Moonstruck ✔️

chapter 1

Shay Kingsley

I finished wiping down the last table in the now empty cafe. I leaned back, cracking my back and wiping a bead of sweat off my forehead. I hated this job with all my heart, it was the last thing I wanted to do - clean after people who didn't know how to eat without making a mess.  But, sadly, I had no choice in the matter and I was forced to do it by my parents who were too busy with pack duties to go to work themselves.

Well, my dad was. My mum just liked to stay in bed all day and pretend like she was doing work when really all she was doing was watching her cooking shows or Britain's Got Talent.

"Shay? You still here?" My manager called, peaking her head out from one of the back doors leading to the kitchen area.

"Yeah, what's up?" I answered, praying to the Moon Goddess she didn't give me more work to do, like she always did.

"Oh, thank Goddess," she sighed in relief.

Oh no, please, not today of all days.

"Could you be a dear and wash up the dishes? I have to go pick my son up from football and I don't want him worrying if I'm not there, you know how he is."

"Sure," I shrugged.

I wanted to kick her in the face so bad. I've been in this fucking hellhole the entire day and I wanted to go home and fall face first into my bed. But that wasn't possibly for at least the next half hour to an hour now.

"Thanks, dear." She grinned.

The short middle aged woman rushed over to the staff coat hanger, grabbing her waistcoat and shrugging it over her shoulders before storming out of the building.

I sighed, watching her walk towards her car in the dark skies of the night, from the large cafe windows. I walked over to the glass door and quickly flipped the sign from 'open' to 'closed.' Next, I headed into the kitchen and internally screamed at the mess that was made in here by the other employees.

Let's just say that they do not pay me enough to be here.

It took me a good hour to scrub away all the plates and put them in their designated places. I checked my watch, seeing it was already eleven o'clock at night and I swear my heart missed about five beats. I was late.

I quickly scrambled over to where my manager, Lizzie, was earlier and put my own coat on - not even bothering to zip it up. I hurriedly closed up the shop, turning all the lights off and making sure nothing else was on before taking off towards the woods beside my workplace and shifting as fast as I could.

My paws hit the hard ground below me and I immediately took off sprinting with my mind screaming at me to go faster. I was late by about an hour and I hoped I could still make it to the welcoming ceremony otherwise I'd be in massive amounts of trouble from both my parents.

It didn't take too long for me to reach the clearing in the woods where our relatively large werewolf village sat. The bad news was, was that the lights in the pack house were completely off.

You should really stop being so considerate of others and say no to extra work for once. Silas, my Wolf, sighed.

That's rich coming from you, I scoffed.

I slowed down to a walk and shifted back to my human form, heading over towards the east side of the pack which is where my house sat. Once the familiar house came into sight I got out my house-keys from my back pocket and tried unlocking the door, but - to my surprise - it was already open. I stepped in steadily, closing the door behind me and hung my keys up on the key hanger.