The Gifted Luna

Mud clung onto Tiara's feet as she walked through narrow path in the woods, her basket heavy with different herbs. The scent of pine and the damp soil grounded her—one of the few comforts left in her world. She leaned down to gather a spring of yarrow when a twig snapped behind her.

"This would fetch me more money at the market," she beamed with smiles, carefully placing the herb into her basket.

"If only I could..." She was saying when she heard a sound.

"Who is there?" She called, stiffened, clutching the basket tightly. But it was only a rabbit, scampering away.

"Tiara!" a voice barked from the direction of the village. Vanessa.

She sighed and quickened her pace.

Back at the house—a crumbling old structure on the edge of the pack's territory—Vanessa stood on the porch, arms crossed, sneer in place.

"You are late, and what is this?" she questioned, snatching the basket. "Useless weeds? We need meat. Strength. Not flowers!"

"Ouch....." Vanessa pouted.

"How did I forget that you are a worthless omega? I am sorry that it skipped my mind, my dear."

"They help with fever," Tiara said quietly, lowering her gaze.

She slapped the basket off her hands, sending its content flying around.

"I dare you to speak back again, so I can put you in the dirty and bottomless pit that you belong to."

Tiara pressed her lips together, fighting back the tears that threatened to pour down her face.

"There are so many chores still—left undone and you went into the woods to gather weeds and flowers instead of catching an animal or tending to the chores," Vanessa sneered.

"I wonder whom you got your stupidity and weakness from—your mother who loves to exercise power or your father who used to be hail and mighty and yet, could not save himself and his wife." She pressed.

"You had better not think of going back to that ruin you call a house without doing every chore that is expected of you!"

"Why do you love yelling at this weakling, my dear? Garrett who had been watching from a corner of the house spoke.

"Why waste your precious time and strength on a child who brings bad luck?" He chuckled. " You do not want her infecting you with her bad luck, do you?"

" Of course not, father," Vanessa sharply replied. "Why would you say such a thing?"

"You should not speak such unruly words to your one and only child, Garrett." Diane, Garrett's wife butted in.

"My child is strong, intelligent and beautiful. Mind the way you speak to the future Luna." She smiled, eyeing Tiara scornfully with the corner of her eyes.

"Speaking of that, when do I get to meet alpha Edwin, father?" Vanessa batted her eyes lovingly towards her father.

"Soon enough, my darling," Garrett replied. "Sooner that you expect," he winked.

The trio spoke, making Tiara feel invisible and inferior.

"Ahh!" Garrett suddenly exclaimed.

"You should watch the way you to to the woods to gather those weeds of yours, princess," he mocked.

"The alpha and other pack members will be visiting the woods soon for the hunt and I do not think that we can afford you being mistaken for the animal that you are, during the game."

"Maybe we should stop her from gathering those things, she has so many roles to play in the house." Vanessa suggested.

" I really do not care about her existence or survival," Diane said, with no hint of emotions.

That night, Tiara curled up in the dirty attic that was given to her in her uncle's house, clutching a ying-yang necklace that her parents used to wear.

Her fingers carefully brushed over the necklace as she relived her parents last moments.

"May the moon goddess keep and preserve you, my child." Her mother muttered, before she took her last breath.

No matter how hard she tried, she was not able to get the bloody faces of her parents out of her head.

"I will make sure to find out what really happened," she whispered.

"No matter what it takes." she vowed.

As Tiara clutched the pendant to her chest, she whispered her promise for justice.

She noticed that the necklace had a rough part.

She turned it over and found a hidden compartment that can be opened. It was an inscription, written in a coded manner.

"What is this?" She thought to herself as she tried to decode the inscription.

She quickly took it towards the window, trying to use the little light the moon produced to see the inscription.

The inscription says:

"If you are reading this, it means the danger is still close and it is really not farfetched. Trust no one—not even family. And never reveal your wolf until you find the Moonstone. It will protect you."

"Reveal my wolf?" She thought to herself. "I cannot even transform to my wolf form, not to talk of hiding it."

"How am I even supposed to get the moonstone?" She murmured to herself.

Before she could process the message, howling erupts outside her house—closer than usual. Her uncle's voice booms from below:

"Tiara! Get down here. Now!"

She hides the necklace under a pile of clothes, heart pounding.

" The danger is really close by? Not to trust even family....." These words lingered in her head as she descended the stairs

"Family? Uncle Garrett and his family are the only ones I can call family."

"Could they have had something to do in their deaths? Did my parents find out something before their death?"

"What is going on?" She panicked as she rushed down the stairs that lead to the main house, seeing that the family was all present.

Morning mist clung to the ground as Tiara ventured back into the woods as it had become her routine.

Today, she walked deeper than usual, drawn by something she could not explain.

The forest remained stilled as it was still very early.

Then— she heard movements.

Suddenly, a sleek black wolf darted between the trees. Her heart skipped. She turned, prepared to run when he—Alpha Edwin Stone suddenly stepped out from the bush, bumping into her.

Although weak, Tiara tried to hold herself from falling into the moist ground of the woods but she couldn't.

Observing the man before her, he was taller up close. Muscles tensed under his dark cloak, his golden eyes piercing.

"You should not be this deep in the woods," he said.

"I....I....erm..." She stuttered, obviously mesmerized by the sight before her.

"You might be mistaken for a spy considering the fact that you are here all alone, by yourself."

"I am sorry." Tiara apologized.