by M. D. Butler
The Lunar Child
The Elemental Wolves Book 1
M. D. Butler
Excerpt
It was a little hard to focus with his scent sitting in the surrounding air, making me want to lean towards him. Pine and soil. I never thought I’d love the smell of the woods, what with my being forced to live out there and all that.
I think I’m changing my stance on it.
I start gathering up my things as the bell rings at the end of chemistry. I don’t know what to make of Cashel. I guess he confirmed that the group of boys that I saw this morning are my mates, but I still find it hard to believe.
Four?
I’ve never heard of someone having multiple mates, but then again, I never thought I’d have a mate at all. He says that this is how it’s supposed to be for us, but I’m still not understanding what the hell that means.
This book is dedicated to my four little girls.
May you always find your inner strength and keep your sass.
Prologue
October 12, 1797
I watch as Odella slowly makes her way towards the alpha’s den. Her body has become frail in her old age, but she has remained a loyal disciple. Her wolf will join me soon in the skies, but she has a final task that I need her to complete.
She sits down to pass the message on to the alpha of the pack, as I contemplate the trials yet to come for many years. It may have been too soon to tell the oracle, but I want them to have all the time they need to prepare.
My heart breaks as I think of my many children who will forsake me. I hurt for all the lives that will be lost, but it is how it has to be.
I cannot save them all.
December 21, 2001
She is such a beautiful child. Her mates were also beautiful upon their births, but she will always be special to me. I wish that I could have placed her soul within another life, but this is the one that she must live.
It will make her stronger for what will come.
As she takes her first breath of life, I reach out to the wolf pup spirit within her. She is already so strong, but I cannot allow her to be for the time being. She must stay bound and hidden until they come. Only her mates will be able to unlock her.
I pull away from her, my mission complete for now. I am reluctant to leave her, but it cannot be helped. She must go through this on her own, but it will not always be so.
She and her mates the only ones who can change what is to come. I have given them all gifts that I had to take from my wolves so long ago. Gifts that they abused. These five can give me hope that my wolves can once again rise above.
But first, there will be pain. Losses on both sides. Blood will paint the ground red. Enemies and alliances will be made, but it is all necessary. The struggles will have to be suffered, for the end I saw cannot be allowed to come.
There needs to be a cleanse.
Chapter 1
Jahla
I lay in bed, wide awake, long before the sun is supposed to rise. My day doesn’t begin with the rising of the sun like a normal person. No, my day begins before the others because I’m the one who has the pleasure of making their wakeful moments easy.
Oh, joy!
My inner self is full of sarcasm, by the way.
I produce an epic sigh as I roll out of my cot in the tiny shack I call home. I’ve lived here for almost five years now. If I wasn’t a shifter, I’m sure I would’ve died ages ago. The draftiness alone would’ve taken out a regular human during one Colorado winter. Like, now! I have a few blankets that I’ve scavenged from the throwaway piles of the pack, though. I manage.
I have no choice.
I look around the tiny room while I pull on the first thing I see in the box where I keep my clothes. Baggy long sleeve shirt and shapeless jeans with mismatched tube socks for the win! I wrap the oversized coat around my shoulders and put my mild mess of hair up in a ponytail to complete the look.
Like always. It’s the only way I can semi-tame it.
The shack is only one room. Cot, a chair that has a plank missing from the seat, my ratty backpack sitting on it, a kerosene lamp in the corner, one box of blankets, two boxes of clothes, a pair of shoes, and a door. That’s all that my home consists of, just a little shack out in the woods. I have an outhouse as a bathroom, so I don’t have to go out into the woods like an animal for that bit.
At least I get the peace and solitude from the pack.
See, I can be grateful.
Once I’m dressed, I grab my bag and leave to make my way down to the packhouse to cook breakfast for everyone there. Did you notice how I didn’t include breakfast for myself? That’s because I don’t get one. I don’t have any way of making my own food at home, so I eat the scraps left over from them.
If there are any. It doesn’t happen often enough to give me any type of sustenance. I think they do it on purpose, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I’m a fucking shifter, for Mother's sake. I can’t survive off of scraps, but it’s all I have when I’m here. I’d get my ass beat if I asked for more.
Facts, trust me.
Thank the Mother that I waitress at the little diner in town. I started working there as soon as I was legally able to by human standards. Before, I’d do little tasks for her, and she’d pay me with a meal or two. Now, I try to work there every day so I can get something to eat, and enough saved up to leave this town. Delores takes pity on me and pays me under the table when I go over my hours.
I guess she likes me in her own gruff way, but I have an issue with trust. We have a pretty nice relationship, though. I’m polite because it’s hard to hate someone who isn’t actively hurting you, but I can’t find it in me to trust someone. You never know when that person is going to turn on you, so I have my guard up at all times.
The pack has ways of making the humans in this town do what they want.
I’ve gotten into the habit of keeping out of the way. If I’m not there, people tend to forget that they have to deal with a burden at all.
That’s me, by the way. The orphaned little wolf that nobody wants around. You would think being an orphan would gain sympathy, but that’s not the case in my situation. My father was killed by the alpha for a reason not disclosed to anyone when I was thirteen. He just slaughtered my father in front of everyone without saying why, and no one is allowed to ask.
Dumbass probably tried to challenge him. Wouldn’t surprise me, but I’ve stopped thinking about my parents. They weren’t well-liked in the pack towards the end, and I think the alpha was waiting for a chance to get rid of them.
The alpha is an asshole. Acts however he wants and does the bare minimum to keep the council off his tail. Killing someone in the pack simply because he felt like it is sort of the norm for him. He just makes up some explainable reason when he has to report their death.
Mostly, he just blames it on the rogues.
Did I forget to say how did my mother die? Well, she had the misfortune of being my father’s true mate, meaning they shared a soul. It would be a lovely happily ever after type of story, but because he died, so did she. Usually, the surviving mate sometimes can live if they have children that they love to keep their spirit alive.
They didn’t love me. I was - and still am - loathed. So she died. Good riddance. I was their only child, but I wasn’t a boy. Apparently, that’s a sin to them.
There you have it, people. My parents hated me because I was born without a penis. Ain’t that some shit? I couldn’t carry on the family line and become an enforcer like dear old Dad. To make matters worse, my birth made it impossible for my mother to have any more children. Don’t ask me how. Just know it’s my fault.
W
hy am I hated by the pack? Well, part of it is because of my parents. If they hated me, something must be wrong with me. At least, that’s how it is in the eyes of this pack. I’ve never interacted with any shifters outside of my pack, so I don’t know what it’s like everywhere else. This is my normal.
Also, I haven’t shifted. They think I’m defective.
Most wolves shift during puberty thanks to those crazy hormones that help bring out their wild side. Literally. I didn’t. I’m almost eighteen, and I’m still practically human. Yeah, I have the slightly heightened senses, speed, and strength that shifters have in their human form, but I don’t shift into an actual wolf.
I can feel her. We interact with each other all the time, but she won’t come out. I know she will. She just doesn’t think that now is the time. Yeah, she’s in my head, but she doesn’t use words, just emotions, and impressions that I’ve learned how to decipher. I can even hear her growls and stuff when she feels strongly enough.
For some reason, she’s waiting for something. I can feel her longing, but I don’t know what she wants. I don’t dare ask someone in the pack to help me figure it out because I refuse to tell them about her. They want to think I don’t have a wolf, so I let them.
Fuck them.
I think of these things every morning as I walk from my shack to the packhouse. Trust me, I have the time. I also need something to keep my mind off the cold. My feet have gone numb in my holey shoes as I’ve walked through the snow.
It’s not the most wonderful walk, but it’s my usual one.
The packhouse sits in the middle of a gated community smack dab in the center of the town of Lunar Mills, Colorado. All the homes for the pack members surround the packhouse, and two miles’ worth of woods surround the neighborhood. The pack territory is all wrapped up within a tall, metal fence to give it the appearance of being a gated community, but only the pack lives there.
No humans allowed.
My shack is outside the fence, but still in the woods on the property. It used to be an old guardhouse, but everything was updated a few years ago before I was put there. Now, they do patrols around the territory instead of only standing guard at different spots. Still have someone posted at the gates, but they don’t care about the one where I am since I’m out here.
Who cares if a rogue kills me? One less problem, and all that.
I sigh as the houses come into view. It’s still dark, but the streetlights illuminate my route. I’m glad I was kicked out of my parents’ house when they died. I know things would’ve been harder for me if I was in easy reach of the pack. More jeers and beatings. Who the hell wants that?
That house didn’t hold any sentimental memories for me, anyway.
As I reach the back steps of the packhouse, I lower my head. Don’t want to come across any early risers and accidentally make eye contact. It’s taken as a challenge for a wolf shifter if you hold eye contact with another, but I’m not allowed to look above someone’s kneecaps.
I learned that lesson early on with my mother. I don’t know why since I’ve never tried to challenge her on purpose. I can only remember looking her in the eye once when I was about seven. She had caught me off guard by stepping in front of me, so I’d looked up at her to ask what she needed. All I know is she became pissed off and beat me so badly that I didn’t heal enough to wake up until four days later.
Pretty bad beating for a wolf with super-fast healing. Mine is slower than most, though.
I shake the memory away as I close the door quietly behind me. I don’t see or hear anybody moving about, so I make a detour to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. I’m sneaky when I need to be. I’m not supposed to use their bathroom, but hygiene makes the risk a necessity.
I have to bathe in the creek in the woods at night. Imagine how delightful that is right now in the middle of winter. I actually have to break the freaking ice!
How have I not died yet?
Done with that, I walk into the kitchen and start pulling out the stuff for breakfast. Smelling the food cooking used to make my stomach rumble, but I’ve grown accustomed to it so it doesn’t bother me anymore.
Delores teaches me how to cook, which is why I’m here now. Benson saw me through the diner window a few months back and told his dad that I was cooking and serving the humans in town. The luna can’t cook for shit, I guess. Maybe she’s just lazy. Either way, I’m now their glorified servant.
Without pay.
I get finished with the breakfast spread, which takes me about an hour and start taking everything to the dining room. Only the alpha and beta families live here. The place is practically a mansion, but only the ranked families and visiting alphas get to stay here. At least I don’t have to deal with too many people.
Small mercies.
The clock in the dining room says it’s about 6:45 now, so they’ll start coming down in a few minutes. I steel myself for the inevitable confrontation. Someone is going to fuck with me. It never fails. I think the offspring wake up early just so they can push me around to kick off their day with a pleasant start.
Hurting me is like their morning coffee fix.
On my way back to the kitchen after I take the final platter of bacon to the dining room, I almost run headfirst into Blythe.
Right on cue.
“Watch yourself, freak bitch. Don’t know why Dad hasn’t killed you yet. Move.”
She shoulder-checks me into the doorjamb so hard as she passes, I’d be surprised if something isn’t at least fractured. I keep my face blank and eyes down. Just let it happen. Any resistance is seen as a challenge with that particular crew. I’d rather get thrown around a little than have to go to school bloody again.
People would ask questions, and the pack will definitely kill me if I alert the humans to our paranormal existence. As I said, the alpha tries to keep the council away as much as possible. Hard to lie when I’m the physical evidence.
Now Blythe is a pretty girl. Tall and lean with golden hair and blue eyes like her father. The perfect all-American girl next door, but the sneer that slices across her face whenever she looks at me takes her down a few notches. She says the same variation of bullshit every morning, nothing new or original.
I return to the kitchen to wash the dishes I used to cook. By the time I’m done with that, I wait around until I hear the scrape of chairs. It signals everyone’s departure from the table, and the need to clear their dishes.
I go into the dining room, but pause when I see one of The Sons still at the table. If Blythe is the HBIC of the She-Wolves, then her twin runs The Sons. The whole lot of them are just a bunch of hellhounds, if you ask me.
These are just the names that I call the group. I’d never utter these words out loud.
In all, there are seven of them. Benson and Blythe, the Alpha children. Then, you have Sierra, Carmen, Judah, Lucah, and Roman who belong to the beta. There are others in the group, but these seven are at the top.
“Damn, it looks like there’s nothing left for you, wretch,” he taunts. I just keep my head down and wait for him to finish. “You need something else for your body to focus on other than an empty stomach. You know, I learned in anatomy that the brain’s main focus is alleviating pain. That should take your mind off your hunger, don’t you think? A little pain?”
It’s like he gets off on that shit or something, considering his excitement right now. Sick fuck.
I close my eyes and wait for him to strike. The sound of glass shattering makes me jerk my eyes open. Benson has thrown his cup down and is just standing there smirking at me. My shoulders hunch as I hear the luna storm in behind me.
I’m shoved out of the way as she charges toward Benson. “What the fuck did you do?! That was crystal!”
“It wasn’t me, Mom. The bitch got mad because there wasn’t anything left for her to eat. She threw the glass at me when I laughed.”
I’m not surprised by his lies. Benson never really hits me himself. He just orchestrates shit
like this to get the females to fuck me up. Works every time, unfortunately. I’m more afraid of his games than I am of being cornered by the girls. He knows how to get them riled up to the point of wanting blood.
In two seconds flat, I’m thrown against the wall by my neck, feet dangling above the floor as my throat is almost crushed in her grip. I close my eyes to avoid her murky brown ones. Definitely want to keep from challenging the luna.
“How dare you! You think you can break my shit, you ungrateful little bitch? I would rip your throat out if I could. I’m so sick of- “
“Put it down, Beth.” That’s all Alpha Blake Huntington says before I’m dropped to the floor, wheezing in air as quietly as I can. I still receive a kick to my ribs for my efforts.
He doesn’t consider me a person. Certainly not a wolf. None of them do. I’m just the “it”. The freak that doesn’t belong. The burden that they all have to put up with until he gives the order for my death.
I can only pray to the Mother that he hurries the fuck up with that.
“Clean this shit up, then get the fuck out. I’ve had to look at your face for long enough to last me a week.” With that, she struts out of the room followed by a smirking Benson since he’s had his fix for the morning. The alpha just stares down at me a little longer before he, too, walks out.
Hurry up and get the hell out of my house. I have guests coming soon, and I don’t need them to see that I have someone like you in my pack.
Ugh, I hate it when he speaks to me in my head. Fucking alpha link.
Once I’ve caught my breath enough to push the blackness away that was crowding my vision, I get up to grab a broom. I only have two pairs of shoes, and one pair is at work in my locker. Can’t get glass in these. The bottom is thin enough for it to slice through.
Done with that, I finally get the table cleared so I can wash the dishes. That little scene pushed me back a bit on time, but I can still make it to the bus if I hurry. It’s such a common occurrence that I’ve learned how to fit in the time for it.
