DISCOVERING I'M A HYBRID LUNA

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Maya’s Pov

I didn’t know what exactly woke me up, maybe the sunlight pouring in through the slits in the curtain, or just that quiet tension in my chest that never really let me sleep deep. Either way, I was awake, and it took me a second to remember where I was.

The pack.

Not home. Not the Hawke estate. Definitely not my own room.

Just... here. With people I didn’t know, wolves I didn’t understand but say I belong, and a Luna I wasn’t sure I could trust.

I sat up slowly. My back ached from the unfamiliar mattress, and the sheets were stiff, almost military neat. After the last encounter with Luna Anya, my mind had been doing laps. Something about her didn’t sit right with me. Not in the way that screamed danger or hostility, but more like... don’t turn your back.

Still, I wasn’t going to label her as anything yet. I told myself maybe that’s just how she had to be. Maybe leading a pack meant trading softness for something colder and rigid. Maybe she’d earned her bite. And maybe, just maybe, I was reading too much into it.

I let it go. At least for now.

By the time I stepped outside, the air smelled like pine and wet leaves. The cabins were lined neatly, smoke curling lazily from one or two chimneys. Wolves were already moving, training, patrolling, going about things like they’d done this their whole lives. I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be doing, so I just stood there, taking it all in.

And then Louis showed up. Of course he did. I’d half expected him.

“Morning,” he said, hands in his pockets, that unreadable smirk on his face.

“You always show up when I need someone to make things weirder,” I said, but I couldn’t help smiling.

He shrugged. “It’s a talent.”

He looked me over, not in a creepy way. More like he was checking if I’d slept, if I’d eaten, if I still looked like the girl he knew.

“Doing okay?”

I nodded, then paused. “I like it here. But I miss home.”

He blinked. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. I miss Mr. and Mrs. Hawke. I miss town. I don't miss school now but I'm sure I will later on… I miss Zelda too.”

“Zelda too?” He repeated my words like it was a joke, but the moment he saw my face, he shut up. “Wait. You do?”

“I know how it sounds. But yeah.”

He just stared at me like he was trying to solve a puzzle with missing pieces.

“She hated you. Tried to get rid of you.”

“Still. I don’t hate her back. That’s the strange part. I think she just… felt small. And when people feel small, they hurt other people to make themselves feel taller. That doesn’t make it okay. But it makes it make sense.”

He didn’t say anything. For once, Louis didn’t have a comeback. Just that look in his eyes like I’d said something he hadn’t expected.

“Luna Anya wants me to show you around today,” he said finally. “The rest of the territory. Places you haven’t seen.”

I squinted at him. “Was that her idea? Or yours?”

He raised a brow. “Does it matter?”

“It does if you’re using her as an excuse to hang out with me.”

“Then yeah,” he said easily. “Anything that keeps me close to you is a good enough excuse.”

I rolled my eyes, but inside, something uncoiled a little. I didn’t say it, but... I liked hearing it.

“I’ll get ready.”

It didn’t take long. I threw on something casual but warm, pulled my hair back, and stepped outside just in time to see Louis in his car, arm hanging lazily out the window.

He tapped the horn once.

I got in without asking questions. I didn’t need to.

We didn’t talk much during the drive. But the silence wasn’t awkward. It was... charged. Every now and then, I caught him watching me. I pretended not to notice.

Then the landscape started to shift. Trees gave way to rolling fields. Hills. Water. Land that looked untouched, like no one had walked there in years. It was wild and clean, the kind of place stories came from.

“This is still pack land?” I asked, pressing my hand to the window.

“Technically,” Louis said. “But nobody’s claimed this side yet. No construction. No politics. Just space.”

He pulled into a clearing. There was a dock at the edge of a narrow lake, water still as glass. The kind of still that made it feel unreal.

I stepped out first.

And just... looked.

No buildings. No voices. No townspeople. Just birds and sky.

“You brought me here for a reason,” I said without turning.

I could feel his eyes on me.

“Maya,” he said, and his voice had that little shift in it. The kind people only use when they’re about to tell you something that could ruin them.

I turned. He was nervous. I could see it in the way his hands clenched by his sides.

“I—” he started. Then stopped. “I don’t know how to say this.”

His eyes flicked to the lake, like maybe he could find the words floating out there.

I waited.

He took a breath. Ran a hand through his hair. “Okay. Never mind.”

“No,” I said, turning to face him. “You can't do that, you were about to say something. You have to say it.”

He laughed under his breath but it was hollow. “I was going to, yeah.”

“So say it.”

He looked at me then, really looked. Like he was measuring something invisible between us.

“Maya,” he said again, quieter this time. His voice didn’t waver, but something in it had weight. Like he was carrying a memory on his back and it was getting too heavy.

“I want to,” he said. “But I don’t think I should.”

That made me take a step closer.

“Why not?”

“Because once I say it, I can’t take it back.”

I folded my arms. “Is it something bad?”

“No.”

“Then what is it?”

He didn’t answer.

My heart started to thump harder, not from fear. From knowing. From that deep, coiled sense in your gut when someone stands on the

edge of a cliff and you’re waiting to see if they’ll jump.

“What were you going to say?” I asked.

Silence.

“Is it about me?”