Werewolf Baby

Chapter 23.

"Don't worry about it," Shay says nonchalantly as she sipped on her cup of coffee.

I stared at her, absently rubbing my cheek. That was not what I had expected from her. What I had expected was more like the solid punch she had delivered right out when she saw me.

"What?"

Shay sighed and rolled her eyes, "You might be a Once Wolf, but you're still a human. That was the exact point of the trial: for you to beat me to near death. And that's what you did. Both packs are completely blown away, they don't want to admit this yet, but they're excited to have you as their Luna."

"Really?" Reed piped up.

Shay nodded, "Who wouldn't want a total badass as a Luna. Too bad she's only badass on the full moon."

Shay gasped and laughed to herself, "The Hunters don't even know about you! And it wasn't even the full moon last night! This is gonna be amazing!" she cackled.

This was not happening the way I had expected it to. The last thing I had expected was to see Shay cackling on her couch while sipping coffee. I had expected her to be sickly, laying in bed, staring at the ceiling while machines beeped dramatically all around us. I had expected her to turn her head away when she saw me walk in and start crying as I apologized over and over again.

Instead, the second the word "I'm" slipped out of my mouth Shay stopped me and made us sit down before she said anything else. The ice she had given me to put on my cheek for a little while was melting and no longer necessary. I just stared at it in my lap, trying to understand what was going on.

"What's a Once Wolf?" I looked up at Shay.

She looked at me stared as if she were staring right through me. Like staring through my eyes long enough would make a portal she could step through to get to the person she wanted to smack for not telling me what a Once Wolf is.

"It's what you are, kid." Another gulp of coffee following her short answer.

"Oh," I said quietly.

Shay looked at me for a while. She looked me up and down as if taking in every single detail and matching it up to the creature I had turned into the night before. She shook her head in wonder and stood up, "If that's it, you can leave now."

We stood up and made our way to the door. As we were walking down the porch steps Shay called one last thing to me.

"I'm glad I was beaten by you, even if you are tiny and it's a little humiliating. But I don't want it to happen again, you hear me?" she shouted. "Chain up in three nights."

She closed the door.

Just another thing no one had told me. It seemed like Shay, the person who used to hate me, was the only one who actually told me anything. Maybe it was because she hoped the bluntness of her words would hurt me, maybe it was because she was just honest all the time. Maybe it was because, despite the fact that she hated me, she hated clueless people even more and if she was going to have a human Luna, she might as well have a smart human Luna that knows what she's doing when she bosses her around.

We walked back to the Pack House in silence. Another surprise awaited me there, not a good one unfortunately, and it came in the shape of Reed's father.

"Alpha James Hawkins is waiting with your father in the kitchen." Joshua said grimly as we entered.

Reed sighed and rubbed his eyes, "I apologize in advance," he mumbled to me.

We walked into the kitchen. There was something rancid in the air that felt like it was stabbing the inside of my nose. It was sharp and made me want to run away to something sweet smelling that could comfort me.