The Luna

Chapter One: Break Out

         Alex Hope Arrowood was only eleven years old when both her mother and her father died. The former alpha and luna of the pack Half Moon had fallen while fending off a group of rogue werewolves, right in front of their daughter's eyes. Unknowingly, they left her alone, save her two younger brothers. Her older cousin had left for her pack a little while after the deaths. She hadn't expected the entirety of Alex's pack to turn on her like they did. The Arrowoods hadn't heard from her in eight years, and had long since let it go.

        When Alex had turned sixteen, she was supposed to take over as alpha. Her father's beta, Josh Rodriguez, was to be alpha for the five years between then, training Alex for the future. Only he decided not to hand the pack over. He manipulated the entire pack just weeks after the deaths of Alex's parents, turning them on her. He somehow convinced them that Alex, at only eleven years old, had lured in the rogues that had killed her parents, and had therefore murdered them. No one took it to the Council of Elders, and it remained a pack-only secret, of sorts.

       To effectively keep her from reaching out to said Council, the day she turned sixteen, Rodriguez had forced her to drink molten silver, which was toxic to werewolves. The silver poisoning wasn't tended to fast enough, and she was rendered unable to speak. Already weak from years of malnourishment and mistreatment, it'd be suicide to physically challenge him. Besides, after what those people had done to her --had let them do to her-- she wasn't terribly eager to be their alpha.

      Her parents had taught her to be kind, as Half Moon once was. It was full of warmth and family and friends. All of that ended when Rodriguez took over as alpha.

      Well, it ended for Alex and her brothers. The pack was friendlier to her brothers, as only Alex had been blamed for her parents' deaths. Once, when she was thirteen, she wrote two letters. One was addressed to her cousin, and one to the Council. She had almost gotten away with it before they caught her. Soon after that, Rodriguez faked their deaths. Alex and her younger brothers had been locked in the small attic of the pack house, forced to listen to their cousins' crying on the floor below them. It'd been torture. So, years later, they had no one to reach out to. Even if they did manage to reach out to someone, no one would believe it was actually them.

     Now, at nineteen, she worked for the pack. She did what she was told; the only way to avoid a bad beating. She took care of her brothers as best she could with the help of her best friend, Jason Nite.

     Jason was basically her twin --they'd been born on the same day, within hours of each other. They'd been raised together, quickly becoming best friends. There was no word to describe the bond the two had made. More than siblings, more than friends. Their parents had thought, had hoped, that they'd be mates, but it was not to be. So they would remain best friends. Jason helped when he could, sneaking out at night, going straight to their 'room' after work. He'd earned Rodriguez's trust, and was one of the alpha's main guards. They'd been planning an escape for two years now, but had never had the courage to actually do it.

      Entering the attic, Alex spied her redheaded younger brother, Chris.

      Chris was sixteen, and had a job as a cook for the pack. His hazel eyes snapped to her green ones upon her entry. "What'd he have you do now? It's nearly two in the morning."

     "Cleaning the kitchens. I swear they make it as dirty as they possibly can. Where's Aidan?" She asked through the mind-link. The link was a form of communication they had, to avoid the constant issue of her being mute. It only worked between a few of them, most of the time.

     Chris jabbed a thumb over towards the corner, where the fourteen-year-old was curled up on an old, moth eaten blanket. Alex gazed at him with sad eyes. Slowly, they glazed over with unshed tears. "What? What is it?" Chris was beside her in an instant, his arm around her shoulders.