New Education
1418 Words
LUNA
I start laughing. I don’t mean to—at first it’s just a tiny chuckle—but it explodes into ridiculous, body-wracking laughter. The kind that hurts, the kind that feels like abs are trying to fight their way out of my torso. I can’t stop. Selena and Mal are doing that silent, telepathic sibling thing, and I would care if I weren’t too busy dying over her question.
“Yes? What else would I be?” I gasp between gulps of air.
The laughter finally fades, and I breathe again, though my ribs scream in betrayal. Selena doesn’t laugh. She watches me like I’m a misbehaving lab rat.
“What do you think of last night’s events?” she asks.
The question snatches the humor right out of me. What do I think?
I shrug. “I think there’s a reason you doctors have degrees. I didn’t take my meds for twenty-four hours, and I paid the consequences.”
“Luna, you don’t even have a medical record.”
Everything in me goes still. I don’t even register Mal moving—one second he’s in the bed, the next he’s sitting next to her, staring like he’s never seen me before.
“Selena, are you serious?” Mal demands.
“I could find nothing under the name Luna Lenning. Pack or human. No record of her in any system. Wherever she was treated before, it either wasn’t real, or it was deeply underground.”
“That’s not possible,” I snap. Panic climbs my throat, acidic and hot. “I remember being in a hospital bed after… I don’t know what, but I didn’t like being there.”
Selena and Mal exchange a look—another silent conversation—, and I want to scream.
“What put you in a hospital bed, Luna?” she asks.
I look at Mal. It’s stupid, but I search him for safety, for answers, for anything. But his expression is unreadable. Of course. The one time I need clarity is the one time he becomes a stone wall.
“Mal… if I share this, will you leave me?”
His expression shatters into horror. He stands and sits on the edge of my bed, placing a hand on my shin. Instant relief lights through me. Every ache evaporates.
“Lu, I will never leave.”
I feel Selena’s confusion like static in the air, but she hides it behind her clipboard, pretending she isn’t documenting all my possible mental disorders.
I brace myself—again—for the things I’ve never said out loud.
“I don’t remember the event that put me in the hospital. Just that it happened more than once. And I was strapped down. Arms, legs. Like they thought I would break out.”
My throat closes. The words rebel. Fear coils up, monstrous and familiar. My teeth chatter. Mal rubs my shin, grounding me.
“I was a wolf.”
They don’t react the way I expect. No pity. No mockery. Something flares in their eyes—recognition. Alarm. Something other.
“I had visions of being a wolf for days or weeks at a time, and of being hunted. I have no childhood memories before that. My first memory is that hospital bed. And my mom told me I needed meds to stay sane.”
I don’t realize I’m crying until Mal touches my cheek, wiping away the tears like they offend him. Rage pulses beneath his skin. Not at me—at the world.
“Luna, I need to research more, but I’ll see what I can find,” Selena says, already standing. “Mal, you might want to give her time to rest—”
Mal growls. It’s low, animalistic, and so irrationally hot that I want to throw something at him. Selena freezes, eyes narrowing. She studies Mal—his posture, his possessiveness, his hand still on my leg. I rip his other hand off my face, cheeks burning.
“We’re not dating,” I blurt. “He’s just… my only friend. He’s seen me ugly-cry before.”
Suspicion lingers in Selena’s eyes, but she nods and leaves. Mal watches her go like he wants to knock her teeth in.
When he turns to me, I ask, “Do you want to go?”
He doesn’t answer, so I grab his hand and guide it back to my cheek.
“Not until I fall asleep. If that’s okay.”
His smile is small and devastating. He pulls a chair up, takes my hand with both of his, and strokes my fingers until sleep drags me under.
Warmth. Safety. Him.
-----
When I wake, I’m alone. Morning sunlight burns through the blinds, too hopeful for how weird my life is. A fresh IV bag hangs beside me. I hear voices in the hallway—quiet, intense. Mal and Selena.
“It’s her fifth day here, Mal. She’s safe.”
“I’m not doubting the care, Selena. I’m doubting your incompetent scouts. They still haven’t found anything.”
“You think we haven’t tried?! We contacted every pack in the state! She doesn’t exist.”
I stop breathing.
Don’t exist?
“What about the people keeping her? We know them—”
“Mal, I tried. We know everything we can. I reached out to Mom and Dad—”
“You WHAT?!” he snarls. “I didn’t want them involved!”
“Why do you think they moved her here, dumbass? They know.”
Silence. Heavy, lethal.
The door slides open. Mal freezes when he sees me awake. His whole being shifts—anger crushed beneath worry.
He rushes to my side, takes my hand like he’s clinging to it.
“Hey, Lu. I wanted to be here when you woke up.”
Right. Pretend nothing happened. Pretend I didn’t hear that bombshell casually detonated outside my door.
I stare at him. Then, with all the petty spite in my soul:
“Mal. What’s an alpha?”
He stiffens. “Where did you hear that?”
“That’s what you and my dad called each other.” He shudders when I say “dad.”
Before he can lie, Selena walks in. “Mal, just tell her the truth.”
And they start again—silent arguing. Their eyes flick, their brows tense, their whole bodies speaking a language I don’t have access to.
“How are you doing that?” I demand. “The silent conversations? My parents did that too.”
Mal jerks away, withdrawing his hands like I’ve burned him. The warmth disappears, and I instantly regret opening my mouth.
Selena sits down, taking his place. “Luna, I’m going to tell you something that might make you feel less crazy. Are you willing to listen?”
“I just want the truth.”
“Luna, you’re not crazy. There are werewolves.”
Silence. The kind that presses on your lungs.
Mal stops pacing, watching me like I might shatter or attack.
“Werewolves?” I whisper.
“Yes,” Selena says. “Everything you experienced—your visions, the event with your father—they weren’t hallucinations. They were real.”
Relief hits me so hard I almost sob. Not crazy. Not broken. Real.
“Lu, are you okay?” Mal asks, terrified.
“I think… so? So werewolves exist. People who turn into wolves. Exist.”
“Yes,” they say together.
“And my father is one of them.”
“Yes,” Selena says cautiously. “Your father, Mark Lenning, was an alpha. A pack leader.”
“And this… is a pack?”
She hesitates. Looks at Mal. Then nods. “Yes. I’m the pack doctor.”
Cool. No big deal. Just living in a secret supernatural commune the whole time.
“Where was my father’s pack? Was he part of yours?”
“Absolutely not,” Selena snaps, too fast. That’s suspicious.
She collects herself. “Luna, when your parents told you to do something, did you feel compelled to obey? Even if you didn’t want to?”
The memories hit hard. The helplessness. The automatic compliance.
I nod.
“That is the alpha command. You obey without choice.”
“Then how did I disobey?”
Selena freezes. Looks at Mal. Calculates.
And then it slams into me.
My eyes widen. I stare at Mal—brooding, possessive, furious Mal.
“You,” I whisper. “You’re an alpha.”
- Writer
