Luna Lost

18. The Confrontation

Luna stared into the open case as her father reached inside. His hand closed around a short silver blade, and suddenly the injured wolf behind them wasn’t the thing frightening her most. She looked from the weapon to her father’s face, searching for some indication that she was misunderstanding what she was seeing.

“What are you doing?”

“Stay back, Luna.”

Dad stepped away from the vehicle. Luna looked past him at the wolf struggling toward the trees. Its leg buckled beneath it, blood darkening the fur around the wound, but even from where she stood, Luna could see the impossible happening. The bleeding was slowing. Torn flesh was beginning to pull itself together.

“Dad, stop.”

He kept walking.

Luna followed. “I said stop.”

Her father turned, and the expression on his face made her halt. It was the same cold certainty she had seen during training, only now there was purpose behind it. He wasn’t confused by what they had hit. He wasn’t frightened by the wound closing before their eyes.

He knew exactly what he was looking at.

“You need to get back in the vehicle.”

“Why?”

“Because it’s dangerous.”

“It’s hurt.”

“That doesn’t make it safe.”

The wolf dragged itself another few feet, and an image of Damien bleeding on her couch flashed through Luna’s mind. His skin closing beneath her fingers. His changing eyes. Every impossible thing she had tried to explain away suddenly rearranged itself into an answer she wasn’t sure she wanted.

She stepped between her father and the wolf.

“Move, Luna.”

“No.”

His eyes hardened. “Move.”

“No. Tell me what it is.”

His jaw tightened, but Luna held her ground. Her ribs screamed with every breath and she could still taste blood where she had bitten the inside of her cheek during training, yet for once she wasn’t going to let pain or that tone in his voice make her obey. Her eyes dropped to the silver blade in his hand before returning to his face.

“Tell me.”

For several seconds, the only sound was the wolf’s laboured breathing behind her. Finally, her father answered.

“A werewolf.”

The word should have sounded ridiculous.

It didn’t.

Luna swallowed. “They’re real.”

“Yes.”

Her mind raced through years of strange warnings, old stories, questions her parents had refused to answer and training that had never quite made sense. Then there was Damien. The impossible healing she had witnessed with her own eyes. The speed. The strength. Those eyes.

Understanding struck so quickly that Luna almost looked away.

She forced herself not to.

Her father could never know.

Instead, she looked down at the blade. “And you hunt them.”

Her father didn’t answer quickly enough.

“Oh my God.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Then make me understand.”

“They’re dangerous, Luna. My family has protected people from them for generations.”

“Your family.” She stared at him. “The hunters.”

“Yes.”

The answer landed harder than she expected. Her eyes moved toward the open case in the back of the vehicle, filled with weapons and equipment she had never known existed. Suddenly she understood why he knew how to fight the way he did, why he had spent her childhood teaching her to track, defend herself and keep getting back up no matter how badly she hurt.

“That’s what all of this has been for.”

His silence answered before he did.

Luna felt sick. “My training.”

“I was preparing you.”

“For what?”

“To survive. To protect yourself and eventually protect others.”

“By hunting werewolves?”

“When you were ready.”

A bitter laugh escaped her. “When you decided I was ready.”

“Luna—”

“You planned my whole life without telling me.”

“I was protecting you.”

“There it is again.” Luna shook her head. “Every time you lie to me, every time you hurt me, every time you decide something for me, you call it protection.”

Behind her, branches cracked as the wolf struggled closer to the trees. Her father immediately moved forward, but Luna blocked him again. He tried to step around her, and she moved with him despite the pain shooting through her ribs.

“Move.”

“No.”

“Luna, this isn’t a game.”

“I know.”

“That thing could kill you.”

“So could you, apparently.”

Her father stopped.

Luna saw the words hit him, but she didn’t take them back. Her ribs were proof enough that whatever he called protection had already become something else. She stared at him for another second before movement behind her caught her attention.

The wolf had reached the trees.

Dad saw it too.

He moved left. Luna moved with him. He tried the other direction, but she planted herself in his path again. Her body hurt like hell, but she knew how to block an opponent because the man standing in front of her had taught her exactly how.

“Luna.”

She heard the warning.

She stayed where she was.

The wolf disappeared between the trees, branches snapping as it fled deeper into the darkness. Luna listened as the sounds grew fainter until the forest swallowed them completely.

Her father stared after it.

Then he turned on her.

The fury on his face stopped Luna cold. She had seen him angry before. She had argued with him, challenged him and pushed his patience until his voice became sharp enough to silence her, but she had never seen him look at her like this. His hand tightened around the silver blade as though he still needed somewhere for all that rage to go.

“You let that monster get away.”

Luna looked at the weapon clenched in his hand, then slowly lifted her eyes to his. Less than an hour ago, this same man had stood over her while she coughed blood and told her to get up. He had hidden the truth from her for her entire life, chosen a future for her without ever asking if she wanted it, and convinced himself that every bruise and every lie had been for her own good.

Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“Maybe you’re the monster.”

His hand moved before the final word had fully left her mouth.

The slap cracked across her face like a reflex, as though he had known exactly what she was going to say and needed to stop the words before he heard them. Luna’s head snapped sideways, heat exploding across her cheek as silence rushed in around them.

For a moment, neither of them moved.

Slowly, Luna turned back toward him. His hand had already fallen to his side, but there was no apology in his face. No regret. The anger remained, but beneath it was something that frightened her more than his rage.

Recognition.

He knew.

Maybe that was why he had hit her.

“Luna.”

“Don’t.”

She stepped away before he could come any closer. Her father had spent her entire life teaching her to stand her ground, trust her instincts and recognize danger when she saw it. Maybe he had never considered what would happen when she finally recognized it in him.

Luna turned toward the road.

“Where are you going?”

“Home.”

“Get in the vehicle.”

She kept walking.

“Luna, get in the vehicle.”

She stopped long enough to look back at him. “No.”

His expression changed. She had argued with him before, complained and tested every ounce of his patience, but when his voice became that voice, Luna had always eventually obeyed. He had spent her entire life training that response into her.

Not anymore.

Luna turned away and continued toward town, ignoring the ache in her ribs and the sting burning across her face. Behind her, her father called her name, his voice carrying through the darkness with the same authority that had stopped her a thousand times before.

For the first time, Luna couldn’t even bring herself to look at him.