The Luna, an older lady who always had a scowl on her face, motioned to the guard to bring me to her. He walked me over and waited for me to let go of his hand. I didn’t want to, and the Luna peeled my fingers from him and placed her clawed hand on my shoulder to keep me in place.
They dragged my father to the pole and tied his hands around it. The Alpha walked up beside him on the small, makeshift stage and began speaking loudly. I wasn’t paying attention to him; I was looking at my father, who had tears streaming down his face. He never cried before. My mother was on the other side of the rope, calling out his name, “Levi! Levi!” but her voice was drowned out by the Alpha’s loud tone.
My father called her name and mine, trying to find out where we were. “Viviana! Margo!” he cried, xc turning his head to either side, searching for us in the crowd.
The Alpha picked up a long, brown object, and the crowd around us cheered. I looked around in confusion until the Luna turned my head forward. The Alpha raised the object and struck it hard against my father’s back. My father cried out as his shirt split open, and blood started running down his back. I whimpered, afraid to cry out.
The Alpha continued whipping my father for several more minutes, growing excited as the crowd around us cheered. My mother fought against the guards with tears streaming down her face, crying out my father’s name as he sunk further and further down the pole.
Eventually, the Alpha stopped and set down the whip. My father was no longer moving when the Alpha stepped off the stage and allowed the guards holding my mother to bring her up to the pole. They tied her around the same pole as my father and called out for the other guards to join them. My mother sobbed loudly as she stood over my father, his bloodied and battered body in shreds on the floor.
Eight or nine guards surrounded my mother and began tearing her clothes off. She screamed, but no one came to help her as they took turns raping her and beating her. The Luna behind me grabbed my chin and forced me to watch as they tore my mother apart. Tears silently dripped down my cheeks, but my mouth remained locked shut.
I don’t know how long it was before one of the guards hit her in the back, and her spine snapped in two. She was instantly quiet as her body fell to the ground on top of my father’s body. They left her there as the guards climbed down from the stage and retreated to the packhouse.
The Luna let go of my shoulder and stepped away from me, walking towards her mate, the Alpha. They were in charge of all the werewolves, and incidentally, the humans in the pack. They began speaking, pointing, and staring at me, trying to decide what to do with a newly orphaned four-year-old.
I continued to stare at my parent’s bodies until a boy with honey-colored hair stepped in front of me. He smiled, revealing his missing front teeth and waved his hand slightly. I lifted mine and waved sadly before I tucked my chin into my chest. He grabbed my hand, and I looked up at the boy who was still smiling, blissfully unaware of what had just happened. In a way, I was too.
“My name is Caddy,” he grinned.
“I’m Margo,” I whispered, wiping the tears from my ruddy cheeks with my palms.
“Do you want to be my friend?” he asked, tilting his head to the side. I nodded my head and allowed him to pull me behind him. We walked past the Alpha and Luna, who seemed fine with our arrangement.
“I don’t have a lot of friends,” Caddy babbled, leading me into a room with toys and play structures. “Mommy says it’s because I’m gonna be Alpha one day. Maybe you can be Luna!”
I shook my head, and he frowned.
“Why not?”
“I’m human,” I said softly, staring at the ground.
The boy walked towards me and placed his hands on either side of my head, rougher than he intended, and smiled at me.
“Well, then, I’ll protect you. We can be best friends.”
The Enforcer
“Margo!” Caddy’s voice called for me from the other room. I sat up from my position on the floor, where I was watching the wings of the fan on the ceiling spin around in boredom. “Come here. I need your help!” he called again.
I walked to the adjoining room to find him with his paintbrushes in his hand. “What are you painting?” I wondered; the canvas was blank.
He shrugged his shoulders and turned around towards me. “I don’t know yet. My uncle asked me to paint something as a gift to the new Enforcer when he visits in two days, but I don’t have a clue what to paint.” His uncle, whom the rest of us now called Alpha, was a strict man but was nowhere as intimidating as the new Enforcer.
The canvas was large, about seven feet wide by five feet tall; he would never be able to finish the work in two days. I told Caddy this, and he glowered at me.
“If I start right now, I can finish it,” he groaned. “But I have no idea what to paint. It has to be good; this is a peace offering. We all know very well that Dorian isn’t always the best with other leaders.”
“What do you need help with? You know I can’t even draw a flower, I’m not sure what you want me to do,” I said carefully, not wanting to anger him in his anxious state.
“I know you aren’t a painter, but you are the more creative one out of the two of us. Tell me what
