THE REJECTED LUNA: CLAIMED BY THE ALPHA PACK

SECRETS AND SHADOWS

"Murdered."

The word hit like a physical blow, stealing the air from my lungs. My mother's face flashed through my mind. Not the way she looked in life, vibrant and full of secrets, but how I found her that night. Pale. Still. Dead. A crescent moon pendant clutched in her lifeless hand.

I yanked my wrist from Ash's grip, my blood beginning to boil. I had no idea who these people were and I didn't care, but for them to mess with the memory of my mother like that was something I couldn't forgive.

"My mother had a heart attack." I spat the words at him.

"You found what they wanted you to find," Ash said, his voice dropping to a dangerous register. "The Blood Moon pack has hunted your bloodline for centuries. Your mother died protecting the secret in your veins, a secret she tried to hide even from you. You aren't just a student, Luna. You are moon-blessed. A wolf of the first light."

I laughed. A sound hollow to my ears but I laughed nonetheless, my chest aching. "Wolves? Blood Moon? Do you even hear yourself? So much for a university haze. I don't know where you got your information about my mother but you could have used something else."

Something dangerous flashed in Ash's eyes. Behind us I heard Kai mutter a curse in what sounded like Mandarin.

"Show her," Felix piped up, bouncing on his heels. "It'll be faster than trying to explain."

"No." Ash's response was sharp enough to make Felix step back. "Not here. Too many witnesses."

"Then where?" I challenged, crossing my arms. "Because right now you all sound completely insane and I am not going anywhere with any of you."

"The sanctuary," Kai suggested, appearing at my elbow. "It's warded."

Ash nodded slowly. "Tonight. After sunset. Come to the sanctuary ruins behind the forest and we'll show you the truth." He turned to me with that intense stare. "If you don't come, they'll find you before morning. And unlike us, they will not care whether you survive the introduction."

I pushed through Felix and Kai and got out of that room, walking quickly until I found room 314 at the end of a long hallway tucked into a corner. Kai produced a key from somewhere and unlocked the door.

"We had you placed here specifically," he explained. "Corner room, reinforced walls, clear sight lines to the forest. Plus," he stepped inside and tapped the window frame, "mountain ash wood. They can't cross it."

"They who?" I demanded half-heartedly, looking around the room.

"Tonight you'll find out," he promised. His playful demeanor dropped for a moment, leaving something serious in its place. "Don't let anyone else in. No matter what."

He was gone before I could respond. I plopped down on the bed and sat with my mother's crescent moon pendant pressed between both palms. I had taken it from her hand the night she died. Cold fingers, the pendant clutched so tight I had to pry each one back to get it loose. The silver was battered and old, the crescent worn smooth from years of being held exactly the way I was holding it now, and I had never understood why she kept it so close to her skin every single day of her life.

I sat in the dark and let myself remember what I had been refusing to examine for six months. The smell of ozone that night. The dogs in the neighbourhood howling all at once. The heavy sound of something hitting the front door. My mother pushing me into the closet with one hand pressed flat against my cheek. Stay silent, she said. No matter what you hear. And then she closed the door and I heard everything that followed from behind a quarter inch of wood. They told me afterward it had been a heart attack. That she had been alone. That there had been no sign of forced entry. I had been so deep in shock I had let myself believe it.

A knock at my door made me jump.

"Luna?" A deep voice called. "It's Derek Stone. Remember me? Your RA. I have your orientation packet."

I stood up and moved toward the door. Something on the other side felt wrong in a way I could feel in my stomach before I could name it. A low wet sniffing sound came from the gap beneath the door. Then a sound like nails scraping slowly across the wood.

Should I really be following the advice of a nutjob I just met? I juggled the thought but I couldn't deny that Kai was damn serious when he told me not to open that door.

"Actually I'm about to head out," I lied. "Meeting some friends."

A pause that lasted two seconds too long.

"No," the voice that was Derek's shifted, deepened into something wet and snarling that reminded me of sounds I had heard from inside a closet six months ago. "You're not. We want to finish the job we started. Your mother tasted like fear. I wonder what you taste like."

He slammed against the door. The mountain ash frame blazed with a warm golden light, humming at a frequency that made my teeth ache, holding the door in place while the wood around it began to splinter.