The Night I Left the Pack
I stood outside the council hall with my back pressed against the cold stone wall, my fingers clenched so tightly that my nails cut into my skin. Light spilled through the half closed door, along with laughter that felt painfully familiar.
Their voices.
The voices of the three men everyone had always said would be my future.
"Aurelia?"
One of them laughed, careless and amused. "If it were not for our parents, I would not even be friends with her, let alone marry her."
My breath caught in my chest.
"Do not be so harsh," another voice said lazily. "She is just a human. What can she do besides relying on us?"
More laughter followed, louder this time.
"There is someone else I want to marry," the third man said. "A woman worthy of standing beside me as Luna."
"If it were me," the first added, "I would rather die than take Aurelia as my wife."
The words sank into me one by one, heavy and merciless. My legs trembled, and I bit down hard on my lower lip to keep myself from making a sound. I did not want them to hear me cry. I did not want them to know how completely they had shattered me.
My entire life, I had lived in this pack with my head lowered. They called me weak because I had no wolf. They called me human, as if it were an insult rather than a fact. And yet the elders always smiled when they spoke of the future, as if I were some important piece in a carefully arranged alliance between four powerful families.
In the end, I was nothing more than a joke.
I turned away from the door before the tears could fall. I walked past the guards without looking at them, past the stone houses and the familiar paths that had never once felt like home. The wolves I passed stared at me with the same mix of disdain and pity they always did.
No one stopped me.
No one asked where I was going.
Perhaps they were used to seeing me alone.
The Moon Goddess Temple stood at the edge of the forest, ancient and silent. Its stones were carved with symbols so old that even the Alphas avoided lingering here. This was where wolves came to pray for mates, for forgiveness, for fate to be kind.
I came to sever everything.
The air inside the temple was heavy, thick with the scent of damp earth and old blood. I stood before the stone altar, staring at the moon symbol etched deep into its surface.
"If I was never meant to belong to this pack," I whispered, my voice shaking, "then let me leave."
I drew the small knife I always carried. The blade was worn, familiar. Without hesitation, I cut my palm.
Blood dripped onto the altar.
The moment it touched the stone, the wind roared into the temple. Candles flickered and died. The ground beneath my feet shook violently, and I stumbled forward, barely managing to stay upright.
Thunder rolled across the sky.
A bolt of lightning struck so close that the temple was bathed in white light. Pain exploded through my body, starting from my spine and tearing its way through my limbs. I collapsed onto the cold stone floor, my scream trapped in my throat.
Something inside me was awakening.
I could feel it. Hot and cold at once. Ancient. Furious.
"Aurelia."
The voice was not human. It was not the voice of any wolf I had ever heard.
I lifted my head, breathing hard. My shadow on the temple wall twisted and stretched, no longer human in shape. Behind me, a pair of glowing white eyes stared back.
My wolf.
The realization hit harder than the pain.
I was not human.
A howl tore from my chest, raw and powerful, echoing through the forest beyond the temple walls. Energy surged through my veins, overwhelming and intoxicating. The wound in my palm closed slowly, the blood vanishing as if it had never been there.
I forced myself to stand, my legs unsteady. The altar before me was cracked straight down the center.
Then I smelled it.
Five distinct scents filled the air, each one strong, dominant, and unmistakable.
Mates.
"No," I whispered, stepping back. "Not now."
From outside the temple came the sound of footsteps. Many of them. Too many. I did not need to see their faces to know who they were. Alphas. Heirs. Warriors. The very wolves who had looked down on me my entire life.
Their auras trembled.
I turned and ran.
I burst out of the temple and into the forest, my heart pounding wildly. The night air burned my lungs as I fled, branches scratching at my skin, roots threatening to trip me with every step.
Behind me, I felt it. Their awareness. Their shock.
They could smell me now.
The bond pulsed in my chest, furious and insistent, tying me to the pack I had just rejected. Somewhere in the distance, a powerful presence watched silently, hidden and patient.
I did not stop running.
Because I knew one thing with terrifying clarity.
From this night onward, I was no longer the Aurelia they had trampled on.
I was the White Luna.
And the pack had just lost all claim over me.
The forest seemed to bend around me as I ran, shadows stretching and shifting with every heartbeat. My senses were sharper than they had ever been. I could hear the rustle of leaves far beyond my sight, the distant snap of branches as wolves poured out of the pack grounds, and beneath it all, the frantic rhythm of my own pulse.
The bond burned.
It wrapped around my chest like invisible chains, tugging, calling, demanding that I turn back. Each breath I took was filled with scents that should not have been so clear. Pine. Wet soil. Blood. And beneath them, five dominant signatures that refused to fade no matter how far I ran.
I stumbled to a stop near a narrow stream, my reflection trembling in the water. For a moment, I barely recognized the woman staring back at me. My eyes glowed faintly, pale and cold. My skin shimmered under the moonlight, veins laced with something ancient and powerful.
Fear crept in, slow and unwelcome.
What am I?
The answer echoed from deep within me, calm and unwavering.
White Luna.
My knees nearly gave out as the weight of it settled in. The stories I had overheard as a child. The warnings spoken in hushed tones when they thought I was asleep. A bloodline blessed and cursed by the Moon Goddess herself. A lineage that demanded loyalty from Alphas and obedience from entire packs.
A lineage that had been erased.
Or so they thought.
A distant howl cut through the night, sharp and commanding. It was answered almost immediately by another, then another. The forest trembled with their presence, the sound vibrating through my bones.
They are coming.
My fingers curled into fists. Panic threatened to rise, but it was crushed beneath a sudden surge of resolve. I had not endured years of humiliation only to be dragged back the moment I found freedom.
I stepped into the stream, letting the cold water wash over my ankles, then forced myself across it, scrambling up the opposite bank without looking back. The bond strained, pulsing violently, but it did not break.
Not yet.
"I will not be claimed," I whispered into the night. "Not by force. Not by guilt. Not by fate you decided for me."
The moon hung high above, silent and watchful. For the first time, I felt its gaze not as something distant, but as something intimately aware.
As if it was listening.
I took one final look in the direction of the pack lands, where chaos was surely unfolding, where the wolves who had scorned me were now waking to a truth they could not undo.
Then I turned my back on them completely.
Whatever awaited me beyond this forest, it would be on my terms.
Because the girl they ignored was gone.
And the White Luna would never kneel again.