The Wolf and the Natural ✔️

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"What is wrong with you two?" Melloni scolded, looking as though she was going to hit me.

We were back at the daycare. I was sitting at the table I was sitting at when I first got to the pack, the first time I met Melloni and Iris.

Iris closed her eyes and folded her hands together, her elbows resting on the table.

I was silent. I normally liked the silence, but now? Now... I hated it. I hated the weight on my shoulders.

"Two of our people were burned alive. Their children are scared. The pack is scared. Shoot, I'm scared." Melloni rubbed her face and pointed a harsh finger at me. "Jonah just told me what you are. A human. You come into this world and—"

"I didn't decide that, OKAY!?" I stand up, the action so quick that my chair fell behind me in an embarrassing crash. "I didn't decide to be here!" My chest was rising and falling to my heavy breathing. "I begged Arlis to let me go home but he—"

"You come into this world and act like you're not meant to be here." Melloni looked me dead in the eyes as she said this, her persona burning with anger. "Arlis is... he's a great person. He will risk his life to help people he doesn't even know. But he isn't right all the time. You should tell the pack because they deserve to know. Nobody would think any different about you. We don't think differently about Gracie."

Iris calmly picked my chair back up and patted it lightly with her left hand. "Sit down sweetheart. We need to have a talk"

I did as I was told. I sat down, feeling smaller than I ever had before. Nothing good ever came out of Iris's little "talks".

Melloni snapped her eyes to Iris before leaning forward, her arms clenching the side of the table. "You and Arlis were arguing at that terrible time. I get you don't want to be Luna, but human or not, you can't deny that you're meant to be here. I've known something was wrong with you the moment I met you. And I finally found it, you can't accept that you're supposed to be here so you're awkward and cling to Arlis."

I gulped and sunk in my chair, not meeting her eyes. Who was I fooling? Apparently nobody but myself. I was a human. I was a weak human in a werewolves' world.

"Why don't you be Luna?" I ask, looking up at her. "You say it's because you don't want to be but obviously you do. You're good at it. Jonah wants to be Alpha. How come you don't take the job?" I was asking because maybe I can work off her answer. "Because you don't want to be? Exactly. You think I wanted to leave my life behind and become... this?"

Iris began crying softly, her thumbs covering her eyes. Soft tears caressed her faced and fell onto the table, creating little drops of sadness.

Melloni took a step back and put her hands behind her head. She gestured to the room we were in, and spun in a circle. She dropped her hands, a look of hurt on her face. "Lunas have to be able to bear a child. Beta wives do to. That's why Jonah isn't Beta and we never took the position from Arlis. At times Jonah thought of doing it anyways and adopting a small child after being away for like... ten months. But I said no, because I believe in blood lines to the Alpha's throne. I—" her voice broke. "I love kids. And that's why I work here. It is an honor to be Luna. And to see you and Arlis desecrate that position... it hurts. You haven't told the Pack the truth. Ninety percent of them didn't even know Konrad was back. You don't know anything about werewolves or how we run. To see you toss the Luna's position in the dirt because you think you weren't supposed to be here is painful."

I looked over at Iris, who was giving me a sad look. "She's right, Kadelyn."

I felt ashamed but also defensive. I knew they were right in some ways, but they had to look at this from my point of view. "How am I desecrating it? I'm trying, I really am. It's not my fault I don't know anything." So why did I feel so bad? Why are her words hitting me where it hurt?