Discarded Luna

Mom

I wake up to the feel of someone rubbing my back in slow smooth circles. My wolf is gone, but I know who it is instantly. I groan and wrap my arms around my mother's waist.

"There, there." She says quietly, shifting so she sat closer to me.

"How are you here?" I mutter remembering where we were.

"The boy called me. He's really cute." Mom laughs at her own compliment. "So well mannered too. Wouldn't it have been nice if Mark hadn't been dropped as a baby?"

Her joke failed to make me laugh and we descend into silence. She continues to rub my back and I'm about to go back to sleep when she speaks again. "I felt it you know." She murmurs. "I couldn't link you, but I felt it. You calling for me. Oh, my poor pup. What happened?"

I debate telling her a lie, but the sadness in her voice convinced me otherwise. I told her tighter and tell her what happened. She patiently listened through my cries and sniffles and cracked words.

"Something weird is happening to me mom." I finish. "I'm really scared. I don't want to be the Luna anymore. He rejected me. Why can't everyone else? "

"...Two days." Mom says.

"What?" I ask confused.

"We can be gone in two days." Mom clarifies and I sit up to look at her. She was completely serious. "We need one day to get our essentials together and withdraw you kids from school. We'll call up Larry and he can make room for us in his hotel out of town. Then we'll take it from there. There's this really pretty beach I've been dying to visit. We went once when you were a pup. I don't think you'll remember."

She continues rambling on until I hold up a hand.

"You would be willing to move put of town just because I-" she cuts me off.

"You are my pup." She declares with all her motherly power. "If this being the Luna thing is hurting you, then we  don't have to stay here. Moving is easy. Losing you is hard. And this thing, it's changing you." She runs her hand through my hair and jerks her chin toward the mirror on the other side of the room. I follow her gaze and gasp when I see that the roots of my hair were coming out blond. At least an inch of blond lined my head.

"How..." I put my own hands in my hair, stretching strands this way and that. My hair had grown while I slept.

"I don't know." Mom brings my attention back to her when she stands. "We can leave right now and never look back. I thought you had to be around the Alpha, for your own sake, but now that doesn't matter. He doesn't matter."

"I can't ask you to do that Mom." I say my voice shaking with emotion.

"You're not asking me for anything. I am your mother and I will protect you any way I can. If that means going on a road trip around the country, then we're doing it." She smiles at my uncertain expression. "I'm pretty cool, huh? Beautiful too. Considerate, great driver, killer cook-"

"Mike-" I start.

"He's here. Playing with the cute boy. He's ready to go when you are." Mom says. "Honey is already packing."

"Dad too?" That has more years falling down my cheeks.

"Of course. He's the one that suggested it. He's rambling in my head right now. Says to tell you he loves you." She smiles again. "And wants to know whether you prefer your blue or pink slippers."

"Mom..." I cover my face with my hands. "I can't leave."

"Sure you can." I peek at her through my fingers. "You're not that great at school anyways. We'll home school you! I can finally take out my teacher costumes again." She does a quick spin as if she was already wearing her long flowing Victorian school teacher outfit.