Prologue: The Last Goodbye

It all began on my 13th birthday… the day my parents left for war and never came back.

It was also the day I stopped believing the moon was on my side.

I stood by the doorway, my ears straining to catch what my parents were whispering, and hid my little frame as I watched them whisper in hushed tones.

"If we don't go for this war, we will no longer have a place in the pack; they will all look down on us and on our kids, and they will be turned into a laughingstock," my father said, holding onto my mother's chin like it was the most delicate thing he had ever laid his eyes on, my eyes following his every movement.

"Do you think I care if the pack laughs at us or not? This war is great; we can't fight it, we are going to fight over some damn Moon Sundering, a place where no one has ever set foot. What if we come back dead?" My mother whispered; her voice sounded broken.

"We have no choice; we are among the best warriors the pack has. We need to defend our pack in this war; it isn't just a war, Sarah, it's a war between all the outer border packs—Ashfall, Irontooth, and Red Fang, all of them, they've aligned, all targeting one pack, and Duskfall can't be left behind," my father said in a tense tone.

Three days later, my parents were crouched between me and my brother Ren, who was nine at the time, their eyes filled with hope and promise of return, even though deep down, I was scared to the marrow.

"I promise you, Cherry, this is the last war. Once we win this war against the Crescent Dominion pack, we will have the moon's favor to ourselves, and everyone will live happily ever after," my mother whispered, hugging me tightly as my father followed suit, kissing my forehead and waving me goodbye.

But happily ever after was delayed… Maybe forever. Because they never came back.

I could remember vividly after the first two days, then the third and fourth, and then came the caskets. They died in the war, consumed by the moon for trying to take what wasn't theirs to begin with.

The alpha took us in as if we were his own, and he took care of me and my brother. I grew close with his son, the next in line to be alpha of the Duskfall pack… Desmond. Oh, we were so close, and with my best friend Lily involved? We felt like three inseparable friends who were meant to be together.

But the worst was yet to happen.

On my sixteenth birthday, at the Coming of Fangs festival, everything changed. We dashed out from the mansion, heading towards Moon Hollow, a sacred clearing surrounded by ancient stones and trees, marked by claw symbols of ancestors. The alpha stood at the edge, his gaze towering between Lily and me as he gave me a faint smile. Desmond stood beside him, and Beta Richard wasn't left out; everyone was here.

When it was my turn, being the last, I looked back at the pack; every one of them was waiting for us. Fear gnawed within me, but I succumbed to the river. Allowing the river to consume me, the Moon, now at its brightest, shone within the river.

My skin began to burn, not painfully, but intensely, like fire racing through my blood veins. I couldn't move, couldn't breathe, trapped in that burning moment.

Then it stopped.

I waited. For the change, for my wolf, for everything I'd been taught to expect. For my place in the pack, like everyone else.

I waited.

And waited.

Nothing happened.

When I stepped out, I didn't transform, and I didn't change. I was still standing as a human who had failed to shapeshift into their wolf.

I heard gasps from the crowd, murmurings, sad expressions, disgusted expressions, and some pack members shaking their heads because they had never seen this abomination before.

"I do not know what to say. This has never been heard of before. A wolfless wolf," the alpha thundered in the cold, chilly night with his alpha voice, which sent my small form trembling under his gaze, and Desmond's expression was no different than his; his eyes held hate, anger, and disgust.

"This is a curse! The moon has sent a curse to us..." someone shouted among the crowd, and everyone whispered in loud tones, accepting his words.

"Yes, she's a curse, and she needs to be banished," another person muttered.

"I have never seen this before… a wolfless wolf brought into our pack. This is indeed an abomination. The council and I will decide her fate, whether she shall be removed or meant to serve as an Omega for the sake of her parents." Alpha Philip looked at me, his words piercing through my very soul.

And that very day, my fate was sealed.

I had turned from the daughter of the best warriors in the pack to an Omega.

But one thing no one knew was that I had a wolf in me, but the type that does not shift.