Chapter 15
AURORA
“How was your night last night?” I asked Charolette the next afternoon at practice during our infamous five-mile run. I jogged alongside her through the woods, leaping over fallen branches and stepping on withering orange leaves in my human form.
I wasn’t prying about what had happened with Marcel. Pack lunas never wanted to get involved in pack drama. And not knowing about them wasn’t eating me up on the inside. Note the sarcasm.
A fog sat heavily in the woods just above the trees as other warriors sprinted through the narrow paths far in front of us. The chilling morning air vaguely reminded me of Hound Territory, making me uneasy. Or maybe I was uneasy because Ares still hadn’t broken yet.
I’d be getting sweet revenge on him today though. He had it coming after last night.
Charlotte shrugged her shoulders, breathing heavily out of her nose.
“Good.”
I slowed my pace to meet hers. “Do anything fun?”
“No, not really.”
The last of the warriors disappeared through the woods, but Marcel hung back and glanced over his shoulder at us. I waved my hand to tell him to move along and to train the rest of the pack as we continued by ourselves. Charlotte gazed at him, a small smile on her face, and then she looked down at her shoes and continued beside me.
When Marcel finally ran ahead, I grabbed Charolette’s slender wrist and stopped her. Almost immediately, I dropped my hand because her bones felt so brittle and weak. I didn’t want to accidentally break one. No matter how much Marcel denied that he liked her, I knew that if I accidentally broke Charolette’s wrist, he’d try to beat my ass for it.
“Okay, spill. Tell me what’s going on between you and Marcel.” I crossed my arms, arched a brow, and smiled at her flushing cheeks. “And
don’t say nothing because I saw you and him together last night.”
Her eyes widened. “You saw us together?”
“I was looking for Ruffles but found you two instead.”
“At the coffee shop?”
“In the alleyway.”
“Oh Goddess, no …” She threw her hands over her face. “You didn’t tell Ares, did you?”
My lips curled into a smile. “No.”
She sighed, her shoulders falling forward. “Thank Goddess. Okay, I’ll tell you about it, but you have to promise me that you won’t tell anyone anything, especially Ares. He would have Marcel’s ass if he saw him all over me. He knows how much of a player that man is.”
After pinkie-promising her that I wouldn’t say a word, I stared at her in excitement. I’d been dying to know exactly what was going on because this tension was driving me insane. I could only imagine how she felt about it all. “So?”
Glancing through the trees at the pack gathering in the field, Charolette smiled softly. “Marcel and I are …” she started, getting sidetracked when Marcel pulled his shirt over his head, his thick muscles glistening with sweat. When she looked back at me, her entire peppy demeanor changed into one of sadness. “We’re mates.”
Something about the way she’d said it made it seem so sad.
Mates weren’t supposed to be sad. Mates made life better in every way possible.
I frowned as she jogged a bit ahead of me, keeping her eyes trained on the ground.
I caught up to her and nudged my shoulder against hers, hoping to lighten the mood. “Is that a bad thing?”
“No … I just …” She held back her tears. “I want to be with him. It’s just difficult because of my cancer. I want him to be happy. I know that if he’s with me, he won’t be. He’ll have to take care of me and …” She tugged on the edges of her fake hair. “And there are so many other pretty girls out there he could be with …”
I stopped in my tracks and snatched her wrist. “Stop it, Charlotte. You’re beautiful.”
“I have a wig, Aurora,” she whispered, huge eyes trembling with tears. “I … I don’t feel pretty. I haven’t felt pretty in years. Why would he want to be with someone like me? I only come with problems.”
Lips quivering, I pulled her into a hug, so she wouldn’t see how much it hurt me when she said it. I knew what it was like to think that you weren’t good enough for someone. Thoughts like that had eaten me up for years.
“Having cancer or a wig doesn’t define who you are. Marcel will love you for it either way,” I said, stroking her smooth blonde hair.
She sniffled into my shoulder and wrapped her arms around me, holding me tight. I rested my head against hers and glanced through the trees at Ares, who stood in the middle of the field, peering around the woods to find us.
When his eyes locked on mine, he furrowed his brows. “Is she okay?” “She’s fine,” I said through the mind link.
Lie. She wasn’t fine and was hurting a lot. But this was girl talk.
After pulling away from her, I tilted my head toward the field. “We should get to practice.”
She nodded and followed me through the woods to the field. I pushed some branches out of the way for her to walk through and stepped onto the grass, heading toward the other warriors.
“Why don’t you use the stone?” I offered, desperate for her to take it. If she wanted to heal, wanted to live, she needed to take the stone. “It will heal you.”
She pushed away tears and shook her head. “No.”
I swallowed hard and clenched my jaw, so I wouldn’t flip. Why was she so against using it? Why did she refuse over and over and over? After everything that she had been through, I’d think she’d want to use it to survive, especially if her cancer was getting worse like Ares had said it was.
Charolette looped her arm around mine and strolled to Marcel. “Enough about me. Let’s talk about the Luna Ceremony! I am so thrilled for it! It’s almost in ten days!” She pushed some strands of blonde hair off her sweaty forehead. “I made an appointment at Lucy’s Boutique for Tuesday morning at ten a.m., so we can get you the best dress ever!”
Though I wanted to spend more time convincing her, I nodded and smiled along, my stomach filling with butterflies. Men, women, and children always raved about Luna Ceremonies, when I was growing up. Everyone loved attending and officially adding a new member to the pack. And in just over a week, I would officially be this packLunLuna.
But … I wanted to be more than just a luna.