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A younger shewolf raises her hand. “What if someone doesn't want to admit she's been hurt? What if she thinks people will see her as weak?”
Luna Selena looks at her. “Then I hope we can show her that being hurt doesn't make her weak. The world can be cruel to victims. People shame them, question them, and make excuses for the people who hurt them. But admitting someone harmed you doesn't make you responsible for what they did.”
The young woman nods slowly.
“Traumatized people sometimes traumatize other people,” Luna Selena continues. “Sometimes unintentionally. Sometimes intentionally. But understanding where harmful behavior comes from doesn't mean we have to excuse it. We can have compassion for someone and still hold her accountable for hurting others.”
“What if she doesn't realize she's doing it?” a teenager asks.
“Then we help her recognize it,” Luna Selena says. “We educate her. We tell her the truth. But she has to be willing to hear it.”
“And if she isn't?” the warrior asks.
“Then we protect ourselves and the people she's hurting. We can't force someone to change.”
A woman near the front looks thoughtful. “So how does loving your neighbor fit into all of this?”
Luna Selena smiles faintly. “That's the question I was hoping someone would ask.”
A few women laugh.
“Our faith teaches us to love our neighbor as ourselves. But we can't claim to love someone while helping another person abuse her. We can't claim to love our daughters while teaching them that suffering is simply what women are supposed to endure. And we can't claim to love ourselves while believing we deserve mistreatment.”
An older woman raises her hand. “What if someone doesn't know how to love herself?”
“Then maybe that's where she needs to begin,” Luna Selena says. “Some people have to learn that they deserve kindness, safety, and respect before they can understand how to show those things to others properly.”
A younger woman nods. “And that another woman's happiness doesn't take anything away from yours.”
“Exactly.”
The woman near the front looks around. “But knowing that doesn't automatically change how you behave.”
“No,” Luna Selena agrees. “It doesn't. We have to recognize when we're treating people badly, take responsibility for it, and make different choices.”
“So what do we actually do?” the warrior asks.
“First, we educate ourselves. Then we act. We stop excusing cruelty. We stop blaming victims. We stop teaching our daughters that they have to suffer to prove they love someone. And when another woman comes to us for help, we listen instead of asking what she did to deserve it.”
An Omega raises her hand. “And if we don't know how to help?”
“Come to me,” Luna Selena says. “Or come to someone you trust. We can figure out what help is needed together.”
A mother looks down at her infant. “I think we need to teach our sons this too.”
Several women nod.
Luna Selena smiles. “Absolutely. Our sons need to learn that love doesn't excuse violence, lies, or a lack of self control. And our daughters need to learn that they don't have to accept those things.”
A teenager raises her hand. “So we're not supposed to hate men?”
Luna Selena laughs softly. “No. We're supposed to hold people accountable for their own actions. Men and women. Loving someone doesn't mean excusing everything they do.”
The teenager nods. “Okay. That makes sense.”
A young woman speaks from behind us. “But if another woman really is threatening what you have, what are you supposed to do?”
“Talk. Ask for help. Protect yourself when you need to.” Luna Selena pauses. “But maybe we also need to stop treating every other woman like she's automatically a threat.”
