Moonbound: My Dark Alpha

Selene's POV

Chapter One: Shadows of the Past

The moon was full, casting its light over the woods like a glowing blanket. I ran through the underbrush, my feet barely touching the ground, my heart racing in my chest. Behind me, the growls of wolves echoed, each one closer, more menacing. I could feel them-closing in, hunting, seeking me.

"Selene, keep running!" My mother's voice reached me from far away, urgent, filled with fear. Her warning was almost drowned out by the sharp sounds of claws and fangs against flesh.

I didn't dare look back. I couldn't.

The trees whipped past me like blurs of green and brown. I focused on my steps, on staying one step ahead of the monsters chasing me, but they were too close. I could hear the snap of branches as they closed in, and the fear gnawed at my insides.

I stumbled, falling to my knees in the soft moss beneath me. My breath came in ragged gasps. My father-Alaric-stood in front of me, a towering figure of strength. But even his power couldn't stop the attack. He fought the rogues with everything he had, his claws flashing in the moonlight as his teeth sank into their flesh.

"Selene, run!" My mother, Elara, cried out, her eyes wide with terror.

But I didn't want to run. I wanted to stay and fight. To protect them, like they always protected me.

"Run, Selene!" she shouted again, and for the first time, I saw fear in her eyes.

I turned toward her just as one of the rogues lunged at her. The world slowed, but there was nothing I could do. Nothing anyone could do. The rogue's claws sunk deep into her side, and my mother screamed-her blood staining the earth beneath her.

"No!" I cried out, my voice strangled.

But before I could move, my father's voice echoed through the clearing. "Get out of here! Go now!"

I froze, my feet unwilling to obey. My heart shattered as I watched him fall, his body weakening under the onslaught.

And then everything went dark.

---

I woke with a start, gasping for air, my body drenched in sweat. My pulse was racing, but the nightmare had vanished-just a dream, I told myself.

But it wasn't just a dream. It was more than that. It was a memory, a memory I couldn't escape.

The mark on my wrist-my mother's mark-burned under my skin, a constant reminder of the night my world shattered. The night the rogues killed my parents. The night my life had changed forever.

"Selene!"

Helena's sharp voice cut through my thoughts like a blade. "Get up, you lazy girl. Are you planning on sleeping all day?"

I rubbed my eyes, forcing myself to push the nightmare away. "I'm coming," I muttered, though I knew she couldn't care less.

---

The kitchen was cold and silent as I stepped inside. Helena was already at the counter, the harsh clink of utensils against the countertop echoing through the room. She wasn't looking at me, but I could feel her gaze, sharp and calculating, as she prepared breakfast.

Marcus sat at the table, his usual distant expression on his face. His eyes didn't meet mine, his gaze focused on his coffee cup like the rest of the world didn't exist.

Cassandra was sitting in her usual spot, phone in hand, scrolling through it like she had a million important things to do. Her smile was smug, but there was an air of indifference about her.

"Finally," Helena muttered, turning her sharp eyes on me. "Do you know what time it is? Get to work."

"Yes, ma'am," I whispered, my voice hollow.

I could feel the bitterness rise in my chest. It wasn't just the constant command from Helena, the sharp edge in her voice, or the way she barely acknowledged me unless it was to give me an order. It was everything.

Marcus had been my father's beta before my parents' deaths, and I had always known that. But back then, when my parents were alive, he was different. He wasn't the quiet, detached man he had become. He'd once treated me like family, like his own child. But after that night, after my father's death, it was like something had changed in him.

He was no longer the man who had taught me how to shift for the first time or the man who had told me stories of my parents' love. He was just a shadow of himself, always watching but never truly present.

Ever since he took over as Alpha after my father's death, he had become something else entirely.

And Helena? She had been my mother's closest friend, the woman I had trusted with my heart. But after my parents died, she became colder. More distant. I realized, over time, that her kindness had always been a mask. Beneath it, there was nothing but ambition-her own plans, her own dreams, and me... just an afterthought.

It was like they saw my existence as a means to an end. They didn't raise me out of love or compassion, but because they had no choice. They had taken me in because my father's death had placed a heavy burden on the pack. With no one else to take care of me, they became my guardians out of necessity, not love.

I tried to tell myself it wasn't their fault. They had lost their alpha too, after all. But deep down, I couldn't shake the feeling that they had never truly cared for me the way they had pretended.

Marcus's indifference hurt the most. He had always been my father's beta, his most loyal ally, and I had looked up to him. But now, after everything that happened, it felt like he resented me.

As I moved around the kitchen, preparing breakfast with shaky hands, my eyes kept drifting to the window, to the garden outside. There, hidden beneath the shadows, I could almost see the faces of my parents. Their love was gone, taken from me in a single night, and I was left with nothing but this cold, empty house.

Cassandra's voice broke through my thoughts. "I don't know why we even bother with her. It's not like she can do anything right anyway."

Helena glanced at me, her eyes cold. "No use complaining about it. She's a tool, nothing more. She'll do her part, or I'll make sure she regrets it."

My throat tightened, but I didn't respond. I couldn't. What was there to say?

I was a tool.

Just as I had always feared.

---

When the meal was finished, and the others had left to tend to their own affairs, I slipped out into the garden. I walked slowly, the soft soil beneath my bare feet grounding me as I moved.

The sky above was pale blue, the morning sun casting long shadows over the plants. The breeze was gentle, but the air still carried the heavy scent of dew and earth.

I ran my fingers over the stone of my mother's grave-hidden in the far corner, just out of sight of the house. I had never asked them for this. Never asked them to take me in, to raise me as their own. But they had, and they had made it clear that it was out of obligation, not love.

"Mother," I whispered, kneeling by the grave. "I don't know what to do. I don't know how to survive here."

The wind picked up, swirling around me, as if answering me. But there was no one left to offer me guidance.

Just me. Alone.

---

As night fell, I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling. The moonlight filtered through the window, casting faint shadows across the room. My fingers brushed over the crescent mark on my wrist, the one that linked me to my mother, to the Moon Goddess.

That night, the nightmares didn't come. But sleep still didn't come easily. I kept hearing her voice, her last words before she died: "Survive, Selene. Find your destiny."

But how could I? How could I survive in a world that had taken everything from me?

And worse, how could I ever escape the cage I was in-built by my foster family's apathy and their hidden motives?