#####Chapter2:Shattered

The burning pain lingered, spreading boils around my chest—a pain originally uncalled for. The weather, filled with particles of freezing snow, displayed dark clouds, unclear to see anything at all.

Not only had I started to suffer the cutting wounds Alpha Ryan's words had created in my heart—I had seen the reality of suffering—face to face, if describable.

If not for the weather change which somehow made it a bit easier for me to breathe, I would have passed away.

Maybe.

It was easy for my life to end in the thick woods.

Easier than survival.

Cramps disturbed my bones, making me unstable. I couldn't bear my body with my hands.

No way to survive.

The darkness. I was already thrown into the path of the banished wolves. The last word I heard before finding myself here was from the Alpha King. “Get lost to the thickest sides of Hell…!”

I flinched.

I expected the space to be lighted up. But, before I even got a hold on something solid to support myself, the moon reflected the change and my eyes almost faded away.

The full moon.

“Move with short steps here…” a voice came directly from my left, casting me to stillness.

It wasn't my wolf. Neither was it me myself—I was silent, but I knew something was happening. I struggled to make out a meaningful word.

I said nothing. Only sounds of my heavy breath until it stopped for a while as I tried to adjust, when suddenly, the appearance of a strange being hit me, its light almost blinding me. My wolf reacted immediately.

“Here it is.” My wolf muttered, hitting my heart deeply as I struggled down the dark. “The sound you need. It is the voice you've long been waiting for…”

Sound? What voice?

I was shocked. Not only for the strange appearance, but because of the huge stature of that being. It appeared like a kind of venerated beast in the kingdom.

Feminine.

It was her—the face seemed a bit familiar, at least to my imagination.

With the crown dangling on her head, the stranger voiced out, “I expected you to be with the Alpha by now.”

“Alpha…?” I muttered, keeping my words at the level I wanted it to be. I didn't want her to hear me.

It was indeed a divine presence.

“I’m the first Luna ever in the world of the shifters. The ancient Queen Luna. The Moon Goddess.” She spoke, her voice hitting the ground very deeply. Her height wasn't measurable, her breaths cutting the thick air short and the earlier darkness nearly turned to complete light. “I haven't found your presence with me since then…”

The awe I felt made me speak. “But, the divine flashes of light here alone is the presence here. I'm nothing but a rejected wolf. A downcast she-wolf… Destined to reign with an Alpha mate, but fated…”

“Who?” The Moon Goddess continued, as silence engaged in the air, and my head, which burned earlier, now became cool. “Have you got hold of any supporter?”

Any supporters? Each of her words meant more than words to me—like thoughts.

“Supporter?” I echoed, when I understood what she was asking me. “No one stood in for me, not even Henry…”

Henry Trumpson was one of the wolves my eyes crossed during that day. I was formally rejected. He was a kind, caring wolf who considerately attended to anyone from any pack.

Maybe a tourist, I never really knew so much about him. But, compared to Alpha King Ryan, Henry was like his other side—like my rock of safety as of then.

“Fate is the bad side of everyone's destiny here and one thing or the other.” The Moon Goddess's speech continued, as soothing as ever. “You weren't rejected for the rest of your life. But, remember, that your fated mate is one of those wolves you know who lives around this pack ground…!”

My cracking bones became cool. Even though the last revelation shocked me, I felt a bit of comfort. “My Alpha mate is here? Does that mean I'm still going to enjoy the reward for my faithfulness in the Blue Howl pack?”

“The rest is in the Alpha King's mouth to say, or in his hands to release...” The Moon Goddess snapped, her voice fading, not for weakness but as another sign, which didn't know yet. “Just be patient for the changes. You'll be a great Queen Luna who will continue the old Blue Howl pack's devotion to me and enjoy a lasting peace.”

“One more thing…” I said, cutting my words shut, which were already stuck in my throat anyway. “Can I know which of them is my fated mate? How will I see my own way well and stop treading the wrong path?”

No answer.

“Lara!” A noise cut through the silence and it was repetitive. The voice didn't sound familiar, or maybe not yet. “Lara, are you there?”

Then, the dark again. And, the rustle of leaves on the trees joined the noise, casting me aside again and my back hit a stone. I felt the pain deeply in my bones, but how I could save myself, I didn't know. “Lara…” I whispered my name, trying to figure out the intensity and tone of my voice—to compare with the unseen stranger calling me by name. I continued speaking to myself, my eyes blinking itself as it grew watery. “Just make sure you are fine, Lara. It is your survival right now that matters. Forget about knowing your mate, and be safe…”

The darkness was thicker. No one could be close to my side in such a space, so the voice meant nothing to me—it seemed like an echo of my deceased mother calling me.

More darkness spread on the already dark woods, nearly turning me into a blind, lost wolf in the midst of danger. “Where is the Moon Goddess? I cannot stand this alone! And, what about Henry? He is just a wolf…”

I cried hard. Nothing to do. I was left alone to survive the darkest world myself.

The Moon Goddess was gone. The flashes of light, divine and magnificently frightening, were all wrapped back into the empyrean space. I was trying to blink, as light turned into darkness, so as to find myself again when I heard a gunshot.