Chapter 33 The full moon approaches
Malia's POV
Campus feels different, wrong. Like the air had coagulated, weighing down on us from above.
It’s been a long time coming — this electric charge that’s got the hairs on the back of my neck standing up and my wolf doing circles inside me.
Just one day until the blood moon.
First, I see it in the halls.
Usually serene students now move in with a staggered, aggressive momentum. Shoulders bump with borderline violence. At the slightest provocation eyes flash gold. Exchanges that would normally be polite devolve into snarling contests.
In Pack Dynamics two guys nearly shift over an argument about territory management theory during class.
Theory. Keene had to employ alpha dominance to separate them.
“It’s the moon,” July murmurs in my ear as we watch campus security escort out the students who are still growling. “Everyone’s on edge.”
"It's just a full moon," I say. “We have one every month.”
“No not like this.” She turns to look at me, her expression serious. “This is a blood moon, Malia. Rare. Powerful. It heightens everything – instincts, aggression, power, and—"Her voice catches slightly-"...vulnerabilities. And weaknesses.”
That last word hangs heavy.
Weaknesses. Like being a hybrid with a barely-there wolf. By lunchtime the cafeteria is like a baking powder keg.
Students huddle in tight packs, peering at other crowds with blatant disdain. The noise is down a little bit — not because people are talking any less, but because they’re Whispering Tense is escalating everywhere.
Predators assessing threats.
I grab the food quickly and go towards our usual table where July and Freddy wait.
“Alright, real talk,” Freddie says as soon as I sit. “It tomorrow night gonna be crazy.”
“How crazy,” I ask, although I’m not sure if I want to know.
“Full moon at Mooncrest is always rough. But a blood moon?” He leans forward. “Last time we had one—four years ago—half the student body underwent it involuntarily. There were dominance fights in the courtyard. Three students ended up in the medical wing. And that’s just what made it into official reports.”
I'm literally cringing in my stomach. “The school lets that happen?”
Friday corrects, “The school contained it.”
“They shut down specific buildings. “Post security everywhere. Basically, make the campus a focused kill arenas for 12 hours”
“That’s utterly, fatally insane.”
“That's werewolf biology when supercharged by rare lunar events.” She picks at her food. “Omegas and hybrids especially—anyone with weaker wolves—are told to stay in their dorms with doors locked. The stronger wolves lose control, and the hierarchy gets... enforced. Violently sometimes."
Like a werewolf purge night,” Freddy adds. “It's just everybody's worst fears, rather than overt murder.”
“You’re not making me feel better.”
“Not trying to.” His face was serious. “I’m trying to make you cautious. Tomorrow night you stay in the Moonfall suite. Doors locked. Windows closed. Don’t go outside for any reason.”
“What about you two?”
"I'm beta blood," July says. "I'll be fine. Uncomfortable, but fine.”
"And I'm going to be spending the night in the armoured common room with about thirty other students who have never trusted themselves not to lose it." Freddy grins, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. "Safe in numbers and concrete walls."
I look around the lunchroom with new eyes, just seeing. Everyone is jittery they can sense it coming.
The moon tugging at something primal within them. Turning them more wolf than man.
And me?
Me with my pathetic little wolf?
I'll be the prey for sure.
—----
Later that afternoon, the Moonfalls pull me aside after class. All three of them, sharing the same grim look of determination.
"We need to go over the protocol for tomorrow night," Aiden says, without preamble.
"Protocol?"
"You wait in the suite. In your own room, specifically. Door locked." His tone is authoritative, imperious. "You don’t go out for any reason. You don’t open the door to anyone but us. And even so, make sure it is really us before you open."
"How do I know –"
"We will send you a code word before we get closer," Cian adds. "Something only we four know. If someone comes knocking without texting the code first, do not open the door!"
This seems too much and scary.
"You honestly believe someone would pretend to be you in order to get to me?"
"During a blood moon? When we’re all just animals with sharpened instincts and very little control?" Rowan’s voice is hardened in an unusual way. "Yes. We suspect somebody might do just that."
"We'll be there," Aiden continues. "In suite. We are not leaving you alone. But we might have to step out for a moment – council duties, security patrols, things we can't avoid. At those times, you keep to your room. You understand?"
I nod, my throat tight.
“Say it,” Aiden presses. “For you to say you understand and you will comply with the rules.”
“I understand. I’m going to follow the rules.” Some of the tension leaves his shoulders.
“Good.”
"What about the ritual?" I ask quietly. “Marcus said that they need hybrids during the blood moon. What if they try—”
“They’re not going to get you,” Cian cuts in, his voice icy and assured. “We’ve upped security. Notified folks we trust. Put up perimeter watches.”
“And if they get past all that?”
“Then they have to get through us first,” Aiden says flatly. “The three of us. Good luck to anyone who tries, they won’t live long enough to try again.”
The deadly surety in his voice should frighten me.
But instead it’s strangely calming. That night the suite feels cramped though it’s quite large.
Each of the three brothers is keyed up, spinning around the others with shifting energy. Checking windows, testing locks. Whispering about contingency plans.
My wolf is restless, pacing within me like she’s aware of something I don’t know.
At around ten p.m., I give up and head to bed.
But sleep eludes me, I lie awake in the dark, overhearing subdued noises through the walls – the tapping of feet, the murmur of voices, the distant wail of someone who’s trying not to become a wolf.
It’s starting already.
The moon isn’t even full yet, and already the wolves are going mad. At about midnight I hear a soft opening of my door.
I sit up, heart pounding—
"It's just me," Aiden's voice says from the darkness.
I exhale in relief. "You scared me."
"I'm sorry." He doesn't turn on the light, he just walks to the window.
Moonlight pours in—bright, almost full, thick and silvery, somehow wrong. Aiden stands silhouetted against it, his shoulders tense, hands braced on the windowsill.
“Couldn’t sleep?” I whisper.
“No.” His voice is strained. “My wolf is fighting me. Wants out. Wants to hunt. Wants to—“ He stops talking.
“Wants to what?”
“Nothing important.”
I get out of bed and pad over to stand beside him.
When I look at him up close, I can see the strain leaking from every inch of his body. He’s biting so hard it must hurt. His hands grip the windowsill as if it’s what he needs to keep himself grounded.
"Aiden," I say softly. "What's wrong?"
“Everything.” He finally looks at me, and the moonlight turns his eyes blue-white—his wolf rising. “Tomorrow night is going to be bad, Malia. Worse than anything you’ve ever been through”
"I know Everyone’s told me—"
"Know what? You don’t know." It is raw with his voice. "When the blood moon rises, every wolf on this campus is going to be fighting the most primal urges of wolf mentality. Territorial. Aggressive. Possessive." He returns to the window. "And me? I'm going to be fighting the urge to shift and hunt down whoever threatened you, and—"
He stops abruptly.
"And what?"
"And marl you," he finished quietly. “Mark you as mine, and then every wolf out there knows to stay away.”
I’m breathless.
“The bond makes it worse,” he says further. “Makes every protective instinct a hundred times stronger. Makes the need to keep you close almost painful." He gives a bitter laugh. “Rowan and Cian feel it too. We’re all battling the same thing.”
“Fighting what?”
“Resisting the need to complete the bond. To make it stay. To—” He stops again, shaking his head. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re safe tomorrow night.”
"Will you lose control in your shift?" I ask. “During the moon?”
"I’m not going to hurt you," he immediately says. “We none of us will.” The bond won’t allow it. But not going towards you when every instinct in my body is screaming at me to get closer?" He covers his eyes. “It’s going to be torture.”
I don’t know what to say. I half want to comfort him.
And I think one part of me is just scared to death of the intensity in his voice.
"You should stay inside tomorrow night," he says, opening his eyes. “No matter what.”