Vindicator

Prologue

Mate.

It's a word revered by many species, but there was a time when none revered it more than the werewolves. For a werewolf is only half of a whole until they find their mate.

The moon Goddess created two wolves from one soul, splitting the pieces into two individuals who were destined to find one another. As the world grew, and packs splintered off, distance began to pose a problem. Not only this, but some wolves chose to break away from pack life altogether and take up living alone. These wolves were known as rogues.

Rogues defied the natural order of werewolves. Pack animals thrived in pack life, so it stood to reason that they would fail and die on their own. Rather than simply fail, though, rogues lost their support structure and turned to their wild instincts. Their humanity was taken over by their wolf, and they became dangerous and unpredictable.

Rogues could be identified by their glowing red eyes, whether in wolf or human form. They also smelled of burning skin and fur, a representation of the physical and social bonds they forsook. This, mixed with the scent of their own rotting sanity, gave rogues a telltale stench. Werewolves of all ages were taught to identify this scent, and to have two reactions to it: fight or flight.

If you could kill the rogue, kill it with no questions asked. Otherwise, run and find someone who could.

This was an unspoken law that was universally followed. The beloved werewolves created by the moon Goddess became their own number one enemy, and it broke her heart.

Werewolves whose mates were rogues were forced to reject the other half of their soul, or worse still — to kill them. This lead to many wolves doubting whether their mate was real or not; it lead to mates not waiting for each other. The mate bond, once sacred and revered, became almost a myth.

The exception was in the powerful bloodlines of royals and Alphas. Unlike all other wolves, there was power passed down through the bloodlines of Alphas. For a werewolf to reach his or her true potential, they would need to find their other half. A pack was only as powerful as its Alpha, and so it was expected that Alphas would stop at nothing to find their pre-destined mates; their Lunas.

This went doubly for the royal family. The King of all werewolves was the Alpha of the Alphas. To ensure the strength of all were kind, he had no choice but to find his mate. The throne could not be passed on to a new king until he had found and mated with his Queen.

Thanks to their longer lifespan, werewolves remained youthful beyond the lifetime of a human. This afforded them ample time to find their mates and produce offspring. Oftentimes this meant that families with 3 and 4 children were considered small, and an only child was nearly unheard of. The exception was in the Royal and Alpha blood.

To ensure that there was no fighting for power within families, the moon goddess saw to it that those of Royal and Alpha blood would only ever have a single child, who would always be male. The only exception to this rule came if the child were to die before coming into his title of Alpha. If the parents survived, they could produce a new heir; however, if not, their bloodline was wiped from the Earth.

While this may seem absurd, it was the moon Goddess' way of ensuring power remained within her creations. She was aware of potential for war with other creatures, and sadly had to admit it was even possible within her own kind. She watched in distress and agony as her beloved creatures killed off powerful packs who were meant to be allied together. She wept as mates killed mates who had gone rogue. Sorrow ate at her when her children rejected their other half for another, defying natural order.

Despite her distress over the shortcomings of her children, she accepted that she had to let them find their own way. Until one day, a trend so unnatural began that she went beyond sadness and distress, and her heart hardened in anger. Incapable of hating her own creations, she had never been closer than when she saw a mate force his other half to bear the pain of his infidelity.

You see, while pain and sorrow were sure to follow a werewolf who had to kill his own rogue mate, he would at least be able to seek comfort in another. And while a rejected wolf would feel broken at the time, it was possible for her to accept the rejection and mend herself with the love of someone new. Once mated, though, a werewolf should have eyes for nobody but its other half.

To mate and mark one's pre-destined mate was the greatest gift that the Moon Goddess could bestow upon a werewolf. To turn from one's mate, and have physical intimacy with another was akin to torture of the cruelest kind. It defied all logic, and went against the very nature that the Moon Goddess had imbued into her wolves.

After seeing that this trauma was not an isolated case, and that it had happened multiple times throughout history, she made up her mind. The werewolves needed to experience change, and while she couldn't bring herself to punish the entire race for the shortcomings of a few, she also knew she couldn't let this continue. And so she made a change, but just a simple one...This is the story of that change.