Chapter 23 Freddy's Discovery
Malia's POV
The next afternoon, I'm at the campus café with July, trying to concentrate on homework and failing spectacularly.
Last night keeps reverberating in my mind — the studies on hybrid bonds, the undisclosed message, Aiden's enigmatic revelation.
So afraid that you'll know before I'm ready to know.
To figuring what out?
"Earth to Malia." July waves a hand in front of my face. "You've been looking at the same page for ten minutes."
"Sorry. Just distracted."
"By a moody Moonfall heir, or something?"
"By everything." I take my textbook shut. "This semester is really tiring."
"Tell me about it. I have three essays to hand in next week and—"
She is cut off by Freddy bursting through the doors of the café, looking unusually serious.
He glances around the room, then he sees us, and rushes over.
"We need to talk," he says, sinking into a chair. "Somewhere private."
July and I exchange worried glances.
"What happened?" I ask.
"Not here." He glances around nervously. "Too many ears,"
—-----
Ten minutes later, we’re in a deserted study room on the library’s fourth floor—room so rarely used the fact it exists is practically an urban myth. Freddy pulls the door shut behind us and takes out his laptop.
"Okay, so you know how I’ve been doing that data analysis project for Computer Science?"
"The one you've been complaining about for weeks?" July says.
"That’s the one. But part of that was going into the school’s public records database — things like enrollment figures, transfer rates, demographic information, that sort of thing.”
He gets out his laptop and brings up a spreadsheet.
“I was just doing routine work when I saw something odd. Look at this.”
He swiveled the screen to us. It’s a roster with dates next to them.
“These are students who ‘transferred’ out of Mooncrest, at least, over the last two years,” Freddy explains. "Thirty-seven total."
“That seems high,” July says, frowning.
“That is. The average transfer rate at top-tier academies sits at an annual five percent. This is almost three times that.” He scrolls down. “But the weird part is it’s not the weird part. Look at the demographic breakdown.”
He marks certain names in yellow.
"See a pattern?"
I lean in and read the notes next to each highlighted name:
Hybrid - Dec. transferred
Omega, low-rank - transferred March
Hybrid - transferred October
Omega - transferred January
My stomach drops. "They're all hybrids or low-ranking wolves."
“Exactly.” Freddy’s face is grim. "Thirty-seven students. Twenty-nine of these were either hybrids or omegas from low-tier families. The other eight were betas, but all scholarship students.”
“It could be coincidental,” July says, but she sounds unconvinced. “Maybe lower-ranking students have harder times adjusting—”
"I thought that too. So I dug deeper." He opens up a different file. "I lined up the transfer dates with the lunar calendar."
He reveals a chart—dates with moon phases. The full moons, are only three days away on each of these transfer dates.
The room fell silent.
"That's…" I trail off not wanting to say on the open air what we all are thinking.
"Suspicious as hell?" Freddy hesitates. "Yes."
July leans back in her chair, thinking. "OkaySo students are vanishing in full moons. But Mooncrest has their transfers on record. Paperwork. Documentation."
"Right. I checked that, too." Freddy access another file. "And this is where it gets really weird. The transfer paperwork is... generic. It's like, copy-paste generic. Same language, same approval signatures, same receiving institutions."
"Receiving institutions" I ask.
"Yeah. All so Is, it turns out, that 29 omegas and hybrids were all transffered to just three schools. All in remote locations. Weird isn't it?”
He pulls up the school names:
Silverpine Academy – Montana
Moonridge Institute - Alaska
Shadowbrook College - Northern Canada
"I tried to look them up," Freddy continues. "Silverpine has a website but it hasn 't been updated for over five years. Moonridge has no online presence. And the number for Shadow brooks is disconnected."
We could feel ourselves being buried under these consequences.
"You are saying that they didn’t really transfer," says July softly. "I'm feeling that something is off."
Freddy's hands are trembling ever so slightly. ‘And I’ve got Malia and he perfectly fits the profile of any student who is “transferred”.’
Cold fear ran down my spine.
“We should report this,” I say.” Security on campus, or—"
"And what should I tell them?” Freddy butts in. “That I hacked the school records and detected some security breaches? Like what? I’d be expelled before they ever got around to letting me know how angry they were.”
“Now what do we do?”
July says firmly, “We keep digging. “Quiet. ‘Careful.’ And we look out for one another.”
She looks at me. “Especially you. No going anywhere alone, especially on full moon nights. You understand?”
I nod, my throat tight.
“When's the next full moon?” I ask.
Freddy checks his phone. “Two weeks. November fifteen.”
The midterms week. Perfect timing.
“Okay,” says July, assuming the role of leader.
"Freddy, keep gathering data but be careful Don't hack into anything that has special clearance. Malia, you still have those threatening texts?”
“Yeah.”
“Send them to both of us. We’re documenting everything.” She pulls out her own notebook. “And we have to figure out who else knows about this. Faculty? Administration? Other students?”
“There’s something else,” I whisper.
They both look at me.
“At the Lunar Gathering someone sent me a warning text. 'Not everyone there wants you to succeed.' And Cian said something similar—that I'm being targeted, that something bigger is happening."
“Cian Moonfall said that? ” Freddy's eyebrows rise. “I know I'm gone past the disappearances.”
“I don’t know. Maybe?”
"The Moonfalls have access to information we don't," July says thoughtfully. "Old family, deep connections. If anyone would know about a cover-up, it'd be them."
I think about Aiden's reaction to the hybrid bond research.
His fear.
His cryptic warnings. You have no idea what you're getting into.
Maybe he does know. Maybe that's why he's been pushing me away—not because he doesn't care, but because he's trying to protect me from something worse.
"I'll try talking to them," I say. "Carefully. Find out what they know."
"Be careful," July warns. "We still don't know who we can trust."
—---
We spend another hour planning and writing, plotting a course of action. By the time we leave the library, dusk is upon us.
The campus is quieter now, the students moving off to dinner or back to the dorm. July and Freddy escort me halfway to my own building, then break off towards their dorms.
"Remember," July says, hugging me tight. "No one goes anywhere alone. And text us when you get to your room."
"I will. Promise."
They head off and I continue alone to the last part. There is good lighting on the path, but there is darkness between the buildings.
I stride on, my keys already in hand.
That's when I feel it.The prickling awareness of being watched. I slow as I round the courtyard.
Nothing.
Just empty pathways and dark windows.
But my wolf is restless, her hackles raised. Danger, she whispers, Run.
I take another step—and catch movement in my peripheral vision. A figure in the shadows between two buildings.
Tall. Still. Watching.
I turn and look straight at them— And they’re gone! It’s just empty dark now, where a man stood just a second ago.
My heart hammers. I didn't make that up.
There was someone there. Someone watching.
I take off running, not caring how it looks, just needing to get in. Into light. Into safety.
I burst through the dormitory door, gasping for air, and don’t stop until I’m in my room, the door locked behind me.
Aiden looks up from his desk, surprised."What—"
"Someone was watching me," I say, too fast. "In the courtyard. They disappeared when I looked."
His face immediately darkens. "You're sure?”
"Yes. I saw them."
He's up in seconds, moving to the window, looking out over the grounds.
"Did you see their face?"
"No. Just a shape in the shadows."
He pulls the curtains closed sharply. "You don’t go anywhere alone anymore. Understand?”
"Aiden—"
"I'm serious, Malia." He turns to face me, and for once, there’s no wall between us. Just raw concern. "There’s something going on at this university. Something dangerous. And you’re precisely the sort of target they’re looking for.”
“They?”
He pauses. "I can't explain. Not yet. But please—just trust me on this. Stay close to people you know. Don't wander off alone. Especially near full moons. "
The same warning Freddy's research suggested.
"You know about the disappearances," I say quietly. "Don't you?"
His jaw tightens. "What disappearances?"
"The transfers. The hybrids and omegas who are continually departing during full moons."
Something flickers across his face— confirmation.
"How do you know about that?"
"Freddy found patterns in the school records."
Aiden swears quietly. “He needs to stop digging. Now.”
"Why? What's the real deal?"
“I can't tell you.”
"Can’t or won’t?"
“Both of them.” He rakes his fingers through his hair, exasperated. "Just... please. Be careful. Let me do this."
“Do what?”
But he’s already turning away, shutting down once more. And I'm left with more questions than answers.
And the terrifying certainty that Freddy's discovery is just the tip of something much darker.