: I want to thank Whiskeyqueenn for her world which inspired this sidestory.: 

The house phone was ringing, when I ran inside. I had stayed after school, to help set up for the Harvest Dance. My cell was dead.  Today was Rya's birthday and we were going out to dinner. I was driving because I was the only one with a licence. Caller ID said it was Tina.

"Yeah, yeah, I know I'm late. I'm coming, Tina. Keep your bra on or put one on..." I rolled my eyes as I said it. My grandmother always said that and I can't help the smirk on my face, wishing my mother was here to hear me say it.

Sobbing, breathless sobbing answered me.

"Tina, Tina, what's wrong? Where are you?" Oh goddess, please don't be the phone call from Tina I have always feared. Please don't let some male have raped you and abandoned you somewhere.

"R...R...Rya... " she sobbed out.

"What happened to Rya? Where is she?" I demanded. I hadn't seen her all day. I had skipped lunch to work on the gymnasium.

"She... she f... found her m.. mmm.... mate!" Tina cries.

"Oh thank goddess, I thought it was something bad. Why are you crying? I thought you'd be happy," I snap, getting annoyed at her dramatics, "I'll be over as soon as I..."

"Cora, shut up and listen," she screams into her phone at me, "Rya's mate is Alpha Clayton. He rejected her and she attacked Kennedy. She went nuts when Clayton refused to even give her a chance. She was on the ground crying and begging and he... he... started to walk away with Kennedy. Then Rya attacked Kennedy. Do you understand she attacked our future Luna? She's going to be whipped with silver, they are taking her to the post from the clinic. You have to come, now. You have to help her."

Suddenly, I feel Alpha Adams open the pack link, ' All wolves are to report to the whipping post. For punishment of a she-wolf who attacked another she-wolf.'

Oh Goddess! I can't breathe for a moment. Rya really did attack Kennedy.

"Did you hear that?" Tina sobs.

"I'm coming to get you, where are you?" I demand. Don't panic Cora, don't freak out.

"I'm following Rya from the clinic, just come to the post," she hangs up.

My mind is racing as I drive to the pack house too fast to be safe. My brain can not process what is going on. How could Clayton be Rya's mate? He's Kennedy's mate.  

Or they lied about it. My wolf points out.

Suddenly, I feel very sick in the pit of my stomach. Clayton had to know he was Rya's mate on his birthday over two years ago, but he is an Alpha and she is just... well, just Rya. And Kennedy... Kennedy is a beta. He loved her, they grew up together, he would chose her over a lesser wolf any day, any week, any month, and had for over two years.

I have to park further away because of the crowd gathering to see the spectacle. Wolves are walking around me in a calm manner toward to rear of the pack house and out toward where the whipping post is buried into the hard earth. I pushed rudely through the crowd, looking for Tina, shouting for her. My father was standing in his place between the Beta and the Delta. He was just made first Gamma. He glared at me but I ignored him.

My brother grabbed my arm roughly, "Come with me, Cora." He dragged me over to stand with the high ranking wolves gathered around the alpha couple. But I craned my neck, looking for Tina and more importantly Rya. "Stand still," he hissed. I growled back at him.

Kennedy looked like she had been beaten badly. Clayton held her in his arms, whispering that it would be okay, he still loved her. I stared at them disbelieving until Charlie pinched the back of my arm. Rya was being led to the post. The Alpha announced her charges and her punishment, Rya had dried tears on her face and chewed her lip as he spoke and stared at Clayton the whole time. When they bent her down, and placed the silver around her wrist, she stared at him. When the Alpha started with the whip, she held his eyes. I jumped with every lash strike. I wasn't even aware I was crying until Charlie wiped my tears. I couldn't see clearly anymore.

"Keep it together, Cora!" he whispered. I try to jerk away from him but can't, his grip hurt. "Don't. Dad will explain later."

When it is finally over, Clayton turns and leads Kennedy away. We all bow our heads in respect to them. They are our future leaders.

Charlie drags me away from the others before they notice my face, my tears. "Where's your car?"

"I have to... :sob:... I have to g... go to Rya. I... I have to f..find T... Tina." I stammer between sobs.

He turns me to face him, giving me a shake, "Cora, you can't. You can't ever be seen with her again."

"Charlie, she's my best friend, my very best friend, and she was just rejected and whipped with silver for it. I promised to protect her... I ... I promised to be there for her forever." I'm sobbing into his arms as he put me into my car. He takes my keys and drives us home. Then he carries me upstairs to my room and rubs my back as I sob for my friend. "Why? How could he reject her? She's the nicest wolf in the world."

Charlie sighs, and in the darkening shadows of my room, he looks older, "You know why Cora, but it's better this way. She's just a lesser wolf."

I start sobbing again. It is my worst fears realized, mate rejection, and it happened to Rya because of her birth. We watch from my darkened room as they arrive at Rya's house. Her mother and the healer carrying her inside, then the light in her room comes on, and the curtains are drawn shut. Her back looked even worse than it did only a dozen minutes ago. Finally, after almost an hour, the light goes off again. I cry the whole time. She must hurt so much, her back looked like raw meat.

"I have to protect her. She doesn't deserve this." I say, my voice raspy from crying.

"Cora, she attacked our future Luna, she had to be punished," Charlie insist, he hold up his hand to stop my outburst. "I agree with you, what Clayton did is wrong. It is wrong to reject your mate chosen by the Moon. I don't know why he did it, but I know he loves Kennedy and he loves this pack. He has to think about the pack. What kind of Luna would a wolf like Rya make?"

"A good one. She is kind and generous and hard working. She would be better Luna than Kennedy any day! Kennedy's a bi..."

"ENOUGH CORA!" My mother's harsh tone cuts me off. "You will not speak of your future Luna that way. And you will not be seen with that girl again."

"You can't tell me what to do, you're just as low as she is, mother," I snarl. I can feel fur rippling under my skin, with my need to hurt someone, anyone to avenge my best friend's misery.

"NO, but I can. If you shift, you will lose your car and all your privileges," my father's voice has a harsh, icy edge to it. "This family has a responsibility to this pack. We have our position to maintain. You will abide by your duty or you will find yourself at the post, daughter." I tremble, I can't help it, but my brave wolf raises her lip to bare her teeth at my father's and I feel her anger. It is as if our own pup has been punished. Rya is just a common, non-ranked wolf, and the Alphas, and Beta knew she was Clayton's mate. They had to know. Suddenly everything in the last several months made sense. All the little things I had ignored, had pretended weren't there.

"You knew, you and all the ranked wolves knew that Rya was Clayton's mate and he chose Kennedy." Then I accuse my own father of treason to the Goddess, "You ALL knew he rejected the Moon's gift. It's blasphemy." I am holding up my head, I am being strong and I can see in his eyes that he in conflicted, he is proud, but he is also scared? My father is the fourth strongest in this pack and he is scared. But of what? "Why didn't they send her away? Or him? Why put them through that?" I struggle to understand, my tone is pleading. "Why put the pack through it?"

My mother makes a disgusted sound, but before I can snap at her, my father steps between us. "Do not threaten your mother! In this house, we do not question the decision of the Alpha, he could have killed her but he spared her. She is free to find another mate. But if you contact her, you are grounded, no shifting, no driving, no phone until I say."

"She is inno..." I start to scream when my father hits me in the gut and I collapse, gasping for air.

My father painfully drags me by the arm, out of our house, across the yard and throws me into his truck. He gets in and drives, Charlie holds me in the back seat as I thrash and yell to be let out so I can go to her. I have never been this defiant in my life, but everything in me screams that what happened today was wrong. Unjust. Corrupt. 

Father stops and gets out, in moments he returns with the Beta. They bodily drag me into the Alpha's office at the pack house, which is oddly empty and quiet. My brother trails behind, looking scared. Alpha Adams is sitting across the desk looking put out, as I am forced into a chair. My father's hand on one shoulder, the Beta's hand on the other. I squirm to be free. My wolf doesn't like to be restrained by these powerful wolves. She wants to fight and I agree.

"Enough! Be still!" His Alpha command freezes me. My wolf lays down, tail between her legs, ears down, whimpering. "Cora, you disappoint me. You have put the selfish desire of one non-ranked wolf over the welfare of your pack. Tell me why?" I can feel his eyes, I can't look up.

"R...r..." I force myself to swallow, head up, eyes forward, voice calm, just like Luna Catherine taught me. "Rya is my best friend since primary school, I know that she is a lesser wolf and therefore in need of protection, leadership, and care. I vowed to help her as I would any wolf in the pack. What happened today is wrong. To deny the Moon's appointed mate is blasphemy. Rya has many Luna qualities and could be more than she was born to be. She would be a better Luna than Kennedy."

The Beta slaps the side of my head with the back of his hand, "Disrespectful brat."

My father growls, but says nothing. I realize he is growling at me!

"I see," the Alpha's tone is cold. "So you would disrespect the choice of your future Alpha of your future Luna. "

"The Moon chose Rya to be our future Luna, not Kennedy. " I blurt out in defiance. I will fight for Rya if no one else will.

The Alpha's eyes narrow as if he hears my thoughts. The room vibrates with his Alpha tone, and my bones shiver as it washes over me. 

"Cora Shill, Daughter of Gamma Carl Shill, you are, from today forward, to cease contact with Rya. She is to be shunned, to eat last at all pack events and no longer allowed to eat with pack members. You will have no direct contact with her, except to inform her of this. You will respect Alpha Clayton's choice and not speak ill of it. Do you understand? "

Wrong, this is so wrong. It is an abomination of the Moon's gifts. An apostasy of all we believe. My wolf and I thrash against the alpha command, the pain is unbearable. I pant trying to stop the burning in my brain, the crushing of my heart and bones as we fight it, she and I together. Finally, defeated, we slump from the chair to the floor, tears soaking my cheeks and blood from my nose soaks the front of my shirt. My beautiful strong wolf is laying on her side, battered, beaten. We tried, we failed. Goddess forgive us.

"Y...yessss a... alpha." I admit, still sobbing. My head feels like it is going to explode.

His voice is like a silver blade to my soul, "Say it again, I didn't hear you."

"Yes, alpha," I sob louder.

"Good, you are released from your tutoring session with Luna Catherine until you can learn the proper respect for wolves who are higher than yourself." His boots walk past me, everyone leaves me there on the floor, alone in my weakness.

Rya, I am so sorry... I feel the cold curl of hatred for Alpha Adams in my soul.

But I think I hate my father more.

:::IF YOU HAVE NOT READ CLAYTON - STOP!!!  

YOU NEED TO GO TO Whiskeyqueenn'S Amazon PAGE AND READ CLAYTON FIRST! 

THIS IS YOUR WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD:::

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9.2018 - CLAYTON is published!!!

Clayton (The Wildflower Series) by Rachelle Mills https://www.amazon.com/dp/164034487X/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_S8sbDbB084P46 via @amazon

2.2019- DALLAS is published!!!

Dallas (The Wildflower Series Book 2) by Rachelle Mills https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MXRVB7M/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_U_x_o9sbDbPFY61NH via @amazon
Find them on Amazon

::Thank you to Rachelle for allowing this CLAYTON Fanfiction to be published.:: 

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