Moon Marked

6| Mark of Ridicule

Aurelia

There was a tightness spreading through my chest, wrapping around my lungs and constricting the beat of my heart. It was a sort of helplessness that mirrored the look Meena had given me, the wounds that I didn't understand in her eyes reshaping themselves into something more tangible—something that filled me with guilt and despair.

My wolf was getting more restless as the hours passed by, the aches of my body reminding me of the lapse in judgement I'd had last night.

Up until this point, I had done everything exactly how I was supposed to.

I had served the witches who had given me the magic of my mark, I had revered the parts of the sanctuary and held tight onto the spirit of my wolf. I had been the perfect subject that had been bestowed the mark of the moon—that was all until that Alpha had shown up in a place he shouldn't have and ruined everything.

I should have been in front of the celestial dais begging for forgiveness and yet there was a strange calmness that flowed through me—stopping me from reciting the prayers that were shaking in my bones. The feeling that had spread between my lungs clinging to the threads of hope that were keeping my heart in place, but my heart and my head were two different entities—and they were warring for control.

Nothing made sense to me anymore, and I didn't know if I could trust the feelings inside of me, especially considering what they had made me do not so long ago. I scrubbed the exploits of last night from my skin until it turned red, and then I dressed like I normally would. I shimmied into my shift dress, pulling my damp hair into a makeshift bun, and tying my necklace around my neck once again.

Even with the chaos fighting inside of me, the day was still going to carry on and the claiming ceremony was still going to take place.

My wolf was scratching at my insides again, her agitation only adding to my own as I walked through the hallways and headed to the dining room.

The sanctuary was a massive structure that was built around the formation of nature, its purpose to utilise everything the moon had provided us in our acts of gratitude to her, but even as I walked through the magnificence of it all, I knew that any amount of soap and water I had used to cleanse the desperation I had acted on last night still wouldn't afford me the favour of the witches like it usually did.

It was everyone's daily routine to walk barefoot against the cold stone floor, past the pillars and the reflection of the sun through the colourful stained glass. The sanctuary always looked so different basked in the streams of golden light, it held a frivolity in the daytime that could not be mimicked under the seriousness of the moon.

The noise got louder the closer I got to the dining hall and for a moment I resented Meena for being able to run away from all of this, leaving me to walk into the viper's den all on my own.

Meena didn't care much for the intricacies of tradition as much as I did, so she didn't feel the same need that I felt towards the ritual of arranging the ceremonial plates. It was the first offering we gave to our future lovers, the first sign of appreciation for everything we would both do for each other. If I hadn't felt so attached to the custom, maybe I would have been able to save myself a lot of hardship.

I tried not to draw attention to myself as I walked through the doors, keeping to the sides of the room and the safety of the walls, but even in the joy of this day their senses were laser focused.

The temperature in the room dropped and the conversations died down as all their gazes turned to take me in. I was the disease that had infiltrated their bubble and now they were going to do the best that they could to try and strike me out of it.