CHAPTER 5: THE MOON'S REBELLION

MENODORA’S POV

“What did he mean by the moon makes no mistakes?" My head spins from the pressure of trying to understand what his words mean. "The same moon that rejected me?! The same moon that never once spoke to me in my years of isolation?! Who is she to judge me now?!” Those are the words I want to scream in their faces, to scream at the moon, but I bite my tongue so hard, I taste the coppery tang of blood in my mouth and I hold my peace.

The silver chains press deeper into my wrists and my ankles and my breathing grows ragged, catching in my throat that has suddenly gone dry.

A jolt as sharp as a lightning strike slams through my very core, fracturing into a blinding wave of burning sensation that races from my head down to my toes, momentarily stealing the breath out of my lungs and overwhelming all my five senses. And all of a sudden, I'm no longer in the circle.

Flashes of silver lights, blinding to my eyes, that's all I see around me at first, then comes the screams from voices…but it's not in the clearing…

“I'm not in the clearing,” I whisper to myself, looking down at my skin that now has a translucent hue.

“What's happening to me…am I dead?”panic and fear flood my senses but before I have enough time to explore and understand the situation, the smell of blood hits me. I turn to see a lot of women, standing under the blood moon, the same moon that witnessed my birth.

“What is this place? What's going on?” The women are in chains, bound in their hands and feet, just like I was in the execution circle. There's also fire everywhere, but it does not seem to be affecting them. Power rips through the air, barely contained like a dying hurricane.

That's when I hear the voices, muffled at first, but ringing loud and clear in my mind's ear.

“They're too powerful to be contained…”

“We need to stop them totally, wipe them out of existence if necessary…”

“It will spell disaster for the order of the pack if they're allowed to rise again…”

I try as hard as I can, but I'm totally unable to see the faces of those who the voice belongs to before I'm violently pulled out of the vision.

“Aeckkkkk,” I gasp the instant I'm back to reality, the force of vision sucking out the last ounce of strength I have left, causing me to nearly collapse on my face from exhaustion.

“What…?” I choke out, a violent tremor going through me, threatening to tear me apart completely. All eyes are on me, watching my every moment too closely, like a lab rat under the inspection of a microscope. If I didn't know better, I'd think they are looking for something…or maybe they are.

The icy hands of fear grip my spine and a shudder passes through me yet again.

“What if they know?” Not about the murder, but about the vision I just had and whatever changes are wrecking through my body at this moment?

“The signs are clear as day, the compromise runs deeper than we could have ever anticipated,” the council leader is saying.

“What compromise is he talking about?” My head hurts from trying to process everything that has happened tonight.

“I'm not…”

“Proceed with the execution” he commands. My words quickly die on my lips.

The executioner steps forward holding a silver blade in his right hand even as the circle beneath me begins to glow brighter, each of the markings igniting one after another, a dark ancient power rising in a torrent.

Tension coils around us like a storm waiting to be unleashed, making every movement, every eye contact, every glance, every breath a conscious and noticeable effort.

My heart beats a tune, the sound of a war drum in my chest and every hair on the back of my neck stands, a cold metallic feeling of dread settling between my shoulder blades.

“You need to run! You need to survive! Run!" My instincts scream at me, but for some reason, my body fails me.

Something is happening with my body and it's scaring the shit out of me. My body is changing, silver burning even hotter and deeper into my skin. Something ancient is rising within me, similar to the same force that taints the air with this heaviness. And then…a snap…

An electric pulse shoots from the base of my skull to my spine, snapping my head back like a broken marionette. I feel my eyes burn brighter, the red and silver shades glowing like a pair of glows in the dark, both at the same time. The ground beneath my feet cracks open with a loud crack like the clap of thunder during a thunderstorm.

For the first time I was born, I began to shift…not half shifts as other of my shifts had been…this shift is complete and devastatingly beautiful. Just above us, the moon begins to flicker as if it lost its bearing.

The first thing I feel within me is release. My hands and feet are still bound in chains making it even more ironic that I feel such an immense amount of release, but it runs deeper than the chains that hold me bound or even the circle that I know can no longer hold me captive.

“18 years…” that's how long it had taken for me to finally claim my own shift. That feeling of being trapped within my own skin finally snaps and the world around me snaps with it.

A scream is torn out of my throat, the sound of it raw and almost unrecognizable.

“My first howl…” I think to myself, amused by the simple act of me being able to howl so deeply and guttural.

The chains holding me start to burn and then they shatter like tiny bits of fine powder blown away by the wind. The sound of it rings like the sound of gunshots through the sacred grounds.

“No… that's impossible,” one of the council members says, taking an uneasy step back even as gasps erupt all around me.