5. MOON'S GIFT

AZALEA'S POV

"No." I whisper quietly. I didn't, I believe we should all be allowed to choose what we want and not just be forced to accept something that has been said before we were even born, how is that fair to us?.

I guess that makes me even more different to the rest of my family, werewolves are all about Destinies, fated mates, fated life, fated job in the pack, everything, depending on who you are born of, everything is predesigned, and sickening.

"Not being able to chose you own life is not fair mom."

She smirks, like she already knows my answer, I don't really hide my displeasure, I'm very vocal about how I see things, I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that reason before.

"Destiny does not mean you don't get to chose your own life, flower." She starts with her usual light tone.

"It means what will be will be…….."

I frown, not quite getting the difference.

"What will be, will be and you'll help it to be, knowingly or unknowingly, if you like it or not." She says. Mom always has this sage way of talking, very chill about things, she doesn't rush her words, and speaks mostly in sweet parables, that I don't understand most of the time, but they just make me feel better somehow, which is why I describe them as 'sweet'

"That still doesn't sound fair……." I murmur.

"You don't get it, " She plops down beside me, "Your destiny is exactly what you think, cos what you think is what will chose to do or not do, the places you go, the people you met, your friends, partner, life ambitions and at large, your entire life."

"And even when you feel like or think you're defying destiny," She pinch my cheeks and I giggle. "You're actually going exactly according to destiny, its you're destiny to defy destiny……..do you understand?." She ask.

I don't really think about it like that, figures why she seems so content with life and why she keeps saying Eloise's mate will find her at the right time.

"I guess, I never really thought about it like that." I tell her honestly.

She finish with my hair and lay beside me again as I find my way into her embrace.

"Do you know the story of how you came into our lives?." She asks with a shimmer in her eyes like she hadn't told me the story a thousand times. I roll my eyes at her and smile.

"Yes, mom, only like a billion times, you and dad were gardening and heard a ruffle behind a patch of Azaleas that had grown there on their own, thought it was a bunny and went to check and found me, wrapped in the whitest little blankets."

She laughs out loudly as I try to imitate her voice.

"But did I ever tell you, that it was during the war?." She asks "It was destiny."

"There was a war?." I ask looking up at her, she nods.

"Yes, 18 years ago, one that we don't really talk about much……..it didn't spread much to our pack till it ended."

"Oh, what caused the war?."

"The humans, werewolf hunters, I also heard they had help from one of our kind."

"How come they don't teach details about the war in school?, human teach about all their wars in school." I ask, many of them know we exist, though their knowledge of us very biased and twisted, they still do, they teach about the Greek gods and ancient Egypt but not about werewolves that are still in existence.

"Like I said, it didn't really spread much to our pack and neighboring packs, and people don't talk much about it, what we know is very limited and very less truth to it. The folks who witnessed the war are not here to tell the story."

She let out a sigh and gave a sad smile.

"I'm glad the war is behind us." I tell her truthfully, knowing fully well that I'd be one of the few unfortunate ones to die during the war, I'm too much of a freak, I have no wolf, I'm basically the weakling of the pack. It would be the down fall of my parents if they have to be watching over me like I was a 10 year old kid, without a wolf, I fell in the category of children or the aged that need to be watched.

"I'm not sure it is Azzy." She says with a sigh, I look up at her and notice she's deep in thoughts.

"Do you know the Prophesy of the moon?." She asks. Stories, folktales, legends and Prophesies, are somethings that weren't far from the lips of every werewolf, it is what reminded us of our traditions and how far the werewolves have come as mythical beings. I know about 5 different legends of the moon.

"Which one exactly?." I ask her, my eye lids growing heavy already.

"The one about the gift from the moon goddess herself, a silver wolf, her mate would find each other in time and their powers will save us all." Mom strongly believes in legends, just like her mom, although I think grandma is a tad worse.

Grandma is what we call a seer. It is a very rare ability, but she could feel certain things, futuristic or otherwise, speaking only always in riddles. My sibling don't like her much because they don't really understand her or know how to speak to her.

I for one, bare no emotions whatsoever, she's family and I love her as much as I love every other family member that I get to see only twice a year. But she made her life's decision to teach me a lot of things, a lot of languages, she can't speak any herself, but she'd get me a book in a new language every time and task me with reading it before the next time we'd meet. I roll my eyes at mom's words.

"Its just a story mom." I drawl out, laughing.

"If you weren't a werewolf, never seen one before and I told you they were real would you believe?." She asks raising an eyebrow.

"No." It was the truth, already having a hard time believing that I am one.

"My mom, when I was 15, called me to my room one day and said the words "you will find her" as I was sitting with fashion magazines in my hands, I watched her like a mad woman." Mom says with a laugh. Before I could voice my 'Find who?' question, she continued.

"Find the gifted, and she will save us all." Mom tells me in a sage voice, an attempt to sound like her own mother.

Shooting up from her arms, I sit up in my bed, now facing her. 'no…..no.'

'What she was saying can't be right,'

"What do you mean?." My voice sounding like a croak.

"Good question," She says with a wide smile and gathers herself out of my bed. "I asked her the same thing that day, and you know what she did?."  She asks me, still smiling.

"What?."

"She turned around and walked away, humming." Mom laughs brightly and I watch as she begins to walk away too, pausing at the door.

"I asked her again last year, what she meant, and if I had found this person, know what she did?." She asks again, leaning on the door.

I kind of already know the answer to that question, having known grandma, and also known mom, but I had to ask.

"What?."

"She hummed the exact tune and walked away." And with that, mom leaves, I slump on my bed, thinking on all she said till I start to hear a hum, but it's not my mom's voice. I don't know how long, but the next morning I realize I fell asleep to the hum. And I don't remember what it sounds like.