“This story is partly about a boy… and partly about a wolf. But, mostly… it’s about the bond between an Alpha and his Omega.”

“Aw, Mister, are you telling the moon story again?” a young wolf of about 7 or 8 years asked the elder sitting on the log.

“If you do not want to hear it, Jiyong, then go and help your mother clean your tent. I’ve had enough of your complaining,” the village’s eldest living wolf told the boy, with a roll of his eyes.

“Yes, sir…” Jiyong mumbled as he took his place back on the dirt floor of the village circle.

“You’ve only heard this story because you’re insistent on following me around and nagging me all day long. Now be quiet and sit still; you’ve become annoying again,” the old man ordered the boy, who looked around, awkwardly before hanging his head. “Besides, most of these children know nothing of this legend.”

“But, sir, you said it wasn’t a legend,” the oldest boy in the group, Yonghwa, pointed out to the old wolf.

“Ah, yes, child. You’re absolutely right. This story is not legend, but truth. It is unlike the tales your parents tell before you sleep to entertain or teach a lesson. No, this story is not a legend at all; young Yonghwa is correct. This story is as real as the clothes on your backs and the tents you sleep in. Though, it does entertain and contains as many lessons as there are stars in the sky,” the man said, an undeniable glint of mystery and wonder in his eyes. “It began long before you were born, before your mothers and fathers, before even their mothers and their fathers-”

“Sir, how do you know it isn’t a legend? How do you know it’s real?” a young omega, Minyoung, asked the old man with a sly grin on her face.

“Why, child, I know because I was there,” he replied with a smile just as wide.

Two small alphas- Youngmin and his brother Kwangmin- who were wrestling in the dirt, ceased their brawl and stared at the ancient wolf in awe.

“Mister, you were there?” the elder of the twins asked, his eyes growing to the size of the moon.

“Of course I was there!” the old man said, feigning offense. “You doubt your elder, do you?”

“No, sir!” most of them chirped in unison, slightly shaken.

“Good then,” the aged alpha hummed out, leaning back on the log. “Now, where was I? Ah, yes I had not yet begun the story…” he mumbled, knitting his eyebrows together. “Right then. It began with an omega, a very small omega-”

“Smaller than me?” the pack’s runt jumped up onto the old wolf’s lap and stared up with a bright smile.

The elder laughed. “Yes, Jimin much smaller than you,” he humored the tiny boy in his arms as Jimin’s jaw dropped at the prospect of any wolf smaller than him.

The village elder picked up where he had left off, “-a very small omega and his strong alpha.”

“Stronger than me?” one of the older children asked. The sixteen year old alpha was expected throughout the camp to become the pack’s new Alpha when he came of age, but no one could be sure; not with how unpredictable the universe was.

“Yes, Jaebum, stronger than even you,” the man said softly and quite certain that it was true. His eyes trailed to the approaching moon as he recalled what life had been like in the days of The Alpha he spoke of and his slight, timid Omega who had changed the lives of every member of the pack- for better or for worse he still did not know.

One thing, however, was certain. The true Legend of the Moon Alpha and his Little One would not die with him, and in telling these children the same tale he told their parents, he could be sure that the truth behind a love stronger than any other would live to see another moon.