FOURTEEN YEARS LATER

The Blood Moon packhouse was in total ruin. Dirt and countless chores to do. The previous night, the pack had held a party for the Alpha's beloved son, Dante. Every other wolf or human in the wolf pack was allowed to attend except the 'lucky girl,' whose life 'merciful' Alpha Hero spared, years back.

"Hurry, you piece of trash!" The future Luna of the Blood Moon pack roared at Freya.

Ever since Freya was spared as a little child fourteen years ago, she has witnessed hell. In fact, hell, was even a kind word to use in describing her experience so far.

As Alpha Hero had given the order to kill her when she was discovered, she passed out. Already weak and couldn't take it anymore, her strength failed her. People who surrounded her thought that she was dead. Left behind to die while she was unconscious, they discovered that she was now awake. Alpha Hero got to learn that she could neither remember what had just transpired nor speak. Instead of wasting her, Dante brought a 'smart suggestion' that she should be taken back home with them and turned into one of their slaves, as they needed more.

While she had remained in a terrible condition, subjected to the most degrading and humiliating responsibilities by the Blood Moon pack, Freya has had her mind focused on freedom. That hope alone has been her drive.

Although Freya had four pairs of clothes as a whole; three were mostly rags. She was fed so poorly and treated like an animal, yet, she was still the most beautiful girl in the entire pack. This drew envy from all the other girls because searching the entire kingdom, Freya was the most pretty, most well-mannered, kind, compassionate, truthful, and loving. Despite her good qualities, it still didn't earn her any favors or likeness from any of the other kids or their parents. Apart from being from the Omega lineage, she was so beautiful. This even made most of the other wolves believe that Freya was an existing abomination. Most of them asked, 'how can someone be so beautiful?'

With no hope of ever having what the other kids had; loving parents, experiencing fun, having good clothes, eating good food, and just being cared for, she held on.

Her Amazonian figure sat well on her body. She had a decanter-shaped waist and her complexion had an impeccable, ochreous hue. Her full honey-dark eyebrows eased down gently to her black, beetle's-leg eyelashes. A sculptor could not have fashioned her seraph's ears and pixie's nose any better.

When she broke into a smile, her beguiling, oyster-white teeth lit up the room. It could jolt you like an electric current when that megawatt smile gave you her full attention. Filed to perfection, her long and smooth fingernails ran through her auburn hair. Spools of it plunged around her photogenic face and hid her swan-like neck, elegant and smooth. Her nebulous, glistening-blue eyes were a sparkle of life and hope. They were like two blue diamond jewels melted onto the snow. Her calamine-pink lips looked like fresh rose petals. They were plump. Most people rumored that she was a goddess found in the body of a girl.

Freya ran at the fullest speed possible for any human and got to Ariel. She stood with her eyes fixed on the floor, panting. She wore a blue, worn-out, and oversized gown. Wounds around her head and throat. Her feet were bare and numerous bruises that had turned into purple scars covered them.

"You pig!" Ariel smacked Freya across the face. "How could you allow me to wake up and meet all this dirt? Now I am going to have a bad day," she whined.

Alpha Hero had his late Luna, the mother of Dante, handpicked by his father, Dante's late grandfather. At least that was the lie they told the pack. Hero followed suit. He did the same as his father by choosing Ariel, the young daughter, and only child of the Pure Crescent pack. By birth, she was to take over the pack once her father died. That was the rule of her pack. But getting united in marriage meant that Dante would rule both packs.

Ariel was a cruel and disrespectful sixteen years old girl. Long-white-haired, green eyes and beautiful. She was one of the lucky kids that were privileged to have been selected by Alpha Hero as the future Luna of Dante. The entire pack was just waiting for her eighteenth birthday so that the official bonding of souls ceremony could be carried out between Ariel and Dante. Due to this fact, she was treated like a queen, and everything else she did, was overlooked.

Although Ariel was a year younger than Freya who was seventeen, she failed to acknowledge that Freya was a human being like her, since both of their wolves were yet to reveal themselves. For the females of the packs, you must turn eighteen and above before your wolf could reveal itself.

Ariel had woken up early to go hiking with her other privileged friends and decided to make poor Freya's day a bad one before she left.

The party that was held last night wasn't witnessed by Freya, nor did she eat any of the sumptuous meals they prepared. Yet, she had to clean the entire mess. Freya wasn't even allowed to eat from the same pot as the other kids. She was to wait until they were satisfied, and the leftovers were tossed into the trashcan. She would then scavenge and whatever spoils she gathered, would be her food. However, Freya still ate happily out of the bins and tried to stay as invisible as possible until the Golden Rule of the Blood Moon pack which held her freedom once she turned eighteen happened.

Every day, she counted the date, minutes, and seconds in her head, removing it from how many more days she had left to earn her freedom.

Freya held her cheeks where Ariel had smacked and suppressed the tears threatening to escape her eyes. Most times, she desperately wanted to beat the crap out of the rude, spoiled, little girl in the person of Ariel, but couldn't. If the thought was even somehow discovered to be existing in her mind, that would be an excellent excuse to have her head chopped off. All the Alpha was waiting for was one mistake from her. One, tiny mistake. And Freya made it her life mission until she was freed not to make any mistakes. If her calculation was right, she had three more weeks, two days, five hours, twenty minutes, and seven seconds before she turned her freedom age, eighteen.

"I am sorry, I was still cleaning the Alpha's mansion," she said.

"You must be stupid! You only chose to spend forever in the Alpha's mansion so that you can get a good look at my husband."

Ariel began to circle Freya like a predator would its prey. "Well, too bad, he has eyes for no one else but me. Now get to cleaning this place. I will finish up with you later."

"Yes-" Freya left the response hanging.

Glaring at her, "yes, what?"

"Yes, Luna."

"Better."

Ariel still had two more years before she could be coronated as the Luna, but, she liked parading herself as the Luna already. When you didn't address her as the Luna, she made sure that such people were severely punished.

Freya ran off to gather her cleaning supplies from the Alpha mansion back to the packhouse to carry out Ariel's order. Hopefully, the Alpha and his son wouldn't wake up until she was done cleaning the packhouse and resumed with the Alpha Mansion, or else, today might just be her death day.