Hidden moonlight

Lily's POV Rising majestically over Silver Hollow, the silvery light of the full moon softly illuminated the old forest in a menacing radiance. The shadows it created felt alive, spreading over the ceremonial area our pack had assembled. The kind of expectation that permeates the air—that which causes your stomach to turn over and your heart to rush. Tonight everything seemed about to change. Watching the pack members occupy their positions around the moonlit stone altar, I stood alone close to the edge of the clearing, my breath stopping in my throat. This was the evening of the Lunar Festival, when relationships were created and destinies were unveiled. My heart was weighted with a mixture of exhilaration and fear. Marcus Blackwood, the Alpha, would show his choice—his intended mate— tonight. I found myself staring out at Marcus, who stood tall and powerful close to the altar. His dark eyes, usually unreadable, looked around the audience. Unquestionably, his presence captured the attention of everyone around him. For so long, from a distance, I had loved him; my heart was silently hoping tonight he would see me as more than simply a pack member. Still, my chest was knotted with anxiety that would not go away. I had a secret, a buried piece of my life that I prayed never would surface. Still, I couldn't get rid of the idea that tonight everything would be on show when the ceremony started. Everyone in attendance turned to pay attention to the strong, commanding voice of the Alpha. As the words of the old ceremony permeated the air, each one weightier than the next, I shivered down my spine. With every second that passed, my heart hammered louder, anxiety and expectation battling inside me. The Alpha fixed her eyes on me as the ritual peaked. Marcus moved forward, his face incomprehensible, my breath froze in my throat. This was it—the instant I had been waiting for, hated, and dream of all at once. Marcus's voice, "Lily Greene," rang across the clearing, sharp and unambiguous. "You are the partner meant for me. Every member of the group gasped collectively. The words sank in and my knees almost collapsed under me. After all this time, he had chosen me—hardly believable. Hope just flickered in my chest. Perhaps this marked the start of something exquisite. Then I glanced into Marcus's eyes, and hope broke. His eyes were icy, far-off, totally devoid of the love and affection I had been yearning for. As he went on, his voice intensifying with every word, my heart tightened in my chest. "You are not strong enough to be my mate," he said, his tone sharp and uncompromising. "Your secret compromises the safety of our pack; you lack political alliances." The words wipe out my breathing like a physical blow. My secret—how did he find out? I had buried it, walled off somewhere nobody could find it. Marcus was also casting me aside in front of the whole group right now. Though I opened my mouth to defend myself, no words came out. Too much shock and pain silenced me when I most needed to be fighting. The pack was staring at me, their judgment hanging heavily on my shoulders. Marcus said, his voice icy and determined, "You're being exiled." He turned away, discounting me as if I were nothing, not even looking at me. My chest felt as though it were weighted crushingly, making breathing difficult. The pack started to break up, their whispers in my ears like a thousand knives slicing into me. Tears fogging my view, I staggered away from the altar. Now I was thrown out, my heart broken; I had believed today would be the night I discovered my place, my home, my love. The trees blurring together as I struggled to make sense of what had just transpired, I have no idea how long I traveled across the woodland. Replaying Marcus's words over and over again, each one a knife to my heart, my head whirled. How might he treat me? How did he totally turn on me? I found myself pulled toward the old stone tower at the edge of the woodland as the moonlight poured through the trees. When I needed to be alone, to relax, to ponder, I had always gone there. But tonight it had a darker draw—a place to hide from the suffering that was poised to overwhelm me. Pushing open the large wooden door, I entered and felt the cool air envelop me like a cloak. My head still whirl as I ascended the spiral staircase, my feet resonated against the stone floor. I stopped at the top, the sounds drawing my focus. I was not isolated. I peeped around the corner creeping forward, my heart freezing at what I saw. Marcus was there, softly glowing in the moonlight coming through the window. But he was not alone. beside her hands entwined in his hair, a woman stood beside him, her body pressed near. My breath stopped in my throat as I identified Elena, the daughter of one of the most powerful pack members. She was everything I lacked—strong, gorgeous, forceful. She was in Marcus's arms now, her lips locked with his in a kiss full of a passion I had never seen in him before. Though I wanted to turn and flee, I froze in place and my heart broke once more. He had termed me weak and turned away for this reason—because he had already selected someone else. I placed my hand over my mouth attempting to hold it in, a sob swelled in my throat. But it was already too late. Marcus's head shot up and his eyes locked on me as the sound escaped. Silence descended for a moment—just the three of us, locked in place, the weight of the truth hanging thick in the air. Elena then turned away from him, her eyes closing as she moved toward me. "What are you Lily doing here? Her voice full of contempt, she asked. Have you not caused enough disturbance? Marcus said nothing at all, his face hard and incomprehensible. The man I knew seemed to have disappeared, replaced by someone I identify with. My heart thumping in my chest, I moved back. "How could you, Marcus?," asked Whispering, my voice shook with a mixture of hurt and rage. "How would you turn on me like this? After all I have done, after all the times I watched you...“ He neither tried to justify himself nor answered. Rather, he fixed me, his gaze icy and detached. Gone was the man I had loved—the man I believed loved me. And in his place was a stranger, someone who considered me as just another target for elimination. At last he ordered, "Go," his voice as frigid as the nighttime air. "Leave Lily, please. You are no longer fitting here. His finality sliced through me, leaving me panting for air. Nothing left for me here—no love, no house, no future. To him, I had nothing. As I turned and escaped the tower, tears flowed down my cheeks; the sound of their shouts rang in my ears as I hurried. Desperate to flee the suffering threatening to split me apart, the forest closed up around me and the darkness swallowed me whole as I pushed across the underbrush. My lungs were burning and my legs felt like lead by the time I stopped jogging. My body quivering with sadness and tiredness, I dropped to the ground. The moon was still high in the heavens, its cold, merciless glare down onto me. I was left empty. Not home, not family, not love. In one evening, all I had ever known, all I had ever loved had been snatched from me. And now I was alone, banished from the one place I had ever considered home. A new feeling—a great, blazing anger—started to stir inside me as the tears fell. How could he treat me? How could Marcus, the man I had loved with all my heart, turn on me so totally? Furthermore, for what? Ability? Cooperatives? a woman having everything I lacked? Not yes. I would not accept it. I would stop him from getting away with this. My hands clenched into fists at my sides, I pulled myself slowly to stand. Marcus was mistaken if he felt he could discard me as I was nothing. I would find means of survival as well as of resistance. I would have him come to repent the day he ever turned on me. As I vowed, the moon watched over me and its light led me across the gloom. Though one thing was clear: I would rise from this—where I would go or what I would accomplish was unknown. I would grow stronger, more ferocious than I had ever been. And eventually I would go back to Silver Hollow when the time was perfect. Marcus ought to pay for what he had done. And I would undo everything rightly mine. I turned to leave the woodland, stopped in my tracks as a low growl came from the shadows. My heart jumped into my throat when the huge figure of a renegade wolf emerged from the darkness. Two brilliant eyes followed.