Ella’s Pov:
Coffee, that was the first thing I smelled before I opened my eyes. It was still a bit dark outside, and the clock by my dresser blinked 5 a.m. I hate mornings like this because I know she’s awake and already working. Mother Ruby Silvers was the best omega, diligent to a fault and an early riser. But this… 5 a.m.? This was too early even for her. She never started her duties before 7 a.m. I sighed, knowing that something might be wrong. There’s always something wrong. Or maybe the Luna has important guests. I slowly clawed out of my bed and towards that damned smell and opened the door, my eyes hazy with lost sleep.
She was crying. Mum had been crying. Her face was flushed, and she had stood up as soon as she saw me, but the evidence was there: her red eyes, her flushed appearance. And then it hit me. Of course it’s today. How could I forget? Every year this happens. Every year she’d cry constantly, mourning her mate, my father. I was only six when he died. I don’t remember him. I wish I did, but I have few memories of the man. Maybe that’s why I can’t mourn for him the way she does. But he was her mate. She had lost her mate so early in life. I felt the guilt rise inside of me. I’d been so occupied with graduation and finals that I forgot what today was.
I walked towards her and sat next to her, not showing that I know. She doesn’t like me knowing that she’s been crying. “Morning, Mum,” I say as I take an apple, and she begins opening the fridge, taking out her ingredients. I sat there while she hummed and walked about the kitchen. Ruby Silvers loved her job as the Luna’s Personal Omega.
For some in the pack, it might feel like too low of a position, but not to her. No, she loved it. She loved cooking and helping people. She was kind and loved. When Father died, she decided to move back to the Blood Cave Pack, ‘A fresh start,’ she had said. She doesn’t talk about that moment in time. It's almost like it never existed, like we hadn’t lived in another pack before or that my father ever existed. Only once did she dare to remember, and that was because the pain was too much on the day, today, his death, when the ghosts of her past haunt her. I stopped asking a long time ago when she screamed at me to stop. When she held me, tears in her eyes, screaming, “Stop it! Stop it, Ella, he’s dead! Let him go, just let him go!” I was ten, but I knew she wasn’t talking to me. Now I just hold her and make her happy as much as I can.
“So why exactly did the Luna want you up this early?”
“Umm… Well, honey, she just wanted to get a head start on the welcome home party for umm… Adam. You know how the Luna is she always wants the best. There will be so many people attending this time. She invited other packs as well, so lots to do. Honey, I…” She looked at me, and I could see the pity etched into her features, the blue eyes staring at me like I’m a damned woman. "No, no, it’s fine. Mum, I’m fine. It’s fine," I lie. I felt my wolf Astoria pace inside of me. She was restless. She hardly ever talked. She didn’t have to. I felt it, the sadness, anger, self-loathing. I’m grateful to have her, though. They had considered me wolf less until I shifted at 17 years old. It was late, a rare thing, truly.
All wolves at sixteen, some alpha pups when they were 14. There was never a delay ever. But I was the exception. “Listen to me, Ella, don’t ever shift in front of anyone ever. Do you hear me? Please, just listen to me,” my Mum said the day I shifted. “I don’t want to lose you too.” Astoria was white, pure white with the most beautiful blue eyes, so beautiful yet so rare. My mother told me tales of hunters and how some pack members would easily sell me off if they knew the truth, if they knew the truth of what I was. Astoria never complained about being hidden away, despite for grunts and sighs. She was so quiet. But I can’t help but think that she’s truly mad at me, that she was mad that I fell in love with someone who I don’t even know if he’s my mate. Adam was gone. He’d left for Alpha training two years ago.
"Honey… okay, okay, you’re fine. Ella, honey, but you should know that Luna said… she—well, Adam will be taking a Luna when he comes back. that's part of the requirements for taking the Alpha title needs.”
Ruby’s Pov