Bound by the Luna's Song

SERENA'S SONG

The world has long changed.

Humans were no longer the only ones freely roaming around—most mystical beings have revealed themselves to the world, and only two kinds rule among everyone: the strong and the wealthy. I am Serena Cameron, and I am neither of the two.

“Mommy, she looks so pretty!”

A human child pointed at my glass, admiring me in my celestial-themed robes to accentuate my fluffy red ears and tail, along with jewelries to exhibit an appeal that’ll draw the eyes of many. I smiled, waving my hand as I remained seated on a decorated boulder.

“I want to be like her when I grow up!”

“No, dear. Things like her shouldn’t be an example of dreams.”

Things like me? That is a little…blinking, I kept my smile and watched them as they went to another cage.

My life is simple—I have to entertain and have people pay money just to see me. It would’ve been lonely, if not for my precious human, George.

At the thought of him, my eyes darted o where he usually stays. As my keeper, he stays close, giving me an encouraging smile and waves off his hand every time he sees me looking at him. Today, he told me he wanted to talk to me after work! I am so excited!

***

He was my light in this lonely cage…but then why is he in front of me, asking for such a thing?

“Please, can you sing for Ellie? She wanted to hear you sing.” He smiled, holding the hand of a beautiful woman whose eyes are staring at me with a mix of arrogance and amusement. But what caught my eyes the most…was their matching rings.

“Can an unidentified weirdo like her even sing? She’s just lip syncing her performances, doesn’t she?” she sneered, hurting my pride a little.

It is true, my name is Serena, but my specie remained as three question marks, “???” simply because no other shifter nor creature has permanent ears and tail like me.

“I sing,” hoping to clear her doubts, I spoke. But my words fell on deaf ears as she simply chuckled and clung on his arm, making my heart ache. “I can sing for you, if that is what you want.”

The lady named Elli laughed. “Babe, how the hell did you tame her?” she asked, sounding like she’s talking to a vile beast.

“Just, you know, how you treat infants.” He chuckled, kissing her temple before facing me with an expression I never saw before—it is a smug, and visibly selfish grin. “You’ll do anything I’ll ask of you, right, Serena? You promised me that.” He snickered, making my eyes well with tears.

I promise that because he said he will give me his heart, and we will share our future together once he earned enough to free me here…“George, this is not what I meant.” I tried to reason in a soft voice, hoping I won’t sound too rude nor hear my own voice break in pain.

“If I add two thousand more, can you open the cage and have me touch her, babe?” she asked, flaunting her wealth.

Please, don’t. You know I don’t like physical touches, right, George? Somewhere in my heart, I still long for the affection he used to give me.

“Sure, baby. Add it right to my account, hm?” chuckling, he faced me with a sly smile. “You heard her, Serena. Let her touch you, and sing for us, will you?”

“No…no please…”

Even with my pleas, he walked over and guided her to the glass door that leads to my cage. Shaking, I tried to leave, but the metal anklets shoot of volts of electricity, rendering me defenseless as I fell on the ground.

“Don’t run now, Serena. You know that’s not how animals behave.” George smirked, waving the remote.

“George, please don’t.” I can’t stop my tears from falling as I watched them approach me, hand in hand, they both share the same look of devilish gazes—as if I am a feast to be indulged into.

“Sing, Serena.”

Seeing him with someone else broke me truly. “I trusted you, George.” As my tears streamed down my face, their laughter and visible joy of watching me suffer triggered my very soul to boil in seething anger. “You want my song? Fine.”

“Your hearts engraved in sin,”

“Shall be written in the font of hell,” My voice is trembling, but it didn’t fail to express my burning htred amidst the swirl of pain that crushes every part of me.

“My wish is for you to understand,”

“That your hearts should turn to stone.”

Something within me snapped—I felt the refreshing sensation of being freed, almost as if my body was unrestrained by a force I didn’t know was there in the first place. As I watched their expressions turn grimmer and grimmer as I sang, it felt as if everything was right.

“S-serena-”

“What is this?!” the woman shrieked as they were unable to move. Their bodies are being molded into the perfect status—unable to move, unable to break me.

I was too empty to even feel pity for them. With my tears just streaming down my face, I watched them slowly join the silence and become permanently expressing surprise, anger, and fear. With that, my voice found itself new words to sing.

“When our eyes will meet yet again.”

“May you grovel and fall on your despair.”

It was eerily quiet after that. What happens now? There are no one else in the zoo, and if they will find me in here…people will use me more. “Why could my song do this…?” whispering my own question, I stared at their stoned bodies with nothing etched in my tear-stained face.

Soon, I heard slow claps from behind.

Turning, my eyes immediately recognized him, making me cower in fear. “Stay away…” trying to stand up, my body felt the aftereffects of being shocked, causing me to fall down on my numbed feet.

In front of me is the ‘black wolf’—the star of every good and bad news, Thoren Avery.

His piercing golden orbs are staring at me intently. The way his tanned and fit physique is clad in black, and his jett black hair is loosely styled, makes him look more intimidating that the photos I can see through the guests who talks about him. “Please, no…”

His mere presence snapped me back to reality—if I were to anger the werewolves’ pride, the alpha of Storm Surge Pack, I will definitely d*e.

When he walked closer to the glass, I crawled back until I could feel the smooth surface of the boulder that I usually sit on behind me. “I-I promise, I didn’t know what happened…my voice…I didn’t mean to—”

Placing his palm on the glass, his eyes bore on me. “Do you want me to save you?”

Save…it sounded too good to be true. But it sounded so beautiful that I found myself slowly nodding.

“Close your eyes.” Obliging, I closed my eyes, and as darkness consumed my vision, I heard a few rustles, followed by a low, yet loud growl and heavy, intimidating footsteps.

I wanted to open my eyes, but I was afraid of what I might see. Staying there, I waited for what’s about to happen next—soon, I heard the loud, terrifying sound of the glass breaking into shards that fall unto the grass, with a few hitting George and his woman, deflecting the shards away from me. The alarms loudly blared, and it tripled the anxiety swirling within me.

Trembling, I clenched my fists, and my heightened hearing made my heart beat faster as I heard the footsteps coming closer to me. Then, I felt soft fur nudging me, almost as if I was being told to open my eyes.

Doing so, my vision was welcomed by a glorious black wolf, a golden diamond symbol is on his forehead, with his fur shining underneath the warm lights of my cage, and his golden orbs stared at me with power, yet a sense of safety radiating from him.

“So…majestic…” slowly reaching out to touch him, I gasped when he shifted back to his human form and held my wrist, now crouching down in front of me.

His big, calloused hand reached out to touch my face, causing for shivers to run down my spine as I tried to bravely keep my green orbs on him. “What is your name, woman?”

“S-Serena…Cameron.” As I spoke, my eyes darted to his injured arm. “Hey, you’re injured…” I called out, but he ignored my words and continued.

“Serena. My mate.” The way he called me sent tingles all over my body, temporarily pulling me out of the numbness of my shocked system. “You have such a lovely voice.” His fingers brushed down to my throat, just not enough to hurt me.

Mate…? “Can…can werewolves have mates from a different kind?” speaking up, I nervously waited as I watched him stare down at my ankles.

“I-I don’t think it was ever possible to-” my breath hitched when his other hand made way to touch my ankles, his fingers brushing through my skin and the metal anklet made me feel a lot of unexplainable feelings.

“Come.” Barehandedly, he broke my anklets free from me, making me gasp. “You don’t belong here.” Using his hand, he guided me to close my eyes yet again, followed by the gentle nudge of his fur.

When I opened my eyes once again, he was in his wolf form, lowering himself down as if beckoning me to come up. Slowly, I sit up, holding onto his fur.

Growling, he started walking out, but as soon as we walked past the broken shards, he changed his stance, causing me to hold tighter before he leaped off and ran away from the zoo, pushing past the approaching security team and in a terrifying speed and strong wind, enabling him the upper hand from the bullets shot at our direction.

Instead of feeling the dread of being taken into an unknown place, the wind that splashes on my face, despite how it hurts my body and barely felt nature my entire life, I felt free.

…Little did I know, that place is not that different from the zoo.