Moon Marked

1| Mark of Longing

Aurelia

Under the moon was the only place I felt safe. It was the only comfort I'd had over these past few years I'd spent trapped behind the gates of this sanctuary. It came back to me every night, watching me, listening to me, consoling me—learning every crevice of my heart as it set a path towards a destiny I had started to resent.

"It's already past midnight," Meena said from my side, letting out a huff of irritation. "Do you think the matrons have lied to us about the claiming ceremony tomorrow?" Her words felt sharp as they sliced through me, my gaze dropping from the shadows in the night sky as the panic clutched at my chest.

"Don't say that." I hissed, "The matrons would not risk the wrath of the witches they serve by lying to us about something so sacred."

Meena sighed, shooting me a pitiful glance.

Since I'd known her, she had never taken this all as seriously as I did—but then again, she had never wanted this as much as I did either.

"It was just a thought, Aurelia." She turned her head, a frown settling on her forehead as she shuffled further along the canopy we were both hiding beneath.

I was on edge, and my words to her had come out harsher than I had intended—but she knew more than anyone the mess that I turned into when it came to nights like these.

Unlike her, it had been years since I'd been brought to this sanctuary, all wide-eyed and full of excitement for the fate that would be given to me. Instead, here I was—stuck in stasis. Waiting for my Alpha, waiting for the claim that had been promised to me from the moment the witches had chosen me on the day of my eighteenth birthday.

Marked wolves had never tended to stay under the protection of the sanctuary for very long—most she-wolves were claimed by their Alpha within the year they had stepped foot into this place, but it had been three years since I walked through these gates and my Alpha was nowhere to be seen.

"There's still time, maybe—maybe they just got lost, the sanctuary is hidden well for a reason." I grasped at whatever my mind could come up with as Meena gave me a sidelong glance. The both of us knew very well that all wolves had a strong sense of direction, and that wasn't even countering in the fact that an Alpha's senses were even more heightened than that of an average wolf.

Simply getting lost wasn't something that was in an Alpha's DNA.

"And maybe a dragon came out of the sky and burnt them to a bloody crisp." She replied sarcastically, laughing quietly at her joke as she leaned against the ledge of the roof. She tilted her head up at the sky, basking in the power of the night air as she smiled at the very thought of the fairytale she had managed to conjure up.

I scoffed, knowing just how much she would have loved for that to be true.

Sometimes the things she said made me wonder why she had even shown up at the sanctuary in the first place, when I knew just how much she was against its teachings, but even as my past was an open book—hers was padlocked and loaded with silver for anyone who tried to get through.

In the grand scheme of things, it had made sense why we had become such quick friends. Meena had never cared about the rules that had to be followed, and she had never cared about the whispers that followed me around, or the way most of the other girls were hellbent on trying to avoid me like I was some sort of plague.

She didn't care that after the last ceremony that had occurred in the spring, that I had officially set the record for the longest time a marked wolf had ever resided in this sanctuary.

She didn't care that everyone here thought of me as a bad luck charm.

Their whispers had thickened my skin as they made their mean remarks about me to the new wolves that arrived at the sanctuary steps, and even though Meena had been the only one who hadn't fallen for it, their declarations travelled through every room I walked into. And over time—the more I listened to them, the more I began to believe they were right.