The Sixteenth Moon: A Rejected Mates Romance

Chapter 1: New Beginnings

Kana Yamamoto sighed as she stared out the window of her new bedroom. Having just unpacked the last bit of her few remaining belongings, she had some time to kill before the evening's festivities.

Outside the window, the thick, dense blanket of trees topped with caps of white spread out around the tiny cottage she would now call home. A home with her best friend, Jill, who'd finally convinced her to move from Yuba City, California to Timber Heights in the Northeastern territories of the great white north.

Canada.

She was in Canada.

Oh, Ailune, what am I doing? Not surprising, the moon goddess, mother of all shifters, didn't answer.

From winters of 40 degrees to winters of 40 below freezing, she realized more than just her location had changed, so had everything else. She didn't even own a winter coat.

The tiny cottage was a two-bedroom, one bathroom rough wood hewn structure that, from the outside, looked like it was right off the set of an old western, but on the inside, was warm, cozy, and splashed with enough color to be a rainbow factory. That was Jill, though. The female loved color. All color. And Kana had to admit, it was a change from what she'd been seeing the last several months.

Needless to say, Jill's call came at the perfect time. She'd just finished selling her parent's house and was feeling...off-kilter. Lost. Alone. The lease on the apartment she lived in was up for a renewal, but the thought of remaining where she had lived for all of her life left her feeling restless. The world was big, filled with new experiences, new people to meet—if she ever kicked her social awkwardness—and new things to learn. Her wolf had always been happy to remain where they'd always been, but suddenly, she was as restless as Kana was. She willed her anxiety into Kana as she paced within, seeking an escape only her human form could give her. Together, they wanted more. But where would she go? She only knew her parents, her hometown. She had few friends because shifters and humans—while mostly simpatico—didn't mix all that well. Which was why most shifters preferred to live outside of cities, but her parents were different. Always had been. And she was, too.

When the landlord asked if she was going to renew her lease, she'd panicked. She was a lone shifter in a city where it felt like every building suddenly wanted to mount her back, crushing her. Jill called the very next day, and Kana knew it was the Ancestors. They were still there, watching over her, wanting to guide her after the loss of her parents.

She followed their lead...and now she felt...relieved. At twenty-two, experiencing loss for the first time was like a kick in the canines. But at least she wasn't a helpless pup, left alone to fend for herself. Yes, there was the Yuba County Pack, but she'd never felt like the Yamamoto family fit. That was probably one of the reasons her father decided to keep them separate as much as possible. That didn't mean she knew nothing about being a shifter, though. Her parents were good about explaining everything to her; the time of transition around puberty, and the Awakening, when the Ancestors awakened the mating bond within the wolf, and the wolf could finally recognize its mate when they actually ran into one another.

In order for mates to recognize one another, they simply had to see scent one another. Simple, right? Matehood at first sniff. They would scent each other, then see each other, then the mate claiming would happen...though her father had been hesitant to go into detail about what exactly that entailed. Though, that still sounded much easier than the human mating rituals of cruising bars and hooking up, hoping that one of the people you hooked up with was the one you were meant to spend your life with. That sounded messy and depressing. After watching her parents, their mated bliss, and their spiritual connection...Kana refused to settle for less.