Moonlight: Stars, Eclipses, & Full Moons

In The Darkest of Places

Zelo's POV

I've always loved traveling. I think there's something about it that forces you to step out of your own body and see what it's like to live in a different one. That's how I've always looked at it, at least. It helped me escape my own reality to know that there was more out there.

When I was born, I was the youngest of six children. My parents were traditionalists, part of which meant they believed in having a large litter of pups who would all grow and become great alphas and betas (but, of course, alphas were more than preferred). And I guess all of that was going well with my five siblings, who all turned out to be alphas by some trick of Fate, but then I arrived. 

To say my parents were devastated when they learned I was an omega would be a total understatement. They were destroyed. They couldn't even bear to look at me for days afterward. This happened when I was five, by the way, so you can imagine how confusing and hurtful that was at such a tender age. 

When they finally came around and accepted that this was Fate's plan for me, you best believe they pushed me extra hard to be the strongest omega in the pack. Their logic, if I'm recalling correctly, was "If you can't be an alpha, you'll just have to be as strong as one." 

Truthfully, I never understood why status was so important in my family. Other families in our small pack were happy if their children or grandchildren were alphas, betas, or omegas, even the really old members who grew up in the prime time for the traditionalist view. Part of it definitely had to do with my own grandparents, I think. My grandpa and grandma were equally as cold and raised their kids on the idea that there was no other way to be other than perfect.

So, needless to say, from the time I was five until I was about 18, I was treated differently than any other of my siblings. I was worked harder, got less time to play with my friends (not that I had any really being an ashamed omega), and came last in nearly everything excluding the time I woke in the morning; that I was always first in. 

Could you call this love? Maybe if your childhood was as fucked up as mine, yeah, but to the normal person, this was closer to child abuse. I can remember all of one time my parents ever showed me affection and it was when I was still an innocent infant, which also makes the farthest memory from my conscious mind conveniently. There weren't really any displays of affection in our family anyhow because my parents also believed that love and its accompanying emotions led to weakness. But still, if I had to rank my siblings and I on a list of who received the most "affection," I wouldn't even be on it.

That's the big reason I decided to leave the pack when my 18th birthday came around. I didn't see anything happening for me there, so when it came to make a commitment to the pack I was born into, I kindly declined and went out on my own. Surprisingly, though, I wasn't scared. If there was one thing I was grateful to my parents for, it was giving me the skills to survive, even if they literally forced them into me. I had total confidence in myself. I knew I could provide for myself, maybe not in a luxurious way, but certainly in a better way than my parents had. 

I could tell they were sad the day I left, but I knew them. They weren't going to show it and they weren't going to say anything like "We're sorry," "We'll miss you," or "We love you, Junhong." My two oldest brothers didn't even bother to say goodbye to me that day.

So, I said goodbye to the siblings that were there and then I was on my way. I was at the very beginning of the long journey ahead. 

Somewhere along the way, I met a few other werewolves and packs, including Yongguk and his pack. As you can probably already assume, I wasn't exactly brought up with the hope that one day some handsome wolf would come along and imprint on me and I'd live happily ever. Our pack was more secluded socially, so I had never heard of them or their reputation, so to say I was cluelessly in love wouldn't be anywhere near sufficient.