The Luna

1. The Beginning

King Red, the supreme ruler of the human and werewolf realm stood by his window in his room waiting for the arrival of his beta, Angel.

He stared out the large window, looking pass the drapes and towards the bright sky but his blue orbs were not focused on the scene in front of him. The beautiful backdrop of the sun and the moon caressing one another up in the sky was a sight his mind refused to register today. He was in a dilemma.

His kingdom was going to be in ruins if he didn't sacrifice his Luna.

Sacrificing the Luna to save the kingdom sounded easy but the problem was he didn't have a Luna yet and the one who held his heart could not be sacrificed. He couldn't bring himself to do that. Never.

"Red?"

Red turned around to the high pitched voice of Angel Castle, his beta and lover.

At first he had found her voice quite edgy but the more time he spent with her, it became a sound his heart yearned for. Angel's fierce personality was what made him drawn to her and he knew he would spend the rest of his life running after her perfect body. Red craved for her so much so that he had to get her and he did. Now that they were planning a future together, the shadow witches struck. They were killing the moon and only a Luna could save it.

Everything was too frustrating.

"Angel, have you gotten any leads?" He asked her as she drew closer.

"Araphat should be fired, the man is too old for the job! What sort of an oracle is he!?" She snapped causing the fire in her voice to wake up the monster between his pants. This was what Angel did to him but he had to push that aside for now.

"He didn't help?" Red asked. He wasn't surprised that Araphat had refused to help them. The man was known to do things the way he saw fit without any care in the world.

"No, he refused to say what the outcome would be... Something about the goddess knowing what was best for the kingdom! Bullshit!"

Red walked the remaining distance between them and stopped right in front of her. He raised his hand to her dirty blonde hair and brushed off the sand in it.

"Araphat is an oracle of the goddess, you don't expect him to tell you the future, do you?"

Angel folded her arms across her large chest and frowned. "I just want us to be certain that the decision we are about to take is the right one. I don't want to die!"

Red placed his finger tenderly between her lips, cutting her words off. "Angel," Red called huskily, "I already told you, I will never sacrifice you no matter what Estella and her shadow witches throw at us. I love you too much to sacrifice you, Angel. Plus you are my beta. If I sacrifice you, what happens to my pack?"

"But what about the moon? If you don't sacrifice me, the moon will die and we will all be powerless before Estella!" Angel cried out in frustration.

"I will not claim you as my Luna," Red said and the entire world went silent. It was like every living thing was listening to them and the moment he made that declaration, they stopped breathing.

The frown on Angel's face got deeper and she bored her hazel eyes into the blue of his. She saw that they were no longer just blue, his eyes now had red streaks that ran fiercely around it showing the extent of his frustration as well.

Angel brought her hands to his face. The moment their skin touched, she felt him relax a bit. The frustration he was feeling dropped to a start up level.

"I proposed that to Araphat, but he didn't say what the outcome will be. I am scared..." Angel whispered to him. She had heard so many stories as a child. The goddess worked in so many ways. What if something went wrong?

Red circled his hands around her waist and pulled her closer to him. "What are you worried about? We will just have to do a little acting and when the time comes we will save the kingdom." He brought his face down to hers and their noses met in a warm embrace.

"I'll go to the farthest of villages and pick the worst girl I can find. I will claim her as the Luna and Araphat can sacrifice her when he wants..." Red told her.

The plan just came to his mind as they spoke. He would go to the smallest village, possibly a human settlement and get a bride there. As soon as he was done, he would take her to Araphat and they could fortify the moon and end the reign of the shadow witches once and for all.

"The only problem now is that, I don't know if any girl will accept to sacrifice herself without an explanation..." Red trailed off. This was the only thing stopping him to execute his plan. He wouldn't want to use someone without their consent. He would have to tell her, whoever he ended up picking.

"Maybe we should announce it openly, perhaps people will even volunteer." He thought out loud.

"No!" Angel screamed raising his face so she could look into his eyes. "We can't do that. No one would want to sacrifice themselves for the kingdom! You can't tell them exactly what is going on, besides we don't want the shadow witches to know that we are on to them. It has to remain a secret between you and I," Angel said.

"But won't that be considered cruel?" Red wasn't a dictator. He was patient and kind to his people both werewolves and humans alike. He couldn't bring himself to bring someone's daughter to a thing she would not ordinarily do. There had to be another way.

Angel brought her hands down to his upper arm and pulled him to the bed. She sat him down and turned his face to her once again.

"Red, we need to do this for us. Humans are very selfish creatures. They will want a werewolf to do it forgetting that our kind risk their lives everyday protecting them from the shadow witches. It is time for them to pay back... But we don't have to tell them all of this. You need to act like you want the girl too... This way, even the shadow witches won't understand what we are up to. Her people will be the one begging you to sacrifice her... You will be the hero."