Chapter 214 Vampire Luna

Chapter 214 Vampire Luna
I stood completely still on the porch, my hand resting heavily against the cold wooden door handle of my house. I was just about to push the door open and step inside, but my fingers froze. A cold, heavy feeling settled deep in my chest as my mind raced straight back to the diner.
Who on earth was that standing near the restaurant entrance?
My jaw clenched as I stared blankly at the dark wood of the door, piecing together the terrifying puzzle. How could an actual vampire walk directly into a crowded restaurant in broad daylight, right in the middle of a pack territory that was under a total lockdown? What was really going on here? Was it possible that out of all the pack members sitting inside that diner, not a single person had noticed the scent of a bloodsucker lurking near the doorway?
I let out a slow, heavy breath, leaning my head against the doorframe. Well, apart from Mary, of course. Mary was a sharp, highly experienced werewolf whose senses were far more refined than the average pack member. But even with her keen nose, the whole situation felt deeply unsettling. Why would a vampire take such an incredible, life-threatening risk to stand inside the exact same diner where I was eating?
A sharp chill ran straight down my spine as the ugly truth hit me. I was utterly convinced that this had something to do with me. That creature wasn't just grabbing a quick look around town—it was actively tracking my movements. A vampire was following me. Honestly, I shouldn't even have been surprised. In the crazy, dangerous world I was living in right now, absolutely anything was possible.
But why?
I rubbed my throbbing temples, my mind spiraling through every possibility. It had to be tied to my dark past. It had to be something directly related to my father or my brother. But why would they send a bloodsucker to spy on me right now, at the absolute worst possible time, when Alpha Damon was publicly slaughtering anyone even suspected of interacting with vampires? What kind of dangerous storm was brewing behind my back?
I finally turned the brass knob, pushed the heavy door open, and stepped into the quiet house.
The soft, rhythmic sound of a broom sweeping against the wooden floorboards greeted me. Ava was bent over in the living room, frantically sweeping up invisible specks of dust from the floor. She didn't look up when the door clicked shut. She didn't even turn her head to acknowledge that I had walked back into the room.
I kicked off my heavy boots by the entrance, walked over to my bed, and collapsed flat onto the mattress. I rested my forearm over my eyes, listening to the continuous, repetitive scratch of her broom against the floorboards. The room was heavy with an unnatural, suffocating silence. Ava usually greeted me the second I walked through the front door, but right now, she was completely quiet, aggressively sweeping the exact same patch of floor over and over again.
I pulled my arm away from my face, turning my head on the pillow to watch her stiff, tense back. "Is everything okay with you, Ava?"
Ava didn't stop her frantic sweeping. She stiffened for a tiny fraction of a second, her hands gripping the wooden handle of the broom so tightly her knuckles turned white.
"Yeah," she muttered coldly.
She spat the single word out with a sharp, bitter edge, keeping her back turned to me as she kept aggressively pushing the broom across the wooden floor.
I sat up straight on the edge of the bed, swinging my legs over the side as I let out a long, exhausted sigh. "Enough with the sweeping, Ava! You are always cleaning something in this house every single time you get stressed out. Just stop for a second and tell me what the real problem is. Be completely real with me."
At those words, Ava froze dead in her tracks. She slowly lowered the broom, her shoulders rising and falling with heavy, agitated breaths. She spun around on her heel, her dark eyes flashing with a mix of intense anger, deep frustration, and raw terror as she glared straight into my face.
"Be real with you?!" Ava spat back, her voice cracking with emotional strain as her top lip twitched. "You're asking me to be real with you, Luna Amanda?! You already know exactly what the problem is!"
I flinched slightly at the sharp edge in her voice, dropping my gaze down to my lap as guilt twisted sharply in my gut.
"Fine... I am so sorry, Ava," I whispered, my raspy voice dropping into a soft, regretful tone. "I am so sorry I killed those guards. I know I made a horrific mistake. I promise I will try my best to be far more disciplined from now on... but please don't start lecturing and blaming me all over again. I already hate myself enough for what I did."
Ava stared at me in absolute, unbelievable shock, her jaw dropping open as a bitter, humorless laugh burst out of her throat.
"You're sorry?!" she yelled, her chest heaving as tears of pure frustration welled up in the corners of her eyes. "Sorry for what, Amanda?! I am not the one you killed! I didn't know those guards, and I don't give a damn about those dead men! The only person in this entire cursed territory that I actually know and care about is you! And with the way things are going right now, you are going to be executed very soon!"
She tossed the broom aside, where it clattered noisily against the floorboards, and threw her hands up into the air with frantic gestures.
"I sit here every single day wondering what the Alpha is going to say right before he chops your head off!" she cried out, her voice trembling violently with absolute panic. "I wonder what terrifying thoughts will go through his head when he finally uncovers your secret! I don't care about those dead garrison guards... the only person I care about in this world is you, and you are not safe here! You are constantly walking right into the jaw of death!"
I closed my eyes tightly, swallowing down the heavy lump in my throat as her frantic words echoed around the small room.
"Fine, Ava..." I murmured quietly, pushing myself up off the edge of the bed and standing on my feet. "We can sit down and talk about this whole mess later. But right now... I am
going to see the Alpha."