The Twelfth Moon || ✔️

3. The Central Building

Four more nights passed, each blessing our skies with a Moon shining brighter every time she appeared. Benjamin had been able to slip me some bread here and there and this morning he'd given me another broth. Beckett thankfully seemed to be busy doing whatever he needed to that kept him in the Central Building. Save for if he'd walk in for a regular beer, the odds of Beckett walking into the Dancing Wolf had been very slim the last days.

That also gave me some peace and some time to start preparing for my Ascension. The only problem was, I had no idea how to prepare. I didn't know what was expected of me, or even how I was supposed to reach the Castle. My letter stated that further instructions would be given by my Alpha, but I had heard nothing yet. With the Death Moon dangerously closing in, I was running out of time to figure it all out.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands. I grabbed my worn-out jacket my mother had left behind, walked out, and headed towards the Central Building, where Beckett was supposed to reside. I hadn't seen it ever since that day when Beckett murdered my family. I had always avoided it, taking detours to not come near it. The humans stayed away from it too, sensing the dangers that hid behind the walls. But as I finally arrived, the building hadn't changed at all since the last time I saw it. I didn't know why a small part of me expected it too--my life seemed to have been the only thing that changed that day.

I stopped in my tracks as the building came into view. It was huge, perhaps even castle-like. I had never seen a castle with my own eyes, but it couldn't be much bigger than this. I supposed it had to be this immensely large, since all the important pack wolves lived here. The outcasts, like me, were left to fend for our own in the streets. Most still lived comfortably in the town, but very few had been assigned to the slums, the bottom of the pyramid.

I remembered the first house my parents and I lived in, near the edge of the town. I had my own room and there were no holes in our roof. We lived comfortably, but when Beckett started meddling in our business, it didn't take very long for our savings to be gone. We fell into poverty and could no longer afford our house in the good part of town. We were forced to reside in the little house I still called home now, and I spent the majority of my life there. But in comparison to life here, in the Central Building, even our first house seemed too small, charming as it was.

It was surrounded by a wall--not too high so the marvels of the building were still very much visible, but just high enough to be too challenging for intruders to climb over without a second thought. The walls were briefly separated by the large gates, made of a metal I couldn't name. The gates were decorated with all kinds of swirls and patterns, and on each side stood a wolf guarding it. No doubt making sure trash like me did not find its way in.

But today, I had to.

I made for the gate, getting a clearer view of the building with each step I took. It was made of a reddish brown stone, honoring the colors of our Fire Moon. The entirety of the walls was laced with ivy that was well tended to, growing wild, but controlled. It had two towers on each side, patterned with little windows and ending in pointy roofs. Between the gates and the building itself waited a gigantic square. It was on this square the challenging happened eight years ago.

The place where my parents died was now right before me. I was close enough to recognize the bush I'd stood next to, and the trees that hid behind me. I swallowed the memories away, trying to keep my anger and my grief from consuming me. This was not why I came here today.

As I reached the gate, I addressed the two wolves guarding it. "I need to speak with the Alpha," I exclaimed. Straight to the point, demanding. Perhaps not the best way to go, but my pride hindered me from coming to them as a begging woman.