Moon God Mates

Chapter 23

IRIS’ POV:

“This isn’t good,” Ana mutters, circling the room for the tenth time with her hands on her head. I briefed her on my conversation with Luke and how he wanted both James and me to leave with him.

“You’re telling me,” I say, eyeing her suspiciously. “I’m not sure why you’re freaking out more than I am. He was bound to come back and try to meet his son eventually.”

Attempting to calm my friend, who looks like she is on the verge of passing out, I can’t shake my confusion about why she was so distressed. I hadn’t even freaked out this much. Well, maybe I did, but why is she?

“Ana!” I call, snapping her out of her trance. “What is going on?”

She looks at me sympathetically. “Oh, Iris.”

I can’t discern her exact feelings as she avoids making eye contact, but knowing my best friend, this "best friend" is harboring guilt about something. Ana sits down next to me on the bed, crossing her legs and facing me.

“I just thought we had more time, and there is just a lot you don’t know.”

"Oh God, this again!?" I utter, frustration evident in my tone. "You sound just like Luke and Mason." I roll my eyes; this is so infuriating.

“Wait, what?” She grabs my arms. “What did they tell you?”

“Ouch!” I wiggle free from her grip. “Nothing. We can talk about it later.” I feel a sudden heat at the thought of the wolves' secret. Technically, they never said it was a secret, but I don’t even understand it; how am I supposed to explain it to my best friend?

"Can we please just change the subject?” I protest the skeptical look she is throwing my way. She’s reading me. After all these years of friendship, it has gotten hard to hide anything from her. I stand from the bed, trying to escape her glare, but she stands with me and blocks my path.

“You know; don’t you?” She questions.

“Know what?” I move away slightly but she blocks me again.

Don’t make eye contact, Don't make eye contact…

“You know what they are.”

I laugh nervously, but somehow I know that she also knows what I am trying, and failing, to hide. “What, who is Ana? This is nonsense.” I sure as hell am not going to be the first one to say it out loud.

There is a pause before Ana’s eyes soften on me. “You know that they are werewolves.”

I gasp and back up until my knees hit the bed. I knew it! Wait, she knew it! How? Why is she so calm about it? How long has she known? I look up at her confused; the one person I thought I knew, the one person who has been with me for as long as I can remember, has been keeping a secret as big as this from me.

“Iris, you weren’t supposed to find out yet. We were going to keep you safe. Luke wasn’t supposed to tell you! That son of a b***h!” Ana slams her hands onto the dresser.

“Luke wasn’t the one who told me, but that’s beside the point,” I feel my anger grow. “You knew?” I yell. “You knew all this time and you didn’t tell me? My son, James, is a werewolf, and you didn’t think it was something that I needed to know!?” I circle the room because I am fuming.

“How? No, why? You’re my best friend; you're practically my sister. Why would you hide something like this from me? I’m his mother!”

“Iris, please sit down and let me explain.”

I turn to her viciously. “Now you want to explain? My son is almost five years old, Ana, and now you want to tell me about the existence of werewolves!? What, you want to tell me there are more than just werewolves? Are vampires walking the halls too!?”

She takes a seat on the bed. “Well...”

“Oh my God,” I slump down next to her. “What kind of world do I live in?” How could I have missed this? I feel like a horrible mother; how could I not know my son wasn’t human? Were there signs that I missed?

I take in a huge breath of air. “Ana, are you a? I mean, are you one too?”

“No, Iris, I am not a werewolf. Um, I'm a Hunter, so technically, I am human.”

“A Hunter?” I let the word circle my mind, thinking back to any werewolf shows I have ever watched; Teen Wolf is all I can come up with.

“Like Allison? The girl who kills werewolves? James is a werewolf, and Mason.”

Ana doubles over in laughter, explaining, "Yes and no. Hunters don't primarily target werewolves anymore. They can hunt anything, which instilled fear in people and led to retaliation against us. Now, there are very few hunters left, even fewer in our area. Before Mason assumed control of the territory, rogue wolves hunted here. He became our Alpha and saved us, transforming the town into a sanctuary." I can't help but admire Mason even more for rescuing my best friend, even if he didn't realize he did it.

“Iris, there’s more.”

I roll my eyes, “Of course there is.” I lay back on the bed and look up at the ceiling, waiting to wake up from this nightmare.

“Iris, you were born into a family of Hunters too. Your family is, well, one of the purest hunter lines. In other words, Iris, you're a Royal Hunter.”

I shoot upwards, almost giving myself whiplash, “Ha ha, super funny.” I smack her arm. “As if this isn’t enough to handle already; you want to make jokes?”

Ana grabs my hand in hers, and suddenly I feel all the tension in the room grow. “Iris,” she looks at me.

Is she serious?

I look at her.

She looks at me.

I look at her again; she is serious.

“Hold on, so on top of me just finding out about humans that transform into animals; my son being one of them, my best friend lying to me my whole life; that being you, you want me to also believe I’m some royal Hunter?” I shake my head like that is going to help me in this situation at all.

Yeah, Iris, just keep denying what's right in front of you; that will get us out of it. “I think I would know if I was some mighty hunter.”

“You have never pushed your strengths, Iris. You have never needed to. But trust me, your abilities are there; you just need to train them.”

She is right; I'm not an athletic person. The closest I've been to joining a team was Track in High School. It only lasted a week before the girls started making fun of how fast I was. You’d think they would be happy with the fast kid on their team, but no, I was the weird fast kid. Anyway, I left the team. But I don't think that’s a sign of me not being normal. That just means I was blessed with an athletic gene.

"I know this is overwhelming. That's why Luke and I promised to keep you both safe. Iris, you weren't meant to learn about this yet. Our plan was to leave here, all of us, and go into hiding to protect James and keep you concealed."

"What do you mean keep James safe!? Is my son in danger?" I jump up, suddenly sweating.

“Iris, stop,” I am dragged back by my arm, “You can’t ever tell anyone what you are. No one can sense it since your bloodline is strong. But if they knew, you would have packs of werewolves hunting you down. If trained properly, you could be more deadly than a whole pack of werewolves. That’s why your father Orion left; his face is known by packs all over the world. He had a witch cast a spell on James and me before he did. Since James is a mix of royal Hunter blood and werewolf, only a spell can conceal his hunter side. You are pure blood, your scent is human; it's another royal hunter ability that makes you even more deadly. No one will see you coming.”

That’s not true. I know one person who always sees me coming. Mason.

“Iris, once James shifts for the first time, we’re not sure how well his scent will be masked if masked at all.”

I stand in a daze trying to figure all of this out. “So no one has come after me because my bloodline gives off no scent but since my son is mixed, people will know he is a royal hunter,” I say out loud just to make sure I understand all of this. “They will come for him and do what? Use him for their benefit?” I feel sick when she nods in confirmation.

So pretty much my whole life is a lie. My father left to protect us, so I resented him all these years for no reason. Is that why my mom resents me so much; because he left her to protect me?

Also, James is supposed to shift into a werewolf soon. And when he does, he will be tracked down like a freaking animal? I don’t care about anything else; I need to make sure James is safe.

"I need to be with my son," I declare, rushing to open the door before Ana can protest.

As I swing the door open, I come face to face with Mason, Luke, and Cole standing outside the doorway. Shock is evident on the brothers' faces, while Luke appears angry, though that's nothing new. Cole is the first to break the tension with a low whistle. "Never a dull moment around here."