Under The Crescent Veil

28. HPS

Trigger warning: this chapter contains scenes similar to one of a school shooting. Read at your own risk!

In the quiet of the night, darkness blanketed the family home. A young girl slept peacefully until a loud bang shattered the calm, rousing her from slumber. Startled, she called out for her mother, but her voice was drowned out by the commotion downstairs.

Her parents hurriedly descended, their voices urgent as they tried to secure the doors against unseen threats outside. With every ounce of strength, they fought to protect their daughter, even as fear gnawed at the edges of their resolve.

Suddenly, another crash echoed through the house, sending a jolt of panic through the girl. Family photos crashed to the ground. The once three happy faces were cracked by the glass. The furniture was toppled, chairs and side tables lay on the floor, and the once tranquil home became a battleground in the darkness of the night.

A man, a woman, both kneeling on the wood floors, saying their last love confessions to one another. Guns were raised. Tension in the air. Panic and fear all around.

Shots.

Blood.

Screams.

With a jolt Nyx woke up, scrambling out of the bed making her way to the toilet, vomiting everything she drank the night earlier into the porcelain pot. Her head pounding, the nauseous feeling lingering. The hangover was not something Nyx accounted for.

If she knew yesterday this would be the horrible consequence for a night of feeling numb, she would have opted out. The nightmare together with a hangover wasn't the best combination.

She had no idea how she made it home, but it didn't matter. Today was Sunday and she would need to make most of the day to rest enough to be able to work the following day. Desperately she wanted to get some yogurt and fruit, but she still hadn't gotten her salary. Therefore she stuck with her peanut butter sandwiches. She despised the taste eating them for four weeks straight. But what other choice did she have? The last thing she wanted was to use any kind of help of Silas.

Nyx was mad at him, furious even. It was unfair of him to keep her in his pack but not being with her. It was pointless really. As she was going into the fourth week of working at the Lunar Academy, Nyx rather would be prosecuted as traitor by HPS than staying longer in Silas' pack, being reminded all the time of him.

She didn't know if it was love, liking, or comfort that she came to appreciate from Silas. Had she fallen for him? Nyx couldn't answer that question. But what she did know was that she liked the thought of being in his presence and getting attention from the Alpha.

The pure hatred Nyx once held for him had faded and was slowly replaced by the acceptance of being his mate and being around him.

Her loyalty for HPS had declined from the moment they started to kidnapping children, but there was also something else that made the loyalty loosen its grip. Something that she couldn't place, but slowly appeared from the background. The one thing that did linger was her hate for werewolves in general, but why that stayed she also didn't know.

It was all so complicated in her head and that's why escaping the situation was a better option in Nyx's mind than staying and hoping.

That Thursday of her fourth week Nyx was called in earlier to help Peter. For several days he was complaining about his backpain, caused by moving many boxes of junk and old supplies. Two classrooms were filled with them and they needed be cleared according to Helen as more students would transfer to the school soon.

Peter screamed another time out of pain. "These damned boxes!"

"Did you take any painkillers today?" Nyx sighed in irritation. Peter was the kind of man saying he didn't need painkillers – because he is a man – but whines like a baby. How blessed they were for not enjoying the magic of women's periods.