Hell's Luna

The night of my birth was as special as Hally's Comet. Even more as my mother often says. It was known as one of the most important historical nights and my birth was the first of a kind that only occurred after a trillion generations. It was the night of the red moon.

Mother's water bag broke while she was making dinner. Dad was out hunting with the pack and I was delivered with the help of the pack midwife, my aunt Sally. She always tells me that I was the most stubborn baby she'd ever had to handle. It took a day to get me to come out, and when I did I wasn't up to the normal eight pounds of normal babies.

I wasn't a normal werewolf pup and I'd like to believe I almost killed my mother.

Within the day of trying to get me to come out, Father came back from hunting with more blood and meat than ever before. The atmosphere was festive. I was a blessing to the pack, but also a curse.

When Sally washed me up and wrapped me in clean white, swaddling clothes, she noticed that my mother's heartbeat was faint and her breath was slow. She alerted my father and a few females she could trust and they all took my mother to the outside. In the red moonlight where they pleaded with bended knees to the Moon Goddess for her life.

The festivities died down. The pack became gloomy when she appeared to not be getting better and losing strength rapidly. I was indoors with my aunt, bawling my heart out — I was the cause of it all.

Seeing as she was about to die, my father out of sheer desperation ran to the dry, molten rocks located at the pack house's extreme and began dancing on it, blood covering his soles in seconds. He was sweaty and out of control. Panting as he replicated the age long steps in summoning the Prince Of Hell.

Hades.

Water gathered in his eyes as he choked back a cry of anguish, adrenaline surging in his veins that popped out — fiery red. No one would stop him. No one could. It was worse than walking on shards of glass, blades that have been forged and pruned in fire overtime. Even if it killed him, as long as he managed to summon Hades, any member of the pack could solicite for my mother's life. And that was all that mattered to him.

In the shadow not far behind him, the pack rented the air with howls and yips, joining in the ritual that determined the life of one of their own. The howls reverberated across the forest, scaring nigh time birds to the air. I cried harder, terrified. Sally adjusted the blanket around me and cooed me to calm.

A deafening howl echoed around my father, drowning out the rest of the pack as as eerie chill of terror picked up with the wind. The vibrations shook the trees to their roots, and aunt Sally clutched me closer to her bosom, letting out a gasp. As though feeling the change in atmosphere, I let out a shrieking cry once more.

"Shh, shh pretty girl, it's alright. You're safe with me darling. Don't cry." She pressed a brief kiss on my forehead, heart breaking at the scene outside. "Daddy and Mommy's gonna be fine, okay?"

Father finally collapses on his knees and let out all his pent-up anguish to the sky. Dark tendrils of smoke appeared out of nowhere, wrapping around him and lifting him up into the air. One of them tilted his chin, forcing him to look up into a eyes of burning larvae. Flashes of a gleaming human flesh peeked through the darkness. Everything else was shrouded. The pack retreated farther away from them as the earth gave way. It was chaos like no other.

Hades. Prince and ruler of Hell. Son of Chaos.

"I was in the middle of a very important matter when your distressed call summoned me. What is it that you want?"

"Yes, yes my wife — " Father panted.

" — Going to die in five minutes, yes I can tell. So? Is that the reason you summoned me? This trivial matter? Well, there's nothing I can do!"

"Please," Father pleaded with teary eyes. "Please...save her. I know you can."

"I can, of course. I'm the Prince of Hell after all. But I see no reason why I should do this. She's a mere mortal that belongs to the human world."

"Please Hades. She's all I have left."

"You've newly become a father, Jared. You've got a daughter too."

"What do I have to do to get you to heal her?"

"Oh, so we're going down that route now, heh? Well then, let me see...mmmh — " Hades rolled his eyes. "You'll have to give me something in return. Something truly special."

"Just name whatever you want, Hades and it'll be yours. As long as you let her live."

"I'd like to have your daughter, Jared."

"What?" Father paled instantly. "B-b-but she's just been born. She's only but a baby."

"Jared, I'd like to remind you on your words. You said I could have anything I wanted. Anything at all as long as I let your wife live."

"You can't take my daughter. We waited years to have this child. Please — "

"I won't have you go back on your words," Hades warned airily, the thunderstorm surging stronger. "She's got very limited time so I advise you hurry up."

"But why?"

"Why?" Hades sounded incredulous, as though the question was absurd. The dark tendrils around Father loosened a bit to let him breathe. "I've got no other reason why other than I want her as my mate. She's still so young, so I'll come back for her the night of her eighteenth birthday."

"No!" Sally tore through the bushes, shifting to her wolf form. Her white fur shone brilliantly, defying the combined darkness of the forest and Hades' thunderstorm. "You will not take her. Jared tell him no. Are you out of your mind?"

"Sally!" Father thundered from where he was high up in the air. "Go home! I'll take care of this."

"No, I'm not leaving until he takes his preposterous betrothal idea some where else."

"Mmh, she's a fiesty one," Hades chuckled darkly. "But alas, where's my young mate?"

"Sally are you insane? Get back to the baby!"

"She's fine and safe inside. I just put her to sleep."

"She has eighteen years to do whatever she pleases. But now, I'd like her to meet her future husband." Hades let his dark tendrils loose towards the pack house as a strong wind blew all the doors and windows open.

"Jared no! You've got to stop him, say something!" Sally yelled. In a moment's madness she attacked the tendrils which lifted her up and swung her hard into a forest tree. She fell off it dazed and injured.

The wolves howled, flocking to her. They nuzzled her back to her feet.

The tendrils retrieved a sleeping me. There I was with my beautiful face exposed and unaware that the devil was staring at me, a mock sense of achievement glowing in his eyes. "Well, well, well isn't she a beauty? You're losing your wife, Jared. She's barely got seconds. Have we got a — "

"Yes! Yes!!" Father affirmed, shoulders slacking in defeat. "You can have her as your mate."

"Thank fates you finally made up your mind. I'm getting bored with all the...drama and hesitation. It surely isn't wise to keep a Prince waiting." He lets out a tendril into Mother's nose and after a few seconds, she opened her eyes and sat up.

"I've given her the gift of immortality. She'll live and get tired but won't die. This little princess here takes all the pain, hmm."

"No, no. Jared you monster! How could you — " Sally cried.

"Silence!" Hades thundered, shutting her up. "You will talk no more concerning this. In eighteen years' time, when she's all ripe and ready, I will claim this wolf as my mate. Until then you have my protection and the portal of hell will be opened for you and your wife, as my prospective in-laws. Until then. Adios."

Just as he'd appeared out of thin air the tendrils thinned till it vanished. Father clutched me tight as we fell from the sky, bracing our fall with his back.

"How could you?" He couldn't meet Sally's hurtful eyes. "You sold your own daughter."

"I-I-I had to do it okay? To have Emilia live."

"You could have given him something else. You know how long you've waited to have a child."

"He wasn't negotiating, Sal. But what's done is done. All we've got to do is find some way to reverse the agreement before her eighteenth birthday."

"I do hope we find a way."