Aria could hear her heart beating loudly in her chest as all blood rushed to her head. She lifted her head to meet the blue gaze of the Alpha wolf in front of her.
It was finally happening. She was the chosen twin. Her lips curved in a smile and she parted her lips to respond to the mate call.However, her mouth only opened. It was not her voice that responded.“Mate!” Ellie’s voice called out softly behind her.Aria swiveled and she saw that the two of them were lost in each other. Her whole world began to crumble before her eyes as she observed the intimate moment between her sister and the golden-haired Alpha. One tear rolled down her cheek and she didn’t wipe it off.The new mates wrapped their arms around each other and the whole party cheered. Her father came to the front, beaming with smiles at Ellie and her new mate.“My daughter has found her mate! The true twin has found her mate!!” he bellowed.The true twin…the true twin…the true twin…Those words bounced around in her head and her heart wrenched painfully.“No,” she whispered softly to herself.Just then, everybody seemed to notice her. Majority looked at her with scorn in their eyes, but a few looked at her with pity, especially the Lunas and the Betas’ mates.Her father sneered at her. Then he pointed at her and announced, “I hereby cast you Aria Jean Hendrix out of the Blood Moon Pack. From today, you shall be a rogue and you shall be severed from the pack connection. You are no longer Hendrix, and you are no longer a member of my pack!”As her father made the pronouncement, she could feel them taking root. Her heart twisted in unimaginable pain, and she sank to her knees. She felt the cords of attachment to the pack being severed, and each felt like a stab in the gut.“No,” she whispered again, clutching at her chest.The tears dropped heavily from her eyes, making everything appear blurry. She could not see in front of her, but she could hear the murmurs all around her.“She should leave before she brings a bad omen to the pack.”“Leave!”“Evil!”“Bad omen!”All those voices condemning and gossiping, each one felt like an arrow being stabbed in her chest.Her pack members began throwing rotting things at her as they cursed her and called her unimaginable names. It didn't help that she was on the floor as they threw even stones and sand at her.When she could not stand up, her father growled and grabbed her arm, forcefully yanking her up.She put up no resistance as he dragged her to her feet and pushed her out of the packhouse. She fell to the dirt, heavily.“You had better be gone within the next minute, Aria, or I will tear you apart myself!”Aria gingerly picked herself up and limped out of the premises of the packhouse.Gradually, she left behind the party and the noise, and the only life that she had known, no matter how cruel.The Blood Moon Pack packhouse was located on the outskirts of the pack territory, so from there, she crossed into unknown terrain; rogue territory.The atmosphere felt more primal, rawer, but it wasn’t as hostile as her pack…no, the former pack was.She embraced the strangeness of the woods and continued to hobble along. Her father had thrown her with such force that she landed on her ankle and twisted it.The reality of her situation dawned on her again and the tears started to flow. Where was she to go from here? She, Aria Jean Hendrix was no longer a legitimate wolf. She was now a rogue. Maybe she should find a pack of rogues and join them. Or she should just make her way to the cliff whose silhouette she saw way up ahead, and jump off it to end her miserable existence.As she limped along in the woods, crunching dead leaves underneath her feet, she could hear a distant rustling. Her werewolf senses became more acute, and she followed the sound of the rustling with her ears. It was coming from somewhere on her right. Another joined it from the left, and she knew that she was being stalked.She crouched to the ground and placed her hand on the forest floor, trying to get the vibrations. She noticed that they were two pairs of four legs, meaning wolves. Rogue wolves.Shit! She couldn’t handle them in this condition. She started hobbling faster, but the wolves were faster. Finally, she broke into a run, wincing with every collision of her injured foot with the ground.Aria could hear them running from all sides now. They growled, snarled and howled, coming in closer to corner her. Suddenly, one of the wolves leaped in front of her.Because she was an Alpha’s daughter with Alpha blood in her veins, she was more powerful than most wolves. She stopped and stared down the small black wolf. It snarled, showing off sharp teeth.It rushed at her, and Aria braced herself. As soon as the wolf leapt at her, she grabbed it by the paws and threw it over her shoulder. It yelped and hit a tree with a thud.The other wolves suddenly rounded her up, trapping her in a circle. They all snarled and growled, and their wicked black eyes were trained on her. Suddenly, a strange sensation took over her body and a new voice invaded her head.“Relax, Aria. Let me take over. I’m your wolf, Keera.”“Okay, Keera. Can you get me out of this situation?”“That’s why I’m here, Aria,” Keera replied calmly.For the first time in her 18 years, Aria shifted into a wolf. Her bones cracked and bent into new joints, fur grew out of her skin and her snout grew forward.Her paws scratched at the forest floor as she and Keera stood proud; a pure white wolf.However, much of her strength had depleted, and Keera had nothing to work with. She started to sway and shift back into human form, just as the rogues closed in on her.They disbanded when a large brown wolf landed in their middle and growled at them. His warm amber eyes were the last thing she saw as she lost consciousness and dropped to the forest floor, human.Aria stirred and tried to open her eyes. She couldn’t. Her body was not responding to her wishes and it was strangely silent in her head. However, she could feel, and she could hear.A large warm hand was brushing gently against her hair and her face, and his voice was a deep rumble which echoed in her chest. She was aware that she lay on a soft bed and an even softer pillow.“How is she, Doctor? Is she badly hurt?” he asked. Another masculine replied to him, sounding far away.“She’s okay. She’s a little weak from her first shift, so I passed some glucose fluids into her body. She only fainted out of shock. She’s malnourished though, but she doesn’t look like a rogue.”“I don’t think so either,” Mystery man replied, “I can feel power on her, but I wonder why she left her pack.”He was still stroking her hair.Aria wanted to open her eyes and her mouth and tell him what happened, but she couldn’t. Soon, she fell into a deep but restless sleep.***2 days later“Why is she not opening
“You can’t leave. What do you mean you’re leaving? You can’t. You’re my mate!”The words resonated in Aria's head. She stared at Alpha Damien in shock. Her emerald green eyes got wider than they had ever gotten all her life.While she was unconscious, she remembered Damien had mentioned something about her being his mate but she had shrugged it off as a figment of her imagination. Aria believed that she wasn't supposed to have a mate because apparently, she was the evil twin as her family and pack claimed.How then could this man stand before her and claim that he was her mate?"I— I don't understand what you're talking about," Aria stuttered.Damien stared at her in disbelief. Was she really doing this to him? Was she trying to deny him? She couldn't. No, maybe she didn't really understand. Maybe it would be best if he handled matters with a lot of patience."You left me this note, Aria Jean. You're leaving," Damien began.Aria felt her heart racing. Her breathing was still heavy fro
“As my brother claimed, you, Aria, are his mate. The long-awaited Luna of Crescent Moon Pack," Camille stated with authority.Aria felt her heart sink deeper into her ribcage. She stared at Camille with widened eyes. She had not expected Camille to confirm it too but Camille had done just that. Camille gave her a reassuring smile as she nodded at her. Aria knew that Camille would not just lie to her but she still found it hard to believe. She was the evil twin as her pack claimed. The evil twin was not supposed to have a mate. How would her pack then explain Damien who kept claiming that she was his mate?"If Damien is truly my mate, shouldn't I feel something? Shouldn't I feel a certain kind of pull or a chain of emotions? Maybe sparks or butterflies in my stomach? I don't feel anything," Aria told them the honest truth.Camille broke into laughter. "You have been listening to too many teenage wolves, Aria. You are probably a late wolf. Since you had your first shift that night when
Ellie Jill Hendrix happily brushed her chestnut brown hair before the mirror. There was a joyous glint in her emerald green eyes. There was also the existence of a dreamy smile plastered on her face. She was happy.She never knew her life could get even better than it already was. Especially because her father had finally rid them of her evil twin sister.She had waited for years to dissociate herself from that evil twin she had as a sister and just being able to breathe different air from the one Aria breathed made her satisfied. The one who murdered her mother was finally gone.She rolled her eyes at the thought of Aria. Thinking of that woman always brought a sour expression to her face. She wasn't going to let Aria ruin her day. She went back to brushing her hair.Ellie had finally gotten all that she ever wanted. She was living in the paradise she always dreamed of. She had found her mate— Alpha Gerald and this had automatically made her the Luna of the Moonshadow Pack. Her mat
Ellie ran her hand over her hair as she stared at the blood that dripped from the body. The cross sign was neatly carved on the wolf's body. The person was probably an artist, his or her main goal was probably perfection and they might have achieved that. The view was quite gruesome but she was less concerned. Apart from the fact that her eyes had already adapted to the scene, her thoughts were somewhere else. Her eyebrows were squeezed together, so were her lips. She stared intensely as her mind went back to one person.It had to be her, Ellie thought to herself. After all, she's the only one who got banished. She wanted revenge that was why she was going through all this, Ellie concluded by herself. She had to inform Gerald. Besides, she knew how her sister could be."I might know who caused this," She said absently before she clicked her tongue. Gerald and Donald stopped talking and stared at Ellie. The cold forest breeze hit her face and sent some of her hair on her face. Ellie
"Oh, just for one simple reason. I hate twins," Damien's words resonated in her head.She was also a twin. Everything was becoming worse by the seconds, if she told Damien she was the evil twin he was going to hate her. He would probably send her out of this place.Aria felt her heartbeat increase as she walked toward her room.Why would he hate twins? She asked herself before she got to the door of the room. She unlocked it silently and stepped in. Aria was placed in the most comfortable room in the house. The room was neatly decorated, and the walls had designs that were painted by hand. The moon illuminated the room, and the lights were switched off but she could still see the paintings that were hung on the wall. One of them happened to be a painting of the moon goddess as imagined. Aria moved to the bed and climbed on top. She stared up at the moon before she heaved a sigh.Her entire body basically was not at peace. She just discovered something disturbing, her supposed ma
"Our father was a twin, and he had an evil twin," Camille's words resonated in Aria's head. Aria could not understand why the world hated twins this much. Whoever tagged twins as evil anyway? She had heard that there were rarely twins in their werewolf world but she had never really lived seeing any other twin evil or bad Although, their history claimed that all twins to ever exist had an evil twin. They always ended up causing disaster in the end. What if they turned out that way because the world branded them as evil in the first place?Aria looked back into Camille's eyes. She wanted to say a lot but she didn't know where to begin. She could see how tense Camile looked just mentioning the thing about the evil twin. What if all Camille's kindness faded away the moment Camile realised she was a twin too?"Did he. . .ever hurt anyone?" Aria asked with hesitation.Camille gritted her teeth. Aria saw pain flash before Aria's eyes. She immediately regretted asking her the questions see
Voices plagued her dreams.Harsh whispers, loud screams, painful cries. Aria tossed in her bed. She was uncomfortable. She was sweating all over. Memories from the past plagued her. She could feel the burning rage and hatred radiating from her father. She saw his angry face every time she tried to please him. She heard his scolding screams each time he rejected her. She heard his voice again, from the night of the ceremony.“I hereby cast you Aria Jean Hendrix out of the Blood Moon Pack. From today, you shall be a rogue and you shall be severed from the pack connection. You are no longer Hendrix, and you are no longer a member of my pack!”Those words cut through her heart and she felt herself drowning in a darkness that was beneath her. Suddenly, the images melted away and Damien's face entered her dream. She saw his warm amber eyes. His eyes seemed to convey a message. It was a message that she understood clearly. Safety.There was safety in Damien's eyes and she wanted to remain i