Chapter 4: Moonchild

Nivia POV.

It was happening again.

I saw myself outside, dressed in a white dress, standing in the woods, beyond the pack's borders.

To my right was the path leading to Red Moon's Territory. I knew because, from where I stood I could see the fence of my school.

To my left was a dark thick forest, thicker than the other one.

I stood in the middle, in a clearing of shrubs that separated both forests.

"Nivia..." I heard my name floating in the wind towards me.

The voice was coming from the dark forest.

I took a tentative step in that direction, when I heard another voice say to me from my right side.

"Don't Nivia," the other voice warned. "Do not go in there."

My head immediately swung in the opposite direction to my pack's forests.

No one was in sight.

All I heard were voices, talking to me.

"You belong with us..." the voice from my left called softly. "Come to us."

"No, she was sent to us," the other voice countered.

I stood in the same spot, wondering where to go.

Do I go right or do I go left?

At that moment, the skies above grew dark, and I looked up to see that the bright full moon had been stained with blood.

I heard a guttural growl from the dark forest, and I saw things move in the shadows.

Fear crept up my spine, and I took a step back towards the forests of my pack.

When my feet stepped into the cover of the trees above, cold claws shut up from the ground and closed around my ankles.

I opened my mouth and let out a loud scream;

"Ahhh!!!!!!"

"Wake up! Wake up!" strong hands shook me vigorously.

I jerked awake, my eyes wide, and as I whirled around confused.

"You were dreaming and screaming again," my roommate, Rachel, said, standing over me and peering down with concern.

"I am sorry, Rachel; I didn't mean to disturb you," I apologized.

"Don't you think you need to see the school's doctor for these nightmares you constantly have?" Rachel suggested, going to her own side of the room to open her wardrobe.

"I will, if it persists," I said, wiping away the imaginary sweat from my face.

Even though I knew it was only a dream, it always felt so real.

"You've been saying that for a while now," Rachel said, pulling out a nice floral dress from her wardrobe. Then she sauntered over to the mirror and held it against her chest, turning it this way and that.

I watched from the bed, pulling my blankets all the way to my chest.

"Going somewhere?" I asked with curiosity.

"Have you forgotten?" Rachel turned to stare at me.

"Forgotten what?"

"Tonight is the mating festival," she announced to me cheerily.

Oh shoot, I totally forgot.

Not that I had any expectations anyway.

After my public disgrace when I tried to tell Justin how I felt about him, I was too ashamed to face the rest of my classmates.

So for the past two days, I stayed in my room, pretending to be sick and missing classes.

I looked sickly anyway, so it was not hard convincing the class teacher that I was ill.

My pale blue eyes were naturally sunken and my face was narrow with a spattering of freckles on my nose that looked more like a rash that refused to heal.

I was naturally thin, which had nothing to do with my nutrition, not forgetting the ever-present cold that made me shiver in summer.

"What are you going to wear?" Rachel asked, bringing out hair ribbons from her drawers.

"The usual," I shrugged nonchalantly.

"By that you mean?"

"My hoodie sweater, sweat pants, or a thick long skirt with socks," I said simply.

Rachel dropped her ribbons to the ground, shocked.

"What?" I asked.

"You're kidding, right?" She blinked at me.

I raised a shoulder and said, "Who cares."

Truthfully, nobody gave a fuck about me.

"This is your first and only mating ceremony where you get to finally meet the love of your life, your fated mate and you're going to wear that?" Rachel sounded incredulous.

Well, you could be fated, but it didn't guarantee that you would be loved.

If I had learned anything from my parent's marriage, I knew that the two did not necessarily come together.

My father had run away with his lover, leaving my mother, a few months after I was born.

The omens around my birth were so bad, even the mid-wife who helped my mother during labor, died the very next day.

My mother had remarried, but my stepfather didn't live long. Dying after she got pregnant with his twins.

Many people in my neighborhood believed I had bad luck.

I shook my head to clear it, keeping my thoughts in the present.

When it came to being mated, I was not hopeful I would find anyone.

Even if I was fortunate to have a mate, would he want me?

'"Don't worry about me Rachel, no one would even notice I'm there," I said with a deep sigh.

"Regardless, you can't wear that," Rachel said and set her clothes aside. " Not on my watch."

I saw my roommate disappear into her wardrobe and began to rummage through her clothes.

After thirty minutes of hard work, she produced a dress and held it up to me.

"Yes, this will fit you perfectly," Rachel beamed with satisfaction. "I will transform you into a work of art."

"Rachel, you know I can't wear that. I will freeze over in that tiny fabric," I was beginning to object when the alarm went off in the dormitory.

"Say no more, it's time." She smiled at me.