Ten

ten

“Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”― Martin Luther King, Jr.

I walk out of the lunchroom with the crowd, heading for the library. I have a study period now and then History. As the group funnels together, I scan the top of people’s heads for my mate. I’m disappointed when I don’t see him; his scent is faint.

I make my way to the library building, scanning my school ID to get in. The school’s library is a mixture of modern and old fashioned. There are two long tables with laptops and a whole section of bookshelves. I go to the area with the bookshelves and find a study table away from everybody. Because I have no social life, I’m up to date with all my homework. Instead, I pull out my art pad and graphite pencils and draw. I’m lost in my artwork, a picture of a woman with long black hair and a white toga dress, when the bell goes for my next class.

- She looks like the moon goddess – my wolf Athena says. I agree. In all my dreams of the moon goddess over the years, what I have drawn in front of me is what she looks like.

“How is your project going?” Mrs Telopea asks, standing next to my desk.

“Good, I just have to print this QR code for my blog for the references and glue it to the poster,” I tell her. She smiles as she looks at my poster. I’ve hooked the Makey Makey leads to the brass fasteners at the back of my poster, which is then connected to my Makey Makey control. Mrs Telopea touches one of the brass fasteners at the front of the poster, and my recorded voice comes out, informing her about the traditional clothing of the Norwegian Vikings.

“This is great. Interactive and hands-on. Excellent effort, Sera,” Mrs Telopea compliments.

“Thank you, miss,” I reply, feeling my cheeks heat up.

I print off my QR code and glue it to my poster when I feel pain in my stomach.

- What’s that? – I ask Athena.

- I’m not sure. I think… I think… -

- Think what? – I ask.

- Nothing. It can’t be – Athena says. I ask her something else but can’t find her in my head. It’s almost as if she’s shut me out.

I write my address for my blog at the bottom of the poster so that if I’m not there, Mrs Telopea can still access everything on my poster from her own computer and then take everything off the laptop I’m working with.

“Have you finished already?” Yvonne asks as I stand up to put my project on Mrs’s table.

“Yup,” I tell her.

“But it’s not due till Wednesday,” Jaymie comments.

“Well, I’m lucky then,” I say, shrugging my shoulders. Jaymie just glares at me, and Yvonne nudges her to get her back to doing her work.

- Um. Let’s go to the library and have lunch there – Athena tells me when the bell goes for lunchtime.

- Are you sure? – I ask her. She’s been quiet throughout the lesson; I wonder what she’s thinking.

Instead of heading for the lunchroom, I take my wolf’s advice and head for the library. I find the study table I was at earlier today and grab ‘Go Ask Alice’ out of my bag to read. I’m getting bored of reading this book, as I’ve read it so many times before, and I decide to get up to the fiction section of the library to get a book. I’m halfway off my chair when another pain hits my stomach, ripping through my body. I hold my stomach as I curl into a ball on the floor. The pain throbs through my body like the beat of a drum. Bang, bang, bang. What the heck is this? I try to call out to Athena, but she’s disappeared again.

As soon as it started, it suddenly stopped. The pain stops beating through my body, leaving a residual pain behind. It is nothing like I’ve felt before. Slowly I pull my blouse out from my skirt and softly touch the skin of my stomach. Bruises. I see bruises. How? How did I get bruises there?

I must have been sitting there for a while because the next thing I know, the bell for the fifth period goes. Reluctantly I get up from my spot on the floor and grab my bag.

I sit in the classroom, taking out my things as people walk in. They all choose to sit at tables that are not mine, which I am used to by now.

“Alpha Zach has a special announcement to make after school. All pack members are to meet at the back paddock,” Jaymie whispers as she looks down at my table.

“Jaymie, why are you out of your chair?” our teacher asks.

“Sorry, Miss! Just borrowing a pen from Sera. Ran out of ink!” Jaymie says to our teacher. No words came to my mind as Jaymie delivered the news to me. My stomach clenches, and I begin to panic.

- Athena? – I call. No response.

The bell finally goes for the end of the day, and it’s all I can do to not burst into tears right here. I put my things back in my bag, having to pick up my pencil case from the floor because I missed my bag completely. By the time I’m standing, everyone is gone.

“Have a good afternoon,” my teacher tells me as I walk out the door. I just nod, too scared to say anything, or else I’ll cry.

Slowly I make my way out of the building and towards the back paddock. I don’t need to know where I’m going; I follow the sound and aroma of my packmates.

“Please make a circle!” I hear Cameron tell everyone.

“What’s going on?” I hear someone ask.

“I wonder what the news is?” I hear another ask. I make my way to the back of the crowd, which has formed a circle.

“Please, can we have quiet?” I hear Felix instruct. Everyone quietens down, but I can still hear murmurs here and there.

“Thank you for coming today. I would like to call forward our guest of honour, Sera Mayvic!” Zach, my mate, announces. Everyone I stand beside turns in my direction, and I can feel all eyes on me.

“No,” I say. The people around me smile, grabbing me and pulling me forward. I hear Athena whimper in my head.

“No!” I protest as they pull me into the centre of the circle.

“Please, no,” I bid one last time before I’m in the middle of everyone.

- I’m here. I’m right here – Athena tells me, but she sounds hurt.

I turn and look at everyone gathered around me. Every student pack member at high school is here.

“Z-Zach, what is going on?” I ask, turning to my mate.

“That’s Alpha Zach to you!” Catherine scolds. Her talking brings me out of the spell I’m in, and I notice her standing there, rubbing her hand up and down my mate’s bicep. I look at my arm, pins and needles going up and down as she strokes his.

“I have called you all here to make a very important announcement!” My mate bellows, his voice ringing clearly across the crowd.

“Z-Zach?” I try again. I try to make eye contact with him, but he refuses to look at me. A burning pain erupts across my cheek, and immediately I put my hand to it before looking at the person who slapped me.

“That’s Alpha Zach to you, Omega,” Catherine sneers. She then spits on my face, and I wipe it with my spare hand.

“I’m sorry, bunny, she made me do it,” Catherine whines as she walks toward my mate, snuggling into his side.

“This morning, I had the unfortunate revelation that this thing, this omega before us, is my mate!” Zach scoffs. Everyone around us begins to laugh loudly. I turn and look at them, trying to find a friendly face. But everyone I see is laughing. Yvonne. Jaymie. I turn and see Logan and Blake. They’re not laughing; instead, they’re looking at the ground.

“Lo…” I begin to say, stepping forward.

“Hold her still!” Zach orders. Cameron and Felix immediately run up to me, each grabbing an arm tightly with their hands. I am forced to stop and turn, so I am faced with looking at Zach and Catherine.

“I have called you here today to tell you that I will not put the burden of this thing on you by making her Luna. Sera Mayvic is not Luna material. She is not strong; she is weak. Sera, as Luna will only bring our pack down!” Zach loudly states. Each word is like a stab to my heart. I hear members around me agreeing with Zach and the words ‘reject her’ thrown around.

“Please… don’t…” I beg. Catherine laughs. She sounds like a hyena.

“This is fabulous, Zach! What a show!” Catherine mocks.

“I will make this final, my love,” Zach says, leaning down and kissing Catherine’s forehead. Pain erupts on my lips.

“Pl-please…” I stutter.

“I, Zachary Mason Lachlan, future Alpha of the Clevedon Pack, reject Sera Mayvic as my mate and my Luna of Clevedon Pack!”

When Zach makes his announcement, I feel a tear rip through my body. I buckle in pain, the sound of my screams filling my ears. This is worse than shifting, worse than all the time my pack has hurt me. Everything burns; I feel on fire as pain tumbles through me like a tsunami.

I feel the dirt under my nails, and I know that I am hunched over on the ground, trying to hold onto something, anything, to support or relieve me from the searing pain that ravishes my body. I don’t notice Zach wrap his arm around Catherine’s shoulders or Felix and Cameron leave my side. I don’t see my packmates leer at me before following Zach away from the field. My body buckles once, twice and then a feeling, like a woosh, tears from me. Athena. My body buckles again, and I feel myself pull away. I stand at the feet of my body, lying on the ground below me.

Two people walk up to me, my body lying on the ground. I feel, at least I think I feel, his hand against my cheek. My hand touches my cheek, and then I look at my hand. It is translucent, only partly there, but not really. I take my focus off my hand and watch the two men crouched next to my physical body.

“Sera? Sera?” he says.

“Blake, I think… I think... she’s gone, Blake,” Logan says, placing his fingers underneath my jaw to feel my pulse.

“No! Please, goddess, no!” Blake cries.

“I’m sorry, Blake,” Logan says, touching Blake’s shoulder.

“It’s your time,” I hear a man say. I turn and finally see three other people with me, two women and a man. The first woman catches my eye. She looks exactly like the picture I drew during my study period. The woman is down on her knees, scratching a cream-coloured wolf who is happily licking her face. The wolf looks like Athena.

“This is Athena,” the woman with the wolf tells me with a smile, standing up. I don’t know what to say, so I stand frozen.

“It’s your time,” the man says again. I turn and look at him, taking him in. He has wings! Oh my goddess, is he an angel! But his wings are unlike wings I’ve seen depicted on angels in books. There are no feathers, just silverly lines that catch the light and sparkle.

“What?” I say, looking at the other woman, the face of someone I thought I knew.

~ edited with Grammarly