Freeing Starr

When I woke up the next morning, Zion was gone. I sighed in relief and ran a hand through my tough curls.

I relaxed in bed for a few minutes, enjoying my quiet solitude for as long as it lasted. The door downstairs opened and I sat up, blowing strands of hair out of my face.

“Starr?” Niah called out cautiously.

I stretched my hands above my head, yawning. I probably had a long day ahead of me.

“Starr!?” Niah’s voice became more anxious and I sighed wearily. What did she think I was in here doing? Killing myself?

“I’m up here!”

I got out of bed and entered the bathroom, immediately looking at the full length mirror plastered against the wall.

I looked at the girl before me. Her hair was a bird’s nest piled atop her head, her tiresome eyes had bags beneath them and her lips were dried and cracked. Her cheeks felt itchy from all the times she cried the day before as they puffed out in frustration.

She looked horrible.

I hated it.

Niah entered the bathroom behind me, eyeing my frame warily as if she was looking for bruises. Unfortunately for her, they already healed a long time ago.

“you okay?” She asked, “I heard what Zion did and I can’t believe he would stoop that low! I had no idea something like th---”

“I’m fine,” I said firmly, meeting her eyes through the mirror.

She frowned at the distant look in my eyes.

“Did he send you to get me for training?” I asked.

She shook her head, “No, today you’re stuck with me. We’re going to be talking about your duties as Luna since Zion wants you to get started as soon as possible.”

“I know what a Luna has to do. I acted as my fathers’ since my mother died,” I felt a cold shiver travel down my body at the mention of my father.

“Okay.....” Niah trailed off, “then you should know what to do but I’ll just run over a few things with you as a precaution. I’ll leave you to clean yourself up,” she turned to leave.

“Is there a laptop or computer in this house?” I asked curiously, the thought of decorating the place a bit more circulating in my mind.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll show you when you’re done.”

I sighed wearily as Niah left and undressed myself.

After about fifteen minutes of me just laying in the tub and relaxing, I finally decided to get out.

I dried myself off and wrapped the towel around me.

Upon entering the bedroom, I found Zion shuffling through our closet.

“What are you looking for?” I asked, my voice wary after the outburst that happened yesterday. I didn’t necessarily regret what I said but I didn’t want to deal with the abuse that would follow for what I did say. I kept my eyes lowered to the ground and pulled the towel tighter around my body.

I heard more shuffling before there was sudden silence. Then I saw his feet appear in front of me.

“Just one of my shirts. Did you sleep? You look a little pale.” he said, running a finger lightly across my cheek.

I flinched away and walked around him, my eyes never meeting his. I entered the closet and picked a random outfit.

“Is there something wrong with my face?” Was the question that greeted me as I left the closet now fully clothed.

My head snapped up at his words and I frowned.

“You refuse to meet my eyes. Why?” He questioned, cocking his head to the side curiously.

I opened my mouth and closed it again, no answer came to my mind as I thought about the question.

Why?

It’s not as if I didn’t know the answer to that question. It’s the fact that the answer was simple yet hard to comprehend.

I didn’t know.

“I...I...I...” I stumbled over my words as I tried to keep my thoughts from falling apart.

Zion raised a brow, “What’s the point in me asking questions if you can’t answer them?”

I pursed my lips and shifted my eyes to look behind him.

“Nothing but talk,” he scuffed, stalking towards me.

My eyes widened as I took a step back, then another, and then even more before my back pressed up against the wall.

Zion stopped before me and interlaced our fingers, pulling my hand up to his lips.

“You’ll be putting me in a bad position if I’m forced to kill you,” he whispered, pressing his lips to my knuckles firmly.

My heart pounded loudly in my chest as his words registered. I could feel the tears forming at the corners of my eyes but I forced myself not to cry.

“What?” I asked him, seeking clarification. What could he possibly mean by that?

“Your Alpha bloodline is what keeps you in this position of power. In my pack, if you can’t show your dominance, you’ll die or even worse you’ll be kicked around. You need to keep in mind that this pack isn’t the one you grew up in. It’s filled with rogues, some of which are more dangerous than the others. I created this pack to give them a home. They’re with me because I don’t restrict their movements and I don’t judge their actions so I need a strong Luna to help share this burden and responsibility. You need to do better.”

Guilt washed over me as I quietly took in his lecture. I mentally blamed myself for being this weak. I knew I had to do better.

“This is the only day you get to rest. Tomorrow we start again. I don’t care if you’re sick, crippled or exhausted, you will train. I’m going to turn that fragile heart of yours into that of a seasoned warrior,” he then pressed his lips to my forehead before exiting the room.

I released the breath that I was holding as he left. Quickly, I wiped at the tears before they could fall.

I listened for the sound of the door downstairs before going down, my tense shoulders relaxed as I was confident that Zion was gone and wouldn’t be back anytime soon.

I padded down the stairs silently, my eyes analyzing the plain walls as I thought of ideas to make the house feel more like home.

I met Niah in the living room spreading out a variety of different folders all around her on the floor.

“What are you doing?” I questioned.

Niah looked up from her seat on the floor and smiled, “Luna training.”

“Oh.”

I sat down cross legged across from Niah and took up a paper, scanning it through.

“What’s up with all the names?”

Niah gave me a folder that had names along with a picture of the person on the papers.

“These are everyone currently in our pack. Zion haven’t added your pack as yet but right now, our pack adds up to 76,730 people, 31,486 warriors, 12,534 elders, 15,356 children which include teens and 17,354 untrained women. The men usually decides if they want their women to train or not, mostly all of them prefer their mates to stay at home or work in some of the stores in the village but we do have a few female warriors.”

“Wow, your pack is a lot bigger than mine. We only had 21,678 people.”

Niah nodded, “yeah, it’s hard to believe that we started out with less than that. Since we continued to expand our territory, people were forced to either leave or join us. Packs don’t easily accept new members and living a life of a rogue is tough so their options were limited.”

“What made Zion choose to start a pack? Usually, starting a pack is hard since there are other packs who refuse to share territories with any newcomers.”

“I’m sure you’ve already heard a lot of rumors about us but I guess hearing it from me is better since rumors aren’t always true. Zion was abandoned by his family at a young age. They were probably rogues as well, we’re not sure but we have reason to believe that they were once Alphas of their own pack since Zion himself is an Alpha. There are many packs that get disbanded, destroyed or taken over so we couldn’t quite figure out which pack was Zion’s. Anyway, being all by himself, Zion stayed in his wolf form and wandered the forest aimlessly and barely surviving. Eventually he ran into a pack of actual wolves.”

“So the rumors of him being raised by actual wolves is true?” I asked.

“Yeah, he grew up in only his wolf form and stayed with those wolves who took him in. He was 19 when he finally ran into an actual werewolf. Deacon. He was an elder rogue that was just passing through when he discovered Zion amongst the wolf pack. So, out of curiosity he approached Zion but feeling threatened Zion attacked. They fought and Zion lost and was forced to shift back to human for the first time in forever. Seeing that Zion wasn’t like them, the wolf pack abandoned him and Deacon took Zion in himself after learning about his circumstances. Deacon carried Zion back to the small group of rogues he was apart of and taught Zion everything he needed to know.”

I listened attentively, trying to take all this information in.