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Chapter 16

"One fateful night, Damien and the Alphas he had persuaded to join him, stormed the compound, attacking those inside. Amara tried to protect her people but she faltered when her father pleaded at her to spare him, not wanting to become the monster he was by taking a life. So she let him live, to which he rewarded her with a knife to the stomach."

"No!" Alaya cried, tears threatening to spill over uninvited. Her chest hurt a little, imagining her foremother, who died purely because of what she was, of what others feared her to be. Her palm came up to her chest as she nursed circles against it, her heart feeling heavy with this new found knowledge of her history.

"Damien took hold of the pack once more, renamed Shadows Curse, now that Amara was no longer around to protect them. Some escaped into the surrounding woods but with no pack to call their own Damien didn't bother to chase them, knowing they would most likely die anyway. As the years passed more Amaris were born, their silver eyes giving their true nature away. Damien and all the Alphas demanded that all pups born with silver eyes would have to be left in the woods to die, not wanting to risk another growing to be as strong as his daughter had been. And for centuries that was what came to pass, pups being abandoned to die because of what they might become." Noah replied, all the proudness and happiness gone from his eyes as he told her the story they shared. Alaya envisaged her own mother, her red locks playfully wrapped around a tiny infant hand. Until they were torn out as the infant was stolen from her, leaving her arms empty. Would that of been her fate if her father had known what she was? Destined merely for death?

Alaya rested her head against Noah's chest, at some point having been pulled into his lap. She let the scent of lavender fill her senses, soothing herself and the wolf inside of her. A wolf that could of been the death of her if she had lived back then. She thought about all that he had said, of this story of heartbreak.

"Well that's, um. That's alot," Alaya breathed out, "but how did all that lead to Shadow moon. If Amara died, it all the Amaris did?"

"One night, many moons ago, a mother gave birth to twins. Each held the silver eyes that many parents feared, for it meant a death sentence for their newborn pups. Their heartbroken father, Jakob, left them sleeping in a hollowed out tree, their mother screaming at him to change his mind...He did not. But their mother, Cora refused to relent and watched him secretively and as the light blue sky turned to a sunset shade of red and Jakob abandoned their babies, she rushed forward and took them back. She wondered aimlessly through the forest unsure where to go, at times she swore she was guided by a otherworldly light, a silhouette that morphed from human to wolf. Just before Cora succumbed to fatigue and hunger, her newborn pups clinging to her chest, she stumbled upon a cabin."

"Oh thank god. I was going to cry if this story had a shitty ending," Alaya said, her nose crinkling as relief flooded through her. Noah looked down at her and smiled, the sadness leaving his features.

"Thankfully not. For inside the cabin, lived all of the pups who had been left to die. For they had been saved, many holding memories of an ethereal glow carrying them to safety, as if Amara herself ensured her kin survived. And so became the Amaris and Shadow moon."

Although crazy, it felt true, what Noah had said. As if the origin of her wolf somehow resonated within her, part of them long before they were born. A shared memory that wasn't theirs. The questions started to bombard her mind, reminding her that stories that started with murder didn't normally get their happy ending.

Alaya wanted to believe that all of this had suddenly turned into a tale of peace, of perfect happiness with a backdrop of rainbows and fluffy kittens but part of her doubted it. Why wouldn't the Amaris just rise up and retaliate? After centuries of being made to hide? If they were so strong why wouldn't they use that power to make an ultimate pack and force the Alphas to yield? Why wouldn't the wolves that lived there use their powers to become ultimate Alphas that no one could stop? Instead of living in constant fear?

"Why doesn't Shadow Moon attack the other packs, if they are so powerful?" Alaya asked, not being able to help herself as the question just came tumbling out.

"That’s not what the Amaris is about. We have been given a gift to help others to live free like we do. To break the shackles that Alphas put upon them, not bind them with our own," Noah explained and in that moment she felt the beauty in what she was. For those that were too weak to fight back, like she thought she had been these past few weeks. She could instead help to break them free. Where wolves could grow up without competition, without fear of what they could be, because what they were didn't matter.

"And that's where you live? Where you want me to go?" She asked knowing the answer already. They had said as much last night before she had convinced them to stay. She should of let them go but she hadn't realised what danger could lay here.

"That’s where you’re meant to be. Amaris are never born outside of Shadow Moon, haven't been for centuries. It allows us to stay protected, so that no one discovers our existence once more. Tales of our kind are like whispers on the wind now, more myths than fact," he continued and she could sense the fear in his tone. Great, she was different even to her own kind. Her very existence now threatened theirs.

"Like mates? My father hadn't heard of mates happening for decades either. What happens if he starts to look into other myths and happens to find one about wolves with eyes of the moon? He will know it's me and then what happens? What if others here then find out? You need to leave. Now," Alaya's voice became louder the more the fear escaped from within her, the more her mind realised exactly what would happen if her father, if Luther, found out about Shadow Moon. No, they had to leave and quickly.

"I won't leave you Luna. I've only just found you," Noah breathed, his grip tightening as she tried to stand. She turned to face him, to make him understand that it wasn't only her that wasn't safe here. She could hide what she was for now, not for long but for now. And she was the Alphas daughter so that gave her a bit of protection at least.

"It wouldn't be wise for us to disappear now, that gives your father something to chase. Right now he believes Noah and I are here purely for you because you are mates. Half truths are always more likely to be believed. Hopefully the heads of the houses will vote us to leave and then we will be nothing more that strangers that came in the night," Neve interjected, halting Alaya's protests.

"That makes sense. Apart from one thing," Alaya continued, wishing it would purely be that simple.

"And what's that?" Neve countered. Alaya held her gaze showing her that there was indeed something she hadn't accounted for.

"If the reason my true nature stayed hidden was because I hadn't accepted my wolf then that's not the case anymore. I'm going to be read again at 2pm. In front of father, Fen. They will find out what I am."

"Then we had better figure out a way to stop that reading from going ahead. Our lives may very well depend on it."

"Oh of course. Why didn't I think of that." Alaya replied sarcastically. She couldn't just stop it going ahead or get out of it. It wasn't math. She buried her head into Noah’s chest wishing more than anything that she could just bury her head and this would all go away.

"Well we are going to have to do something because we can't risk her reading you and finding out your not only not an Omega, but also a stronger Alpha than your father. That won't end well." Neve continued frown on her face at Alaya's inability to find a solution.

"Well I can't just not show up. Fen will come and collect me. Maybe the other theory is right and it's some sort of defence mechanism?" Alaya replied, lifting her head begrudgingly, hoping that would be the case. Once her father was set on something that was the end of it. There were no ifs or buts, no leeway when it came to obeying him. She couldn't just call him and say "whoops sorry I've double booked you. See you a week next Tuesday." No, if she didn't go he would just send Fen to collect her. And seeing as he had effectively put them all under house arrest it wasn't exactly a fair game if she wanted to push some boundaries.

"And if it's not? If now you have accepted your wolf, now you and her are truly one your power is too close to the surface?" Neve countered and Alaya was starting to wish she wasn't such a pessimist. It worked before surely it would work again?

Alaya got up from where she was wrapped up in Noah's embrace, needing some space that wasn't full of him. She paced over by the window trying to find a way out of this mess, praying there was one.

Adolpha? Alaya asked silently, hoping she would answer and know what to do.

I'm afraid I do not know Alaya. When last we met Tunika I was just a bystander, a witness to what happened around me when you were in human form. Now that has changed, the ripple that held us apart is now more fluid, enabling us to flow freely one side to the next. I don't know what that means for our reading. If the power we wield as one will shine through or if it will remain hidden. I wish I did.

"It's ok." Alaya said out loud because it wasn't purely for Adolpha's benefit. It would be ok. She would make sure it was. Even if she had to sacrifice a part of her to ensure it.

"The bond I share with my wolf. Is there a way to sever it?"

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