AN; Well turns out I am not an online learner, so I have just deferred grad school for a year. So join me on this adventure, while I lose myself in this world. Actually, why don't we all just come and lose ourselves in this story? Enjoy!

———————————————————-
If the first eight years of my life hadn't been taken, I wondered what I would have remembered from them. Would I have remembered a favorite toy? What about what used to scared me, or what it was like to feel safe?

"Aurelia," I looked up to see Annie walking towards me across the white and red checkered floors. Can you take that table?" she jerked her curly blond head towards a group of boys sitting in one of the diner's mint green booths. I recognized some of group as seniors from the high school I had been allowed to attend this year.

Outside the large windows of the cafe, the sun had retired to the horizon, and snowflakes were beginning to drift down from the sky. This would be my last table before I would have to return to Pine Ridge for the night.

I adjusted my short white and red striped skirt and tight white button-down top.

I stopped at the booth and my nose was aster with the strong smell of alcohol. Still, I forced a smile onto my face. "Hi, my name is Aurelia, I'll be your waitress today. Can I take your order?"

One of the boys at the edge of the booth, a pale boy with blonde hair looked up at me in a drunken daze. "Yeah sure, we'll have an order of chili cheese fries, extra-large, and my virginity."

The boys around him instantly erupted into a chorus of laughter. I stared down coldly at the boy, who instantly turned red under my gaze.

"Sorry," he mumbled and turned his eyes down. "It was a dare, I lost a bet..."

"Anything else?" I asked, with the hope the answer was no.

"Yeah actually one more thing," a muscular boy, sitting on the other end of the booth said. He picked up one of the menus laying on the white table. "Where are the milkshake flavors listed?"

I stepped closer to him and tapped my finger against the lamented surface. "All the flavors are-"

"Sorry, I also lost a bet," the boy whispered. The red and white fabric of my skirt stirred while the boy's fingers sailed through the air.

I caught his hand a centimeter away from my rear end.

I gave his hand a squeeze and the boy's fingers crunched under my grip.  He let out a gasp of pain and the table grew silent. I released the boy and he withdrew his hand and cradled it close to his chest.

"She-she just broke my fingers... I think..!?"

I hadn't although I felt like it.

All the boys turned to start up at me with wide eyes.

I stared down at them, my face hiding my boiling anger under my passive expression.

I placed my palms flat on the smooth clean surface of the table, and my brown ponytail slipped over the side of my shoulder while I leaned over their table.

"Anything else ?" I repeated although the phrase now held a different meaning.

The boys exchanged wide-eyed looks with each other before they got up and scampered out the door.

Before the door swung shut behind them I heard one of the boys say, "I told you, people from Pine Ridge are freaks!"

I turned to see Annie standing behind the counter of the soda bar, trying to hide her giggles beneath her hand. Her blue eyes glistened with laughter. I joined her there and chose to ignore the stares I was getting from the other customers.

"I'm sorry Aurelia that was too funny, you really sent them running. You Pine Ridge girls are no joke though.....Hey are you doing anything tonight I'm having a bonfire, you should come!"

Annie was a grade above me. She was from Schyukill, the human town down the mountain from Pine Ridge, and the place I attended high school. Anyone that lived in Pine Ridge knew the rumors that bounced around that town about us. Rumors that we were a cult, that we were a bunch of inbreed hill billies or a secret society. What we really were was far beyond their imagination. I wondered if she was inviting me to finally figure out what we did up on top of our mountain. I was probably the first person from Pine Ridge she had spoken to. In the past, mixing with humans was strongly discouraged unless it was necessary and that sentiment still remained along many of its members.

"I can't, I have to be back in Pine Ridge. There's an event going on. I have to go to."

"What kind of event?"I could see curiosity sparkling in her eyes.

I said too much.

Right on cue, I saw a green truck roll into the gravel parking lot of the dinner through the dinner's giant windows in the front.

I couldn't see who was driving, but it was usually Richard who picked me up from the dinner, so I just assumed it was him.

"I have to go. See you next shift?" I called while I hurried to the room in the back where the staff kept our stuff. I grabbed my navy blue parka and hurried out into the parking lot and towards the truck.

I opened the door and sure enough, Richard's dark beard and intense dark eyes greeted me. I liked him because he wasn't much of a talker and he was kind to me.

"We are late," he said the second I climbed into the seat.

"What!?"

"I was supposed to pick you up at 6, not 7. Don't get worried, not my fault, not yours. I was told the wrong time."

"Okay," I said trying to steady my voice so he couldn't hear how upset the news had made me.

No big deal, I was just going to be late for the biggest night of my life.

We spent the rest of the 15-minute car ride in blissful silence, even as we drove through two stone pillars guarded by two large stone griffins, that stood at the entrance to Pine Ridge.

To someone who has never been here, you would think that you could just walk in without anyone noticing. Little did they know at least two dozen eyes watched from the thick pine trees, that had given Pine Ridge its name, at any given time. And since this was not just any given day, I was positive there were many more. If the numerous DO NOT ENTER PRIVATE PROPERTY signs did not discourage outsiders from entering, the numerous enchants and the guards did.

We drove past an endless amount of log cabins along the road, some big, some small, but all had lanterns lit on their front lawns. Even the houses that looked dark and deserted.

Instead of the end of the dirt road he usually dropped me off at the very edge of the pack's land, Richard drove up to a stone wall divided down its center by a black iron fence and stopped the truck. Beyond the black metal bars, a log mansion, the Alpha's mansion, stood four stories high. Its large Pentagon window and the numerous tinny windows glowed yellow against the darkening sky. The bare branches of the three massive white oak that lined the long lawn, broken only by the long black narrow road the divides the lawn in half, were adorned with hundreds of lanterns, which cast rainbow light onto the snow.

Richard leaned out his window and pressed a button on the side of the wall. "I'm here to drop off number 23."

Twenty-three was the number that was assigned me when I had been dumped here after having my memories erased. This had happened, most likely, soon after my parents had discovered I was a Lunera. Aurelia was the name I had chosen for myself.

After a couple of moments, the gates began to swing open, until there was a space wide enough for Richard to get through in his truck.

Once we reached the front of the mansion, he killed the engine. He turned to me in the driver seat his dark eyes evaluating me in the fading light outside.

"I have something to say.." he paused and I nodded my head for him to continue.

"You can really accomplish something tonight, help all the Lunrea like you. My son was a Lunrea and every-time I wake up in the morning, I regret giving him up. All I wish for him now is that he lives a good life, and right now, no Lunera is living a good life."

I stared at him in shock. One, I had never heard him say more than one sentence at a time. And two, it was very shameful to admit that a Lunera had been born into your family. If people knew, your bloodline could be seen as being impure. A child that could not change under the rays of the moon was not something you normally wanted the world to know about."

"Oh okay," I replied softly not knowing what else to say, while I fumbled with the handle on the door. I wanted to be out of this truck in the worst way. I almost fell out onto the snow cover ground when the car door was yanked open.

My nails dug into the leather seat behind me, while I tried to steady myself. I found myself staring at the golden eyes and shaved head of Conner Crawswall and my heart sank. He was not one of the good ones.

"We need to hurry, the Alphas are going to start arriving soon! "

"Alright," I let him help me out of the car and he slammed the door shut behind me. The roar of Richard's engine filled my ears as he drove away. I looked up at Connor. Connor towered over me by a good 8 inches. I was very small, even by Lunera standards.

Connor, dressed in a suit and tie, walked me to the bottom of the many stairs leading up to the two main doors that lead inside the mansion. Before he reached the first step, he grabbed the back of my Parka and yanked me back so I was facing him.

He leaned in close to my ear. "You know, you are pretty and that's why they chose you for this. I know they are trying to make you think it is because you are smart. It's cruel the games they play with Lunera. But still, try to enjoy yourself tonight ."

At that moment I wanted to spit into his face but I restrained myself.

"Yes sir," I replied. "

"Good," Conner began to climb the steps and I followed after him. We reached the top of the steps and Conner swung the door open and we stepped into the Alpha's mansion.

I had been in the Alpha's places many times. I and the other Lunera came to clean at least once a week every Sunday. I had never been inside when big events were going on, and I marveled how pretty the double staircase at the entrance looked wrapped up in garland and ribbons. Besides the staircase, a huge Christmas tree decorated with tinsel and blue and silver Christmas bulbs reached high into the wooden rafters way above our heads. We didn't celebrate many human events at Pine Ridge, but one we did celebrate was Christmas. Or at least the wolves did.

"What took her so long to get here!?" A furious-looking, red-headed woman stormed towards us, her heels clicked furiously on the wooden floor. I had seen her around before, but I did not know her name.

"Someone told Richard the wrong time."

"Get her up to the Alpha's office. Now!"

Conner folded his muscular arms across his chest. "You do it, I have to go over the Alpha's speech with him in the next 5 minutes. I brought her in, didn't I?"

"Well, I have to make sure ten centerpieces are completed within the next 20 minutes!" she retorted.

"It's okay, I know where the Alpha's office is. I can take myself there."

"Fine with me!" the women yelled and stormed off.

Conner glared after the woman and then looked at me.

"What are you waiting for? Go!" He bellowed.

I nodded, my white tennis shoes skipping two steps at a time as I galloped up the double wooden staircase.

When I reached the balcony at the top of the steps, I turned right and began to hurry down the red-carpeted floor. My destination was the black door at the end of the wood-paneled hallway where the Alpha of Pine Ridge liked to conduct his business.

"Hello?"

Something about the voice made me stop in my tracks. I was right in front of, Grayson Pine's room, the Alpha's son, room. He was rarely in Pine Ridge and spent most of his time traveling around the world studying magic. I had never actually seen him, I just know of his existence.

"Yes," I answered.

"Can you tie a tie?"

"Yeah but-"

"I need help. You will have the gratitude of the future Alpha of Pine Ridge. Don't make me order you."

"Okay," I replied, knowing I had little choice, and opened the door.

The room was big with ornate red rugs covering the floor. Two large armoires stood against the wall on the right side of the room. There was an elaborate-looking desk pushed against the wall furthest from me, and to the right stood a canopy bed.

On that canopy bed sat a boy with his back turned away from me. He had blonde hair, but besides that, I couldn't see any other features. He was dressed in a black suit and he was fidgeting with something around his neck, I presumed it was a tie.

The room was dark besides a stream of light coming from the open door of a bathroom that was connected to the room.

"Don't just stand there, get over here before I strangle myself!"

"Yes master Grayson," I replied. I walked across the room, and around the side of the bed to where he sat.

Sure enough, he held a red silk tie in his hands that he was struggling to unknot. He didn't look up from his work, even as I stood directly in front of him. If I let him continue to struggle with that knot, I would be here forever.

"Um let me just.." I reached forward and his head jerked up. His brown eyes locked with mine and they turned to gold.

"Mate!" he growled.