me, him, and the moon ☾ l.s.

seven - everything is not what it seems

"Louis! Lou, I need your help!"

Louis jumped out of bed immediately, still rubbing sleep from his eyes as he tugged a shirt over his head. One glance out the window told him that it was nearing midnight, the moon shining almost fully overhead. He ran down the stairs, thankful that his father was out on a two-day patrol of the border. The head alpha would not have been pleased by the disturbance.

He yanked the front door open, revealing a desperate-looking Niall on the other side, his fist raised to pound on the door again. "What's wrong?" Louis demanded immediately, hurrying outside and pulling the door closed behind him.

"It's Harry," Niall said, and Louis's heart sank.

Even though somehow, some part of him already knew.

"We were supposed to hang out tonight, but he never came home from his shift. I went to the infirmary to look for him, and one of the nurses said he went out into the woods to restock ingredients three hours ago," Niall explained, bordering on out of breath from how quickly he was recounting the story. "He never came back. It barely takes half an hour to finish a restock, and Harry's always so quick about it --"

"Okay, stay here. I'm going to find him." Despite the stress and tension building up inside of him at the thought of Harry, scared and alone in the forest, Louis forced himself to relax. He exhaled deeply as he loosened his control on the raging alpha inside of him. His claws pushed out of his fingers, and his teeth bared into sharp fangs, fully prepared for whatever he encountered when he found Harry. He gave Niall one more reassuring nod before taking off running into the forest.

Louis caught Harry's familiar scent easily, and he bolted into the thick treeline, mentally cursing the younger boy for his innocent view of the world. Just like the night they met four years before, Harry never understood the true dangers of the forest.

The trail led him toward the river, and his stomach flipped nervously. Harry was always careful with his magic, but whenever he did practice, he told Louis that he always went near the river. His chest tightened with heightened worry at the idea that someone could have caught Harry doing magic. He kept running, Harry's scent getting stronger and stronger with each step.

When he entered a clearing and found Harry curled up on the ground with a black bear more than three times his size hovering over him, Louis's vision flashed red. He growled angrily and flung himself at the animal, tackling it from the side and taking it down immediately. The bear grunted in surprise, but it barely fought back as it rolled around on the ground with Louis.

Despite the huge size of the animal, Louis was a trained soldier; even through the haze of his rage, his attacks were smart and strategic. After a few minor hits, he dug his claws deep into the bear's back and it roared in pain, stumbling back before collapsing onto its side.

Then something snapped Louis out of his rage.

Harry.

"Louis, stop!" Harry was calling faintly. The younger boy had started crawling across the clearing toward the fight, dragging his body across the ground. He could sense Louis's alpha silently ordering him to stay back, but he fought through the urge, moving closer to where Louis had the bear pinned down. "Lou, please," he whimpered, his strength finally failing him.

At the sound of Harry's pain, the older boy stopped fighting immediately, leaving the poor bear panting heavily on the ground. He hurriedly crossed the clearing toward the trembling boy. Louis quickly took note of the deep wound on Harry's shoulder, clearly a result of some sort of bite. He brushed his knuckles over the bruises on Harry's cheek, careful to keep his extended claws away from the battered skin.