Obsessed With the Forbidden Luna

GINGER

The sun shifted through the gentle sway of my bedroom curtains, lighting my eyes behind my lids and causing me to smile. My favorite part of every day seemed to be morning. I loved waking up on my pillow-top mattress, surrounded by the downy softness of my jade green and silver-threaded bed covers. My mom and I redecorated my room when I turned thirteen to suit my new teenage persona and now that I was fifteen, she suggested we do so again. Personally, I was still in love with the woodland aesthetic of my space. I adored the forest leaves that were air brushed along my walls and the dark brown paint that was accented with shadows of darker hues to create the image of living inside a giant tree. My bookshelf was fashioned from a large maple trunk that had been sanded and glossed by the hands of the artsiest Omega wolves in our pack. Even my desk matched the motif perfectly, with legs that were shaped to appear like branches and brambles in a fairy tale forest. The desk chair tucked beneath it had a pillow seat shaped like a lily pad and a backrest carved into vines. My bed was designed to look like four weeping willows connected by the green canopy hanging off the four-poster bed frame like it was made for a woodland elf. Every single dawn was like waking in the deep of the woods and I loved it. I wasn't quite ready to let it go.

But... mom would have her way. She always did.

My phone rang on the nightstand next to me, my best friend's name flashing on the screen.

"Good morning, Mal," I moaned groggily into the phone. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Mal's excitement could practically be felt through the airwaves and I sat up with a start. "Lincoln arrived this morning. I hear he brought a girl with him that isn't Meg!"

"No way! What?" My ears perked up as I tried to listen more intently to my surroundings. When I didn't hear anything, I sighed with relief. Contrary to what one might think, my older brother's return from boarding school wasn't exactly something I'd been yearning for. He was mean to me whenever he was around. But then again, that was only if he had to see me. If he didn't, I could skate under his radar and only fear his wrath on holidays when we were forced to endure one another's company. "What did she look like?" I asked, leaping from the warm confines of my bed to don my plush lavender robe that hung close to my closet doors.

"It was kind of hard for Blair to see her through the black windows, but she was at least able to tell me that she was a blond, not a brunette like Meg is."

What on earth?

"Blair told you this?" I snickered, slipping my feet into my newest pair of fuzzy bunny slippers that my dad gifted me. Every year he insisted on a new pair to warm my toes with. It was practically his religion. Today I would be receiving a new set, no doubt. "Blair is a gossip," I chortled into the phone, smiling when Mal's signature cackle filled my ears. It was undeniably true, Blair was in everyone's business. And despite that she was usually on point with her tales, I wasn't going to feed the fire by buying in so quickly. Lincoln wasn't anything if he wasn't appropriate and he had been betrothed to Meg of the Briarwood Wolf Pack from the time he was a toddler. There was no way he would be seen with any other girl. Especially returning home for an event like the one we would have today.

"Blair told me yeah," Mal sniped defensively. "But her brother also spoke to Linc this morning and confirmed he did not come here alone."

Hmm. Now that is curious...

"Maybe he found his mate and it's not Meg," I hissed, suddenly eager to find out. I mean, that was the only acceptable excuse for such a thing. At least as far as Linc was concerned.

Don't get me wrong, my brother wasn't a saint. I'd heard plenty of stories about him whoring himself around. The Omega populus was practically his playground. He was intimately acquainted with more than one surrounding pack, but bringing one of his one nighters home? He simply wouldn't do such a thing.

Especially not today. My birthday.

Stepping out into the hall, nothing appeared to be askew, but now I could hear the voices coming from the open floor plan kitchen downstairs. I whispered into the phone, "Oh shit. I think Blair may be right. I can hear mom, dad, and Lincoln talking. It sounds like they're arguing!"

"Oh snap! Go forth my child and gain the answers we seek. This is your quest."

"I'm on it," I giggled, hanging up the phone and dropping it into my pocket as I wafted down the stairs.

The closer I got, the louder my parents' voices became and concern began to cloud over me as I worked to piece their words together.

"I can't believe this has happened! Fifteen years of wasted love! Fifteen years, Mario!"

Wasted love? Odd thing to say...

"Try and contain yourself, Zelda. The girl is still upstairs. She knows nothing of this. We can't blame her for-"

The girl? What girl? Oh my Goddess, is the female in Lincoln's room? Holy shit!

"Blame her!?" my mother's voice rang out, shrill and angry. "I don't blame her, Mario! I blame that incompetant nurse on duty that night. But we've been cheated! Someone needs to pay for this! We have spent every minute of the last fifteen years spoiling some-some-some orphan!!! Meanwhile, our angel was made to endure the hardship of an Omega's life. Something must be done. Someone has to be punished for this!"

What in the Blooded Moon are they talking about?

As I descended on the first floor from the stairs I could finally see them. My family. But they didn't see me. At least, my parents didn't. But Lincoln. He did. And the smile he gave me was so bone chilling it had me freezing in my steps.

When Lincoln spoke next, he kept his intense green eyes on me. "I think the very first course of action to take, should be breaking the news to Ginger. She needs to know how drastically things are about to change. She needs to know who she is and who she isn't."

What?

That's when I saw her. The girl. All blond hair and emerald eyes. A miniature of my mother. A girl that looked absolutely nothing like me and everything like them.

And my mother was hugging her.

With this girl... my nightmare would begin.