The awaited Gala.

-star

My hand falls to my side as I still try to breathe in through my nose. But it’s not working.

I want to scream to create awareness so the other werewolves nearby can hear me and help me, but my voice seems like it’s been hijacked.

I start to feel someone’s presence behind me, someone with an aura very dark and intimidating, and it feels like the person is trying to cover me up with a cloak.

Somehow I manage to snap my head around to see whoever it is, but surprisingly, there is no one behind me, just the trees in the woods at a far distance.

I immediately start to feel the presence again in front of me.

I turn, but there’s no one.

I start to panic, looking for a way to breathe as I make my way towards the hall where the gala is being held and end this hotness and pain in my body when everything just stops.

The pain, the panic, the heat Everything simultaneously stops, and I find myself breathing again.

Like a lost girl, I look around, trying to figure out what the hell just happened.

What the hell was that?

Is my body going through some things? Am I finally of age?

Am I getting my wolf?

No, that’s not it. I’ve heard a lot of werewolves talk about getting their wolf, and they’ve never mentioned something as terrible as this.

I couldn’t freaking breathe.

Or is different for every wolf? Being the pack’s outcast there’s really no one who talks to me about things like this. Or who I can talk to?

Or am I dying?

I want to scream so bad for the confusion, but that will just make my exclusion within the pack worse; they would call me all sorts of weird names and tag me a b*ch for ruining the party.

Feeling fine, I decide to let go of what just happened and try to live in the moment that I was invited to the gala for the first time. This will forever go on in history for me.

-

Getting into the party, I am awed by how amazing the place looks, from the chocolate fountain at the centre of the room to the beautiful girls and young men in dresses.

I feel like I’m in heaven already.

“Eww. What the hell is she doing here?” My ears pick up far-away murmurs.

“Is she mistaken or something?”

“And what is that ugly dead dress she’s putting on?”

“What the hell is an omega like her doing here?”

I try to shut them out and try to enjoy myself, but my enhanced sense of hearing isn’t doing me any favour.

I move far away from the girls and all the way to the chocolate fountain at the centre of the room below the hall's chandelier.

The soft music playing, the beautiful glittering chandelier—being a part of this just makes me so happy. I feel like my life is being rewritten by the moon goddess. I know too well not to get ahead of myself and say that tomorrow I’ll go back to being the lowest of the low and cleaning Blythe's mess as usual.

But for now...

“Hey there, Star."

I hear Luna Moria’s voice behind me, and I turn around. My goodness, she looks beautiful in that silver dress.

"Hi,” I reply shyly and awkwardly, like always.

I don’t talk to many people, so I tend to be awkward.

“Are you enjoying yourself?” She asks, her smile holding so much more than just her beauty.

I nod frantically, and she giggles in satisfaction.

“That is amazing; I’m glad you are having a good time.”

I smile in return.

Weird, Luna Moria is sure nice, but I know she doesn’t let me forget my place; she barely says more than one sentence to me in a day, and now she’s talking to me. It is really foreign to me.

Alpha Ark joins her and suddenly asks me the same thing.

I reply that I am having a good time and start to notice horrid stares from other werewolves in the corners of the room. And honestly, that is more normal than Alpha Ark and his mate asking me if I am actually having a good time.

Moria suddenly gasps.

“My goodness, there is no way you actually wore this dress. Star, this dress is horribly worn out. You could have asked me for something, and I would have gotten you a new dress immediately”.

A new dress?

“I… I didn’t know I would be invited.” I gulp.

Moria sighs. "Yeah, it was really last minute, but you're here now.”

“This is bad,” Alpha Ark mumbles under his breath, glancing at Moria as she shares a worried expression with him.

Okay, they’re acting vividly weird at this point.

Yes, them being nice and worried about me is weird.

“It’s okay, I like the dress." I smoothen the dress with my hands, trying to give them an assuring smile.

"Star, dear, this isn’t about you...

Moria stops talking and takes a deep breath instead.

“Just enjoy yourself." Her lips stretch into a smile, and she slowly walks away, with Alpha Ark linking arms with her.

Weird.

I take a pause and look around the place one more time.

Everyone is already in groups and staring at me like the outcast I am.

I shyly walk away to a corner where I’ll hardly be noticed, but well, the apples don’t fall far from the trees.

I immediately feel something warm splash against my open shoulders and start to slowly move down against my dress, and it smells just like chocolate.

“Oops, that was definitely a mistake.”

I turn around and see Kara, the daughter of Lone, a member of the pack’s council. And Kara is everything like Blythe.

They both have fun being mean to just me.

“It’s okay” I brush it off. “I’ll get the stains out."

“Why would you?” She scoffs, her green eyes matching the shimmering pink dress on her body.

“I mean, the only thing worthy of your body is the chocolate; you’re the stain. You’re ruining this party with your lowly presence.”

She seethes.

Laughter erupts from a boy and his two goons walking by, and they all glance at me like I am truly nothing but a stain.

I say nothing because I know the world is against me right now. And her father is among the higher-ups.

“Get lost. You don’t belong here." She rolls her eyes.

My hand balls into a fist, and I find myself speaking up.

"Well, Alpha Ark and Luna Moria think differently,” I say, shaking my head.

It’s weird that they are suddenly acting nice, but I am finally being noticed and that is all that matters.

She laughs. “Just because they invited you here doesn’t mean they like you. be gone”

I give her a brief glare before walking away and storming into the restroom.

My tears are warm on my cheeks as I try not to waste my tears on someone like Kara, but it’s not working.

Just one night, I want to feel better for one night, but my pathetic life is just so pathetic that I want to die.

If Alpha Ark hadn’t take me in? Would my life be different from now?

Would I even be someone?

A loud thud like an earth-like rock hitting the roof of the hall happens, and a scream follows, causing me to jump in my dreams.

Immediately, hundreds of screams follow outside the bathroom door, and the heavy sound of everyone running around adds up, and my heart rate rises. The walls start to crack up, and tiny pieces of the hall’s decking start to hit the concrete floor, creating thick, foggy dust.

Panicking, I pull the restroom door open and walk out, only to feel my heart drop inside my stomach.

The place is in total chaos; everyone was indeed running around; there were blood stains on the floor from heavy broken walls and broken tables.

The chocolate fountain has been crushed with multiple rocks too. All of the walls have been crazily broken down that you can see the sky and moon from them.

What the hell is going on?

-