Lilith
The summer air is warm on my skin.
The heat is sinking through my white ceremonial gown, but I can’t bring myself to care.
Tonight is going to be one of the most important nights of my life, and I am not going to let anything ruin it.
When I woke up this morning, I was shocked to find that I wasn’t alone.
A gentle voice greeted me in my mind.
My wolf, Flora, coaxed me from my sleep.
Now, I am standing in front of the Moonclaw Pack, ready to shift for the first time.
My father has been giving a speech about how long he has been waiting for this day, and my mother is standing beside him with tears rolling down her cheeks.
Even that can’t take away from her beauty.
She is so stunning that I am unable to take my eyes off her.
I can only hope that I will grow up to be half the Luna that she is.
“It is time,” my father breaks through my thoughts.
“My daughter.
My heir.
Will shift into her wolf for the first time.”
He turns to me slowly, with a bright grin on his face.
“Lily, tell the Moonclaw Pack the name of your wolf.”
I open my mouth to speak, but I never get the chance to answer him.
A growl rumbles through the trees, and the scent of rotting flesh is carried on the wind.
My father snarls and pushes me behind him, putting himself between the rogues and us.
“Leave,” my father commands.
“You are on Moonclaw Pack territory.”
A man steps forward.
His clothes are tattered, and mud is caked on his skin.
An evil grin stretches across his lips.
“We know exactly where we are.”
Then it is chaos.
The rogues shift into their wolves, ripping into pack members and advancing on my mother and me.
She turns to me and cups my face in her hands.
“Run.”
”No,” I whimper.
“I can help.
I can fight.”
“You aren’t trained…”
It happens too quickly.
Before she can finish her thought, before I can warn her, a rogue bites down into her shoulder, dragging her into the trees.
I watch in horror as she tries to fight back, but more rogues tear into her body.
They rip out chunks of her flesh, and her screams echo loudly into the night.
“Mom,” I choke on my scream.
Flora pushes her way to the front of my mind, and the shift begins.
I scream as the pain takes over my body, but no one can hear me over the battle.
My bones shift and rearrange, my vision sharpens, and after what feels like forever, I am no longer myself.
Massive paws scrape the ground in front of me, but I don’t have time to look at their color or marvel at my wolf form.
Flora snarls and rushes in the direction of my mother.
Sinking her teeth into the first rogue, she yanks him away.
His body hits the ground with a sickening thud, but Flora doesn’t get distracted.
She pulls another rogue off my mother, and then another.
She moves with deadly precision, and the rogues scatter, leaving my mother’s marred body in the dirt.
Flora howls mournfully, hovering over her body.
She nudges Mom with her nose and whimpers when a shaky hand reaches up to pet her.
“You are beautiful,” Mom coughs.
Blood dribbles down her chin, and her head falls lifelessly to the side.
My bones crack and shift, fur disappears from my arms, and I sit naked beside my mother’s body.
“No,” I cry.
“Mom.
You are going to be okay.
Your wolf can heal you.”
My eyes trail over her body, and deep down, I know that the damage is too much, the wounds are too extensive.
Nothing will be able to save my mother.
Her body is limp, and her chest doesn’t rise and fall with steady breaths.
She is nothing but a shell of what my mother was.
“Yvette?”
I look up and see my father looking down on me.
His eyes are wide, and I can see the fear behind them.
“Lily,” he murmurs.
“What did you do?”
……The memory fades away, and I am left standing in my old bedroom with Serene.
My vision is blurry because my eyes are swimming with tears, and I can barely see her standing in front of me.
I wipe away the tears and see her standing in front of me with a strange smile on her face.
“You don’t like your present?”
”It is lovely,” I manage to say.
Serene inches her way closer to me, and I am not smart enough to step back.
“Then why are you crying?”
I shake my head.
“Seeing her makes me emotional.”
”Poor Lilith,” she mocks me.
“Her mommy died and left her all alone in this big, bad world.”
My eyes narrow in her direction.
“Is this why you gave me this?
To make fun of me when I cried?”
Serene drags a nail down my cheek.
The sting of blood rushing to the surface makes me hiss, and that sound only eggs Serene on.
She wipes my blood from her nail onto my shirt and laughs.
“You don’t deserve nice things.
You don’t deserve to live well.
You are a thorn in everyone’s side.
You are a blemish on the Moonclaw Pack.
You should just fade away, just like your mother did.”
Her words settle wrong in my stomach, and anger takes the place of the sadness I just felt.
My fists ball up at my sides.
“Why do you hate me so much?”
Serene laughs, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Because you are a nobody.
No one wants you.
Not your father, not the pack, and certainly not Casper.”