The Aurelia⎪✓

Prologue

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"Please tell me you're joking, please." I pleaded my crying parents, the tears were welling up in my eyes as the itching began in my nose. This couldn't be real, they'd promised me that this day would never come.

My mom grabbed my shoulders, her blue eyes very guilt-ridden and the thick teardrops caressing her cheeks. "We're so sorry, baby. So incredibly sorry. But we can't have you here anymore, we can't hide you from a possible soulmate, we owe you a chance to have a life."

My eyes looked around the living room of my childhood home, this was where we'd been hiding for the past 10 years since our entire pack was killed by werewolves. This room held so many memories, from the pictures of us hanging on the walls, our smiles so big it almost hurt to look at, to the way mom always had a specific way of placing the pillows on the couch. This couldn't be my reality. I knew that werewolves didn't like our kind and had decided to kill my family. The three of us were the only survivors of that attack, and my parents had promised me not to let go of me, ever. So I really didn't understand where this was coming from all of a sudden. 

"Dad?" I questioned and looked at him with an honest plea in my eyes, he couldn't even meet my eyes as he shook his head, his long hair moving with him. 

"Honey, we can't do anything, this is our decision and I know the Moon Goddess would want things to be like this." He mumbled under his breath. This couldn't be true, they couldn't do this to their own daughter. 

"You know I can't survive out there, do you wish me dead?" I knew it was a low blow, but the frustration and anger were swirling full force through my body. This seemed like a harsh nightmare and I was desperately clinging to the sliver of hope that I'd wake up soon enough. 

My mom's mouth opened in shock by my words, "Of course not, Aspen. We wish for you to have a happy and fulfilling life. We love you."

Seeing this scene from out of my body was scary, my hunched body with tears streaming down my face, the comfortable clothes I was wearing since I'd been ready for a nice night with my parents. Speaking of them, they were holding hands and looking painfully restricted, not knowing whether to console me or let me be. My weight was suddenly too much for my knees, as I dropped down on the floor onto the soft carpet. The pain was stabbing through my heart like an oncoming hurricane, I started gasping for breath. 

This couldn't be real, please let me wake up, please let me wake up, please let me wake up. 

"This is real, honey. We need to prioritize your future over everything, you're eighteen now and ready to find your mate." My dad explained, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder as he got down on the floor next to me. 

"Stop with the lying, father. You're not prioritizing my future, you're gambling with it. We all know that my mate might very well be dead, you know as well as I do that Aurelias like us, don't mingle with the werewolves." I spat at him, anger reaching every part of my body, burning in my fingertips. 

As my mother sat down in front of me, I tried not to roll my eyes by their sudden need to comfort me, "You're an Aurelia, yes. But that doesn't mean that your mate has to be one, I feel like the Moon Goddess has other plans for you dear. You need to go out there and you need to hide from dangerous people. Don't show them your fur, don't show them your powers. Trust no one, but believe us when we say that we really do love you."

The facts started catching up to me as I crawled away from my parents, the people I'd spent my entire life adoring. They had been here through everything and I trusted them with every bone in my body, but there you had it, when everything came down to it, you really couldn't trust anyone. Not even your own family. 

Grabbing a jacket and the bag they'd packed behind my back, I opened the door and took a deep breath, knowing that I now was leaving the one true place I could call home. This was my childhood, my family, my heart. But everything must come to an end and this was the end for my safety. 

Turning around and placing my chin proudly in the air, I saw my parents still on the floor embracing each other as they cried. "I still love you guys, I can't leave if there's any doubt about that. But this is my goodbye, as you wish." Closing the door I could hear my mom's painful sobbing and my dad trying to comfort her, this would mess me up, this would ruin me, but now I had no other choice. 

This was my new way of living, they'd chosen this path for me, even though every werewolf in the book were after me and wanted to kill my kind. Apparently it wasn't right for an Aurelia Golden Wolf to live, since I could heal and had the strength of any Alpha. Not even when I told werewolves that the Moon Goddess had placed me on this Earth for a reason, it evidently wasn't reason enough, they wanted me dead. 

Let the adventure begin. 

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