The Return Of The Moon

When I was born, there was no music, dance, or lights. There wasn't even a single being who celebrated my cry or the simple fact that I was alive. All that could be heard in that cubicle were the desperate cries of my mother and the crack of the whip on the ground from the lady who considered her a slave.

There was no joy because when a slave is born in this world, there is no reason to rejoice, and now, I finally understand why.

"Please... I swear, I don't know what they're talking about..." I said, crying like on the day I was born, with my body bruised, and my hands blistered from the punishment assigned to me, "I swear... I swear on my soul, which is all I possess... I am innocent!"

"Silence!" The priest who looked at me with contempt snarled, "How does a disgusting human like you, a slave, dare to say that your masters are lying?"

"I-I..." I opened my mouth to speak, but before that was even possible, I felt the whip strike my cheek with force, throwing me to the ground and tearing my skin, my face.

"This is what you get for desiring something you can't have," Eline Baldwin, the youngest daughter of the lord I was born to serve, growled at me, her eyes shining in that rosy hue that made her lineage clear. She was a wolf, a pure-blooded wolf, a Rose.

"The Alpha himself called for your head, don't you understand?" It was Elarian Baldwin's turn to speak, his teeth clenched, his feline eyes, "You are disgusting, girl. You disgust me, so... shut up and die in silence."

She ordered, and I had always been... obedient.

Since my first breath, I had longed for love."Maybe if I am good" Maybe if I try" Maybe if I don't complain, contest, question..."It didn't work. Everything I did and didn't do led me to the current moment, the pain that tore through my chest, my back, and my legs. The screams that I felt escaped my lips while Eline and Elarian laughed at my suffering.

There was no room for humans in a world ruled by monsters. There was no room for a nothing like me. A nobody. A being without a name and pride.

The anger I thought didn't exist in my chest erupted when tears rolled down my cheeks one last time, and I truly... regretted it.

I regretted not resisting, fighting, and above all, I regretted the full moon night when I saved the d*mn Alpha who ruled as the King of that pack.

Rowan E. L. Desmond. If I could go back, if I had the chance to do it all over again, I would certainly let him die.

The memories would haunt me now. It was raining so much that day that I could barely see a hand in front of my face because of the drops falling aggressively into my eyes.

But... even with my blurry vision, I saw those black hair and pale skin, standing out against the rosebush where he had been thrown. A rosebush with sharp thorns, sharp enough to make him bleed, the blood dripping and mingling with the red petals.

"Are you okay?" I asked as soon as I reached him, his black eyes completely distant as he looked at me, "as I thought," I said, feeling foolish for having questioned anything of the sort.

I don't even know how I managed to get that man out of there. He was much larger than me, obviously heavy, and the fact that it was raining so hard didn't help at all. My body seemed about to freeze, but still, I dragged him away from there.

I dragged him to a place where I could tend to his wounds.

I should have abandoned him when I realized his body lay on the floor of the place where I used to sleep, in that cubicle with nothing but a mat and straw.

The only candle I had to light the place allowed me to see that his attire was that of a noble, but still, I decided to help.

D*mn. Why did I do that?

If I had simply let him die, perhaps the Baldwin family wouldn't have easily cast me aside. But no. I crawled in the middle of the night, in the cold, in the rain, to hunt for herbs and petals that could save the wretched man's life. I tended to his wounds, made him drink the tea's potion, and even made sure his fever had subsided. I didn't sleep for two nights while he was there, and when he finally left, he didn't even bother to thank me. And how could he? I was nothing.

"By the power vested in me, I declare the slave belonging to the Baldwin family guilty of the crimes of treason against the royal family," the priest finally said, lips curved, as he looked at the Baldwin sisters. "As punishment for her crime... she must be killed."

Of course. Of course, I was sentenced to death, because it wasn't enough for me to be a creature thirsting for love; no, I also had to be foolish enough to help someone from the royal family who couldn't even be touched—especially by someone like me. I smiled. Perhaps this was to serve as a lesson so that if I were to reincarnate, I would never do such a thing again.

"Place her on the ground," the priest ordered at some point, his eyes shining as if he were savoring the scene, the scene where they simply put me against that rotten wooden floor as if I were an animal about to be slaughtered.

Well, why would they treat me any differently, especially at the moment of my death? I wouldn't be stupid to think otherwise about these well-developed dogs, not at this point. So much so that I only heard the steps of the executioner approaching my head, along with the clinking of the blade being drawn from its sheath, to then be raised, bringing all that suspense.

"May the goddess have mercy on your soul, sinner," that wretched man uttered for the last time as if he were some merciful figure. And when his hand made the gesture for the sword to finally meet my neck, those two large doors of the imperial hall opened, and I saw him.

He was there.

With those d*mn black eyes that seemed ready to devour my existence and finite life.

He was there, to witness my end.

The man I saved on a cold and stormy night was the last thing I saw before dying.

Nyla Lenore

The ceiling was bright, unlike that dark ceiling painted with golden details. It wasn't the palace ceiling, but... neither was it the rotted wooden ceiling of the warehouse I called home.I was certain I had felt the cold blade on my neck, that death had embraced me in a moment of one-sidedness, but now everything felt strange, and the air entering my lungs made it clear that I was still... alive.

"Nyla!" A female voice called, and I blinked, feeling my body light as a feather. There was no pain, not even the agony in my chest that had completely dominated me seconds ago, "daughter... you woke up..." a woman spoke, and I felt delicate and soft hands touching my skin" We were so worried, my little Nyla..."

My eyes moved to the side, and I stared at her, the red hair, the beautiful and elegant face.A noble.Yes, she was definitely a noble.

"Dear, Nyla is fragile and has just awakened, please cal