THE SHIELD AND THE SWORD

Asteria One of my earliest memories was when I was five, and we had just received another violent visit from Raymond. No, I don’t call him my father. He has never been that to me. All I know him as is a horrible man. I know it was dark outside, and I don’t think I had been asleep that long when I heard a loud bang and my mother scream. I knew it was him, only he came to our cabin to see us. I climbed out of bed, went to my closet, shut the door, and cried. I knew he was hurting Mom again. She never talked about what he did, but I saw the bruises and the torn clothes. So I knew it wasn't good. I needed to try and be quiet like Mom told me, and I even covered my ears, but nothing helped. I could hear the screams every visit. Once it got quiet, I would go to Mom, hold her, and we would rock, and she would sing to me. My mother, Ruby, used to be a school teacher. At 23, she met Raymond, the alpha of the black raven pack. They were soulmates or mated by the goddess. She was so happy to have finally met her mate. However, instead of a happy meeting where she would introduce him to my grandparents in her pack, he grabbed her, put her in his SUV, and took her to his pack. She didn’t get to say goodbye to anyone. You see, my mother was the daughter of a gamma couple, and my father thought he deserved an alpha mate to be his Luna and for strong pups. Mom said he was angry but wouldn’t let her go and wouldn’t reject her because he couldn’t have pups with the chosen mate. He put Mom in a Cabin near the Warrior's barracks and forbade anyone from coming to the cabin except for grocery deliveries. His head warrior, Thomas, came every Friday to drop off groceries. We took whatever was delivered—no special requests allowed. Thomas was friendly and quietly asked my mom if she and I were okay or needed anything. I know he feels bad for us. He knows Raymond took a chosen mate as his Luna but won't let us leave. We are prisoners in the cabin. I am seven now, and Mom home-schools me during the week. Raymond wanted a son, not a daughter. When he does come, I go to my room and into my closet for my safety. I have nightmares almost every night because of Raymond’s visits. I wish I were strong enough to help her, to make him stop. When I asked her why we didn’t just leave, she told me she had tried before I was born, but he caught her. His pack is larger than her family’s pack. So she couldn’t go to them or ask for help. He would attack their small pack. Now that she has me, we have to wait until I’m older and get my wolf, and we will make a plan together that is safe for us to go. It’s almost sunset, and we just finished eating Mom's lasagna. So I helped her put the dishes in the sink and clean up. I always look forward to sunset because we can go outside after washing the dishes. We go out the back door to sit on our little porch, and like always, she plays with my long black curls and sings to me. When she finishes her song, she reminds me that my eighth birthday is coming up. She asks me what kind of cake I want. We continue to talk about small things until we see the warriors have changed shifts for patrol. We do this every day as part of our routine. You know, they change patrol shifts occasionally, and Mom says we have to watch and learn. It’s Monday morning now. Mom wakes me up early for school. I hurry to the bathroom to do my business and then rush downstairs to help Mom with breakfast. It’s simple: bacon, eggs, and toast. After eating, we cleaned up the table so I could get started on school. Once school is over, we go to the basement to train. Since mom was a Gamma's daughter, she was trained to fight. So, after school each day and before dark, we have a few hours where she teaches me self-defense. It’s the only window we have to do this in secret because after dark, there’s always a chance Raymond will show up. He doesn’t allow women to train in this pack. According to him, women don’t need to fight. Thankfully, the ceilings are high in this old basement because Mom teaches me how to do a roundhouse kick. It’s a lot harder than it looks, but I will learn I always do. After about an hour of kicks and jabs, she has me switch to defense. I immediately began watching her legs and arm movements. She comes at me to get me in a headlock, and I directly go low and sweep her legs hard. She goes down and laughs and tells me how proud she is of me. We go at it for another 30 minutes, and it’s time to stop. We don’t want to get caught training. She tells me to clean up and change, and I head upstairs. I grab my clothes and go into the bathroom to shower. It feels like I’m only in the shower for 10 minutes, and while I’m washing my hair, I hear the door being opened and mom yell. I close my eyes, knowing he’s here. I immediately turn the water off, grab a towel, and dress quickly. Tears are already running down my cheeks, but I know I have to peek out the door to see if I can get to my room and hide. I hear all kinds of noise, but I know I’m not strong enough to help her. I take a deep breath and slowly crack the door open. I could hear them, but I couldn’t see them, so I rushed down the hall to my room, shut the door, and got into the closet. I cover my ears from rocking back and forth and pray he doesn’t hurt her. After what seems like forever, I hear the door slam shut, and it gets quiet. I wipe my face and take off running to find Mom. She’s on the floor in the kitchen with blood on her face, and her dress is torn. I drop to her side on the floor, throw my arms around her, and tell her I’m here for her and she’s not alone. One day, I know the goddess will make him pay for all he has done. I help her up the stairs and into the bathroom and go to get her some clean clothes. After about 30 minutes, she came out, and I helped her to her room. We lay and hold each other tightly until sleep takes us. One week later Thankfully, we haven’t had any visits from Raymond this week, and we returned to our routine. Tomorrow is my eighth birthday, so Mom is baking my cake today. I finish my schoolwork while she’s baking. Then I help her clean the kitchen so we can train. After training for two hours, I get cleaned up so we can start supper. All is quiet this evening, so we sit on the porch looking at the stars and the moon. Mom tells me again about Selene and how she created all shifters as her children. “She watches over us and loves us so much that she gives each of us the other half of our soul in a mate. That we are to cherish that mate bond that was gifted to us,” she says. It sounds so amazing. She slowly explains to me that not all mates are like Raymond. Mom then explains to me that some people are just not good or can be cruel. If you go against the laws of the gods or goddesses, you can be punished. “What kind of punishment?” I ask. “Well,” she drawls out. “You could lose your mate. Or, as most know, it is very rare to have pups with anyone other than your destined mate.” “My sweet girl, have you seen many children in the pack?” I look into her eyes and answer, “Maybe about 20.” “Out of a pack with over 300 wolves, that’s not very many.” She says. “No, it isn’t,” I reply. “That’s why my dear girl.” “So many don’t cherish the bond they are blessed with and take a chosen mate or abuse their Goddess-given mates. Our population has been dropping year after year. It’s our punishment for the crimes of those who don’t listen to the gods,” she pauses. “We all know the difference between right and wrong in our hearts. Always do what’s right, my dear, no matter how hard. Your grandfather always taught me we should cherish the gifts of the gods and goddesses. Protect the weak, lend strength to the strong, and always contribute what you can to help each other prosper.” Suddenly, I felt a warmth that began to develop in my chest. Then, with as much determination as I can muster, I look into my mother‘s eyes and state, “One day, I will be big and strong. I will do all of those things.” The pride I saw on my mother's face made me smile. With everything in me, I knew I would work hard to make her proud no matter what it took.