HIS WHITE LUNA

Chapter 4 - CODE MOONFALL

He was still walking across the football field.

Sebastian Cole.

Black suit, hands in pockets, like he was taking a stroll on a normal Tuesday. Human kids moved out of his way without seeing him, their faces blank, like they suddenly remembered they had to be somewhere else. That's the Godless Veil. Humans see nothing wrong.

But every wolf kid on that field froze. I saw a junior girl from my math class — I never knew she was a wolf — drop her backpack and start shaking, eyes flashing yellow. A teacher, Coach Millen — growled low in his throat and stepped in front of his students, even though he couldn't see what was coming.

Valentina burst out of the tunnel after us, bleeding from her nose, silver eyes dull. She saw Sebastian walking and her face went white as paper.

"No no no, he's in Veil, the humans will—"

"Principal?" A human teacher ran up to her, panicked. "Principal! Fire department is three minutes out, we need headcount! What happened?"

Valentina didn't answer. She was staring at Sebastian, hands shaking.

Harrison stepped in front of me. His claws were out fully now, black and sharp, ripping through his fingertips. His shirt was gone, just muscle and faint black fur running up his neck. He smelled like storm and iron.

"He's empty," Harrison whispered, more to himself than to us. "That's why he's strong. There's nothing inside to hold him back."

"What?" I grabbed his arm — hot, too hot. My burning wrist scar stopped burning the second I touched him, like his heat cancelled Sebastian's cold.

Brayden was on his knees, white eyes rolling, seeing too much at once. "I see it! I see it now! Ten years ago! On Blood Moon! He didn't burn the packs with fire—"

"He made a deal," Valentina finished, voice hollow. "Sebastian was born Godless. No wolf. In Blackthorn, that means you are Omega. Bottom. Weakest child in history. You don't eat with pack. You don't train. You clean blood off the floor after training."

She looked at Harrison, sad. "Your father... Alpha King... he tried to love him. He adopted him. Gave him his name. Sebastian King. He thought love could give him a wolf."

"My father gave him everything," Harrison growled, gold eyes locked on Sebastian who was now only fifty feet away, still walking slow. Click. Click. "And Sebastian killed him. On Blood Moon. Stabbed him with silver while he slept. Because—"

"Because someone answered him," Ethan whispered, flickering so badly he was almost gone. "The Veil. The old God. The thing that lives where Moon Goddess doesn't look. It said, 'I will fill your emptiness if you bring me a White Luna.'"

Sebastian stopped walking. Twenty feet away now. Close enough I could see his face clearly. He was younger than I thought. Maybe twenty-five. Perfect skin. Lips too red, like he'd been drinking something red.

He was smiling at me. Not at Harrison, not at Valentina. At me. Like we were the only two people on the field.

"Hi, Isla," he said, voice carrying even though he spoke softly. The wind carried it weirdly, too clear. "You grew pretty."

Valentina stepped forward, raising her hands. The air around her shimmered silver.

"Sebastian Cole! By treaty of four packs—"

"I am not Cole anymore," he said pleasantly, adjusting his cufflinks. Human teachers near him frowned, confused, hearing a normal man. "And treaties are for wolves. I told you, I have no wolf."

He lifted one hand out of his pocket. Just his hand. No claws.

The air bent.

All the human kids on the field suddenly grabbed their throats, coughing.

"What—" A teacher coughed.

Valentina screamed, "He's poisoning air! He's using—"

Then a different alarm started. Not fire alarm. A deep, mechanical alarm from inside the school itself, from speakers we never knew existed.

[CODE MOONFALL. CODE MOONFALL. SEAL PROTOCOL INITIATED.]

A robotic female voice boomed over the entire school grounds, from hidden speakers in the football posts, in the trees, in the chapel stones.

[CHEMICAL LEAK. ACTIVATING ARGON FOG.]

And from vents in the ground — vents I never knew were there, around the football field, around the chapel — white gas hissed out. Thick, heavy, white fog, fast, covering everything in seconds. Like dry ice stage effect but huge.

"What tha...?" Harrison stared, gold eyes wide. "We have argon fog? My father owns this school! I didn't know we had that!"

Valentina's mouth dropped open. "The old packhouse protocol! I thought your father deactivated it after war! It was for—"

For escaping.

The fog was so thick now I couldn't see Sebastian twenty feet away. I couldn't see the human teachers. Only four faces close to me — Harrison, Brayden, Ethan, all looking at each other through white gas.

And in that second, in the white, I saw their thoughts without them saying it.

We all nodded. Same nod.

Enough.

Valentina had lied for ten years. She made me think I was human. She made Harrison think he had to forget his own mate bite on a playground. She made Brayden bleed. She made Ethan flicker.

We needed air. Real air. Not her secrets.

Ethan grabbed Valentina's wrist — solid now, not flickering — and before she could react, Brayden yanked the heavy old chapel door open.

Harrison pushed her — gently but firmly — back toward the tunnel entrance, back into the fog-covered field side, away from us, away from the chapel.

"No!" Valentina realized too late. She tried to push forward, silver light flashing in her palms. "No! You can't lock me out! He is still out there! Isla!"

We slammed the ancient chapel doors.

They were heavy stone, older than the school. There was an old wooden bar on the inside — a pack bar, for when Alphas needed to talk without interruption. Ethan dropped it into place with a THUD that echoed like a gunshot.

THUD.

Silence on our side. Shouting on the other side.

"Isla! Harrison! Open this door!" Valentina banging, silver light cracking against stone. "He will use the fog! Godless can see through veil! Open! That's an order!"

I leaned against the door, breathing hard, tears finally coming. White light leaking from my eyes, from my nails. My scar burning again.

"We are sorry, Valentina," I shouted through the wood, voice cracking, "but this is a lot to take in! We need some time alone! You told me I was human for ten years! You let me think I was crazy for seeing things!"

"It's for your safety!" she screamed, hitting the door. The stone didn't move. The bar held. "He is right there! He is right outside in fog! He will—"

Her voice cut off.

Not because she stopped shouting.

Because on the other side of the fog, on the other side of her, someone started clapping. Slow. Polite. One clap at a time.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Sebastian's voice, muffled through stone and fog but clear, amused:

"Well. That was unexpected. Children locking out their teacher. How... human of you."

Harrison spun, pushing me behind him instantly, claws out, back against the door, gold eyes burning so bright they lit the dark chapel interior.

Brayden's white eyes went pure white, blind. "He's not outside anymore."

Ethan flickered and went fully invisible from fear, but I could feel his cold hand still holding mine.

"What do you mean not outside?" Harrison snarled at Brayden.

Brayden turned slowly, slowly, looking up. At the chapel. Which had no roof. Only open sky. And fog above.

"He's above us," Brayden whispered.

And through the white argon fog swirling over the open roof, a shadow fell over us — a man's shadow, in a perfect black suit, standing on air itself, looking down into the roofless chapel at the four of us trapped inside.

Sebastian smiled down.

"Found you," he said softly.