Moonchild

Prologue

"You need to take it easy Aurie."

My lovely part-time roommate chides
when he walks in to find me out of bed and at my desk, laptop open. The small Native American slips his jacket off, revealing his long black hair still in the braid he had put it in last night. It makes me want to tug on it and let it out.

I know Cricket is not my mate...

But I'm pretty sure someone in his pack might be... Every time he comes back to campus after spending a weekend at home with his pack he always smells so good, but it's a faint smell. Like someone ruffled his hair and left a trail. It didn't help me try and keep him at arm's length to avoid getting hurt though...

Not that he's doing it on purpose. Cricket is like most omega's, overly affectionate and caring, which is partly why we get along so well. I suck at looking after myself, and ever since the school deployed our dance Corp to a tour of Asia over the summer Cricket has been there to quietly pick up the slack... Making sure I took my pain medicine on time, making sure I follow Doctors orders after each and every appointment, even going with me to some of them. Not that I minded.

Our friendship is an odd one. I had helped him order food one day after watching the poor guy accidentally order something too spicy during lunch in Seoul and had cried after the first bite. It took our chaperone forever to calm him down. Being the only actually Korean in our group, I took pity on him during dinner. He had stuck by my side the rest of the tour, and to my elation, he stayed there when we finally came back to the island. It's the closest thing I've ever had to any kind of pack connection. His friendship is cherished so I try not to upset him very often... Which would be why I let him fuss.

"Homework waits for no man. Not even me," I murmur, adjusting the tempo of the song I was editing as he pulls off his shoes in front of the door, a bag full of takeout on one arm and his backpack on the other.

Being put on bed rest doesn't give me a free ride to mess around. I'm still a scholarship case, I can't afford to accidentally fail a class just because my body can't seem to keep itself in check.

It's been harder to push past the pain and function as much as I need to call myself a Demon Academy student.
Even just sitting at my desk I needed two heating pads. One for my abdomen and one for my back, both on the highest setting.

"Dox told you to take it easy," Cricket sighs, knowing he's going to lose this argument, squinting his big brown eyes at my screen, " That project isn't even due till after winter break!" He squeals.

I flinch at the thought of the 3 month-long break that started in a few day's time. I'd go from having a roommate and a sorority full of brothers to being almost completely alone again.

I knew in the beginning that I shouldn't get attached to Cricket and the others when I joined one of the school's many blossoming dance troupes, the Omega Corp. It was the first place I ever thought of as home.

At first, I only joined because living in a dorm room that was meant to be for multiple members of a pack and having no pack to help fill it was slowly chipping away at my very being, not to mention the other wolves all get antsy around me. I told myself that the only reason Cricket even talked to me was that we were put in the same room.

At first, I was icy to all of them, they all treated me based off of how dominant pack members treated me because of my coloring and upbringing, but being on top of each other every day, Dancing as a team, traveling together for the school's community service and charity performances started to thaw all of us out until Cricket and I were friends, and the others were starting to see me as normal.

"I got you food." He chirps, handing me a to-go container of beef and broccoli from little Asia on campus, and a pair of chopsticks from our tiny kitchenette.
I could have done it myself, but Cricket had been going out of his way the last two days to make sure I moved as little as possible.

"Cricket, you don't have to act like I'm going to break. I just fainted." I grind through my teeth as he takes a pillow from our little couch and offers it to me for better back support.

"Aurie," Cricket grinds his teeth right back, narrowing his chocolate eyes at me, "you didn't just faint this time. Or did you forget that your stomach looks like an abstract painting from the internal bleeding popping that cyst caused? Or the fact that your last heat was SO BAD that I had to help Dox pack your body in ice just to try and keep you from having a stroke? Learn to take a hint before you do more damage."

I can't exactly tell him he's wrong as I slide my hand under the heating pad to press against the wreckage that it my abdomen at the moment, even the light pressure making me wince.

Cricket doesn't understand...

None of them did really, except for the campus's resident witch Doctor and that was only because his vampire boyfriend Alex is just as stubborn as I am when it comes to fighting our way to the top.

You don't step foot on this campus with the purpose of taking it easy.

Being a part-time student and taking a smaller course load, I just don't think Cricket's going to ever understand.

I don't have a pack to back me up and support me like the rest of them do.

I have to fight twice as hard to be taken seriously. To even get here. All I have ever had was music and dancing. When the health problems started I knew it would get worse, but the pain melts away when the music starts, always have. It calls to both my wolf and I like heroin.

"I was talking to my Alpha this morning, " Cricket says around the last bite of his scallion pancake bringing me out of my beef and broccoli induced haze. We had eaten mostly in silence, other than me unplugging my headphones and let the soft music melt itself all over the room while we filled up on msg.

"Yeah?"

He nods thoughtfully, "We were wondering if you'd like to spend Winter break with our pack?"