Chapter 1: A curse or a blessing.

Lila

“Lila, you’re pregnant.”

Elena, the pack’s healer and my guardian, had spoken those words when she was in the cottage earlier today. They cut through me like a knife, and they still rang in my ears long after she was gone.

Pregnant? How could that be? I had never even been touched by a man.

I sat up on the small bed in the tiny cottage the pack had given me, staring into space. My heart pounded so hard it echoed in my ears. The silence pressed in on me, I was all alone now.

“I… I think you must be mistaken,” I had responded to her, my throat dry. “That’s not possible.”

Elena had only looked at me with pity, her wrinkled hands clutching the herbal concoction she’d made earlier. “The signs are clear, my child. I know what I felt, what I heard. There is life inside you. A strong one.”

Her words made the air heavy, and my skin went cold as they crashed into me. Pregnant. Me. A weak omega that has not even gotten her wolf, the orphan of the Silver Moon Pack that everyone pitied at best, and ridiculed at worst. If anyone found out, the insults would get worse, and the bullying and punishments would increase. Calling me a disgrace would be the nicest word in their books.

I wrapped my arms around myself, trembling. The mate ceremony was only days away. If the Alpha, found out that I am pregnant I won’t be allowed to participate, the only chance I had in escaping this hellhole has been terminated. Even if I were allowed to participate in the ceremony, what would happen when my supposed fated mate finds out??

He would reject me.

I stood up, walked towards the cracked mirror, and stared at myself for a while still in thought.

The girl in the mirror looked back at me like a stranger, skinny, frail, with crimson red eyes that made them call me a curse. When I blinked, I saw another memory, an old memory.

I went back to the day Elena found me. It’s the first thing I can remember after being found, and I remembered it as clear as if it just happened yesterday. People don’t believe me when I say that, because I don’t remember anything from before that day.

The river was freezing, it looked like it went on forever, and all I could see was darkness.

I was barely old enough to stand but then I recalled shivering on the muddy bank. I was told I was found there, my body half in the water, the moonlight clinging to me like a veil. Elena said I had not cried, not even once, which was true. I just stared with eyes too old for a child.

She had carried me into the pack, wrapped in her shawl, like some stray pup. Took me to the elders who then tried to read my Moon Star that night, to trace my bloodline, but their power slid off me like water. Something shielded me. Something they could not name.

“Blocked,” the eldest of them whispered. “That can only mean weakness.”

And that word has followed me ever since. Weak.

I blinked, my reflection sharpening again. My fingers brushed the wolf-shaped birthmark on my collarbone, the only thing along with the color of my eyes I had that set me apart. But even that was wrong, too strange to belong.

The door creaked open and Elena stepped inside, her arms full of herbs and folded cloth. Her sharp eyes softened the moment they landed on me, standing frail in front of the mirror.

“I brought supplies,” she said gently, setting the bundle on the wooden table. “You shouldn’t be alone right now,” she murmured, her voice low but urgent.

I forced a bitter smile sitting in front of her. “I have always been alone.”

The smell of sage and wild mint filled the room, but it couldn’t chase away the heaviness between us.

She sat down beside me, brushing strands of hair from my face. “Lila, we need to talk.”

“Listen to me, Lila. This child… It is not ordinary but if Alpha Kai learns about this, he’ll…..”

“He’ll punish me,” I cut in, tightening my throat. “He’ll banish me before the pack even gathers. Maybe I should…” My voice dropped to a whisper. “Maybe I should remove it.

Elena’s eyes showed sudden intensity, almost sacred. “Don’t speak that curse. This pregnancy… It doesn’t seem normal. It is divine. I can feel it. The Moon Goddess has placed something inside you. Something I don’t think the pack would understand.”

We both fell silent, listening to the firewood burn.

Then she spoke ever so softly. “We will hide this until after the mate ceremony or better still we don’t have to speak of this at all and that's our only option because the Alpha must never hear of it.”

I swallowed hard and my throat felt really sore.“And if I don’t make it through the ceremony?”

Her gaze softened, her eyes glistening. “Then I will protect you as best I can. But for now, staying quiet will keep us safe.”

She cupped my face briefly before standing up. “Stay strong, Lila. And please try to stay out of sight for now.”

I gave a small nod because both of us knew staying out of sight would be next to impossible. She muttered a quiet prayer while gathering the herbs and wolfsbane, then a sudden snap echoed outside, like a branch breaking underfoot.

I immediately went to bolt the door behind.

******

Elena left the cottage at last, her lantern glow fading into the woods. I lay beneath my thin blanket, hands pressed against my stomach.

Sleep came effortlessly. One moment I was in my bed, the next I stood barefoot in a river of silver light. The water glowed around me, cool yet burning, and when I looked at my reflection, I saw not one, but two shadows behind me.

One was me when I was a child and the other was a huge white wolf with red streaks and red glowing eyes just like mine, I didn’t recognize the wolf though but it looked enormous, dangerous and still beautiful at the same time.

Before I could turn back to fully grasp her beauty a strong wind came and blew me to a forest, endless and silver. The trees whispered like voices, chanting my name. And in the center, on a bed of light, lay a child.

A child with crimson eyes like mine.

I froze immediately. My heart is beating very fast. My lips trembled. “That can’t be…”

The Moon Goddess appeared behind the cradle, pale as moonlight, crowned with stars, her presence so overwhelming I dropped to my knees.

“You doubt me, little one. You fear. But what grows inside you is not shame… it is a legacy.”

I staggered back falling from my knee, shaking my head. “No. I don’t understand. Why me? I’m nothing. I can barely survive in the pack.”

“You will be more than strong,” she interrupted. “But strength is not given freely. To gain it, you must lose everything first.”

Tears blurred my eyes.

Her hand lifted, and suddenly the wolf-like birthmark I’d always hidden on my collarbone flared, glowing fiercely. The same glow pulsed faintly on my wrist, where a mate mark should have been, though I had none.

“Your path begins on the night you are cast away,” she whispered. “And when blood stains the ground, the world will remember your name.”

The trees suddenly howled like wolves, their silver bark bleeding red. The forest trembled, the child’s crimson eyes glowed, and before I could reach for it, I woke, gasping for air.

Outside, a wolf howled in the distance, long and mournful, as if it had been listening to my dream.