Luna | The Wolves of Lusana [Vol. 2]

One

With a long sigh, I dropped the large leather-bound books on the beautifully crafted mahogany table, the weight of them easing instantly as soon as they left my arms. The library was unusually busy today. But despite the crowds, none of the conversations around me were above a low whisper which I was thankful for. The one thing that irritated me more was people who were unnecessarily loud in a library. Clearing my throat, I took my seat, popping my neck before getting ready to dive into the stack of books I had in front of me, only to be jolted from my relaxed and totally focused state when one of my best friends ran toward me.

"Happy birthday girl!" My best friend, Clarissa, said while hugging me from behind.

"Oh, thank you Clarissa!" I smiled as she took her seat beside me, plopping her books down along with her laptop, "At least you remembered, unlike some people."

"What? Did Andrew forget?" Clarissa asked, I knew she was starting to get angry and all I could do was nod, "Oh! That Mother— Just wait till I talk to him; I'll give him a piece of my mind."

"No, no, Clarissa wait! It's fine, it's, it's," I sighed, "I know, it's an asshole move but maybe he's pretending to forget. Like I don't know, a surprise party?"

The look on Clarissa's face said that I was most definitely wrong. "Maybe, hey have you seen Eliza? She was supposed to be here an hour ago."

"Um, no I haven't. She said she was busy I guess with her new boyfriend. Um, what was his name? Liam, I think." I replied, turning to the tomes in front of me, completely forgetting my task at hand.

Clarissa hummed, unimpressed, "Well, she better get here soon we have an article to write."

"What's this one about?

"The differences between born wolves and bitten wolves." Clarissa replied, looking over at me, her eyes taking on an otherworldly golden glow, "I wasn't a huge fan of pointing out the difference between us bitten wolves and naturally born ones, but it is what it is." She shrugged, tossing her blonde hair back into a ponytail.

Clarissa was bitten three years prior, though she has a pack, she regularly visits those she knew when she was human and I was thankful that despite the fact she was no longer human, it didn't change who she was. She still wanted to have some semblance of normalcy in our friend group even if we weren't all the same species anymore.

"Hey, Clara, sorry I'm late I, uh, had a rough morning." Eliza called running up to us her dark-colored skin glowing while her usually unruly curls were even more of a mess than usual, "Hey Em, happy birthday."

"Thank you." I smiled, catching a whiff of a man's cologne, which I instantly recognized as the one my husband wore. Did Liam and Andrew wear the same cologne? Pushing the thought away, I turned back to my books. "It looks like you did have a rough morning."

She blushed and looked away, "Yeah, it was, it was fun." She cleared her throat, and I couldn't help but chuckle. "Anyways, I should probably get to work."

God, how I missed those days. I wasn't going to be naive to the fact that Andrew and I have had our problems, I just thought it was stress. And when I brought up children well, let's just say he wasn't too fond of that idea. With a sigh, I flipped open one of the leatherbound tomes and carefully flipped to the page I had left off from my last trip to the library. The tome was old, possibly dating back to the early 1700s. I was surprised it was still together after all of these years.

Excitement filled me as I began to decipher the lettering, writing in my notebook so I could finish writing at home. I, unfortunately, forgot my laptop. I guess I could write it on my phone but that seemed like too much work.