Lost Luna

Tall Dark Stranger

Soft pop music played quietly from her dash as she drove the winding roads through the forest, and even despite this her hands were clenched on the steering wheel white knuckling it the whole way. The anxiety of driving never seemed to leave since that night, her eyes darted from one side of the road to the other like a match of pingpong was being played on the road as she desperately scanned for any sudden movements. Zia was terrified of a repeat, to the point where she had obsessively checked the weather on her phone every 10 minutes all morning before she left. 

Zia groaned at the painful memory of her send off. It had consisted of her mother, and her mother’s second in command. She had waited as long as she could for Adam to show up, to see if he felt as disgusted with her as she had felt about herself the past 2 years, or if he was still her best friend. As her mother was punching in the coordinates into the GPS of Zia’s phone and continuing her lecture about being on her best behaviour and ready to learn, Zia’s green eyes stared balefully over her shoulder at the door to the pack house as if she could physically will Adam into existence there. 

“Ok Zia, you’re ready to go. I don’t think I need to tell you this but...drive carefully.” Her mother flinched unconsciously at her own words, and Zia’s face went whiter than a bedsheet. She could see in her mother’s hazel eyes that she regretted saying it, but she would never vocalise an apology. For a moment Zia thought that her mother might give her hug in send off, as her Mom’s arms twitched up and then awkwardly crossed over her chest. Her mother had stopped being Mommy and had become Luna Bronwyn around the time Zia started puberty, feeling there was no room for warmth and fuzzy feelings when she was raising the packs next leader. 

Taking the phone from her mother, and grabbing the handle of her suitcase the lithe redhead wound her way around the car to the trunk to shove it in unceremoniously. As she raised her hands to the trunk door preparing to slam it shut a shadow fell across in front of her, she turned her head to the side peeking over her shoulder at who she thought was perhaps her mother come around to finally give her that hug,  instead she met the troubled blue gaze of Adam. He came to say goodbye! Zia thought with a surge of happiness. 

Before she could turn around and say something to him he had grabbed her forearm and spun her around to face him. His grip was firm on her arm, and she looked down where his tan fingers circled her pale forearm with an eyebrow raised in question. Adam suddenly let go and cleared his throat awkwardly, leaving Zia with the same uncomfortable feeling she had experienced the day before packing in her bedroom. 

“Adam.” She said, lifting her chin with false confidence and meeting his eyes again. 

“Be careful. I will be waiting for you.” he said in a rush, as if the words were burning him as he spoke them. His jaw clenched as if he was indecisive, and Zia only had a moment to wonder what he was being so weird about before his hands grabbed either side of her face and he laid a rushed firm kiss across her lips. 

“The absolute shock that rattled her brain in that moment still lingered in her body while she was driving down the road later. Her tongue kept running over her bottom lip as she remembered it and kept trying to push down the implications of the action. Thinking back on how she had jerked away so violently she had fallen backwards into the trunk, and then had scrambled like a mad monkey back out to slam the trunk door closed and flee into the confines of her car before he could say anything. She had run away so fast that in her need to escape so she could process what in the hell had just happened she had almost run his feet over when she floored the gas pedal throwing the car into reverse. 

Now hours later she couldn’t stop thinking about that moment, her face alternating between burning in embarrassment and paling in anxiety over the long drive. A few times Zia had thought about turning off the path that the GPS so cheerfully announced each turn, to disappear into the human world and lead a completely different life. To not have to see the disappointment on the pack’s faces when she returned from training a failure...a disgraced wolf-less failure. 

She wasn’t sure how she was going to get through the next year, she had no idea how to articulate the loss of her wolf to her mentors...how long until the one she was going to meet early would find out what a useless Luna she was going to turn out to be? The sound of gravel under the tires of her car announced that she was arriving on the last leg of her journey by motorized vehicle. Soon she would be travelling by foot through the woods, and it would take her much longer to get to her destination than it would have if she could just shift! 

When the car arrived at the end of the road, she pulled it off into the ditch and parked it. Climbing out she stretched her arms above her head, letting all the kinks from the long drive ease out of her back and neck as she looked out into the dim lighting of the forest. 

“Zia Evergreen, I presume.” A deep, velvety voice called from the other side of the car and she froze mid-stretch, her jaw hanging open. If the person at all matched the sound of the voice Zia was sure she would pass away. Lowering her arms back to her sides slowly, she turned around to face where the voice had come from. 

“Yeaa--ohhh holy shit.” she said, gaping at the vision on the other side of the car. 

A man stood there, naked except for a backpack, clearly post shift. His long straight black hair fell over his shoulders and onto his well toned and tattooed chest, and she watched as he mouth wateringly gathered the long silky tresses up into a top knot, the muscles under his skin moving like a wild animal’s beneath his skin...fluidly and dangerously. His sharp grey eyes were watching her in amusement, and he threw her a devious smile. 

“Sorry did I startle you?” he asked, as she stared at him like a gaping fish. 

“Oh uh no...nope. Well a little. Who are you?” Zia finally stuttered out, feeling like she was fourteen again staring at her first highschool crush. This man is...the definition of godly. I don’t think I have ever seen a more perfect being… if only Rue was here to see this!  

“Oh yeah I am Marius, I am going to be your exclusive mentor for the next couple weeks before the actual group training begins.” He said, his face suddenly serious. He went to walk around the car toward Zia and she held her hands up frantically at him. 

“Wait, stop. Please put something on!” She cried, putting a hand over her eyes before he fully rounded the car. She wasn’t normally this prude but holy cow was she unsure if she could take seeing any more of this man than she already had and still maintain a student mentor relationship. 

A low chuckle and she heard the sound of fabric moving against skin , she cracked her fingers open and peeked out to see him now wearing a pair of black pants. Zia cleared her throat as she dropped her hands away from her eyes, "Thanks." She said weakly. 

"No problem...but you should probably get used to nudity...we will be shifting in front of others a lot over the next year." He said with a frown , as if he was wondering what ass backward prude pack she had come from.

"Oh its not that Im … its just you… yeah I will work on it" she grinned awkwardly while wishing she could sink into the ground and disappear. First Adam's surprise kiss and now a gorgeous naked man, there was only so many shocks a girl could handle in a day ! 

"Are you ready to shift and head to base camp?" He asked, starting to unbutton his pants again. 

"Oh! Nope, well Im ready to go there but I brought a suitcase so Im gonna hike it on two feet." She said as she headed to pop her trunk and proceeded to pull the suitcase out. She closed the trunk and looked over at him to see an exasperated look on his face. 

"I will lead the way." He said, the friendly tone from earlier was strained now. He clearly did not approve of the situation but had no way out other than to go with it. "Lets go." He said striding off into the forest , causing Zia to run after him lugging her suitcase awkwardly.