Rogue Luna

Solena POV

It'd been days since I last saw Kiernan. It's for the best. I couldn't stand the hatred in his eyes when he looked at me. Lily paces in my head, trying to figure out a way for others to look at us differently, but I know that the only way for that to happen is to undo everything I've done in the past seven years.

Food is shoved into my cell every few hours, but I can't bring myself to eat it. What if they poisoned it and it makes me weak? Then I can't deliver souls. With my hands cuffed behind my back, I wouldn't be able to eat anyway. When sleep does take me it's haunted by nightmares, with my parent's faces flashing through. I wake up muttering incoherently and putting my head between my knees trying to block out the sound of my pleas that fell on deaf ears as I tried to save my mother. I try to deliver souls but I always fear that Kiernan might prevent me from doing so. 

Kiernan comes back and I feel so exhausted, it's all I can do to lift my head to face him. He breaks off my cuffs and I look at him in disbelief. It gives me the courage to ask him if I could deliver souls. When he says yes relief washes through me, and I collapse back on the floor. Eventually, Grace comes through the door with food, her scent carried through the space in the door where they shove a tray of food in every day. I slowly take a bite and moan when I realize how long it's been since I've eaten. Grace starts trying to reassure me that I won't be here for long. She claims that I'm not a bad person, and I almost laugh at her, and tell her to say that to my school principal. 

***Flashback***

The man, who told me he was my uncle, took me to a cabin in the middle of the woods. He hadn't shown any signs of hostility or aggression since we arrived, and his anger had subsided. The wolf souls were slowly coming back and I felt more energized with every step. As the strength in my body grew, the voices in my head grew louder, and I tried to war with them in my head. When we got inside the cabin my uncle tried to tell me to take the bed, but it looked weird. Shifting into Lily, I slept on the cabin floor and delivered souls that night.

Waking up early every morning, I went out hunting and was always back before my Uncle got up. Pretending to be asleep was hard as I waited for him to wake up.

"So Solena, are you ready to go back to school?" My uncle asked me one morning at breakfast. He usually cooked something, that reminded me of Dad's cooking. What I wouldn't give if it could be him standing over the stove, telling my mother that he had everything under control, even as a burning smell would rise from the pot, polluting the air, to the point where my parents would go into the human city nearby and just buy food.

"I've never been to school," I tell him before finishing my plate and putting it in the sink, as I'd seen my uncle do many times. My mother talked about school and college saying that it was important for me to go, but my father always thought it was too dangerous for me to go.

"Never?" He says from behind me and I shake my head, not caring if he saw. What was the big deal? I turn around to face him and he stares at me.

"Do you want to go to school?" He asked and I shrugged. I didn't care either way.

"Well, you can start school tomorrow and see how you like it." He says as if seeking my permission. I nod and go outside to hunt.

When we went to school the next day my Uncle gave me some new clothes to wear. The pants are dark blue matching my eyes, and are a bit tight around my legs, the shirt was a bright yellow short-sleeved shirt, with a white flower on the side of it, and some holes in the shape of flowers going across my shoulders. To top it all off I had a nice blue backpack with purple flowers painted in on it. 

"We can get you different clothes after today, that's something kids your age wear these days," He scratches the back of his neck. I shrug they were different from what I was used to, but it was okay.