The Starlit Wolf

The houses stood in one of the most beautiful places Sage had ever seen.

From the back porch, she could see a big lake, which was surrounded by mountains and trees. The rising sun cast a beautiful glow on the mountains just as the animals were waking up.

After the Beta had welcomed her, Rick showed her to her room. It was just like her old room back home.

The wooden floor was dark, and the furniture was a beautiful whitewashed color. The walls were white with blue accents on the accessories.

She had a balcony that looked over the same scenery as the back porch, and large windows so she could see the stars.

She had taken a bath, changed into her long black pajama pants and a gray short-sleeved crop top, and gone to bed.

But after she had woken up screaming for the third time, she had given up on sleeping.

She went downstairs and sat on the porch to look at the stars. It was early summer, so it was nice out.

When she started to feel a pain in her back from the wood, Sage stood and stretched. The doors of the other pack houses opened, and wolves began to set up the large tables. For breakfast, she supposed.

Sage crossed her arms and walked toward the lake. She knew they were watching her, but she didn’t care. A breeze went through her hair, and she got goosebumps when her feet touched the water.

Ever since her dad had taught her how to fight barefoot, she had loved it. She did wear shoes, but when she could, she would walk barefoot.

A tear fell in the water at the thought of the time her father had taught her how to fight.

Because she was human, he wanted her to be able to defend herself.

She learned hand-to-hand combat and mastered almost every weapon, from gun to sword. Her favorite weapon was a bow and arrow.

She mastered it almost instantly, and when she turned nineteen, a few months ago, she got a black recurve bow with a midnight blue handle and black and blue arrows with white feathers.

It was one of the first things she grabbed when they were packing to leave.

Sage sighed and looked at the mountains. Everybody was waking up, and she could hear pups playing behind her.

She turned around and saw a lot of wolves looking at her. She felt her cheeks redden.

With her head low, she started walking back toward the house.

“Sage!”

Sage looked up and saw Juliet running toward her. A smile appeared as Juliet clashed against her and hugged her legs. Sage crouched down and hugged her tight.

“Morning, Beta.”

Juliet gave her a million-dollar smile. “Morning, Star.”

Sage chuckled at the new nickname.

“Did you sleep well?”

Sage hesitated at her question. “Yeah, I did,” she lied.

Juliet narrowed her eyes at her. “You know a wolf can sense when you’re lying. Your heart beats faster if you do.”

Sage chuckled again. “I know.”

“Stargazer!” Romeo shouted from the pack house. Sage grimaced as she saw every wolf look at him and then at her. He ran toward her.

Juliet slowly moved away from her while trying not to be noticed. Sage noticed anyway.

She locked eyes with Romeo. His eyes held the same mischievous look as Elijah’s had the other day. Romeo’s stance went from loose to fight in an instant.

“Dammit,” she whispered to herself.

When he was close, she quickly got up and evaded his attack. Wolves were starting to surround them and Juliet ran toward her mother.

“Seriously, Romeo?”

He cracked his neck and got ready again. “What? You have to know you’re back with me, don’t you?”

Sage remembered all the times they’d sparred with each other. They always kept each other on their toes and attacked at every moment they saw the chance.

She snorted and cracked her fingers. “I already know you, idiot.”

Wolves gasped and Romeo smirked as he saw her shocked face. “Apologies, Beta’s son,” he said, snorting at her change of attitude.

“No, just talk to me like you always do. I get enough of that crap from others.”

She heard a snort from behind her. Edward smiled and shook his head.

While she was looking at him, she felt the air shift around her. Romeo attacked again.

Before he could hit her, she grabbed his wrist in one firm grip and squeezed. Romeo hissed a little.

“Remember who taught me how to fight, Romeo.” She yanked his arm and as he stumbled forward, she kicked his stomach.

He groaned loudly.

Sage released his arm. “Come on, Romeo. Don’t let a human girl beat you,” she teased.

He reacted quickly and wrapped his arms around her chest. She groaned as he tried to cut off her air supply. Sage grabbed his arms and pulled herself off of the ground.

“Fuck!” Romeo yelled as she landed back on the ground and threw him over her back and onto the ground.

Romeo landed hard, but before she could pull away, he pulled her on top of him. Romeo grinned and winked at her.

He rolled them over and Sage lay on the ground with Romeo on top of her. The wolves around them started cheering.

She smirked. It wasn’t over yet.

With all her strength, she threw her legs up and wrapped them around his neck. The cheering immediately stopped.

She pushed him to the ground and twisted his wrist out of its socket. Romeo screamed and tapped the ground. Wolves growled around them.

“Stop! She has done worse to me. Get used to this,” he told them.

Sage released her grip on him. He got up and snapped his wrist back into place. The sound made her grimace.

“You haven’t been slacking off.” He reached out a hand to her and helped her up.

“Who taught you how to fight like that?” Rachel walked over to her.

“I’ve never seen a human beat a wolf,” another wolf stated.

Sage snorted. “One, he was holding back. If any of you come at me at full strength, when I don’t have a weapon, I will never win. Two, my father taught me.”

Rachel gave her a small smile.

“You always were his best student.” A proud Rick walked into the circle and gave her a wink.

“No, you always were. You are the only one he ever trained that I couldn’t beat,” Sage countered.

Every time she saw her uncle, she had tried to beat him, but he always bested her. No matter which moves she tried, he always saw it coming.

“You wanna?” he said with a smirk.

Sage crossed her arms. “You’re challenging me?”

He shrugged. “I haven’t fought against someone who gave me a challenge in a long time. It would be nice to work for the win every once in a while.”

She heard a growl. Must be one of the warriors he’s beaten.

“Fine,” Sage said, shrugging.

“Good, after breakfast, at the training grounds.”

She gave him a small nod.

Juliet ran toward her again. “That was so awesome, Star!”

“You never disappoint, cousin.” Elijah also walked over to her.

“Thanks, you guys,” Romeo said sarcastically. Elijah gave Romeo a deep kiss.

“Get a room!” Iliza yelled at them.

“We have one,” Elijah countered.

“Then use it,” Jessica countered back.

“At least we can use it,” Romeo said with a smirk. Jessica fumed and walked off with Iliza. Sage snorted as she looked at her sisters.

“I definitely feel sorry for the two males who are their mates,” Elijah said as he looked at the two sisters.

“Maybe they are bad males and they deserve it. You never know what the gods have planned.”

Elijah snorted at her comment. “I hope so.”

“You really love your sisters, don’t you?”

Sage looked at Edward.

“Trust me, Beta. You’ll come to know why we have a love-hate relationship with them,” Elijah answered.

Romeo put an arm over the shoulders of Sage and his mate. “Let’s not worry about it now, let’s eat!” He pushed them toward the table of the Wolf Moon pack.

Sage gulped and ducked out from under his arm. Everyone looked at her in surprise.

“You guys go ahead. I’m going to take a shower.”

Elijah and Romeo looked at each other.

“What’s wrong, Sage?” Elijah asked.

“Nothing, I just…”

Juliet narrowed her eyes at her lie.

Sage sighed. “It’s too soon,” she finally told them.

In her pack, breakfast time was always a happy gathering. Sitting down and having breakfast with another would just bring back memories.

They nodded. “We’ll see you at the fight.”

She smiled at Elijah and mouthed a thank you, then walked toward the house.

Once in her room, she immediately went to the bathroom and filled the bathtub. After a long bath, she changed into black leggings, a black sports bra, and a blue tank top.

She tied her hair in a high ponytail and walked out barefoot.

Breakfast had ended and as she walked toward the training grounds with Romeo and Elijah, she saw a lot of wolves gathering to see the fight.

“How many wolves did Rick beat?” She looked up at Romeo.

“All of them,” Sage said with a snort. “Of course he did,” she whispered to herself.

They entered the training grounds. Edward and Rick were talking in the middle and wolves stood around them in a big circle to observe.

They all had come to see if the new girl could beat the best fighter.

Rick looked up at her and smiled. “Knock him out, Stargazer,” Romeo whispered to her.

She gave him a wink and walked into the circle.

“Okay, we don’t want anyone to get severely hurt.” Edward made eye contact with her. She rolled her eyes at him. “So, think about who you are fighting.” He looked at Rick.

He snorted.

“Beta, this isn’t the first time we fought.” Edward sighed.

“I know, Rick, but I still need to warn you.” Rick nodded.

Edward walked toward the circle. Rick started to walk around her slowly.

“So,” he started, “sucks to be you.”

What was he doing?

Sage never lost eye contact with him.

“Born human from two wolves who never even told you your entire name, growing up without the awesome experiences we wolves enjoy, losing your pack like that…”

Sage froze.

“…finding your parents killed and hung up as trophies.”

She balled her hand into a fist at his comment. “What the fuck are you doing?” she asked through gritted teeth.

“Breaking you.” As he said that, he attacked.

Sage reacted fast, but not fast enough. Rick kicked her stomach and she flew a little through the air. As she landed on the ground, she groaned.

Sage rolled onto her side. A pain went through her side and she immediately knew she had a few bruised ribs.

“Ever feel guilty?” Rick continued. She looked up at him. “Guilty that you weren’t there to help them?”

She balled her hands into fists again.

“That you could have maybe saved a few?”

“Dad…,” Elijah started, but Rick cut him off with one look. Elijah held his mouth shut.

Sage got up and tried to keep her cool, but his provoking wasn’t helping. She locked eyes with Rick again.

“You weren’t there to help them. You failed them.”

A tear rolled down her cheek.

Rick took that as a sign and attacked again. Sage blocked his punch.

She grabbed his wrist, jumped over him, by using his arm, and turned his arm around his back. Rick turned with it. He pulled his arm loose and placed his arm around her neck. She struggled to get free.

“I bet your parents were screaming for you when they died. Begging you to come and help them. Where were you?”

Another tear ran down her cheek as she felt rage start to grow inside of her.

“Where were you, Sage?” he asked again. “Why didn’t you listen to their screams? Why did you choose that day to leave the pack to fend for themselves?”

The rage was still building up and she closed her focus to try to keep calm.

“You could have helped them.”

Sage let her rage take over and elbowed his ribs with all the strength she had. Rick groaned and his grip weakened. She pulled his arm away.

She went to kick him, but he caught her leg and threw her on her back on the ground. She kneed his junk with her other leg. He fell to the ground. She got on top of him and started punching his face.

After three punches, he grabbed her wrists. Sage groaned as he pushed her to the ground. She threw her legs up again, but Rick bent too far forward for her to grab him.

He grabbed both of her wrists in one hand and gave one hard punch against her ribs. She screamed and stopped fighting. Tears fell down her cheek as she cried softly. Rick loosened his grip.

“Sage, there was nothing you could have done. The Gang was too powerful. Even if you’d been there, they would have won,” Rick said.

“Why?” was all she could ask. Why would he say those things to her?

“I needed to break you.” He pulled her up, and she groaned due to the pain her ribs caused. Hopefully, none of them were broken.

“You walked away from breakfast because you didn’t want to be reminded about your pack.

“You can’t sleep at night because you see the images the Gang left for you, and you are trying to shut out your own pain so no one would see you are hurting.

“Things like this aren’t something you need to ignore. You need to go through it, and only then can you become yourself again.”

Tears rolled down her cheek. He hugged her.

“I’m sorry, Sage, but I needed you to let go.”