Rose snuggled herself deeper into the cozy armchair she'd selected from many identical ones in the library. A book of legends lay open in her lap. It was a thick, heavy book and was marked all over in pen as her violet eyes roved over the pages, drinking in the knowledge of many many years past. Mythology and fables had always been a keen interest of hers, even before she knew she loved the moon with as much ferocity and reverence as a child loved its mother. She bit the end of her pen, pulling the cap off and swiveling the utensil so she could underline a phrase:
The Moon became unresponsive, never to answer a prayer again.
The story of the Moon Goddess was one every child knew. A long, long time ago there were only four kingdoms, each one representing a direction and a season. The Hearthstone Kingdom were lords of the North and Winter; the Garden Kingdom were ladies of the East and Spring; the Harvest Kingdom were ladies of the West and Autumn; and the Ocean's Tide Kingdom were lords of the South and Summer. The Queen of the North and Winter had lost her mate in a terrible war between her clan and the Ocean's Tide Kingdom. Childless and mateless, she wandered her lands until she came, weeping, to the Moon Lake at the center of all the clans. It was said that a wish made here when the moon set (once every seven hundred years) would be answered immediately. With her tears trailing all the way back to her castle and home, her heart aching, she spread her hands up to the setting moon and begged the Goddess to give her the children her mate had left her without.
The Moon Goddess, who had always looked kindly on the North and the Winter, felt great pity for the queen and descended immediately. She placed two babies in the widow's arms and told her that if she raised them well, they would do her proud and unite the lands which had been ravaged by war. While her heart was still bleeding, the Queen gathered her children into her loving arms and thanked the goddess profusely until she'd faded with the last curve of the moon's shine. Then she walked home.
The queen raised her boys for three years before tragedy struck again. A child's third year was when they got their name, after they had been cradled and loved and taught and their personalities were just beginning to emerge. There was always a great celebration when a child was to be named, and two children who came from a widowed queen garnered much attention. Even gods and goddesses have favorites, and while the Moon Goddess favored the North, the Sun God favored the South - and coveted the Moon Goddess' attentions. He'd been trying to catch her eye for centuries, since well before the kingdoms on the earth were even a glimmer of hope in the eyes of nomads dragging themselves from land to land, following the herds they needed to survive. But she had rebuffed him multiple times.
When he saw her looking down at the North with such favor in her eyes, and when he saw she had given two children to a mortal woman instead of to him, he was filled with rage. He incensed the warriors of the Ocean's Tide lands and set them on the North in a blaze of fire and no mercy. If he couldn't have the Moon Goddess, no one would benefit from her favor.
When the Moon Goddess rose again and saw her kingdom destroyed with such cruelty, she couldn't bear the pain. She drew clouds over herself and the North, swallowing them in a gossamer mist so thick any who entered would become hopelessly lost. She descended again to the queen's aid and, using a power no god had seen before, she raised up the Kingdom of the North once again. She breathed her last life's breath into the lifeless bodies of the two twin boys, setting great powers awake within them in the hopes that one day they would do as she'd originally promised.
Then, as the mist slowly receded back, she faded with the moon as it set soundlessly over the horizon. The Moon became unresponsive from then on out, never to respond to prayer or supplication again.
As far as mythology went, it was a great story. Rose sighed, tilting her head back and gazing up at the arching domed roof of her school's library. The ceiling was painted over with constellations, each one she could identify without even reading the script under them. There was Pegasus, Orion, Hercules, Ursa Major, the Dragon, the cyclops, Theseus, and the Swan. And then there was the handsome, freckled face of one of her best friends.
"Heya, Squeaker!" Frederick grinned. "Whatcha doin'?"
"I think she's reading," George answered, plucking the book from her hands and squinting at it. "Gosh, it's hard to read. What is this? Greek?"
"It's upside down." Rose replied with a laugh, reaching for her textbook.
"Oh, one of those fancy new languages," George acknowledged, nodding sagely. He allowed her to pull the book back and perched on the cushioned arm of the chair. "Have you been here all lunch again?"
"Did Mercy chase you out of the lunchroom?" Frederick asked.
"Mercy had nothing to do with it. I wanted to finish studying for my test tomorrow."
"Tomorrow is Saturday, silly little bookworm. I think you need a break."
"I have college classes, you knitwit." Rose scolded them. She slid her book into her Roark backpack and zipped it in safely.
"I knew that," George said proudly, only to be pushed off the chair by Frederick.
"You did not."
"I did too! I helped her study one day, didn't I Rose?"
"If you mean you read questions out of a book and then proceeded asked me about ten questions explaining each of the questions because you didn't know what you were reading, yes. You absolutely helped me study." She stood, slinging the bag over her shoulder. Her short, loosely curly hair slipped over her shoulders in a mass of black. Her eyes were a dancing green which flickered between the twins. They were good looking, for a pair of goofs and had a lot of stick-straight, silky smooth blond hair to go with their pale skin and a light dusting of charming freckles. Each had eyes bluer than the sky in the summer and identical mischievous grins. They were of average height but well built, as most wolves were even in high school, and had endless puppy energy. They were also her best friends.
George was shrugging. "Close enough! I still helped. Hey! Got any more of those cookies you made last week? The gingerbread ones?"
"I promised you more, didn't I?" she started walking through the library, smiling broadly at the tiny, quiet librarian who she'd befriended her first year at Wolfsbane.
"You did!"
"They're in my locker."
"The one with the code 7537, right?" Now Frederick was racing ahead, skipping backwards, his blond hair bouncing.
"That's the one," she laughed.
"They're mine, Fred!" George darted after his brother and they were soon gone, skidding around a corner as the lunch bell rang.
The hall was soon full of bustling, teenage wolves all heading to their next classes. While most of the students were werewolves, a few witches, warlocks, and vampires skulked among the masses. Like any high school, there were different groups of people clustered together. As Rose trotted her way down a staircase and through a hall she picked out the most troubling ones. A tight cluster of girls giggled in a far corner at the end of a hall. Their leader was a beautiful blond in the most expensive of clothing. Rose could tell, because it was ugly as all get out. It was the same clothing her cousin wore to distract from the fact that her father had lost his job and her mother was a drunk. The beautiful blonde was flanked by another blond and a redhead, each with their hair silky straight and flat as a pancake. When their leader zeroed in on Rose's approaching form, they all sneered.
Rose watched with fascinated amusement. It was as though they were one being, moving in unison, one single, unthreatening twiggy branch with three spindly thorns sticking out at different angles. They blocked her way to the steps leading down to the girl's locker room and spread out in a small semi-circle. Rose stopped dutifully, resting her weight on one hip.
"Got some place to go?" the leader asked.
"The same place as you, Mercy." Rose smiled. "Your nose looks great, by the way, considering I broke it last week."
Mercy's lip curled back in a silent snarl as she self-consciously touched the tip of her perfect little nose. "No thanks to you."
"You must have a good cosmetic surgeon." Rose continued cheerfully. "Oh! You could give Lacy here a recommendation! She needs a bit of help, and I haven't even touched her yet."
Lacy was the identical blond and her eyes were a snapping black-brown as she stepped forward. "Say that again to my face."
Rose spread her hands out with a shrug. "I would, but don't you need your little translator here to tell you how insulted you should be?"
Mercy's arm whipped out in front of Lacy. "Don't bother," she sniffed. "She'll be expelled soon, anyway."
"Graduating, actually, but I know it's hard for you to tell the difference."
Mercy smiled a chilling, bone-cold sort of smile. "Oh, did they not tell you yet?"
Rose raised her eyebrows. "Guess not."
"You were caught cheating." Mercy explained, her eyes glittering with excitement. "I have the proof of it and I showed it to our teachers and the principal. Seems like you've been cheating for nearly two whole years off of my back, while bullying me into giving the answers." She pressed a hand to her chest and blinked back fake tears. "Life has just been so hard with your harassing me, using your status as the Alpha's daughter to do whatever you want." She sniffled, then grinned and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "So they should be calling you to the principal's office soon." When Rose didn't answer, she tried again. "What, cat got your tongue, Loser Luna?"
Rose had begun inspecting her nails about halfway through the other girl's tirade. She didn't look up. "Just waiting for you to finish."
"Why?"
"So I can kick you down these stairs." Rose lunged forward, causing all three of the girls to go stumbling back, scattering out of her way. She straightened with a grin.
"That's proof!" Mercy screeched, clutching Lacy's arm as she cowered behind her friend, one stick-thin finger pointing accusingly at Rose.
"Well, if they already think I'm doing it, I guess I can." She cracked her knuckles, her grin turning wicked, and took one more step toward the girls. They scattered like fallen, dried leaves and fled down the hall. Rose rolled her eyes. While most of the people thought she was the odd duck out, very few tried to bully her. They knew her mother had taught her - the Luna who was a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu master and who had single-handedly brought the Fire Mountain pack to its knees during the last Festival of Fights. She skipped down the steps to the locker room and quickly got ready for gym.
Once in class, she stretched. She wore comfortable yoga shorts with a loose-fitting tank, a comfortable sports bra, and cozy sneakers which had nearly zero sole. She liked the feel of the ground under her feet and chose shoes which allowed her as close a contact as possible. If she could've gone barefoot, she would've. The rest of the class was paired off in groups of two or three, chattering and gossiping as their teacher called out their names. Mercy and her little pack stayed far away from Rose.
"Rose Silverthorne?" The teacher looked up from his clipboard just as the doors to the gym were flung open. Rose turned with everyone else, expecting to see the principal with a whole passel of people behind her, ready to send Rose packing. Instead, a tall man strode in. He was devilishly good looking, maybe in his mid-twenties, with dark black hair and green eyes. His face was chiseled and looked as though he'd stepped straight out of a James Bond movie, three piece suit, shiny black shoes and all. His eyes drifted over the class to the teacher before suddenly swiveling to where Rose stood, by herself.
She felt her heart skitter in her chest and took a small breath before giving a distracted answer to the teacher's call. "I'm here."