Asphalt Moon

Chapter 9: The Moon

The gas station felt smaller at night.

The moon was almost full. Just a sliver missing. Perfect circle coming.

I sat on the curb and watched it climb. My chest still ached. That c***k. That deep pop. It came and went like a second heartbeat.Nellie was asleep on a pile of old newspapers behind the counter. Her tire iron was across her chest like a baby doll. She snored. Loud.

Damon sat on the hood of his bike. Cleaning his gun. Not looking at me. Not looking away either.

Cade brought me a bottle of water.

"Drink."

"Not thirsty."

"Drink anyway."

I drank. The water was warm. Tasted like plastic.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Like something's inside me. Trying to get out."

"That's the wolf."

"Maybe." I looked at my hands. No fur. No claws. Just grease and scars. "Or maybe I'm going crazy."

"You're not crazy."

"You don't know that."

Cade sat next to me. His knee touched mine. "I know you. Crazy people don't worry about being crazy."

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

"But it made you smile."

He was right. Damn him.

Damon walked over. Gun holstered.

"It's almost time."

"Time for what?"

"The moon. Full in about an hour. You'll feel it."

I stood up. "And if I don't?"

"Then we have a different problem."

"What problem?"

Damon looked at Cade. Then back at me. "If you don't shift tonight, then maybe you're not a wolf."

"I am a wolf. My mom's journal…"

"Journals can be fake."

My stomach dropped. "You think Hale faked it?"

"I think Hale is a liar. And I think we've been playing his game since day one."

Cade stepped between us. "So what do you want to do? Walk away?"

"I want to be smart." Damon pointed at the moon. "An hour. Then we know the truth."

He walked back to his bike.

Cade turned to me. "He's not wrong."

"I know."

"If the journal is fake…"

"Then everything I believe about myself is fake." I hugged my arms. "My mom. The wolf. The bond."

"Not everything." Cade pulled me close. "You're still Lena. Still a mechanic. Still stubborn. Still my girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?"

He froze. "I mean. If you want. We never actually…"

I kissed him.

Short. Simple. His lips were dry. He tasted like coffee. His hands instinctively wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer.

"Okay," I said. "Girlfriend."

He grinned. That lopsided smile.

Behind us, Nellie yelled from the counter: "FINALLY."

"Go back to sleep!" I shouted.

"No way. This is better than TV."

The hour crawled.

Damon paced. Cade cleaned his knife for the tenth time. Nellie ate cold chips and narrated everything like a sports announcer.

"And Lena is pacing. Look at her pace. That's championship-level pacing right there."

"Nellie."

"I'm just saying."

The moon rose higher. The sliver disappeared.

Full.

A perfect white circle in a black sky.

I stopped walking.

My chest cracked again. Louder this time. I felt it in my ribs. In my spine. In my teeth.

"Lena?" Cade was beside me. "What's happening?"

"I don't…"

The pain hit.

Not like a cramp. Like a break. Like every bone in my body decided to quit at the same time.

I fell to my knees. Gasping.

Cade grabbed my shoulders. "Lena!"

"Stay back!" Damon pulled him away. "She's shifting. Give her room."

"I'm not…" I tried to talk. My jaw wouldn't work. "Something's wrong."

The pain got worse. My back arched. My fingers curled.

But no fur.

No claws.

No wolf.

Just pain. Pure. White. Empty.

Then it stopped.

I collapsed on the concrete. Breathing hard. Sweat dripping down my face.

Cade knelt beside me. "Lena. Look at me."

I looked.

"You're human."

"I'm human."

Damon stared. His face was unreadable. "That's not possible. The bond. The pull. I felt it."

"You felt something," I said. "But not me."

He backed up. Ran his hands through his hair. "Hale did something. The tea. The wolfsbane. He's been dosing us both."

"Us both?"

"Wolfsbane makes wolves crazy. Makes humans think they're wolves." He laughed. Bitter. Broken. "I've been chasing a ghost."

Nellie walked over. Tire iron in hand. "So. Just to be clear. Lena is human?"

"Human."

"Always was?"

"Always."

She looked at me. "Huh. That's actually kind of awesome."

"How is that awesome?"

"Because you did all that without claws. You stood up to a wolf with a tire iron. You're badass." She grinned. "And now you don't have to worry about turning into a monster every month."

I wanted to argue. But she wasn't wrong.

I was human.

The whole time.

The journal. The bond. The pull. All lies.

Hale poisoned me. Made me think I was turning. Made Damon think I was his mate.

And I fell for it.

Cade helped me stand. My legs were shaking.

"What now?" he asked.

I looked at Damon. He was sitting on the curb now. Head in his hands.

"Damon."

He looked up.

"You said your mother's journal was in Hale's compound."

"Yes."

"Then we go back. We get it. We burn it. And we end this."

"Tonight?"

"Tonight."

Nellie raised her tire iron. "I'm in."

Cade nodded. "Me too."

Damon stood up. His eyes were red. But his jaw was set.

"One problem," he said.

"What?"

"Hale knows we're coming now. The compound will be ready."

"Then we don't go through the front."

"Where do we go?"

I pulled out Joel's map. Traced my finger to the back of the property.

"There's a loading dock here. Old. Unused. Hale's men won't be watching it."

"And if they are?"

"Then we fight."

Damon looked at me. For the first time, he didn't look like a wolf. He looked like a guy who'd been played. Same as me.

"Okay," he said. "Let's end this."

We rode back toward the compound.

The moon was high. Bright. It lit up the road like daylight.

Cade drove. I held onto his waist. My body still ached from the fake shift. But my mind was clear.

I wasn't a wolf.

I was never a wolf.

And that meant Hale had no power over me. No bond. No fate. No claim.

Just a girl. A wrench. And a lot of anger.

The compound appeared in the distance. Lights on. Guards at the gate.

Damon pulled up beside us. "Loading dock is a quarter mile east."

"Lead the way."

He peeled off the road. Through the trees. Branches whipped my arms. Mud splashed my jeans.

The loading dock was dark. Rusted. A chain hung loose on the door.

Damon cut it with bolt cutters from his bag.

The door slid open.

Inside was black.

Damon pulled out a flashlight. Shined it inside.

Empty. Crates. Dust. A staircase leading up.

"This is it," he said.

I stepped forward. "I go first."

"No."

"I go first, Damon. You had your turn."

He nodded. Stepped back.

I walked into the dark.

The stairs creaked under my boots. The air was cold. Smelled like old paper and something else. Something sweet.

Wolfsbane.

I pulled my shirt over my nose.

At the top of the stairs, a door.

I pushed it open.

And there, sitting at a desk, was Hale.

He wasn't smiling anymore.

"Lena," he said. "I was wondering when you'd figure it out."

"Figure what out?"

"That you're human."

I stepped into the room. "You knew."

"Of course I knew. I've been dosing you for months." He stood up. "The wolfsbane in your coffee. In your shampoo. In the air you breathe."

"Why?"

"Because I needed you to think you were turning. Needed Damon to think you were his mate. Needed your father to believe the wolf was waking up."

"So you could control us."

"So I could control everyone." Hale walked around the desk. "Your mother was going to expose me. So I killed her. You were going to be a problem. So I made you a puppet."

I pulled out the tire iron. "You're going to jail."

"No. I'm going to walk out that door. And you're going to let me."

He pressed a button on his desk.

Sirens blared.

But nothing happened.

No footsteps. No wolves.

Hale pressed it again.

"Looking for these?"

Damon walked in. In his hand, Greta's collar. Blood on it.

"Greta's tied up," he said. "The others ran."

Hale's face went pale.

"You're alone," I said. "Just like you made me."

I stepped forward.

For the first time, the Elder looked scared.