The Orphaned Queen

Life is not a fairy tale. Life is hard and painful. It is dark and empty. And maybe it's a Fairy Tale for most people, maybe it is happy and always sunny, but that's not the case for me. Who am I? Well, my name is Rain. I have no last name, just Rain. I'm an orphaned witch in the Blue River werewolf pack. I always wondered what my parents were like and why they abandoned me in a wolf pack, of all places. Did they not love me? Was I a mistake? Are they even still alive? I may never know the answers to the many questions, and I doubt I have a peaceful future ahead of me.

Everyone in the pack hates me, well, everyone but my best friend, Jessica Tompson, another orphan. Her parents were killed in a rouge attack on the pack when she was only seven.

With her family all dead, even though she was born into the pack, she became an orphan like me. Except when she hits seventeen, she gets her wolf and her place at the pack house. I, unlike her, will become a pack slave. I won't even get my powers till the next full moon after my seventeenth birthday, not that I have anyone to teach me how to use them.

Oh yea, my birthday is supposedly in three weeks (the pack didn't know my actual birthday, so they were just guesting), And Jessicas birthday is a week and a half before mine. Maybe that's why we get along so well. The pack still has a birthday party for her, with a cake and gifts since she is technically still a member. Even though they don't have a party for me, she always keeps a few gifts wrapped to give to me, and she even makes me a small birthday cake since I don't get a party because I'm not part of the pack.

Sometimes I wish I was never born. My life has been long and miserable. But Jessica is always trying to make it better. We spend most of our nights in our small room, on our bunkbeds talking. It's always about something different. Jess says it's so I don't get bored, but I think it's just because she doesn't like repeating herself. But Goddess, does she love to talk, and I love to listen.

"Rainie bug... Rainie... Rain!" Jess yells while kicking the bottom of the top bunk in an attempt to wake me up.

"I'm up, I'm up!" I whine, wiping my eyes.

"Oh, thank the Goddess for another beautiful, sunny day." Jess beams while looking out the window. "I'm so excited, I can't believe just two more weeks, and I'll be getting my wolf and be able to scent out my mate! I hope he's handsome."

"Jess, what's a mate?" I ask while climbing down from the top bunk of our bunk bed.

"A mate is your other half, your soul mate, the person that is supposed to love and cherish you for the rest of your life." She says with a smile on her face.

"Will I get a mate?" I ask, thinking how nice it sounds.

"I'm not sure. I don't know much about how all that stuff works when it comes to witches and humans." She says as we walk through the hall.

"Oh, ok," I responded flatly. I knew it sounded too good to be true for me.

"Don't worry Rainie bug. Mate or not, you'll always have me by your side." She says with a smile.