The Hidden Luna

Chapter Sixteen

 "I want to punch her in the face," Scarlett snapped as she attacked the bag.

Zion chuckled, trying to keep the bag steady. "Lilith is definitely a piece of work."

She stopped punching the bag and looked at Zion. "So, you know her?"

"Oh, yeah," Zion sighed. "She's been here her whole life. Now she works as the pack recruiter. She travels, finds strays and brings them here if she thinks they're a good fit. If we're lucky, she's gone for months at a time."

"You don't seem to like her very much," Scarlett said, tilting her head to the side.

He scratched the back of his head and winced. "She's not particularly fond of werewolves who were bitten."

Scarlett let out a laugh. To her, it was so ridiculous to hate someone based on how they came to be a werewolf. Even more so, it seemed even more ridiculous that she was standing in the middle of the room with someone, genuinely talking about werewolves in general. For whatever reason, Scarlett couldn't stop laughing, to the point tears sprung out of her eyes and she fell to the floor.

Watching her lose her mind, Zion started to laugh too, probably thinking Scarlett had officially gone crazy. He fell beside her as they both were laughing, filling the room with it.

"I mean," Scarlett wheezed in between laughs. "She is prejudiced against werewolves. Werewolves."

Zion laughed harder at that. "If you told me ten years ago, I'd be a werewolf, I would've said you were crazy."

"Oh, my God," she choked out as she wiped a tear from her cheeks. "Zion, we are werewolves. We have paws."

If it were even possible, Zion laughed even harder. "And fur."

"And tails," Scarlett added.

They went silent for a moment but then they exchanged a look, they burst out laughing all over again, their faces as red as a tomato.

From behind them, the door slammed and Zion and Scarlett stopped abruptly. Asher stood at the door; his arms crossed. "Zion, can I have a moment alone with Scarlett please?"

Wordlessly, Zion left the room, knowing there was no use in arguing. Asher walked over to her and his expression was unreadable. "I'm sorry about Lilith."

"You shouldn't be the one apologizing," Scarlett replied, standing up straight and dusting off her leggings. "Lilith is the one with the stick up her ass."

Asher snorted at that. "She shouldn't have talked to you like that."

"Does she like you?" She asked, tightening her ponytail and placing her hands on her hips.

"Yes," he answered honestly. "We've known each other our whole lives, so she thinks that she has some sort of claim on me."

"Well she doesn't," Scarlett snapped.

Asher took a step forward and took her hands. "Trust me, I've made that clear." He tugged on her hands slightly. "Do you regret last night?"

"What?" Scarlett asked, taking a step backwards. "No, not at all. Why would you ask that?"

"You've been going through so much lately; I was just scared that maybe you were caught up in the moment—" he stopped for a moment. "—and then I see you laughing with Zion. Scar, why don't you ever laugh like that with me?"

"Ash," she sighed. Scarlett tried wracking her brain as to how she wanted to word what she had to say. "Zion is my friend. He only sees the small, unimportant aspects of me, the not-so-serious parts. But you? Ash, you see everything. Sometimes, it's easier to laugh with someone who doesn't see the whole picture because they don't know it." Scarlett took a deep breath and continued. "Zion sees me as someone he can relate to because we were both bitten. Yeah, I could joke with you about how weird it is to be a werewolf, but you wouldn't truly get it. Zion does. He gets what it's like to have your world changed out of the blue, to learn how to accept your new fate and make jokes about it. I need that sort of understanding right now, Ash."