The Forsaken Luna

CHAPTER THREE

Mackenzie

"We're skipping this period." I tell Natalie the second Elliot's scent gets lost. Natalie's babbling comes to a stop when she processes my words and a surprised expression appears on her face. "What?" She blurts out as I grab her wrist and pull her behind me. I head to the double doors of the school, feeling how Natalie aimlessly follows me.

"Wait! Mack, I don't understand!" Natalie tries to pull her hand from my iron grip, but her attempts are futile. I turn around to face her, my lips pressed in a thin line and my eyebrows furrowed.

"I need to tell you something important. And it can't wait any longer." I whisper, which makes her protesting stop. A serious expression crosses her face and she nods. We head out of the school and I dig my hand into my jacket for the car keys, but then I realize Elliot drove me to school today.

"Crap, I don't have the car keys." I grumble in annoyance. I turn to look at my best friend to see if she has any bright plans. "We can go to the woods." Natalie suggest and I nod a little, as we head to the lacrosse field. Luckily, there are no classes outside. We head for the forest as quick as possible, making sure we don't get caught.

We go deep into the woods, keeping clear from the Midnight pack's invisible borders that only I can sense.

"What's going on, Mack? You're getting me worried." Natalie speaks up after minutes of walking through the woods in silence. I stop next to a large tree that gives me shade from the warm sun. I glance back to her, my hands curling up into fists by my sides.

"It's about Elliot." I tell her, turning around to face her. Nat's expression becomes even more concerned now. "What is it? Does he want to have sex? Is he forcing you to do something you don't want to? Do I have to kick his ass?" Her questions make a laugh bubble out of my throat. God, I love her.

"No, of course not. He's... he's perfect when it comes to things like that." My voice is laced with sadness when I tell that and Natalie furrows her eyebrows. God, I wish it would be some of the things Nat named right now. I wish Elliot would be trying to convince me to mate with him or do some things I am still not comfortable with. But he's perfect when it comes to that. He knows exactly how far he can go with me and what I'm comfortable with.

"It's about the secret." I tell her and Nat's concerned expression shifts a little. She shakes her head a little, her pink hair brushing against her shoulders. "I told you he'll tell you everything when he'll be ready. You just have to keep your-"

"My heart open for him? Yeah, I tried doing that. And we were successful because he did open up to me. And now I know who he is." I cut her off with a monotone voice, but Natalie doesn't seem to be bothered by my tone of voice. "See? I told you he's keeping secrets from you to protect you!" Natalie tells me in a cheerful tone. But my best friend notices the blank expression on my face.

I can see how her body tenses and I smell how her mood shifts. The concern comes back and it's a sharp smell that bothers my nose.

"Nat... he's still keeping secrets from me." I tell her and that's when my best friend realizes it's not just because he'd want to protect me. He told me his whole backstory and how he was mistreated in the Midnight pack. But still he's avoiding me, keeping secrets from me.

"They had a territory in Canada before they came here. They were in Canada for fourteen years." I pause, glancing at her face to see her expression. "My father thought they'd never come back, that they abandoned the territory here. So when they came back unexpectedly, the war between our packs started because we roamed through their territory. The night Elliot told me about his past, he said they lost the territory in Canada. I asked him how they lost it and he avoided my question, saying it's far too painful to talk about it."