Chapter 6 Lorna POV 2 Days Later These days locked in the cellar have felt more like a sanctuary. Safely wrapped up in knowledge that I'm not alone anymore. I still can't quite believe it. Athena has insisted that I get a lot of sleep, but I all my dreams were filled with us running together and her showing me how I'll never walk alone again. Athena has taught me so much, about the moon goddess and fated mates. All the history of our kind, as well as my place in it. Not that I have a place. I am conscious of the fact that in a few days my life will go back to how it was, and after all this, I am not sure I can cope anymore. Another thing that has become abundantly clear, is that Mrs Clarke did not leave enough food for a newborn wolf. The rations ran out yesterday and I can feel Athena clawing through me, desperate to come out and hunt for food. It's taking all the energy I have left to keep her contained. If I'm being honest, I think Athena is almost proud at how well I'm controlling the urge. She tells me it's a good sign, although I'm not sure why, and my stubborn wolf won't explain. Part of me wonders if she, Mrs Clarke, knows, and that's why she only packed enough to last tonight. Perhaps she's seen it in my eyes. Tonight is the February Full Moon. Ordinarily, a standard full moon, would be a night like any other, I'd do my best to hide from the pack who would inevitably catch me and make my formally wolfless self part of the midnight hunt. Sounds fun doesn't it, well it's not. It's terrifying and barbaric, because I am what's being hunted. On an ordinary full moon, I'm caught, a beaten so badly I tend to spend the next week in the pack clinic trying to remember how to breathe or walk. However, the February full moon is different. This is what pack law states is the Mating Moon. Something about it turns unmated wolves into s*x crazed beasts, and any unmated shewolf of age in the pack tends to find herself mated after tonight. The issue was that I was not a shewolf, I was a useless runt, wolfless. Which meant that I became an outlet for any wolf who was not ready to be tied to anyone just yet. Memories flood my mind of last year's mating moon. I can still feel the hands and paws holding me down, desperately fighting, screaming, crying. Hours and hours of them taking turns. Using me to sate their primal urges. Wolves that were once friends, wolves older than my father. It creates a pain so deep that I know it won't ever heal. At dawn, Left out in the forest for dead. Mrs Clarke tells me she was looking for me for three days before she found me. I think part of her broke that day too. At first she was sure that I was dead, it was only later that we realised I am not that lucky. Mrs Clarke and a friendly nurse in the clinic hid me, took care of me. It was a few months I think, before I became aware of my surroundings again. It got worse then, they had to keep tying me to the bed, too many times I tried and failed to turn my luck around by force. Even now, when Mrs Clarke looks at me, I can see her eyes assessing me, seeing whether or not I'm still a risk to myself. I had a plan, before Athena appeared. I wasn't going to be put through another night like that. The fear alone, was enough to slay me. My plan was, this afternoon, to run to the top of the crescent gorge on the other side of the pack lands. As the sun was setting, I'd finally find the peace I had been seeking in the turbulent waters below. Despite now having Athena, a large part of me is still set on this. I am so tired of my life, and I'm not sure of the purpose the Moon Goddess has for me but I'm not strong enough for it. She chose wrong. It's time for the mistake to be corrected. "Lorna, I know you're struggling, but this isn't going to happen. You need to hang on a little more" "HOW!!.... how do you expect me to do that" I practically shout in my head. "Look...." Athena begins. "No! Just No! I can't Athena. I'm already on that cliff. Do you know how many times I have been to the edge. How many times I have promised myself I can keep going, just a little more and it will all be ok!!" I'm screaming now, tears streaming down my face. "Tonight won't be like last year, because now I have you, I can be mated!!! I'll be tied to one of those beastly rapists forever, carrying their pups!!! How can you ask that of me, how can the moon goddess ask that of me!!" Tears are coming faster than words now. Great sobs, wracking my body. Taking a moment to gather myself. Focusing on the plan. I settle back. We go ahead as planned. Tonight, my suffering ends, and I finally join my parents with the moon goddess. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FɪndNøvel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. 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