CillaWaking up next to my lovelies was the best thing ever. I had slept through the morning. I woke up at 11 am and found Rose and Ren still asleep, their heads on each of my arms. My arms were hurting. When I tried to push them away so I could get up, they opened their eyes and tried to snuggle closer. I chuckled before speaking.“My hands hurt,” I said. They both moved away from them and sat up so I could bring my arms together. The action was painful but it was worth it. I had had the best sleep in a while and would do it a hundred times over. Knowing that Jane was dead and couldn’t hurt us was the icing on the cake.“How did you know where we were?” Rose asked.“I’m your big sister. I know everything.”“No, you don’t.” Rose said.“Seriously,” Ren said.I had noticed that Ren was growing faster, developing the snarky attitude of a teenager before his sister. Since I was now a parent, I had to learn patience and find a way of dealing with him without causing more problems.I told t
Cilla.One week later, we assembled the whole of Moonshine pack. We had speeches from both sides and the last speech was Ridian’s. When he made the announcement that Sasha Miller would lead the pack, the crowd erupted in cheers. “Please come forward,” Ridian asked Sasha who seemed so shocked by the announcement she couldn’t move for a while. Eventually, she strode forward in a responsible fashion and the crowd roared once me. I scanned the gathering and found alpha Aragon in tears. He seemed to be very happy that his daughter was going to be in charge. “We have been observing this brilliant young woman for a while since she returned and we have decided that she is the best person to replace her father in the leadership of this pack,” Ridian continued. “We shall talk with the elders so we can have a coronation ceremony as soon as possible. Although your new luna will have to report to me, you’ll have more autonomy over yourselves. We believe she’s the best person to steer this pack to
I always knew that my father would get us into trouble. He was reckless, and all he cared about was making money. My mother cried all the time, and begged him to change his ways before he ruined us all. He never listened, and my mother's prophecy came true. In the middle of the forest in our pack's territory was a clearing. It was used for a lot of things; pack ceremonies, initiation rituals, and punishment among others. I had been there a few times for joyous occasions but there was nothing good about what was about to happen. My eleven year old twin siblings and I were kneeling down, our hands tied up and chained to tree stumps in front of us. My father's hands were tied together and hoisted up with a strong rope. He was barely able to stand on his two feet at the moment, only managing to use his toes. The pack warriors would occasionally raise the rope and leave him hanging every now and then as they questioned him. My mother, on the other hand, was tied onto a long thin tree and
It was the screaming that woke me. Opening my eyes, I saw a woman screaming her head off on the bed next to mine. I opened my mouth to tell her to stop and closed it when I saw the rest of her body. Her belly was huge. She was pregnant.There were two other beds in the room, all occupied with girls who were staring silently at the expectant woman. The room had a musky smell and no windows. It was probably why the dim lights had been left on. I tried to get up to help the woman and that was when I realized I couldn't. My legs were chained to the lower frame of the bed.“Hey,” I said. The woman stopped screaming and stared at me for a few seconds before resuming. Now I understood why the other girls were just looking on. I fell back on the pillow and stared at the stained ceiling and walls. What happens in this room, I wondered as I scanned the stains of all colors spread all over the place.The door opened and an elderly woman walked in, followed by two young women in maid's uniform
An hour later, breakfast was served. It was hard for me to enjoy a meal in our dismal surroundings but it seemed my roommates were used to it. They ate up quickly. Even Patricia had to, she needed the strength for her body to physically recover from pregnancy and child birth.“Why do you think you weren't able to conceive?” I asked the girls.Having seen what Patricia went through, I never wanted to ever give birth. From the look of things, I was going to be a slave for a very long time. Giving birth to a child after all that pain and having them ripped away had to be the worst thing to ever happen to a woman. I could not even imagine the extent of the pain in Patricia's heart. She seemed to be holding up on the outside but I was sure her soul was shattering into pieces.“I was on birth control pills for a very long time,” Maryanne said. “I got sexually active very early. The healer in our pack occasionally travelled to the human cities to get some modern medicine. Our alpha has a co
Being alone meant thinking, and thinking brought unhappiness. I couldn't stop thinking about Rose and Ren. Where were they?If there was a thing I was glad about, it was that they had been taken before my parents got killed. I couldn't imagine what watching the murder of their parents would have done to them. They were children who had always been around family and friends. They were having a hard time and it hurt that I could not do anything to save them. I could only hope they were in the pack. That was so much better since they would be around familiar places. Maybe if I appeased my new owner and worked hard enough, he'd grant me my freedom, and I would search for my family.My train of thought was interrupted when the door opened. A woman in maid's uniform walked in and dropped a pile of clothes on the bed. Except the green towels and black underwear, the rest were identical to hers.“I see you're awake,” she said. “Take a shower and get to work. The bathrooms are at the end of
Washing the work men's clothes was the hardest jobs I had ever done. It took hours for all the dirt to get off them. I did my best and left the permanent stains alone. Maryanne was assigned to work with me, but she was a mess so I let her sob and wallow in her misery while I did all the work. I was trying to be strong for the both of us. We had both lost family in such a short amount of time. She may not have been related to Angela and Patricia but after living together for a year, they had become family. When the workmen's clothes were dry and their rooms were clean, I was able to relax.Maryanne and I walked through the trees to the pack palace which was just a few meters away.It was beautiful, magnificent. The tall and white building had five beautiful stories. “So much better than my pack's house,” Maryanne said.“Mine too,” I said.Dad had once told me that Blackmoon was one of the richest pack kingdoms in the werewolf world. Apparently, there were a lot of minerals in their
“We've found our mate,” Ada said, brimming with excitement.“Shut up, Ada.”I had blocked my wolf for a while because I didn't feel like listening to her chatty self, but somehow she'd broken through. I could still smell the alpha's essence from where I was so I decided to move farther away. I crossed the rows of trees and headed to the slave quarters. Maryanne hollered at me from where she was seated but I ignored her and continued to walk away. The workmen who were seated by their house made lewd remarks that made me feel self-conscious but I continued to trudge on, shutting them out.Back in my room, I lay on the bed, facing the bland white ceiling. Growing up, I had fantasized a lot about meeting my mate for the first time. None of those fantasies were identical to the events that had occurred.My fantasies included us bumping into each other, being introduced by friends, among other beautiful scenarios. We would be drawn by our scents and our wolves would scream ‘mate’ as we m