The room was slightly wrecked. I stood at the end of the empty bed, my raven hair a wild mass around me and my clothes torn and bloodstained in places from the struggle. There was damage to the sheets from where my blade must have nicked it without me knowing. The bedside table was overturned and everything on top was shattered or otherwise broken. And the floor below was stained with blood. It looked like wild animals had broken into the Alpha's room and tried to kill each other.

Close enough.

I wanted to be pleased that a majority of the blood was from the King Alpha's head and chest wounds, but when I lifted my hand to briefly touch my neck I had my doubts. He had bitten me and hard. It hurt to swallow. In fact, it hurt to move at all. I wasn't sure why he had done it if he hadn't meant to just tear my throat out, though it sure felt like it. But still I woke alive and somewhat well, alone and in the very room I had tried to assassinate him.

Besides that, I felt completely strange. When I moved, I could feel something in me moving with me and it was unnerving. I felt high-wired as if every smell and movement was enhanced. I didn't know what to make of it, so I decided to pointedly ignore it.

I lifted my arms above my head, wincing as I stretched nimbly. And then I stepped around to the scene of the crime, dropping to my hands and knees swiftly. I ignored the feel of the dried liquid against my fingers which were already painted in blood from the brawl. I looked along the floor, inspecting the area around the damaged bedside table and slowly looking under the bed itself. And then I made a noise of happiness.

My blade was forgotten behind the depths of the bed skirt. I flattened myself to the floor and reached for it, grasping air until my fingertips brushed the hilt of the blade. Once I pulled it from under the bed, I twisted it in front of me and made a face. It was covered entirely in that demon's blood.

I stared at it a moment, remembering him driving it into his own heart and surviving without missing a breath. An immortal werewolf... I tightened my grip on the blade and used my already soiled shirt to clean it before putting it back in its sheath.

I immediately began to stealthily escape from the building. I had asked to stay, despite my intense desire to return home, and I hadn't been killed for it so I was going to take it as a confirmation. But I wasn't going to chance another encounter with the demon Alpha until I had an idea on exactly how to kill him.

I decided to crawl out of the same window I broke in through and began to creep along the back of the buildings nearby. I moved easily and it took me only a moment to realize that I could sense when a shapeshifter was near. Without knowing it, I was anticipating their presence and avoiding them just as easily. I lifted my hand to my neck, touching the torn meat left from the King Alpha's bite, and winced further.

I moved through a garden, careful not to damage any of the vegetation as I slid beyond the gaze of multiple lycans. When I came across what looked like a school, I hesitated to move further. Schools meant children and children were loud and bad with secrets. If I was spotted by one, I'd be outed immediately.

But when I looked at the school, I didn't sense anyone in or around it. I stared at it a moment longer before quickly moving forward, going around the corner where no one passing by would see me. After a moment, I turned and peered through a window of the school.

It was definitely a classroom, but it was entirely empty. And it looked far more abandoned than the temple had from the inside. Chairs were left knocked over and the floors uncared for. Perhaps werewolves didn't care for education much.

I shrugged it off and continued on my secret observation of the large village. My primary mission was to find that mess hall and to force someone to give me food, even if it meant threatening them with a weapon. I felt like staying here was perhaps making me more primal than usual. Or maybe I'm always a bit violent when I'm hungry...

I heard an extremely familiar sound in the near distance; the sound of string releasing, a whistle of an arrow careening through the air, and the thunk of it colliding with wood. I began to follow it out of curiosity.

I found a line of railing designating a type of balcony with steps on either side. And when I stepped to the railing, my sight was greeted with a small archery range. It seemed so out of the way, as if it was meant to be hidden from the village.

A woman close to my age stood with a bow and arrow in hand, poised and aiming at her target. I leaned forward, crossing my arms over the railing to watch her with interest. As she held her pose, I could see a tattoo of a crescent moon on her upper arm. She looked familiar, no doubt one of the hundred faces I saw on the night of the hunt. But I couldn't pinpoint those curls.

She released the arrow and it planted into the target directly in the center. Then she hesitated before looking over her shoulder at me. I recognized her face finally. She was the woman who was in the clinic when I woke up. For someone so small, I wouldn't expect her to handle a weapon half her size as well as she did.

I straightened myself out of habit, nervous at being caught.

"Why is it every time I see you, you're covered in blood?" The woman asked me quite abruptly. She lifted her chin briefly, scenting the air for a moment before adding, "It's never just your own, either."

I leaned forward against the railing once again, relieved that she didn't appear to want to immediately report my presence to the King Alpha.

"I had a disagreement with your Alpha," I admitted bitterly.

"Oh, I see," She walked towards a storage area and set the bow within it. There were several other sizes and types of bows within the wardrobe and I was greatly intrigued. The petite woman turned to me and smiled gently. "And who won the argument?"

"I'm not sure," I answered uncertainly. She laughed lightly and began to approach me. I stepped back just slightly, stiffening. She paused, watching me for a moment.

"You smell like wolf, you know," She said to me suddenly, tilting her head curiously. "Before, you did, but it faded. Now you smell entirely wolf. Did you shift?"

"I'm not a wolf, so no I didn't," I replied firmly, suspicion taking over my previous carelessness. "Stop pretending you're all... innocent and sweet. You werewolves are anything but. You... you bandage up someone one second and practice shooting them down the next. You dress in uniform like a healer to hide your tattoos. I'm not falling for it."

I admitted to myself that I was grasping at straws by the end of my rant, but the feeling remained. I didn't trust her. I didn't trust anyone at this point.

The woman looked surprised by my outburst. She looked from me to her arm, where the crescent moon was resting. Now that she was closer, I could see the lines around it, the shape of a bow shadowed in the moon.

"Before I came here and learned of the new laws, I was considered a daughter of the Maiden. She's the patron Goddess of hunters and is valued by the waxing moon," The woman explained, making me hesitate. She looked from the tattoo to me, "I'm a healer, now. I wouldn't say I'm the most innocent person out there, but I've never purposely hurt anyone. And of the two of us here now, I'm the only one not covered in the blood of another."

I opened my mouth to argue with her, but came up short. After a moment, I frowned and crossed my arms together.

"Okay, fine. What do you want?"

The woman smiled briefly, stepping towards me further. I held still as she reached for me, moving my untamed hair from my shoulder to look at the bite wound on my neck. For a moment, she only stared at it. Then she swallowed heavily before releasing me.

"You've been marked," She stated simply.

"I've been bitten," I corrected her, disgruntled. "It feels like it's on fire. And I think he infected me with something. I've felt weird ever since I woke up."

"What do you mean by weird?" She coaxed me for gently.

"I mean I feel like I've been given something. A disease, maybe. My skin doesn't feel like my skin and it's like... everything is louder than usual."

The woman looked at me quietly, mulling over my symptoms silently. Then she lifted her hand and gripped my upper arm.

"Let's clean you up and take a closer look. There's a few things you need to know that you obviously don't already," She stated, her voice exasperated from sudden anxiety. I opened and closed my mouth, uncertain of what to say. She looked at me briefly. "My name is Diana, by the way. Sorry we weren't introduced properly."

"Yeah, okay. I'm Mila," I answered, utterly confused.

I thought I would be led back to the clinic, but instead I was taken to an actual home. I felt my eyes were too open. I was looking at things I wouldn't typically notice before; taking in sights and sounds that were amplified more than usual. My skin crawled each time Diana's flesh brushed against mine, recalling that power that now felt just under the surface.

"Caleb," Diana called out briefly, looking around quickly as we entered her home. I looked from my surroundings to her quickly. She didn't mean Beta Caleb, did she? I shook my head. Either way, there was no one else in the house. "Come upstairs."

Diana led me up the stairs and into a bathroom. She started draw a bath with ease, testing the water before abruptly disappearing through the door. I looked around slowly, my eyes landing on the mirror. I was strangely not startled by my appearance at all. Besides the wound on my neck, I had looked worse before. Especially when I was younger and used to play with the boys in the village. When participating in fake battles, I was the one who would cover my entire body in mud and stalk them like a beast in the night. They thought I was downright terrifying sometimes.

Diana appeared with fresh clothes folded neatly along with a towel.

"My clothes are too small for you so..." She blushed suddenly, looking at me with embarrassment. She specifically eyed my breasts and then quickly looked away. "I'm sorry if they end up looking ridiculous. We'll go looking for better fitting ones later."

She left me alone to bathe. I cleaned myself, inspecting my body for hidden wounds while I did so. When it came to the bite wound on my neck, I could only briefly clean around it before quitting altogether. Once I was done, I dried myself and looked at the new clothes presented to me.

The pants were far too tight, outlining my every curve uncomfortably. The shirt was probably worse. Despite Diana's attempt of giving me something loose, it was still too tight for me. And the cleavage that resulted from my attire was embarrassing. I tried my best to fit it as well as I could and then I equipped my thigh strap sheath and blade quickly.

I walked downstairs to look for Diana and found her in the kitchen. My sight was greeted by a display of a hearty breakfast. I stared at it a moment.

"Go on and eat," Diana suggested to me kindly. I only hesitated for a second before immediately seating myself and digging in. Food won over distrust again. She let me finish in peace before sitting next to me expectantly.

I turned to her and frowned.

"You said there were things I needed to know," I stated shortly. Diana placed what looked like a bandaging kit on the table in front of me. I tilted my head when she reached for me silently, wincing when she began to clean the wound professionally.

"You've been marked," She repeated firmly before taking a moment to inspect the bite once more. She ran her finger behind the bite, indicating the length of the area. "This is where the mark is to be made, on the left side of the neck just on the curve. It's above your heart. When a wolf marks their mate, they are answering a request of the Mother, who is the patron Goddess of Lovers. The Mother gives you a mate, you accept the gift by marking your mate, and it's considered an honoring. However..." She hesitated.

"What is it?" I felt a sense of doom in her words. Was my head going to fall off?

"Well, did you mark him?"

I pulled away just to stare at her and her absurd question.

"I thought not," Diana said with a sigh before reaching for me again to put a bandage over the bite gently. "You cannot mark a mate without it being reciprocated. It's considered the opposite of an honoring. It's an insult to the Mother. It's a way to announce you recognize her gift and are considering to refuse it. And the Mother does not take insults lightly. None of the Goddesses do."

"Wait. Are you saying I'm insulting the Goddesses?" I asked in disbelief. "I didn't even know what the whole mate thing was. I was just trying to survive a fight... he's immortal. Why did no one tell me he can't die? I can't kill something that can't die."

Diana reached for my upper arms, catching my attention firmly before smiling sweetly.

"Calm down, Mila," She told me gently, "I have more to say, but you must remain calm. It's not the end of the world, yet." I found her words ironic in comparison to Cynthia's, who had declared the end of the world was actually in the near future.

"When a mark is given but not taken, the Mother grants you until the next full moon to complete the marks of the mates. You just need to mark Alpha Roman by then," She informed me, her voice clear and sincere.

"Mark him how exactly?" I asked, appalled at the idea of biting the King Alpha.

"The same way he did you. It would require that you shift, at least partially."

I groaned. "I'm not a lycan. I can't shift. My mother and father are humans, born in a human village, and surrounded by human family and friends. There were witnesses to my birth, you know! Some people have known me since my first breath."

Diana bit her lip nervously, looking away.

"There are no mates, either. And yet you're marked. I can smell him all over you and everyone else will, too. So maybe you are a lycan. Maybe the Moon Goddesses blessed you, a human, with the gift of the beast. I don't know what it means, but I do know if you don't mark him, you'll die a horrible, painfully slow death," She warned determinedly.

I had too many questions all at once.

"Death?! What do you mean, death?" I exclaimed before continuing in a hushed voice, "What do you mean there's no mates?"

"I mean what I said. There hasn't been any mates for years. The Mother has been thought to have abandoned the wolves long ago, taking away her blessings with her. She has taken away our ability to find mates and... and you know what that means, don't you? To wander around looking for our mates and never to find them... like humans except worse. You can't mark someone who isn't your mate. It's just a bite, but you- you've been marked."

Diana was suddenly looking at the distance, a frown deep on her face.

"Maybe it means there's still a chance, that they haven't abandoned us forever," She whispered to herself as she reached to brush her fingers over that tattoo on her arm. She turned her gaze on me before giving me a half-hearted smile. "Do your best, Mila. Mark Alpha Roman, become our Luna, and cherish what none of us are allowed while you still can."

"Or else die horribly," I muttered in frustration.

It was just all entirely unfair.

-------------------------------

Music: Easier by Mansionair

As requested, added a cast for my two main characters.

Mila- Margot Davy
Roman- Leandro Lima

But of course you can imagine them however you like~ Thank you!