Chapter 1
Zinnia's Story
I have heard many, many Luna's stories in my time. When I had the access, I would spend hours reading about our history, whether local memoir or tale wrought far away. I found much joy in listening to accounts told by Lunas. I loved to learn anything I could use to better myself.
There was one thing I noticed that would always drive me a little crazy, though. Every Luna, or mate to the Alpha, seemed to be either some weak, downtrodden little human girl who knew nothing about werewolf culture, or was a part of the werewolf community, but completely anti-social. I knew I was going to be a Luna, so I didn't want to be that way, but it turned out that that was not the female in the story that I ended up being.
I was the first girl. The old main. The problem from the past that needed to be taken care of.
I was the one that had been there for the future Alpha at every turn. I had warmed his bed and sated the fury between his legs. I was there to grieve with him after his mother was killed. I was the apple of his eye. That is, until he found his mate. Then I was labeled a hazard and treated like some kind of societal deviant.
It was the end of our story and now that I have been striped of everything that ever mattered to me, it is the end of my story. I was thoroughly betrayed by my Alpha, my friends, my pack and the Moon Goddess and no one is here to help me pick up the pieces.
Maybe I deserve to be here.
I was a stupid, naive little girl to think that I deserved to be happy after betraying my wolf.
Community is the most important thing to a werewolf. It is what we keep most of our focus on, the center of our lives. It makes us strong, but it can also make us weak, I've learned.
Intellectually, it is the one thing about my personality that I wish I could change. If I could be a lone wolf and not have to worry about becoming a rogue, I would do it in a heartbeat.
My main duty every day had been to set and check traps for small animals around the pack land. I fought for that position and I was excellent at it. The meat I caught was used to supplement the meat that was purchased and also to feed prisoners.
That responsibility is usually carried out by the Gamma or future Gamma, but since I was going to be the Luna and the future Gamma was in classes all day, Alpha El allowed me to do it. In fact, he was more than happy to let me do it.
The meat they now serve me once a day was caught with the traps I used to check.
Why would I lie and tell you that I didn't have it all up until a few weeks ago? I had graduated from high school a semester early because my nose was always in a book. I wasn't a nerd or anything like that, it was just important to me that I proved myself useful to my pack. I was kind of popular in high school, but not because I cared about being liked by everyone or anything, mostly because of my proximity to the future Alpha of the West Moontrail Pack.
I had the eye of our future Alpha on me. The love of my life, Shawn. He was perfect, 6'2", muscular with beautiful dark brown skin and a perfect heart melting smile. We had grown up together and I got to see the strong, handsome, caring Alpha he was growing into. He said he would always take care of me.
The only thing I didn't have in my life were my parents. They were killed by humans. They had been my whole life and then one day, when I was 13, they were gone. I owe them everything. They gave me what I needed to become a good Luna. I still lived in the same house that I had lived in with them, my childhood home. I had kept it the way it had been when they were alive for all these years.
I had the love of my community and I couldn't wait to be their Luna. My pack, as much as I love them, had some antiquated views about women, but I was going to change that. Though my birthday was 7 months before his and I had already turned 17, the age we are when we can sense our mates, Shawn and I just knew we would be mates, so we didn't wait to be together.
After the first time I shifted, I noticed a unique mark under my left breast. It is of a moon trail. The trail in my mark goes from the moon which is on the top right to the ocean which to the bottom left. I did some research to find out what it meant, but my digging always came up short. I didn't think too much about it for years until one day when I saw the mirror image of my mark on Shawn's chest. His was left to right. We had always been close but after that, we became inseparable. We even got support from the pack elders after we told them about our marks.
We dated for 9 months. I spent most of the time I wasn't with him or checking traps studying basic engineering, our history, local plant life, battle and survival tactics and astronomy. I even completed a course to become a midwife. I wanted to know everything I needed to if I wanted to be helpful to our soon to be Alpha, my gorgeous darling Shawn.
As I await my sentence, I look back on my life just two weeks ago and then I look down at the chains I'm bound in and I can't believe how much and how quickly everything has changed.
