Sample Chapter for "The Night Goddess"

“Ayla! Elara! Selene! Get your asses down here.”
Selene and her sisters looked up from their game of stacking picked-clean rat bones. Staying in their human forms, they ran out of their room and tumbled down the grand staircase, each trying to be the first one to reach their mother waiting in the foyer.
Ayla reached the bottom first, but Selene managed to snatch her braid hard enough to yank her back. Elara gasped and lurched to catch her as Selene stopped promptly in front of their Luna of the Moon pack. 
Selene hoped to be as elegant and arcane as Monday Marcus when she grew up. She wanted her eyes to be as cold and sharp as ice chips, to have a supple but severe mouth with lips made for murder and kissing. She was off to a good start with slender limbs and silky black hair—Monday refused to let Selene cut its length anyway. Though her breasts and backside hadn’t filled out yet, Selene didn’t believe Ayla’s lie that they never would and she would always be “flat.”
Monday’s ice-chip eyes flashed deadly, immediately trumping Selene’s satisfaction at besting her sisters. “That was immature, Selene.”
Selene matched her scowl. “But you and Father said to do anything it takes to win.”
“In a tactical situation,” boomed a male voice, “not racing down the stairs like unsupervised pups.”
Selene whirled around at her father stroking into the foyer from the other room. 
Deimos Hilal was a titan. The power his voice and body contained was tangible. Selene had met countless other werewolves, but none had been larger in size or presence than him. He wasn’t a king—the Alpha of the Moon pack—for nothing.
She shrank as he approached, looming several feet above her. His eyes could arguably turn any enemy werewolf into stone, the irises as dark as a winter night and as cold as the sting of wind. “And I am your *sire*, not your father. You will address me as so.”
Selene wasn’t afraid of a lot of things, but the wolf who taught her not to fear was the one thing she was afraid of most. She ducked her head. “Yes…sire.”
“Good,” barked Deimos, making her flinch. “Elara, Ayla, is that order clear?”
“Yes, sire!” they affirmed hastily. 
Deimos glared at Selene a moment longer as if considering something—probably wondering if he should finally cast her out, she wondered darkly—before grunting and joining Monday’s side, though not without slapping her backside hard enough for the sound to echo.
Monday bared her teeth and growled, unamused, unlike how she sounded when Selene overheard them in their bedroom. “Fuck off.”
Deimos ignored her, looking at each of his unwanted daughters. “We are leaving for a couple of days—”
“Again?” Elara interrupted in a whimper. Her eyes widened and she clapped her hand over her mouth, through which she mumbled, “I’m sorry.”
Monday sighed in exasperation and glanced away as Deimos drew to his full height. He didn’t need to advance on her to make her cower. “I thought I taught you never to interrupt me, Ayla.”
Selene bit her tongue to stop herself from correcting him. They were identical triplets, only ten years old, but she knew that Deimos very well knew who was who. He was just misnaming them to prove he didn’t give a shit about his own offspring—he was above such things as caring and loving his family.
“Esmeray is waiting for us,” Monday noted neutrally. She didn’t say it to spare Elara; she just didn’t want Deimos to delve into his “dominance show.” 
“She can wait. I need to discipline my daughters—”
“It can wait, bastard,” she snapped, grabbing a fistful of his wavy black hair and pulling. Surprisingly he almost let her before shaking her off and storming out the front door of the family manor and into the dusky autumn morning. 
Looking over her shoulder, Monday said, “If anything is out of place we will know. *Behave*, and if there is an attack you know what to do.” A pause as she met three pairs of blue eyes. “No more than two days.”
There was a space for an “I promise” that never came. Selene saw Elara’s lips form that word, but that had no sound as well. Monday’s ever-observance didn’t miss it and chose not to address it. 
“Bye,” the sisters were allowed to say.
The Luna dipped her chin briefly and returned the farewell briskly before closing the great oak double doors behind her, leaving the Hilal triplets alone.
Well, not completely. Other members of the Moon pack were slinking around, including the Alpha’s security guards and half-dressed female Omega consorts from Deimos’ harem. 
Selene spun to look at Ayla and Elara with her hands on her hips. “Well that was annoying. At least he didn’t hit us this time. Should we get back to our game?”
Elara hugged her arms around herself and wouldn’t meet Selene’s gaze. While she and Ayla had their mother’s light blue eyes, Selene’s were the dark mirror of Deimos’. “I don’t really feel like games anymore.”
Selene grated her teeth. “What about you?” she demanded of Ayla.
The oldest by fifteen minutes, Ayla shook her head, looping her arm in Elara’s, also not looking directly at Selene. “Sorry, I don’t want to either.”
Selene jerked a step toward them; they weren’t able to hide their small winces. “What, you’re suddenly afraid of me? You weren’t a few minutes ago!”
Ayla was the levelheaded sister, mature when Selene wasn’t, confident when Elara wasn’t. “It’s not you, Selene…it’s Dad. He makes us all upset when he yells at us.”
“He does it all the time!” Selene protested in a shout. “Why are you two still affected by him?”
Elara suddenly turned a rare glare at Selene, though barely an echo of their mother’s ferocity. “*You’re* still affected by him!”
She bared her teeth, hoping she looked as angry as she felt. “I am not! I just—”
“It’s okay, Selene,” Ayla cut her off calmly. “Come on, El, let’s see if breakfast is ready.”
 Selene watched them leave through the archway to the opposite room. She scowled at nothing in particular. “Why’re they so soft?” she muttered to herself. “No one is nice around here. How’re *they* nice?”
“Excellent question,” someone chuckled.
Now she had something to scowl at: her fifteen-year-old cousin, Sidra. 
“Go away. I don’t feel like talking to you.” She made to storm back up the stairs, but he cut her off with his stupidly big Alpha body. 
“You just told me the other day that I was your favorite cousin,” he said with a dramatic pout, patting the top of her head aggressively. 
She swatted him away. “The only cousins I know are you and your dumb twin,” she pointed out with a sneer.
Sidra and Castor were Aunt Fay’s sons, and they were already growing into their Alpha physique years before they officially Presented as such.
They liked to, as all Alpha males did, make fun of Elara and Ayla for being tiny Omegas and be cruel to Selene by telling her what she was embarrassingly already aware of: she was a rare female Alpha, which meant she could probably never have pups.
She was too young to care or even want pups, but she did not like being teased—especially if she was an Alpha just like them. She was just as *powerful*. And males were always afraid of powerful females.
Selene turned her nose up. “I don’t remember saying that, anyway.”
“Well, you did, and remember I’m the *fun* family member.” Sidra grinned in a way that promised only trouble. “Wanna get fucked up?”
She opened her mouth to agree, thrilled to do something rebellious, but she closed it. 
Sidra’s grin faltered, cocking his head in confusion at her hesitation. “Hey,” he reasoned, blue eyes suddenly sympathetic, “we’re all afraid of Deimos, so if you don’t want to—”
“Shut up,” she snapped, shoving her hands into his chest with no results. “I’m not afraid to get in trouble. Let’s go.”
Sidra wasn’t a critical thinker. He shrugged and gestured for her to follow him to the cellar of the manor.
__
So what do you readers think of this sample chapter of a possible Selene-focused prequel?? (I was thinking The Night Goddess for the title!) It’s obviously a very rough draft, so I’m only half-satisfied with it, but there’s always room for improvement! 
Should I continue with it or come up with a sequel that would take off where the first book ended? I made sure to leave little threads as a chance to flesh them out in a second book, but I haven’t got a single clue of a plot yet lmao, so it might be some time before I release anything. 
I’m also starting a new full-time job soon!! I’m excited about it but that also means fewer hours to write. But that won’t deter me from staying up until ungodly hours to do so! XD