Skunk Cabbage

She who will not know her destiny until it reveals itself to her. She who will have the eyes of good and bad. She who will bear the chosen. She who will be just as powerful as the Moon Goddess herself, an infused element of the greater powers. She who will have a powerful mate who will need her, and who she will need. She who is the Pallid Wisteria. Her whole life, Angelina Wisteria was seen as ‘one of the nicest people you will ever meet’. Most people found it impossible to be mean to her, so she had a lot of friends. She’s beautiful, and many consider her the full package. When she turns seventeen, her parents are brutally murdered, forcing her to have to move away to live with her grandparents. She suddenly feels very threatened in the new environment. Here, the people seem to act strange around her, mostly growling at her. Growling? Silas Keller is the strongest alpha in the world. He had to become alpha at the age of fifteen when his father was killed by rogues, bringing about his hatred for them. He’s merciless to them, which makes his decision to allow Martha and Jorge Wisteria’s rogue granddaughter to live with them without joining the pack, harder than he thought. He’s away when she arrives, but returns just days later to find her battered, bruised, and unconscious in the middle of the forest. He wouldn’t have cared if she didn’t smell like vanilla and wisteria. His mate.

While I was being brutally tortured, my mate was with his first love, a she-wolf named Lily who'd been poisoned with wolfsbane. The wolves who had a personal vendetta against Louis blinded me and stuffed my mouth with stones, violating me one by one, then tried to call him using my phone. The alpha only gave me a heartless command before hanging up, not listening to a word. "Unless you donate your bone marrow fluid to Lily, I'll continue ignoring you!" The enemy wolves stared at the blood trickling down my legs, and mocked, "Oh, were you pregnant? Well, seems like we got the wrong person, anyway! How could you and your baby not compare to a poisoned she-wolf?" When my corpse was discovered, Louis immediately reminded Lily to be careful. When another wolf reminded him that he should check in on me since I was pregnant, he scoffed. "Pregnant? Her? Is that the lie she's going with to justify not saving Lily? "I never want to see such someone so venomous again!" Little did he know that he already saw me. The corpse, decaying and rotting in front of him, was me, his Luna.

My mother-in-law was obsessed with picking mushrooms. She said mushroom stew with chicken was incredibly nourishing. She often made it to boost my husband’s health. However, she never let me have any, not even a sip of the broth. Every time, she came up with some excuse to send me out on an errand. If I refused, my husband’s fists and kicks reminded me to obey. So, this time, I obediently went out like always. Even though I just had a miscarriage five days ago and the sun outside was scorching, I had to go.

A woman showed up at my cabin door, claiming to be a Beta's mate. She said she wanted to rent my herb field for three hundred dollars a month, to grow medicine for her injured mate. Three hundred? Seriously? That land is the only one in the entire pack—blessed ground that drinks in the Moon Goddess's power. Herbs grown there could pull a dying wolf back from the dead. I turned her down. But she wouldn't let it go. So Sun, my dog, barked and chased her off. Figured that'd be the end of it. Wrong. The next day she came back with two Gammas, busting right through my door. They screamed at me, called me a worthless human who had no business touching pack land. Then they tied me up and made me watch as they burned my herb books, beat Sun, and tore out every single plant I'd grown. What they didn't know? I'm human, yeah. But I'm the adopted human daughter of the Bloodmoon Alpha and Luna. That herb field? Their gift to me on my eighteenth birthday. And those herbs they burned? The only cure for her mate's dying breath.

The wolfsbane had reached my bones, and I decided to stop treatment. Once, Ethan Anderson, the pack's Alpha, was the only light in my life. He promised we would travel the continent together, chasing the northern lights across frozen plains and exploring ancient ruins. But while I lay dying from wolfsbane poisoning, he took Murphy Blake, my best friend and the person I trusted most, to every place I had dreamed of seeing. My dreams became the story of how they fell in love. I was ready to let go. I wanted only to see the final place on my list. Then the antidote shattered, my ticket was soaked in blood, and Ethan abandoned me alone in the frozen wilderness. My life entered its final countdown. And there, at the edge of death, I discovered a secret that would change the fate of every werewolf. Ten years later, when the wolfsbane curse that had plagued werewolves for a thousand years was finally broken and everyone called me their savior, Ethan finally understood: He hadn't merely lost a mate who loved him. He had lost the one person who once would have spent her last breath waiting for him to turn back. But by then, I no longer needed his love.

Three years into our marriage, Sean Gibson returns from every field trip with a begonia for me. I am not a plant person, but his influence rubs off on me, and against all odds, they thrive under my care. I asked him once, "Why always begonias? Why not something else?" Sean was pinching back stems. Leaves scattered across the balcony as he replied, "You remind me of them." One day, I am sorting through old boxes at home and find a scrapbook. On the title page sits a single character, B, written in his handwriting. He claims it is just a random scribble, so I don't think much of it. Right before my birthday, he asks what I want. I tell him I want a snow-capped begonia. I say I already mixed the soil and even mapped out the exact spot for it. He freezes for a second, then chuckles and says, "Okay." On my birthday, he forgets again. His phone screen lights up. "Sean, thanks for the snow-capped begonia. So, you didn't forget after all." As I look at the begonias spilling from the balcony all the way into the bedroom, a wave of mixed emotions washes over me. He didn't forget. He just gave it to his ex, whom he broke up with seven years ago. It turns out he never meant I remind him of the flower. He meant I remind him of her.