PROLOGUE

Crescent’s Pov

“We have to go,”

This wasn’t the first time I had heard those lines. And deep down I knew that it would never be the last. In three months, mother would walk in with this same look on her face, eyes wide with panic picking up traces of things we had once displayed the borrowed house we called a home. 

By morning, before the sun came up, we would be gone, our lives erased from the pack we had stayed. But the names lingered. The rogues; no one bothered to create a bond. Mother wouldn’t dream of seeing that.

But tonight, the urgency in her tone caught my attention. Her fingers trembling as she picked up our bags, the one kit that we don’t ever unpack. The silent reminder that this isn’t our home – this is temporary.

Nowhere truly belonged to us, we were wolves without identity, a mother and her child. And that was the thing, she had an identity, she was seen for who she was. But I wasn’t blessed with such luxury. Trapped in these constraints, hiding the one person that I was born to be.

She made sure I practiced the walk, learnt to act like a boy, rather than the girl that I was born to be. I hated it, hated the way she shoved me into boy’s clothing, chopped off my hair. I was a freak. No friends, no laughter, no chance of living.

I hated her for doing this. For making me to be this freak.

Tonight, it hadn’t been up to three months yet. She must have sensed my happiness.

“What is happening?” I asked, my voice groggily, heart slamming hard against my chest as I jogged behind her.

“Less talking more packing,” she hissed, in a tone that suggested that she wasn’t in the mood to partake in the little question game I was trying to do.

Tears stung in my eyes, tonight was the blood moon masquerade ritual, the one time that I could play dress up and act my age without having to worry about anything. And as fate would have it, I just can’t have that.

“Can’t we leave after the festival? It is just…” I paused holding myself back from telling her that I had made a few friends, the one rule that I knew should never be broken.

No friends. No dresses. And they should never know your name.

She sent me a heated glare; her nostrils flared as she picked up the rune from the door. Keeps our scents off. No one really questions a woman and her scrawny boy in a pack, and no one cares to search for them after they are gone.

Crazy part, I wasn’t exactly a boy. I looked like a boy, dressed like one, but wasn’t one. 

Mother made the rules and all I did was to follow them. “Dressing like a boy would keep us safe,” she had said the night she chopped off my long copper red hair.

“There will be more festivals to attend, but we have to leave now,” she uttered, picking up the black journal and placing it in her bag.

I clenched my fist, fighting back the tears that threatened to fall. I wasn’t going to cry, not when I know that it wasn’t going to land me anywhere. “Crying was weak, a lot could be done if you just stopped crying.” Her ever soothing words crossed my mind.

“Pick your bags, crescent,” she hissed. 

My eyes widened, in my seventeen years on earth, this was the first time she was calling me by my name, acknowledging that I was a girl, rather than Cory, the boy’s name I had picked up.

Horse hooves echoed through the quiet night air. This wasn’t the patrol team, it sounded more like the royal guards. My heart pounded in my chest as I rushed to my room, my lips quivering as I picked up my bag from under the bed.

Just before I walked out, I took one last glance at the gown I had gotten. The gown he had given me, hoping that I would wear that tonight.

Jonathan, the alpha’s son had been the only person I had told my real identity. The one person that had promised me a kiss if I wore this dress tonight. My first kiss.

“What the hell is that?” mother hissed, the growl in her voice snapping me back to reality.

Shit! This wasn’t meant to be seen.

“I can…I can explain,” I stuttered, tying to had the dress behind my back. But she had seen it, her eyes were already wide in disbelieve.

“Is that a fucking gown?” the way she said it, it sounded like I had cut myself with a silver blade. “How did you get it?”

My lips felt dry, “Jonathan, the alpha’s son…”

Smack!

My head swung back from the force of it, my ears ringing as the pain of her slap resonated through my body. 

“You told him that you are a girl? What have we talked about Cory?” her voice was laced with disappointment as she stared at me.

My eyes narrowed into slits, rage surging through my veins, “my name is Crescent , not Cory," I seethed.

“Thrash that out, Crscent brings death. Cory is life,” she hissed, turning away from me.

The horse hooves sounded closer; the air had gotten thicker. Something felt off, and it wasn’t just the fact that my mother had hit me in the face. I wasn’t going to throw the only dress that I had away. This was a gift, and with that defying thought, I shoved the gown into my bag, rushing out of the room to meet my mother.

Our front lawn was lined with guards, all bearing the strange insignia, and among them was the one person I never expected to see. Jonathan, the boy that had sworn to protect me. The person I had planned to kiss tonight.

Mother stood tall, her hand grabbing mine as she placed the rune and black journal in my hands, “Don’t look back, don’t talk, just run,”

Before I could question what was going on, a wolf leapt from the shadows, breaking through the tiny wood we called a door. Mother transformed, eyes burning read as she lunged, blocking the wolf from reaching where I stood.

“Run!” she growled, her claws slicing through the air, blocking his attack.

My feet moved, running through the back door, the one she had created in times like this. Our advantage? Mother has always kept us close to the forest, away from people and tonight, I was beginning to see the advantage.

I rushed through the door, the sound of her screaming filling the air. I stole one look back, tears welling in my eyes as I stared at the burning house lighting up the dark night.

She was dead, I knew that. And her death was on my hands. 

I betrayed her, said the name that I shouldn’t have. Been the person that never should have existed.

“Find her!” Jonathan’s loud voice boomed through the night.

Staying here isn’t going to save me. With that thought, I ran deeper into the forest, feeling the branches slap my face as I moved.

In the end, crescent only brings dead. I knew that now, she needed to begone, I ripped the dress out of the bag, tossing it to the side as I used the night to my advantage. 

“I will keep it safe.” I whispered, clutching the journal close to my chest.