Chapter one: moonblooded

Freya's pov 

“You’re nothing but a weak, mysterious waif. You think you’re worthy of being my mate? No way! You’re a shame to the whole of the Whiteclaw.”

The words thwack repeatedly in my mind, a bittersweet tune I couldn’t dance, grabbing my chest in fear and shame.

I was never meant to here. I wasn’t supposed to exist maybe.  

Freya Kael, the orphan, a nobody. That’s all I’d ever been to the Pack. No family, no name, no power. Just a shadow on the cliff of their world, Striving hard to survive on scraps and silence. But tonight, the whole thing had changed. Tonight, I’d learned the truth—the cruel, beautiful, heartbroken truth.  

Finnick Logan, the most feared Alpha of the Whiteclaw Pack, was my fated mate.  

 The affiliation had gnashed into place, the moment I’d seen him at the throng, his penetrating blue eyes locking onto mine across the flake. My chest had hardened, my breath catching as the perception hit me like a thunderbolt. He was mine, and I was his I'm sure of.

Or so I’d thought about us.

I slithered to a stop behind a gigantic oak tree. My weak back leaned against the jaggy husk, as I tried to control my breathing. My hands were trembling; I clenched them into fists. I had to keep calm. The pack was close, very close. I could feel the beating of their paws against the floor of the forest, and their growling were getting louder with every moving moment.

I shouldn’t have raced. I should have halted and faced them. But how could I? How could I face him after what he’d done to me?

Echos of Finnick’s voice was cold and cutting, piercing through my thoughts. “You?” he’d said, lip curling in revulsion. 

Worse than any furry had been the words. I had positioned, frozen, as the pack laughed in unison, cruel and heartless jeers echoing in my ears. Finnick had turned his back on me, his broad shoulders stiffened with condensation. And I had felt the bond between us smash, like glass.

I would then run, but when a twig cracked to my left, I stopped, my breath catching in my throat, and I looked around the tree slowly, scanning the darkness, the only sound in the eerily silent woodland being the rustle of leaves in the breeze, but I could feel them—as if they were weighing me down—and I had to keep moving, because if I stayed here they would find me, and if they found me... I didn't want to think about what they might do.

My bare feet barely squeaking on the earth, I hushed away from the tree and ran farther into the forest. The only light I had to walk me through the grove was the moon's weak shine. My thoughts raced as I tried to make sense of what had occurred seconds ago. What made the bond chose me? Why did it choose him? Finnick was everything I wasn't: respected and powerful. I was nothing. An unidentifiable individual. An outlaw. However, the friendship was true. It couldn't. So, why did he turn me down? As I lurched, a harsh growl resounded through the air, and my foot became entangled with a root.

The collision knocked the air from my lungs, but I didn't have time to settle on it. I crawled to my woobling feet, my heart racing heavily as I turned to face the etymology of the sound. Two bright and glowing eyes leered back at me from the shadows, their golden tinge blazing like fire. My breath jerked as the wolf trampled into the moonlight, its huge form towering over me. Its intense was deep, inky black, and its lips were drawn back in a snar.

One more bone-chilling howl, came from the wolf outside, then disappeared into the darkness. I waited, breathing in little gasps, until I felt it was gone. My body shook from tiredness and anxiety as I then slink out of the crevice. But I felt something I hadn't felt in years as I stood there, alone in the moonlight. Ability. And with it came a single, horrible idea: what if I wasn't as weak as they assumed? The howls came back, nearer this time, and I knew I had to leave.

I turned and sprinted; the forest swallowed me whole as the wolves drew in. And there, deep in the darkness, I sensed the first flutter of something ancient waking up before me.