\[Maverick’s POV\]
I don’t remember anything aside from pain and suffering. Day in and day out, I lived in an all-consuming darkness until the day I saw the light. It was so beautiful, and it was accompanied by such a sweet scent that I was immediately drawn to it. That was when I saw her, the small girl, making her way through the forest.
It was in that moment that I felt something awaken me, and I was moving, determined to get what it was that the girl had to offer me. I don’t know how I knew that she would be the one to save me from the pain and suffering I was enduring, but I just knew—my soul knew.
Before I could even realize what I was doing, I was biting her, and a delicious liquid exploded in my mouth. It set me off and made me go even more feral than I was due to wanting even more.
Everything after that was a blur, and when the world finally came to me, I found that I was no longer a rabid wolf; instead, I was a human, but I didn’t remember a thing.
When I was questioned about where I came from, I couldn’t remember. When I was asked my name, it didn’t come to me. It was like every portion of my life up until the moment the world became so clear and beautiful to me didn’t exist.
My name? Who knew?
My age? An adult?
How did I become what I was? The hell would I know?
All of it was gone, and the only thing that I knew in that moment when I turned my gaze to meet my saviors was that she was now the reason for my existence. That’s why I didn’t hesitate to swear my life to protect her, but her family wasn’t fine with that.
For my first week within her pack, I was in the dungeon being questioned, tortured, and pushed to get the answers I repeated again and again that I didn’t have.
After that, I was left alone to rot and wonder how the one who saved me was doing.
Occasionally, she would secretly come to visit me, bringing things that would make my stay in my cell less shitty. It started simple, like a comfortable pillow, then a blanket, then some clothes that weren’t tattered, and the like.
Each time she came, she would talk to me, telling me about her day and her efforts to get her father to release me.
You see, we had a secret that we shared amongst ourselves and a single mad doctor who would sometimes come to see me and beg me to let him take my blood. We knew that her blood was special, that it was the very thing that saved me from that never-ending darkness, and that I knew her secret and that she would be used by others if they found out that I was cooperating to the fullest in hopes of being released and allowed to be by her side.
She was a precious existence. She was so precious that I couldn’t leave her unattended.
As one month passed, then two, my need to be by my savior's side grew more and more to the point where I was considering breaking out, but by some twist of fate, by the third month, when I was losing all hope, I was finally released.
Of course, I couldn’t be beside her immediately. Instead, I had to go to the barracks and train with the new warriors.
At first, everyone thought it was ridiculous to send a wolfless human to train with wolves, but despite losing my wolf and becoming utterly human, I was still strong and as agile as all of the trainees. However, that didn’t win me any points with anyone; if anything, it made them hate me even more. How dare a simple human be on par with them and think that he could join the ranks of Emerald Moon?
Well, I didn’t give two shits what they thought about me. My only focus was graduating and asking my savior's father once again to be by her side. That day couldn’t come quick enough for me, if I were being honest.
It was a grueling year of constant training, but in the end, I managed to graduate at the top of my class. And after that, I requested to work within the packhouse. If I could prove to the alpha of the pack that I was worthy of being beside his daughter, then everything I was enduring would be worth it.
From that point on, I did everything that I was supposed to, walking the grounds, stopping those who wished to intrude, and keeping an eye out for others who may be like me.
Though I was told that I was the first of my kind, I couldn’t help but feel that there had to be more. If I existed, then there was a good chance there were more like me. To assume the opposite was only going to put not only Emerald Moon but even my savior in grave danger.
With this in mind, I worked hard and didn’t hesitate to approach Rosco, the pack's alpha, to ask for the honor of being his daughter’s bodyguard. When he shot me down, I wasn’t surprised, but I didn’t stop there; if I did, I didn’t deserve to be her bodyguard.
Every few days, I would return to his office and ask again and again. While this was happening, my savior, whose name I discovered was Serenity, would also come to find me and tell me how she was also working on bringing me by her side.
For a year, we worked together to convince her father to allow me to be beside her, and although it seemed like a hopeless cause, we never gave up. During this time, we also continued to grow closer until finally her father agreed to allow me to be beside her as she went to attend The Academy, a place where young wolves from high-ranking families went to prepare to take over after their parents.
It was a miracle, and I truly felt like I couldn’t ask for anything more than to simply be by her side, watching her from wherever it was she wished for me to be.
That was how I went from being a criminal to a bodyguard and how Serenity and I came to be together. It was all fate, but I was certain that fate still had much more in store for us.