EMBER.

Presenting to the priestess is supposed to be the happiest day of one’s life, second only to finding your mates.

The priestess is a woman of mystery, from the great and all-seeing House of Selene the moon godess, But at this moment, she’s a woman in a beautiful suit and lest i forgwt she hates my mother.

Her hair is a bundle of vibrant platinum blonde curls and her lipstick a perfect shade of fire-engine red.

When she smiles kindly upon me, I can’t find the heart to return it.

She takes my hand in her red-nailed ones and frowns with delicate brows.

“What is your wolf color, Noctelle princess?”

My voice is rough from a night spent smothering my sobs.

“I am forbidden to say.”

Her eyes flick to the door, behind which my mother waits.

The Priestess then closes her eyes and everything about her changes.

The lights flicker, a burning wind sweeps through the room and my vision narrows down to this one woman who holds my fate in her red nailed hands.

Her husky voice chants in a whisper, as if it’s a praise for the Moon Mother herself, and I find myself swaying a little, caught by its dark aura.

“ Eerie shadows prowling,

Dark hearts hungering,

A dark wolf thirsting for blood, a knight who howled alone for ages, the one who outran death itself are all calling for their Luna because they are long due.”

My stomach almost throws up its contents into my throat.

As my prophecy sound to dark and ominous.

“Dark mates?” I croak out.

“Are you sure?”

She opens her eyes, and they are aflame with some kind of immortal power unique to her type of wolves.

Her hand is a tight vice around mine.

“Congratulations Ember, you are a Luna.”

Her eyes bore into mine and her voice becomes filled with light wonder.

“Dear girl, I wish you luck. They are already aware of your existence but somehow that is the least of your worries, there is a lot of trouble coming your way, Ember.”

I leave the room where my prophecy was read feeling like I’m at sea without an anchor with my stomach turning, my legs shaking, clutching my stomach as if I can command it to stay put.

“What did she say?”

my mother asks sharply, and I know I will never get used to this new, cold tone.

“She said i had th…. Three?”

What am I even saying?

But I know I heard her right because her prophecy is burned into my eardrums.

“She said I have three hearts calling for me.”

Her eyes flash dangerously, and I know the oracle is in trouble now.

My Mother abruptly turns on his heel and storms into her office.

“I want their names!” She screeches.

“All of them!”

Her reply is calm and cool.

“I cannot give them to you, Your Majesty.”

My mother kicks the room door shut and I can hear no more.

I shiver anxiously, touching the skin of my neck where my mating mark warms my skin in a way that should be comforting and full of hope but it's not.

Luna to Three mates of different wolves clan.

For the millionth time, I wish my father was here

he would know what to do.

Instead, all I have is my mother,who returns angry,dangerous and unable to speak.

I hope the Priestess is still whole.

When we return home, the maids take off my diamond earrings and necklace and put them away in a box that isn’t mine.

My mother whispers to me, her eyes flashing into her wolf's eyes and back to round again with the force of her emotion.

“You are no longer princess of the Noctelle,sweet child of mine.You are no longer a member of this household. You will live the rest of your life as an outcast,like the ones who came before you.”

“But other families keep children regardless of what they are in their houses!”

I exclaim.

“Why can’t i do the same.”

“We are not other families,” she growls out loud, pointing to the family crest above my fireplace.

A big wolf head in silver, a crown between the ears,right above a cursive ‘N’.

I know what she means.

My mother feels eveyone is entitled to one wolf and if you're not a Noctelle wolf you are beneath her,And now I am beneath her.

A maid hands me a dusty black duffle bag.

“I am so sorry, Miss Ember.”

“ i want to see my father.”

i say to my mother with tears in my eyes.

Both, she and the house staff who were there the day i turned look at me with disdain.

As the staff eyes gloss over with tears.

“Daaaaaddddd.”

i scream as i try to run towards the stairs that lead to the rooms.

While been pulled back and stuffed into a car with my mother and her guards.

That very same day, my mother and her driver took me to a smart double story house in a neat quiet neighbourhood.

But they don’t take me into the main house.

Instead, they drive around the side and far back into the compound where, under tall and scraggly trees, a tiny house sits like a house that survived a storm in the dark.

“This is your home now,” Mother says.

I feel so much pain looking at the peeling paint, the tin roof, the shattered glass windows.

“Mother, I don’t understand why I have to stay here. None of it is my fault.”

“Your Majesty,”

one of her guards snaps.

“You will address the queen appropriately, mongrel( a wolf of uncertain origin).”

His words burn like a brand.

I raise my chin, but my mother stands over me, once a mountain of protection and safety.

But the look in her eyes tells me she is now the opposite.

“There is one thing about life that you must learn, Ember or better yet,Mutt.”

Her voice announcing me without our surname and a dangerous growl that makes me go still.

“We do not always get what we want.”

And in her voice, I hear a deep sorrow, a profound anger.

I was her most prized possession and that is now dead.

The Noctelle Princess is no more.

“You will keep your glamour up at all times to keep yourself hidden,no one must know you're here.”

She continues.

“You will not let them find you. If you do, your life will be over. Every power-hungry beast in the country will come for you. Chain you up. Breed you until you are dead. Do you understand?”

Her words are a cruel blow to the gut, and I bow my head, if only to hide the tears of shame now falling freely.

My mates can never be mine.

Nothing will be the same again.