1. Wolfless Daughter

Freya

Today is my coming-of-age ceremony, but I'm particularly nervous.

Elder Alistair took the athame within his hand, before he’d snatched mine up, gently opening it, palm up. “It is with this dagger, imbued with power of the moon, that I cut the line in her palm to symbolize the connection between Freya and her wolf and the power of the wild!”

I did my best to relax my muscles, but the expectation of the pain had been hard to fight off as I shakily kept my hand open, willing myself to watch as the blade slid across my flesh. I was surprised I hadn’t felt it, but almost instantly the blood had begun to bead up from the slash, an intense, illuminated crimson, before starting to steadily flow. The sight of which causing my stomach to turn ever so slightly, causing me to look away.

I could feel everyone’s eyes on me as I peered inside, waiting for it to react. To boil, to bubble, to do…well…anything. But that was just the problem— it didn’t. It just laid there quietly, almost mockingly as my heart skipped a beat.

What’s going on? I’d thought to myself as I looked to the Elder and then my father, the Elder looking at me with a pained gaze of disbelief.

“She’s…barren,” Elder Alistair says to my father, who gawks at me in shock as the crowd begins to gasp and murmur, my heart now in my throat.

“W-what?” I managed to get out, my ears ringing. But Elder Alistair just shook his head at me, pity in his eyes.

“According to pack law, any werewolf without a wolf is not welcome,” Elder Alistair continues, and I feel my eyes begin to burn as tears well up in my eyes.

“This can’t be right!” I hear my mother say as she comes to the front. “Try again! There must be something wrong with the stone.”

“Are you saying that my test isn’t to be trusted?” Elder Alistair asked her, his brow furrowed angrily.

“Freya is like any of us,” my mother insists, grabbing onto my father’s arm. “She is one of us, our daughter, our family—“

“—She is useless,” my father said coldly as he roughly snatched his arm out of her grasp.

“Leopold… you don’t mean that,” my mother insisted, but I knew he did. His eyes flickering a golden yellow as he turned back to me, his face full of embarrassment and rage.

“Your twin sister Raven’s wolf awakened at sixteen years old,” he spat as he stepped past Alistair, my heart pounding in my chest as we came face to face, his icy glare full of contempt. “She’s already one of our most powerful warriors, but you… you are nothing but a wolfless mutt. I have no use for you.”

I opened my mouth for a moment to argue, but even as I stood there, hands shaking, I knew it’d be no use to fight it. It’d been no secret to me or anyone else that Raven had always been his prized daughter, but his words still slashed deeper than the cut that still oozed from my hand. I fought back the tears that threatened to slide down my cheeks, the anger and sadness that built in my chest, not wanting to show anymore weakness than I already had.

Wolfless.

A fate in a pack considered worse than death.

“Father,” I hear Raven cry out as she scrambles to my side, taking my uncut hand in hers, jamming it into mine and interlocking her fingers tightly. “We can’t let Freya go.”

“She doesn’t belong here,” my father’s voice softened. Not for my sake, but for hers.

“Freya is my best friend,” Raven insisted. “Mother is right, she is family. She can’t help that this happened, she didn’t ask to be this way.”

“Raven—“

“—Family means more than some silly tradition,” Raven argues, and the crowd which had been roaring with whispers falls silent again as Raven turns to Elder Alistair, her eyes narrowed at him, causing the old man to shift uncomfortably.

“You may think it’s silly but the law dictates—“ Elder Alistair attempted to retort, but Raven wasn’t having any of it.

“Screw the laws,” Raven replies, shaking her head as the crowd erupted in shock. “I won’t allow it!” Raven said with a stamp of her foot, glaring at my father. “If you banish her, you will banish me as well.”

“You’re being ridiculous,” my father replied quietly, shaking his head in disbelief as the crowd loudly spoke amongst one another.

“And you’re being heartless,” Raven insisted as she stepped in front of me, a tear streaking down her cheek. “Please… Father let her stay.”

My father’s eyes flicked over from her to me, his gaze softened ever so slightly, but as he looked me up and down, it hardens again.

“Fine,” my father groans as he turns away from me, raising a hand to silence the wolves amongst us. “She can stay.”

He quietly walked back to his seat at the table, and Raven hugged me tightly as the crowd began to loudly mumble and whisper all over again in disbelief. “I’m so sorry,” she murmured in my ear.

“Thank you for loving me,” I replied to her as she lets me go for a moment, grabbing a cloth napkin from the table and holding it to tightly to my open cut before gently butting her forehead against mine.

“Always,” she replied. “We are mirrors of one another, sisters. How could I let you go?”

After the ceremony, we had a dinner. My father completely ignored me during the whole process. I felt very heavy in my heart and ran away.

“Freya?” a familiar voice suddenly called out, and I sat up on my elbows, peering into the darkness as I see her standing there.

“Lucy?”

“Freya, what on earth are you doing out here?”

As Lucy looked me over with great concern, I felt far too embarrassed to tell her the truth. I mean, who wants to tell their best friend that you, the daughter of the pack alpha, was nothing but a lowly human?

“Oh, you know, out for a stroll,” I lied, forcing a toothy grin. However, the look on Lucy’s face said it all: she wasn’t buying it.

“Your face is as red as a beet, and your eyes are swollen.”

Damn it.

Lucy crouched down and put a finger under my chin, tipping my head as she looked over my face. “What happened at the ceremony?”

“I…” I managed to get out, before my lip began to quiver, and I started shaking my head as I cried all over again. Lucy hadn’t gone to dinner, but since her parents had. It would only be a matter of time before she knew anyways…

“Hey, it’s okay,” Lucy said, giving me a hug as I spilled it all, right down to the fact that I had no wolf form. She wiped my tears and gave me a big hug before having a seat next to me on the ground.

“Can you believe it?” I said as I sniffled. “All this time, all of this preparation and shit drilled into my head was for nothing…and now my own father hates me.”

“For one, your father is an asshole,” Lucy replied, and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“What an understatement,” I concurred with a nod of agreement. “But he’s set in his ways. The only reason I’m even considered part of the family if you can even call it that is because he loves Raven so much…” I trailed off, and once again tears choked my throat as I buried my head into my knees. “…The apple of his eye.”

“You know what? Screw him,” Lucy said. “They’re wrong about you, I just know it. That test is old and stupid! You have the mark of the moon for fuck sake!”

“It’s tradition,” I replied, a bit surprised at her reaction.

“Yeah, well, we’re not in the dark ages anymore,” Lucy said, rolling her eyes. “Maybe some things are better left to die off.”

“But without a wolf I am just—“

“—Human?” Lucy ends my sentence curtly, and I give a quiet bob of my head. “Is that really so bad?”

“Don’t ever let anyone in the pack hear you say that,” I scolded her gently out of concern for her. My father was not one to take any criticism of the pack lightly, and the last thing I wanted was him to go after her.

“It’s not like they’d ever ask me,” she scoffed as she stood up, brushing her hands on her dress before offering me one of them. “Our family being omegas? We hardly rate. I was surprised my parents were invited.”

“Well, you matter to me,” I insisted as I took her hand in mine, and she gently pulled me to my feet, a mischievous grin on her face.

“You know… I think we deserve to have some fun,” Lucy said.

“Like?”

“There’s a Blood Moon pack birthday party tonight,” Lucy said plainly, and I felt overcome with shock.

“Nope,” I said, shaking my head vigorously. “There is no way in hell I can show my face there!”

“Oh, come on,” Lucy whined. “I really want to go, and unlike the prim and proper party at your house I couldn’t even go to, they know how to have fun!”

“How would you know?” I ask, and Lucy gave a little shy shrug.

“I may have been to a couple,” Lucy replied, looking shyly down at the ground.

“Do you have a death wish?” I asked her. “If they ever found out you were a Silver Moon, they’d rip you to shreds.”

“It’s not like they have some sort of book of faces of other pack members, Freya,” Lucy argued. “Besides, aren’t you some sort of outcast? Can’t you do whatever you want now?”

“But Raven—“

“—Raven isn’t here, and it’s not like she’ll never know,” Lucy says with a wink as she grabs my hand. “Come on, it’ll be fun. I have the perfect outfit for you!”

“I’m telling you, they’ll know my face,” I insisted. “I’m the alphas daughter.”

“Hmmm,” Lucy replied as she grabbed my hand. “I think I have an idea.”