By Force of the Moon

“Class dismissed and I’ll await your research papers by midnight tonight.”

I closed the laptop shut and placed it into my messenger bag. Running my hands through my shoulder-length hair, I got up from my seat and started to head to the door of the classroom.

“Ms. Villalobos, I have something to tell you before you go.”

I turned around to look at Professor Worley. As head of the department for Women Studies, she was an intimidating person, to begin with. Just a few years older than me and national recognition for her research on Women’s Health, she is a force to be reckoned with.

“Yes, Professor Worley?”

She smiled. “I just wanted to congratulate you on the last paper you submitted Ms. Villalobos. You have a fresh point of view on how medicine practice affects female health professionals and their lifestyle. I hope the paper you are turning tonight will be such an enjoyable read as this.”

She handed me back my previous paper. It had a 98% percent written in the front and I narrowed my eyes. “Why the 98% if it was such a great read, professor?”

Her brows lifted at my tone. “You were holding back. I want to see all your thoughts and not just the ones you want to be heard.”

Trust me. You do not want to see what is going on in this pretty little head of mine.

I looked down at the paper once more before meeting her mossy eyes. “I’ll try my best professor. Have a good winter break.”

She bobbed her head. “Same to you Ms. Villalobos.”

I walked out of the building and headed to my car. I really enjoyed my Women’s Health class for the fall semester and will be taking the second part of it for spring. As a sophomore, I was already taking classes with my junior and senior colleagues. The professors loved my form of writing which is good for a double major student in Biology and Writing. It is very interesting to observe the students that belong to each major. The Bio majors being super competitive to each other as they want to get into graduate school and the Writing majors just focused on enhancing their writing skills.

I stopped in my tracks as I saw who was leaning against my car.

What the fuck is going on?

Paxon chuckled as he saw my reaction. “Oh, Aura. Cat caught your tongue?”

“More like wolfie caught it,” I grumbled. “What the fuck are you doing here Pax?′

“That is no way to talk to your big brother Aura.” He sang as he approached me.

I took a step back. “You are not my fucking brother Pax. More like the vermin I sadly share genetic material with.”

His flickering eyes narrowed on me “You are being extremely rude Aura. I suggest you calm the fuck down and get in the fucking car.” He whispered.

I chuckled. Always the short fuse shifter.“Tell me what you want first. I haven’t heard anything from none of you in the past two years and you just suddenly show up like some abracadabra shit.”

“Father needs you home.”

No. No. No. This can’t be happening.

“Why?”

“The main Alpha is looking for his partner and requested all of the females to be present when he arrives. Someone told him about the family’s little secret and requested you to come as well.”

I blinked and glared at this stupid dog. “I don’t give a flying fuck about the pack system. I don’t want to be part of it, especially with the type of people I’m sadly related to.”

“You have no choice Aurora. Father sent me specifically to retrieve you. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Your choice.” He smiled.

Fuck.

I sighed. I’ll just go back for winter break and then come back the week before classes start. I’ll take my laptop and start reading the syllabus for my spring classes. My stomach was in knots from the thoughts swirling around my mind. What could a father want from me? I have nothing to offer the pack. I am the youngest and the mistake Alpha created by sleeping with another female that was not the Luna.

I glanced down at my black converse, muddy from the awful weather lately. At least it will be a change of scenery. “I’ll go with you Paxton, but I have my own terms. We are going to pass by apartment first so I can pack and then we can head to the territory.”

Paxton straightened up. “I’ll follow your car then and we’ll take my truck back, little sister.”

The hairs on my arms stood up. That is one of the few times Paxton has ever referred to me as ‘little sister’. It feels vile. The way my family has treated me over the years is something I can’t forgive. The verbal and sometimes physical abuse that I have carried over my back since a child is not easily forgotten. I still have scars on my shoulders when father dug his claws into me.

I brought my hand to my shoulder as I recalled those moments of torment and walked past Paxton as he looked down at me.

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I slammed the truck door shut after I placed my suitcase in the trunk. I packed enough to last me the whole winter break and more. I even brought my own sheets to the bed so that I would be comfortable in this hellhole I was heading to.

“Did you really have to bring that rat with you?” Paxton grumbled as he started the car.

I looked down at my most prized possession. Her big blue eyes looked up at me with the annoyance I was internalizing, and I smiled at my munchkin.

I passed my hand across her black and white fur. “Lilly is my family and I won’t leave her by herself for the whole winter break dumbass. Plus, she gets along with wolves for some strange reason.”

I’ve had Lilly since she was 2 months old. They were giving kittens at the university courtyard for free my first semester and this little one walked up to me as I sat down to read under a tree. She had gotten out of the cardboard box holding all the kittens.

She rubbed her little head against my thigh and purred up at me. I didn’t know what to do as usually animals stayed away from wolves. They could feel the beast inside us but this one did not mind one single bit.

I smiled at the memory of my fur baby when Paxton grumbled under his breath.

“Keep her away in your room if you do not want to her find her half-eaten.”

I took a deep breath and looked ahead. “That better not be a threat because if it is I’ll skin your wolf after I shoot you with horse tranquilizer.”

Paxton coughed a laugh as he ran a hand through his bronzed strands. He had not changed from the last time I saw him, except he now has his hair cut shorter. Out of all the siblings, Paxton was the only one who stirred clear from my abuse. As the oldest and the heir to the pack, he had an image to maintain.

Still, even though he did not follow his family’s treatment towards me, he did not do anything about it.

“What exactly is awaiting me back at the territory?”

Paxton tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “Father wants you to take a shower first and then get ready for dinner. By the time you are ready, Alpha Maddox will be there with his family.”

I contemplated the series of events that will take place once this car parked in the driveway. The shower of course to wash the “revolting stench” of the city off of me. But why do I have to be there for dinner? There will be another time in which Alpha Maddox will be able to meet all of the females in the pack and interact with them.

I was never allowed to official dinners the Villalobos family had with important officials of the werewolf community. I wasn’t pure in the eyes of my stepmother as I was part human and a slip up of the reigning Alpha in charge of the Sol Pack. Whenever they had these dinner parties, I was sent to my friend Jessica’s house for a night or even multiple nights at some points. Jess’s parents always made me feel welcomed but all I felt was the embarrassment of being treated like a stray.

That would have not happened if I had just stayed with mom that night.

I sighed and focused my attention on the window. Buildings and cars were just a blur. I enjoyed the city and how blunt people were here. My kind of people. Humans just chatted and went along with their days. It was nice to watch them interact and be oblivious that they were the little fishes in a huge pond of the supernatural world.

I wish I was part of that small pond they thought was an ocean.

The rest of the car ride was silent and tense. Paxton would glance at me from time to time, but I would disregard his looks by looking straight ahead.

I must have slipped into a deep sleep as what I felt was the car come to a stop and Paxton opening his door.

I look down to see Lily swishing her tail back ford rather aggressively. She knew that we were in the den of the wolves quite literally. I pet my baby’s head softly and murmur to her everything will be okay.

Paxton came to my side to open the car door wide open. I get out of the car with Lily in my arms to look at the three-story mansion in front of me. The house was quite grand, even for a regular Alpha, but the Sol Pack was involved in the lucrative business of real estate and it extended throughout the east side of the United States. My father was a psychopath, but the man did great in business. Probably the only thing he could do right.

I chuckled at the thought and went to get my luggage, but Paxton was already carrying it up the steps. I tightened my grip on Lily and started trailing behind Paxton up the steps.

I just want this Winter Break to fly by and go back to my normal life in the city, but, deep in my gut, I knew that something was going to happen in the next month that will change everything.

And that terrified me to no end.