Looking back was the exact opposite that Lin wanted to do. But who was she to disobey the goddess?She tentatively walked back to the glowing river and stared at it nervously. The reflection of her younger self looked at her with curiosity. “You want to know the truth? You want to know why you are not in contact with your wolf?” The voice literally came from the river.This captured Lin’s full attention. She leaned forward a bit and nodded before verbally adding, “Ye—yes.” She stuttered the word out.This was it! This was what she had been wanting to know for a very long time. From the moment that she turned sixteen and watched her friends shift into their wolves for the first time while she could not, she had longed to know.She had even asked her parents and they took her to many doctors and even a few therapists but nothing helped or worked.It took three more years before she had finally made peace with the fact that she was broken. Yes, she was still extremely intrigued about kn
Lin walked into the cave with her heart thumping in her chest. She had no idea where she was going, and the fact that she was not going with the Moon goddess did not make it any better.Yes, the goddess was still with her, but not physically. To the she-wolf, it was not quite the same.The further she walked away from the goddess, the darker it became. Until once again, she was surrounded by complete darkness.Any small sound that would go off would cause her heart to thunder in her chest. She was so scared.But at least she was now more hopeful in comparison to when she had just begun the quest.She was also more knowledgeable. She knew more about the quest, her past, her wolf, and the Moon goddess than she had ever known in her entire existence.Lin walked at a steady speed, not slowing down and going any faster than that. She kept one of her arms stretched forward in case a wall would be ahead, so she couldn’t bump into it.The air smelled weird, almost like cement, and it was cold
Shifting for the first time as a werewolf was not something that was not easy. It was painful, confusing, and even at times, torturous.The she-wolf had no idea, all she thought was that it was going to be smooth, even though she knew that she had no practice. “Just breathe, don’t overthink it. Focus on turning into a werewolf and it would happen naturally,” her wolf advised her.Lin closed her eyes and began to concentrate, trying her best to shift but absolutely nothing happened.She tried again. And again. Yet nothing happened. To a point that it was now getting frustrating.After a few more tries, she finally gave up. She was tired of trying over and over, getting the same results.“It’s okay, I don’t need to shift,” she mumbled under her breath in frustration. Her wolf wanted to speak yet stopped itself. It was better to remain silent, it believed. Lin walked down a path, using her low-light vision that she had been blessed with because of her union with her wolf.Yes, she was
Lin could not believe her eyes. The smell of the burned bodies was stronger than ever, causing her to feel vomit rising in her throat.She headed towards the scene and stopped right at Hunter and the red haired guy. She wanted to speak yet she could not bring herself to do that.She had never seen a dead body before, this was the first time. And it caused chills to run down her spine, especially considering how the men had died gruesomely.Hunter had tears in his eyes but he held them back with all of himself. Crying would make him look weak.Even though the guys that had died were men that he had gone to high school with and was close to, he still did not want to seem like he was unmanly.His mother had told him before that it was okay for men to cry but his father had led him to believe otherwise.He cleared his throat, sniffled and stood to his feet. When he peeled his eyes off the dead bodies, he locked eyes with the she-wolf.He could tell immediately that something was different
Lin swallowed but refused to coward in fear. She had told herself over and over that if she wanted to be Alpha of the pack, and that is, the first female alpha, then that meant that she had to stop allowing fear to rule her life. “I am not a curse,” she managed to say even though her voice was smeared with nervousness and fear. “And I am most certainly not cancer to our pack.”“Really?” The Reaper chuckled as he walked closer to her. “Your parents didn’t die from a gas leak, Lin. And you are a damn fool for believing that.”Lin’s face twisted in confusion as she furrowed her brows, not wanting to believe what the guy had just said. “Stop gaslighting me. Stop lying to me! I know the truth!” Her voice broke a bit. “Nothing you can say right now can make me believe your lies!”The Reaper fed on the reaction that he was getting from the she-wolf. It fueled him. “Lies? Really? That’s what you call me finally giving you the closure that was stolen from you?” He stopped when he was a foot
Sitting, Lin had already made her decision, and that was to stay on the quest. It was a very risky one but she knew that that was what she really wanted to do.As she stood to her feet, her eyes landed on someone walking towards her. At first she could not tell who it was.But after a few seconds, the person became visible. It was Hunter Blackwood, and he was alone.She did not think that he would be coming back anytime soon. She believed that he saw her as cursed now.“Hey,” Hunter said when he reached not too far from the she-wolf. “Are you okay?” He was a bit tentative.She doubled back a bit, squinting her eyes while staring at him. “Am I okay? You literally left me, Hunter.”He swallowed and shrugged lightly. “Lin, see it from my side. The guy said that you were cursed. He said you are the reason why the pack has been going through a lot.”“And you believed that?” She folded her arms on her chest and frowned.“What did you expect me to believe? I have not even known you for more
Lin stared at Hunter with dull eyes, not even a bit impressed by his act. “You don’t have to bring my parents into this, I will forgive you for leaving me.”Again, she understood why he left, that was why it was easier to forgive him and let it go.And considering that he was on the quest to win and not be a therapist or her boyfriend, she truly understood.Hunter wiped the tears from his eyes and stared at the she-wolf. At that very moment, he was contemplating whether to even still tell her or not.It was something that his father had warned him about, no, threatened him about; not to tell another soul.The councilman had told Hunter that if he ever tried to tell anyone about what they did to Lin’s parents, it would be sure death for him.No mercy at all.So he was a bit tentative about telling this. “Lin, just listen, okay?” He sniffled and wiped the tears from his eyes. Yes, what he had done burdened him and made him feel like crap every day of his life but to be honest, he would
Closure. A word that have been hanging over the head of Lin for a while now.She had wanted closure for what her boyfriend had done to her. She had wanted closure for why she did not have her wolf back then.And she had also wanted closure to why and exactly how her parents had died.And you know what? Closure does not make it better. She thought it did, she believed that knowing would help ease some of the pain but the truth is that all it did was make her hurt even more.Ignorance is bliss, she had heard people say. And no, she did not believe in that saying and thought it was crappy, but now, it was starting to grow on her.She wished that she was still ignorant, but now it was way too late. What was she going to do with all the rage and anger that just kept building up in her?“Hunter, you have a minute to tell me what you did to my parents,” she said to him in a tone that was both harsh yet calm.Her emotions were all over the place and she hated that her eyes kept producing tear