna, he makes no effort to let them recognize you as one, the pack members still sneer at you and call you all sorts of names, it is worse than it had been when you two were dating. See him over there, he is parading Phoebe around again like she is his wife!” Easton snaps in irritation, he wants to knock some sense into his friend’s head.

Maverick Prill announced her as the Luna three years ago, that's when they found out that they were mates, but before those three years, they were lovers for three years.

Aurora and Maverick have been friends since she was thirteen, very close friends at that. They had always knew each other all their lives since they love in the same pack but it was Maverick that approached her that he wanted to be friends with her, the son of the Alpha of the pack with a bastard is unbelievable at first, but as time goes on, Aurora starts to believe the it too.

They did every normal thing that friends did even though it is in secret because no one must see the next alpha and the runt together.

They started catching feelings when they were sixteen and after a lot of awkward and cringey moments, they finally decided to date, their friends were the first to rebuff the motion, both Easton and Alec_ Maverick's best friend and the present beta of the pack were against it, they were convinced the it will end badly but both her and Maverick didn't listened.

It was thrilling and exciting, sneaking glances at each other, crawling around the pack at night to meet at all their secret spots, sneaking out of their rooms to go on late night drive around the pack and it's territory, going on simple but peaceful date, kissing under the full moon, on top of a cliff with a beautiful lake in sight before getting tangled up to each other's naked body on the bed of the motel that is just a little bit out in the next territory while they had forced and begged their friends to cover for them.

None of them feared the punishments they receive most times when they abruptly go missing from the pack.

The loads of scoldings and paperworks that the Alpha dumps on Maverick or the whips from Aurora's mother and slaps a few punches from her stepfather?

They consider it as a small price for their scarlet love.

It is not good for mateless werewolves to date each other because they might end up not being mates but Maverick is so sure, even hellbent on the fact that they will be each other's mate, he claimed that he knows and feel it deep in his soul, that even his wolf agree with him, he told her that nothing will keep them away from each other, that they would always be together, that she is his other half 

She tells her to endure everything until the night of the Mate Awakening Ceremony of Moonlight where he will announce her as Luna and no one in the pack will look down on her. And if worse comes to worst, they will elope together.

For gleeful and naive Aurora, everything was in its right place, it was perfect, but she seemed to forget that perfect doesn't mean that it will work out.

And for the love of the heavens, it worked, not for her but against her.

“You are right, but I am used to it, this is not the first time that he is doing this.” Aurora says and Easton huffs.

And for the record, there's no one that hates Alpha Maverick more than her best friend.

“Move out of my way, bitch!” She hears behind her and jumps a bit, she turns to face the girl who glares at her and rolls her eyes. “And get your damn bad luck away from the damn way while you are at it.” She adds, her thin red lips are pulled into a sneer and disgust is evident in her black eyes.

“Mom would have your head for letting her stand too near in the first place, Tessie,” Another girl chirps, coming to stand beside Tessie. They are twins who look exactly the same, Aurora almost can't tell them apart.

“Shut up, Jennie!” Tessie snaps at her sister but Jennie just shrugs, she turns to glare at Aurora. “Well? Aren't you getting the fuck out of the way?!”

No soothsayer is needed in order to know that these girls hate Aurora, in fact, almost everyone in Moonlight Pack does and even though she is the Luna, none of them is afraid to show it, they let her know to what extent they dislike and disrespect her, some even asks their kids to do it, because what would a bastard hybrid do to anybody?

People dislike anything different from them, it doesn't matter what the people themselves are, once they see something different, they hate it.

In a town full of werewolves _ half human and half wolf, a half witch and half wolf would be a subject of mockery and disdain, not like she lives up to the species since her wolf is an omega wolf who is practically dead inside her and refused to show up and she doesn't have the littlest knowledge on what if takes to be a witch.

“There's no reason for you to yell, you should be civil, simply because you are a werewolf doesn't mean that you should behave like an animal,” Aurora replies in a calm voice which makes Tessie's gray eyes turn red, Jennie snickers in mockery, Easton stands to the side silently watching them because she knows that Aurora got it handled.

“What?!” Tessie yells, her long layers of hair flying in a direction because of the swift movement.

Her shriek has directed a lot of attention to them and the folks on the field have started to whisper among themselves, most of them giving Aurora the death stares which she and Easton gladly return.

“Are you deaf now? You are supposed to have enhanced hearing, your father, Mr. Brian is the gamma of the pack and your mother is one of the pack warriors, surely they passed their positive traits to you little Brians,” Aurora sasses.

It didn't matter that they are the favorite kids of their powerful parents and she is an outcast who her own mother finds disgusting, she isn't going to keep her mouth sealed while they talk trash to her, they are temperamental and she is allergic to tolerating shits.

“What did you just say bitch?! How dare you involve my parents in this, huh?!” Tessie snaps, her face is so red from extreme anger, she starts to walk towards her in order to ‘deal with’ her.

“Tessie, your three o'clock!” Jennie is standing quietly Tessie suddenly says and Tessie looks to her left, she clears her throat when she sees Maverick walking towards them with Phoebe's hand linked around his arm.

“What the hell is going on? Aurora why the fuck are you ruining the gathering?” Maverick's calm voice asks as soon as he is standing right in front of her, he doesn't bother to look at the twins, he just continues staring at her whilst demanding an explanation with his eyes which makes Easton scoff and Aurora stares at him in total disbelief.