the Moon Goddess Heiress

Malia POV

I woke up with a migraine. I watched the ceiling over my head for, I would say, at least half an hour before I decided to move. Every morning was like that for as long as I can remember. Breathing is hard and painful the first hour, and then I can brush it off and go for the day. Rolling to my side, I winced at the lower back pain that triggered my head. What was I doing on the floor?

Sitting up, massaging the drum beating in my temples, I looked around me, memories from last night coming back, flooding my mind.

I drank with my sister, my other half, my lovely twin,  who was now sleeping curled up on my bed. From today, our lives will change. We will finally be part of the Claiming. Not that we are happy about it, hence the “drinking our emotions” party we had together. I drank my nerves so much that I must have passed out before reaching the bed. At least, before passing out herself, my sister gave me a pillow and a blanket.

Watching her so peacefully kind of revolted me. She wasn’t an ugly sight. Quite the opposite, with her long lashes caressing that pinkish-colored cheek, her round mouth pouting under her small nose. She looked like a doll, her long and bright-shaded blond hair covering half her sleepy face. That pure woman would be prey in a few hours. And I couldn’t stand it. I knew she could put up a good fight, but it was not in her nature. I feared that the Claiming would scar her for eternity.

For myself, I was not scared. I trained more than my share and intended to challenge every wolf who would come to me. I felt like I should compensate for both of us. And let’s be frank, the fire I had inside would let me endure it for hours. Between us twins, I was the fighter one. Unlike Sarabella, my hair, always up in a tight ponytail to be practical, was a dirty, dusty blond that looked like I never showered. One could believe so because I spent my days training. Though we shared the same features, my expressions weren’t as jovial and lovable as Bella's. Mine were riled up by discipline and constant alertness.

I worked hard for years now, not only because I enjoyed the feeling of a sore body after training, but because my twin and I shared a secret. A secret we've been keeping for 10 years. Well, it was mine, and Bella shared the burden. I had already shifted into my wolf.

Young wolves shifted at sixteen. But I was 6 years early. My wolf was beautiful. Silky white fur, with a hint of silver shine every time the moon would lay a ray of light on me. Seeing wolves from our pack, my wolf was quite huge for a female and my age, though I couldn't compare, as my sister didn't shift.

As we were always so close and in sync, I always carried the question with no answer: why was I the only one to shift that night? Shila, my wolf, couldn’t tell me much. She didn’t feel anything strange from Bella. I still thought it was odd. Since birth, we didn’t need a wolf to mind-link between us. We called it the twin-link bonus.  As time went by, I started to think it was a sign, or a message, for me to bear the mission to be the protector between the two of us. And I took it to heart.

My shift was still a mystery.

No one turned into the wolf form outside the ceremony held by the Packs Council. With the population of our race decreasing, it was a concerning and hot topic. Years ago, they decided to regulate the shifting for safety, and because it has been proven that a collective shift helped wolves come to the surface for the first time with less risk of young wolves going feral or worse; dead.

In our werewolf society, it was not the only big problem. There was a rumor going around that the Moon Goddess abandoned us. The signs were more obvious by the day. Not only because of the difficulty in shifting but also because fated mates pairing was so rare, there were none. Pregnancies with a chosen mate were difficult and if not well monitored, they ended up increasing the death rate instead of the other way around. So many females died during delivery or lost the pup along the way. Or both didn’t survive. Males are going desperate, and females are terrified. Nobody knew what to do or whom to turn to. Many wolves left packs to isolate themselves and turn into Rogue.

Prayers were unheard. Pain was ignored.

My heart ached with the despair of my kind going extinct.

At first, the Claiming was to help provoke a fated bond. 16 is very young, but still, Elders thought we needed to give it a shot. Rules were created, to maintain order over the mating and ensure safety. Females were to be protected at all costs. I had to admit that, sometimes, I felt a little relieved that no fated bond was put in place anymore. In the end, it trapped you in the Elders' grasp and turned you into some kind of experiment. At least, that was my feeling.

Later, they added the competition part to the ceremony, hence the name being the Claiming.

Many attended the ceremony. More for the claiming part than the shifting one. Male wolves could enter a lottery and get a chance to participate in the tournament to claim a chosen mate. It was the only way chosen mates were allowed to pair. An amicable decision between two friends to form a partnership or just choose each other out of love was considered dangerous and prohibited. Considering the risks of the pregnancy, Elders held the tournament to ensure the strongest wolf would be able to claim the female. I believed this was where we messed up, but who was I, a young female who, in the eyes of others, hadn't shifted yet? We had no say in this, even being born from the only Alpha and Luna couple that turned out to be fated ones.

Our parents were the only fated couple to be created over 50 years.

They didn’t find each other at our mom's first shifting ceremony. Which, truthfully, would’ve been gross. Our dad was 4 years older and didn't attend the Claiming for many years, thanks to the early Alpha training, which gave our mom a few more years to bloom. They only met 2 years later, when he finally participated in the lottery. Our mom was one of the female names drawn for that year's pool. They were luckily exempt from the tournament as soon as they both claimed themselves mates, and we arrived 10 months later.

And now, 20-year-old us were sitting in a car to attend our first Claiming.