The Moonheart Heir

Chapter 4: What Are You

The fight was over, but the quiet after it felt worse.

A cold wind came in through the broken window. It smelled like rain and broken wood and blood. My living room looked like a storm hit it. Chairs were knocked over. The TV was on the floor. Glass was everywhere. It crunched under my shoes every time I took a step.

I tried to take deep breaths. In. Out. In. Out. I was trying to calm down. Trying not to cry. Trying not to shake.

Lucian hadn’t moved.

He just stood there by the broken window. His back to me. His black coat still.

His silver eyes were staring out into the dark. Like he was waiting for the monster to come back.

The silence was too loud. I couldn’t take it anymore. “What” My voice shook so bad I could barely say it.

He didn’t answer. I swallowed hard, my throat felt dry. “What are you?” I asked.

Silence, ten seconds, twenty.

Then, very slowly, he turned to look at me. I couldn’t read his face at all. It was blank. Empty. “What did you hear?” he asked quietly.

He didn’t answer my question. He asked me instead. “What?” I frowned. My hands were shaking.

“The sounds,” he said. His eyes never left mine. “What sounds did you hear when we were fighting?”

A chill ran down my back.

How did he know? How could he know?

“I… I don’t know what you mean,” I lied. My hand grabbed the necklace at my chest without thinking. It felt cold.

“You do,” Lucian said softly, too soft. Like he was talking to a scared animal.

“You heard things a normal person can’t hear.”

His words hit me harder than the wolf did.

Because he was right. I heard the tap dripping in the bathroom. Drip. Drip. Drip.

I heard a bird far away outside, on a power line. I heard his heart beating. Slow. Steady.

I heard the monster breathing before I even saw it. Heavy. Wet. All those sounds were still ringing in my head. Too clear, too loud.

“How… how did you know that?” I whispered.

Lucian’s jaw tightened. For one second, I saw something on his face. Regret. Guilt. Then it was gone. “I was afraid this day would come,” he said. Then nothing.

Just silence again. But now I have even more questions than before. A second later, Lucian moved.

He walked to the floor and knelt down. There were deep claw marks in the wood. Four lines. Then five. Like something huge had dragged itself across my floor.

He ran his fingers over them slowly. Carefully. Like he was reading them.

He didn’t look scared. He didn’t look surprised.

He looked tired. Like he had seen this before. Many times.

I stood a few steps away. Frozen.

Lucian touched a dark spot on the floor. Blood. From the wolf. It was still wet.

He picked up a tiny drop with his finger and rubbed it between two fingers.

“Fresh,” he whispered. “Maybe ten minutes old.” “What was that?” I asked. My voice came out weak. Like a kid’s.

He ignored me.

He stood up and walked to the broken window. His black coat moved in the wind. Outside were just dark buildings and empty streets, no cars, no people.

His silver eyes moved across the rooftops. Scanning, searching.

Like he was looking for something. Or waiting for something else to attack.

My heart was pounding so hard it hurt.

“You knew this would happen,” I said. “Didn’t you?” No answer.

“You knew it was coming for me.”

Still nothing. I took a step closer. My feet crunched on glass. “Who are you?”

Finally, he spoke. “I’ve already told you too much,” he said. He paused. “But if you want to live…”

He turned to face me.

“Then you need to ask better questions.”

The room went quiet again.

And his words did nothing to make me feel better. They just made me more angry.

I gripped my necklace tighter. The metal dug into my palm.

“No,” I said.

Lucian stopped walking. “I’m done,” I said louder. “I’m done with this. With you. With all of it.” He turned a little. His face was still blank. But his eyes… his eyes looked old.

“What was that thing?” I yelled. My voice echoed in the broken room.

“Why did it call you alpha?

Who’s its boss?

Why did it say I belong to him?

What’s the Moonheart Heir?

And how do you know my mother’s name?”

All the questions came out at once. Like I’d been holding my breath for days.

I’d been holding them in since the cemetery.

Since I saw the blood on the gravestone.

Since the monster broke through my door.

Since this stranger appeared into my life and ruined everything.

Lucian just listened. He didn’t interrupt.

When I finished, I was out of breath. My chest hurt.

He looked away for a second. Out the window. Then back at me.

“If I answer all of that tonight,” he said slowly, “you won’t believe me. You’ll think I’m lying.”

“Let me decide that!” I snapped. Tears were burning my eyes now. “You don’t get to choose for me!”

“You broke into my home! You fought a monster in my living room! You know my mom! You know about this necklace! And you want me to just follow you with no answers? No explanation?”

For the first time, something changed on his face. It wasn’t anger, it wasn’t irritation,

it was sadness. Like pity, Like he felt sorry for me.

“I don’t need you to trust me,” he whispered. “I just need you to stay alive. That’s all I care about right now.”

That stopped me, because it sounded real.

Lucian looked back at the broken window.

And suddenly his whole body went stiff. Like someone pulled a string tight.

“They found us,” he said in a low voice.

Then we heard it.

A howl. Far away. Down in the valley.

Then another. Closer.

Then more.

nothing.

Two, three.

Ten.

So many. The sound bounced through the whole city. Off buildings. Down alleys.

It felt like the whole place had become their hunting ground.

My blood went cold.

“What are they?” I asked quietly. I was scared to say it louder.

Lucian walked to the window. He looked down at the street four floors below.

“They’re hunting,” he said. “For me?” My voice cracked.

“Yes.”

That one word broke me.

“No,” I shook my head. “This doesn’t make sense. I’m just… I’m just a normal person. I work at a bookstore. I drink too much coffee. I’m nobody.” “It doesn’t have to make sense,” Lucian said. He turned to face me and his eyes were serious. So serious. “It just has to be true.” Another howl. Closer this time.

Glass broke somewhere down on the street.

Then more glass.

A scream. A real human scream.

“They’re getting closer,” Lucian said.

“What do we do?” I asked. My voice was small now. “We run.” “Run? Run with you?”

“Yes.”

I laughed, but it wasn’t funny. I panicked. “And I’m supposed to trust you? I met you tonight. You could be one of them.”

“I don’t expect that,” Lucian said.

“I expect you to trust your gut. The part of you that heard the monster before it came. Trust that.” before I could answer, the whole building shook.

Dust fell from the ceiling. Pictures fell off the wall. The lights flickered.

Once.

Twice.

Then everything went dark.

In the dark, I heard it.

Scratch scratch

Right outside my apartment door. Slow. Careful. Patient.

Like it knew we were in here. Like it had all the time in the world.

Lucian’s voice was barely a whisper in my ear.

“They’re here.”