Chapter 85
Sloane
One Year Later
My birthday is tomorrow. My tenth birthday. I’ll finally know if all my hard work has
Please Moon Goddess, please let it have
Con enough.
“SOANE!” I turn to see my brother running toward me on his small little toddler legs.
“Hey, Teddy,” I say, rushing forward to him up.
“LOANE!” Aria yells, right behind him. I put him on one hip and then scoop her up into my arms as well.
“You’ve got quite the handful there,” Aunt Samara says, walking up. Her stomach is large with their second pup, a little girl. They told me already that they’re going to name her Jessica after my grandmother. Jessica Devi. Grandma Devi doesn’t know that yet, but I know she’ll begin crying as soon as she hears.
“I don’t mind,” I tell her and I don’t. At least here in our home and in our pack, no one makes snide comments about my parents being murderers. Uncle Roman caught a pack member once saying something and he not only publicly dressed them down until they were practically crying, he threw them in the cells and told the entire pack that if anyone had a problem with me or my siblings, they could find another pack to live in. It’s made things here easier, but at school, the other packs don’t have that restraint.
Unfortunately, that means that I’ve had to use what I’ve learned from Uncle Roman in our individual warrior training to shut them up. I’ve been sent home twice in the last year for fighting and I’m getting a reputation at school of being a problem child. I’m not, it’s just that everyone has their breaking point and I’ve reached mine. Now, it’s almost like a rite of passage for the kids at school to try and tease me when I can hear them. The new kids get set up and I take them down, just to make sure it doesn’t happen again from the same person.
Unfortunately, when I get caught, Uncle Roman gives me the talk and let’s me know that he’s disappointed in my choices and that he wants me to rise above the snide comments of others. Having Uncle Roman expressing his disappointment in me is hard, really hard. He never yells, he never disciplines me, he just tells me that I’m better than that and that I need to rise above.
And I do, sometimes. But sometimes, there’s just no way to get your point across, especially to other, arrogant Alphas, except to put them on the ground. And thankfully, they usually don’t want to hurt their precious egos by telling on me, so I’ve only been sent home twice, when I could have been sent home many, many more times.
“Grandpa William, Grandma Jasmine, and Will will be here in about an hour, and Alpha Waylon and Luna Judith will be here first thing in the morning,” Aunt Samara says, trying to take Teddy from me. He begins fighting against her to stay with me, but Uncle Roman walks in and growls softly at him.
“What have I said about fighting with your mother when she’s pregnant, Theo,” he says sternly, coming over to take Teddy from me. He already has Slade in his arms. We all know that as soon as Grandma Jasmine walks in, Slade will have no time for any of us. He still adores her. I get it, I still adore Grandpa William.
“Don’t do it,” he pouts.
“That’s right,” Uncle Roman says, leaning over to kiss first Aria on the forehead and then me.
“Are you ready for tomorrow?” he asks me
The answer is no, I’m not. I’m terrified. It’s not that I don’t think that I’ll get a wolf, it’s that I really, really want her to be a white wolf.
But, instead, I tell him that I’m ready.
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Chapter 85
“When are Scarlet and her parents arriving?” I ask.
“WE’RE HERE!” Scarlet says, rushing up to me and carefully hugging me and Aria together. Scarlet is a couple of months older than I am and she got her wolf on her birthday. I know from punching some kids at school that you get stronger when you get your wolf. But it’s different when it’s your best friend who you know so well. The first time she hugged me after she got her wolf, I had to tell her it was too tight it was like she got strong overnight. I can’t wait to get my wolf so I have that level of strength and maybe even more if my wolf is a white woll.
“Momma, Momma!” Aria says, leaning over to Aunt Samara as she is saying hello to Alpha
Austin and Luna Elizabeth.
Aunt Samara takes her, easily adjusting her around her large stomach as she continues her conversation.
“Hi Alpha, Hi Luna,” I say to Scarlet’s parents before Scarlet pulls me away.
“Don’t stay up all night,” Luna Elizabeth calls as we make our way upstairs to my room.
“As if we don’t have weeks to catch up on,” Scarlet scoffs. “So, what time does Will arrive?” she asks excitedly.
Scarlet still has a huge crush on Will. Every chance she gets to join me in Alpha William’s pack, she does. Will’s a good sport about it, mostly, but he and I get along a lot better when Scarlet isn’t there causing chaos.
“Aunt Samara said they’ll be here in about an hour.”
“Perfect, I need to get ready.”
“Get ready for what?” I ask her.
“He’s fourteen now, silly. I want to make sure he doesn’t see me as a little girl. He’s a teenager. He’s starting high school next year.”
1 roll my eyes. “Whatever,” I say.
“Oh please, don’t tell me you haven’t seen Benedict watching you at school,” she smirks before walking into my bathroom and going through my drawers to find the makeup she left here.
“Benedict watches me as I punch his friends in the face,” I say.
“Yeah, but he looks at you with admiration,” she says, grinning.
“Please. I’m just thankful that he’s smart enough to keep his mouth shut. He has his wolf and given that he’s like what, one–hundredth generation Alpha, I’d probably break every bone in my hand if I punched him in his pretty little face,” I growl.
“Ha! You do find him attractive! I knew it!” she says.
I roll my eyes and change the subject to something I know will distract my bestie. “So, what are you going to wear?”
The rest of the night is great. All the people I consider my family are here to celebrate me. I just hope that I don’t disappoint them. I hope I get my white wolf so I can prove to everyone that I’m worthy of one.
Against her mother’s wishes, Scarlet and I stay up late, catching up and talking about everything just like we always do. Scarlet may be boy crazy, but she’s still my bestie and she always listens to what’s going on with me. She’s the only one that I can tell everything to, so she knows how much it means that I get my white wolf.
“You’ll know tomorrow,” she says, holding my hands as we lay on the floor in our makeshift bed like we do every time she’s here. “But Sloane, even if you don’t get a white wolf, you’re still the most amazing person I know.”
“Thanks, Scarlet.”
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Chapter 85
At some point, we fall asleep, still facing each other, still holding hands.
When I hear someone calling my name, I drag myself out of my sleep haze.
“What? What time is it?”
‘It’s carly, Sloane. Wake up.‘
“Why? It’s my birthday. I should be allowed to sleep in,” I grumble.
The voice chuckles. ‘I thought you wanted to meet me.’
That gets my attention. I open my eyes and look around my room. Scarlet is snoring softly beside me and there’s no one else in the room
“Who’s there?” Lask.
‘It’s me. Your wolf,‘ she says.
I suddenly realize that she’s been talking to me in my head. I’m the only one who was talking out loud.
‘You’re here?‘ I ask in my mind.
‘I am. I’m Aisling, Sloane. I’m your wolf.’
‘Aisling!‘ I say, disengaging myself from Scarlet. I need to see. I need to know before anyone else wakes up.
‘Uncle Roman said to wait to shift until he was there,‘ she says, having gone through my memories.
“I need to know, Aisling. I need to know if you’re a white wolf,‘ I say to her.
I make my way out of the bedroom and silently down the stairs. It’s still dark outside, so I know it’s very early.
‘What if I’m not?‘ she asks, her voice small.
‘That’s not on you. Did you see … did you see what our mother did?‘
‘Yes.‘
“I’ve been working so hard, Aisling, so hard to make sure you become the wolf you deserve to be,‘ I say, finally beginning to run when I get outside the packhouse.
I run into the forest to a place where there’s a small lake.
‘Do you know what to do?‘ I ask her.
‘Yes, but it’s going to hurt, Sloane. Are you sure you don’t want Uncle Roman here with us?‘ she asks.
‘I just need to know if everything I did was enough, Aisling. Please.’
She tells me to lay down on the ground and to relax as best I can. When my bones begin snapping and reshaping, it’s all I can do not to scream out in pain.
‘Relax, Sloane. I know it’s hard. I’ll shift as fast as I can.’
‘Just do it,’ I say, gritting my teeth against the pain.
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Chapter 85
When it’s finally done, I lay panting on the ground. No, not me. Aisling.
She gets up and slowly walks to the water. I close my eyes, hoping and sending up a final prayer to the Moon Goddess, praying that she has seen enough in me to give me a white wolf.
I hear Aisling whine before I look. I already know what I’m going to see.
When I open my eyes, Aisling’s fur is the color of my hair, dark brown.
1 gasp, the pain of not being enough, of not doing enough to show the Moon Goddess that I was worthy of having a white wolf slices through
- me.
‘I’m so sorry, Aisling. I’m so sorry I failed you.‘
She lifts her head to the sky, crying mournfully as I begin to sob at my failure.
**This story will continue in Forsaken by the Moon Goddess, Sloane’s story.
G
