The Moonless Defying the Moon

~ Tyra ~

You know how everyone is usually happy, excited, and smiling from ear to ear simply because it is the last day of school and they finally get to be free from studying for the rest of their lives. Well, that was not the case with the students of Krisskrass Werewolf Academy, especially those of us in the graduating class who are turning eighteen.

Instead of joy, something heavy hung over us like a dark cloud that refused to move. The dining hall, which was usually loud and chaotic during lunch hours, felt strangely muted that afternoon.

Uncertainty, nervousness, and fear were written clearly on every face around me, including the faces of my friends. Even as we ate our lunch, we did so slowly and absentmindedly, pushing food around our plates more than we actually consumed it. It was as if each of us was lost in our own thoughts, silently imagining the future that waited for us tomorrow and wondering whether it would be kind or cruel.

The reason we were all trapped in that suffocating mood was simple. Tomorrow was Moon Day.

Moon Day was the most important day in the life of every young werewolf. It was the day that determined who you would become and what kind of life you would be allowed to live. Two major things happened on Moon Day, and both of them had the power to change everything forever.

The first was classification. Every graduate would be classified either as a Moonblessed werewolf or as a Moonless werewolf. The second was pairing. Those who were declared Moonblessed would be paired with their fated mates, the person the moon itself had chosen for them.

Moonless werewolves were considered third class citizens in Blazing Moon pack. Being Moonless was treated like a curse, and those who bore that label were looked down on by almost everyone for the rest of their lives.

No one wanted to turn out Moonless.

I looked at my friends sitting around the table and felt a tight knot form in my chest. Their faces carried the same mixture of fear and helplessness that I knew was written on mine. I wanted to say something comforting. I wanted to tell them everything would be fine.

But the truth was that I needed comforting just as much as they did.

Still, I forced myself to try.

“Can y’all stop looking as if the world is coming to an end?” I asked, breaking the heavy silence that had settled over our table like a thick fog.

“It is literally the end of the world for some of us, even though we don't know it yet,” Elaine murmured softly.

Her voice carried a kind of quiet resignation that frightened me more than anything else. It was as if she had already convinced herself that the moon would reject her, as if she had already accepted that she would walk into the ceremony tomorrow and walk out of it as a moonless

Out of the four friends sitting with me, Elaine and Bree were the closest to my heart. They were not just friends to me. They were the closest thing I had to sisters. We had grown together, laughed together, and survived the chaos of academy life side by side.

Seeing pain in their eyes felt like someone had reached into my chest and twisted something vital.

“Stop talking like that,” I scolded Elaine gently but firmly. “No matter what the outcome is tomorrow, we will still have each other. We must promise not to alienate ourselves from one another, regardless of what we turn out to be. Can we do that?”

I let my gaze move slowly from one face to the next, throwing the question out to all four of them. Normally, when we made promises like this, the answer came quickly and confidently. There would be enthusiastic nods and determined smiles as we declared that nothing could ever break our bond.

But this time was different. No one nodded.

Their silence pressed heavily against my chest, but I refused to back down.

“Elaine,” I called softly, turning fully toward her. I decided that if asking all of them together did not work, I would ask them one by one. They needed to hear the words. They needed to remember that whatever happened tomorrow, we still had each other.

“Yes, we stick together no matter what,” she finally answered after a long moment, letting out a quiet sigh as the words left her lips.

Relief loosened something in my chest.

“Bree,” I said, turning my attention to her, my questioning gaze settling on her face.

Bree looked at me for a moment before nodding slowly.

“Yes, we stick together no matter what. We must not abandon each other,” she said, echoing the promise.

I turned my attention to Stefan and Claire and asked them the same question.

Both of them responded with quiet agreement, their voices lacking the confidence they once carried but still sincere enough to make the promise count.

For a moment, I allowed myself to believe that things might be okay. Then silence fell once more.

The only sounds that reached our table were the soft murmur of conversations from other groups and the occasional clink of cutlery against plates from nearby tables. The dining hall continued to function around us, but our small corner of it felt strangely frozen in time.

Finally, Stefan spoke.

“I understand that you are trying to lighten the atmosphere, Tyra,” he said carefully. “But let’s be practical here. Moonless wolves are bound to lose a significant part of themselves after the rites are performed. It’s really going to be difficult for us to maintain our friendship the way it is if any of us turns out to be Moonless.”

His words felt like a bucket of cold water being poured over my efforts.

Even though what he said was the absolute truth, hearing it spoken aloud made my chest tighten painfully.

Moonless wolves never left the Severance Ceremony the same way they entered it. Something inside them changed forever. They lose a significant part of their senses, their instincts, and even parts of their identity.

Everyone knew it.

“Even so, we still have to show kindness,” I said quietly but firmly. “Even if the person cannot understand it or return it. And we don't even know if any of us will turn out Moonless. We might all turn out fine. Let’s try to be optimistic.”

Bree nodded almost immediately, her eyes lighting with a small spark of hope.

“Maybe there will not be any Moonless wolves in our year at all,” she said quickly, clinging to the possibility I had offered.

I opened my mouth, ready to add more encouragement and strengthen the fragile thread of optimism beginning to form between us.

But before I could speak another word, Claire let out a sharp scoff.

“Last year ten out of forty students turned out Moonless. The year before that there were twenty two. There has never been a single year without Moonless wolves. I don't think this year will be any different.”

Claire’s words fell heavily over the table, crushing the fragile hope Bree and I had tried to build just moments earlier. It was as if she had reached out with deliberate cruelty and snuffed out the small flicker of optimism before it even had the chance to grow.

“Instead of wasting our time hoping none of us will turn out Moonless, we should put that energy into enjoying the last moments we have as our free selves. Right now we are still just ourselves. Tomorrow we will have tags attached to our names and mates tied to our lives,” she added.

The moment she said it, something inside me twisted uncomfortably.

She had touched on a sensitive topic I had been trying my best to avoid for days.

Mates.

My entire mood darkened instantly, as if someone had pulled a curtain over the small amount of light I had been trying to hold on to. Becoming Moonless was terrifying enough on its own, but there was another possibility waiting on the other side of Moon Day that I hated just as much.

The idea of being bound to someone forever simply because the Moon God had decided it.

You would stand before everyone during the ceremony, the bond would snap into place, and suddenly you would belong to someone you had never chosen and might never even like.

The worst part was that once you were mated, it was permanent.

Forever meant forever.

Anyone who attempted to reject their fated mate faced unspeakable physical suffering and divine punishments said to come directly from the Moon God himself.

It was a lifelong prison disguised as destiny.

“Why is your face like that? Did I say something wrong?”Claire’s voice pulled me out of my spiraling thoughts.

“No, no. It's just that mate nonsense you reminded me of,” I replied quickly, forcing my features to relax as I tried to wipe the irritation from my face.

Stefan immediately nodded, his mouth twisting into a similar expression of disgust.

“Yeah. That stupid thing,” he said in agreement.

The look on his face mirrored mine almost perfectly, as he hated the concept just as much as I did.

Just then a subtle shift in the atmosphere of the dining hall caught my attention.

The most popular trio in our class walked past our table, and as usual they managed to steal the attention of nearly everyone in the room without even trying.

Three girls walked side by side with the easy confidence of people who had never once doubted their place in the world. Two of them were brunettes and the third was blonde, their hair styled perfectly as always. Their uniforms were immaculate, their posture straight, and their expressions filled with the kind of careless superiority that came from being born into power.

They were the daughters of highly placed members of society. Everyone knew who their parents were, and everyone knew the kind of influence those families carried.

They also had a reputation for being cruel to anyone who did not belong to their social circle.

Normally I ignored them completely. But for some reason that afternoon my eyes followed them longer than usual.

As they walked through the dining hall, laughing softly among themselves, they were the only ones who seemed completely untouched by the tension suffocating the rest of us. While everyone else looked nervous, anxious, or lost in thought, those three looked perfectly relaxed.

“If I didn't know better, I would think Moon Day only affects average people like us,” Claire whispered quietly beside me, rolling her eyes as she watched them take their seats at a nearby table. “Look at how unbothered they are.”

“I thought I was the only one who noticed,” I replied, finally dragging my gaze away from them the moment they settled down.

I did not bother lowering my voice. There was no need for that. I was not someone who could be easily bullied.

They had tried it once during our second year, thinking I would be just another student they could intimidate for their own amusement. The attempt had ended badly for them when I refused to back down.

Ever since that day they had chosen to avoid me entirely, treating me like a plague they had no interest in catching.

“They are only pretending to be brave,” Bree said bitterly. “It affects them just as much as it affects the rest of us. Bunch of meanies.”

The resentment in her voice was obvious. Bree had never liked them, and for good reason. Over the years she had been subjected to several unpleasant encounters with them, most of which involved cruel words and deliberate humiliation.

Before I could tell her to calm down and not let them get under her skin again, a sudden disturbance near the entrance of the dining hall drew everyone’s attention.

The Dean of Student Affairs walked in, his presence alone enough to silence a large portion of the room. Two other men followed closely behind him.

At his instruction, the men began moving several tables that were located at the far end of the hall. Students sitting there were asked to relocate to other areas, their confused murmurs filling the air as they gathered their trays and shuffled away.

Within minutes a wide empty space had been cleared between the grand staircase that led to the VIP section of the hall and the main entrance doors.

Then a long strip of red carpet was rolled out carefully across the floor, stretching from the entrance all the way to the base of the staircase.

The sudden activity transformed the dining hall into something that looked more like a ceremonial chamber than a place where students usually ate lunch.

I frowned slightly as realization began to dawn on me.

There could only be one reason for this kind of preparation.

Someone important was about to arrive.

More specifically, someone from the Royal House.

Before the thought had even fully settled in my mind, he walked in, accompanied by his best friend and two guards.

Evander Zach. The alpha to be of Blazing Moon Pack.

His dark hair was perfectly styled, his expression unreadable and cold, and his broad shoulders carried the unmistakable posture of someone who had been raised to command power.

Everything about him fit the image people expected from someone of his position.

He looked exactly the way someone born to rule usually did.

For the past year he had been taking private classes within Krisskrass Academy, though most students rarely saw him because his schedule was completely separate from ours. For the past two months he had been absent entirely, attending what the elders called preparation classes meant only for future Alphas.

Apparently those classes had ended.

“Stupid royals,” I muttered under my breath, lowering my voice so that no one else would hear the irritation in it.

But tell me why the very person I had been referring to suddenly paused in the middle of his walk, turned his head, and set his deadly gaze directly on me.