Saving His Luna

III

*Charlie*

Addison Road is the band that plays the music for our two weeks here. The band plays 5 songs before the sermon starts. Tonight, we are sitting in the back on the right side. I sit on the end, like normal. What’s not normal, is the pack that’s here is watching us. I can tell that Trey is not happy but hopefully, with the other pack here, he won’t try anything. I half-assed pay attention to the sermon but I’m preoccupied watching my surroundings. That is until Everything by Lifehouse starts to play.

The skit that is being acted out on stage… it’s making me cry silent tears. The girl is letting the world tear her down with different temptations and pretending to cut.

'And how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you

Would you tell me how could it be any better than this

Cause you're all I want, you're all I need

You're everything, everything….'

I run. I bolt up and run out the doors straight behind me before it can start. Before I can’t stop crying. When I open the doors there is a group of adults, Jordyn is there, and I just run past them. Jordyn follows me after telling whoever followed me out that she has me. I can’t breathe. Vivid images flash in my mind like someone took pictures of my life and sped them up in a flash of horror and pain. And I know that someone is me. I start to sweat and throw off my sweater in anger. Why can’t it stop?

Jordyn is trying her best to calm me down, to get me to talk but I can’t. Why is it so hard to breathe? I can feel my heart hammering in my chest. I feel dizzy and lightheaded. My vision isn’t cooperating. Why can’t I see right? I vaguely hear Jordyn call for help before everything goes black.

Beep. Beep. Beep. I try to open my eyes.

“Hey there,” a woman says. She’s dressed in scrubs.

“Where am I?” I ask her.

“You’re at the nurse’s station.”

“What happened?”

“You fainted. Do you want to tell me what happened?”

"Probably a panic attack.”

“That’s right. The camp counselor that brought you in said you were having trouble breathing and then collapsed. Does that happen often?”

“Sometimes. I haven’t had one in a while.” I try to sit up.

“Nuh, uh, uh,” she pushes me back down by my shoulders, and my heart rate spikes at the contact. “Calm down, you need to rest.”

She tries to calm me by smoothing my hair out of my face, but it doesn’t work. My heart rate gets faster as tears spring from my eyes. Beep beep beep beep beep beep.

“You need to calm down and breathe. Is touching a trigger?”

I nod. She grabs a fluffy stuffed wolf out of the cabinet and hands it to me. It looks soft. It’s grey with black ears and a white snout. My fingers sink into the thick, soft fur as I take a deep, shaky breath. The door opens and Jordyn peeks her head in.

“Hey, you’re awake.” I nod, sitting up. “You ok?” Again, I nod.

“Do you want to talk?” No. I shake my head.

“Do you want to go back to your room?” Yes. I nod.

“You gonna talk?” I smile but shake my head no. She looks worried at the nurse.

“I’m fine. I just don’t want to talk right now.” I look around and spot my jacket. “Can I have my jacket?”

The nurse gets it off the back of the chair and hands it to me. I feel around the inside pocket, looking for my phone. It’s not there. I start to panic. The nurse looks at the monitor as it shows my heart starting to race again.

“What’s wrong Charlie?” She asks.

“My phone. It’s gone. I need my phone.”

She looks to Jordyn who shakes her head.

“Do you need to call someone?” The nurse asks.

“Yes.”

She walks over to her desk and grabs the wireless handheld. “You can use this.”

I punch in Dylan’s number and hit the call button.

“This is Dylan,” he answers.

“Hey.” I hear a commotion and a loud thud. “You okay?”

“Hey, baby. Yeah, I’m okay just fell out of bed. Why are you calling me from a pack number? Are you okay?” I can hear the worry in his voice.

I look wide-eyed at the nurse and scoot back on the bed. “Um, I lost my phone and had a panic attack. I’m calling from the nurse's station.”

"Hand the phone to the nurse baby.”

I give the phone to the nurse and start putting on my shoes so I can go back to my dorm. The nurse walks over to me after hanging up with a piece of paper.

"This has my number on it, Luna. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call.” She says quietly so that only I can hear her since Donna and Sherrie are waiting by the door for me now. Of course, she has to be a wolf.

I walk up to them. “Can I have my phone back?” I ask.

“No,” Donna says. “You aren’t supposed to even have it.”

“There is nothing in the rules that says I can’t have a cell phone here. It is my personal property. You have no right to take it.”

"Your mom signed a paper stating that we can hold electronics that they have paid for,” Donna states.

“My mom didn’t pay for it, nor does she pay the bill. Give me my phone.”

“Not happening,” they say at the same time.

“Ughh… We are the only group that doesn’t have our phones.”

I see my phone in Donna’s hand. I could probably grab it and run. I’d get into a lot of trouble, but they have no right to keep my phone. I start to walk past them and open the door. At the same time, I grab my phone and pry it out of Donna’s hand. And I run. I run as fast as I can all the way back to my dorm. I only stop to grab a thicker sweater, running back out just a quick. They are just now making it to the building. To my left is the woods. That’s where I go. I can hear tell yelling my name. I don’t stop until I feel my legs start to burn.

It’s dark but my eyes adjust. I can hear the symphony of the forest around me. The crickets, the patter of paws in the underbrush. The owl in the tree beside me hoots. If I really am a wolf, I can’t wait to experience this with all the heightened senses. It smells like pine needles and moss. It’s peaceful. Every breath I take calms me. I find a small clearing to lay in where I can see the stars in the night sky.

We don’t get to see this in the city. It’s pretty. I say to myself. I drift off to sleep with the music of the forest and dream.

“You have to let me wake up,” a silver-haired girl with my eyes shakes me. “I need to be let out before it’s too late.”

I look at her in confusion. Who is she? This is a dream, right?

“What?” I question.

“He’s coming. You know it. I know it. We are away from home. It’s the only time the barrier is down. You have to let me out.” The panic in her voice is clear, with every word her pitch gets higher.

It starts to get dark and cold. She looks around in horror, trying to find something. My breath comes out in white clouds. She still has a painful grip on my shoulders. It’s so dark, I can’t even see her in front of me.

“WAKE UP! WAKE UP NOW AND RUN!” She is screaming in my face. She screams for me to wake up one more time as her hand connects with my face.

I jolt awake in the small clearing, freezing even with the sweater I grabbed, my breath gusting out. I look around trying to see anything wrong. And then I hear it. There is no sound except for my heavy breathing and a low, continuous growl. I stand up slowly and turn around. I freeze when I see them. The glowing red eyes of a large white wolf. It’s an albino.

‘I can smell your fear little pu—’

I take off in a dead sprint back the way I came. I run faster than I ever thought I could. I don’t recognize anything, but I can’t stop. I can hear the thump of the albinos' paws hitting the ground and feel his hot breath hit the back of my neck. I push myself to run faster.

‘You can’t escape me little pup.’

The muscles in my legs start to burn but I know I can’t stop.

‘Keep running Charlie. We are almost safe. Do you feel it?’

It’s the same voice from my dream but it’s in my head. ‘Are you, my wolf?’ I ask.

‘Hush, we can talk later. Just run, we’re almost there. Look.’

She is right. I can see my dorm building but it’s surrounded by adults, some of them I recognize from the other pack, the others are I know from my church. A claw slashes across my hip, throwing me off balance. I scream from the pain, and it alerts the other pack. I tumble from the tree line a few seconds later, falling to the ground clutching my hip and gasping for air.

“Albino rogue,” I whisper, knowing the wolves could hear me but nobody else could. What I assume to be the Luna of the pack just by the power coming off her, kneels beside me and puts pressure on my wound.

“She needs to go to the hospital,” says Dale, my pastor. His wife Melodie and Donna are standing beside him.

“We have a Doctor here at the camp, it’s why it cost so much to camp here,” a guy says. I can tell he is a high rank in the pack, but not the Alpha. He comes over and bends over to pick me up. I wince from the movement causing a stab of pain. “Sorry.”

Around five members of the pack follow with Dale, Melodie, and Donna. I see the rest slip into the woods, probably to see if they can find the albino. I know they won’t. He’s long gone. It’s about a three-minute journey before we come to a cabin beside the nurse's station. A woman is already waiting with the door open. She has brunette hair with soft brown eyes that have gold flecks, the tell-tail sign that she is a wolf. She leads us to a table that has a tall stool and another small table with medical supplies on it. The guy lays me on the table gently.

“My name is Dr. Jones. Can you tell me what happened?”

“Um…” I have to come up with something believable. “I was running through the wood and some thorns caught on my hip.” I can tell she is mind-linking with the guy who put me on the table.

“Okay, let’s get this cleaned up and see if you need stitches.” She looks up to everyone in the room and asks them to leave since she will need to cut off my pants and underwear. Melodie and Donna stay put. “Everyone.” Dr. Jones looks pointedly at them.

“We aren’t leaving,” says Melodie.

“Do you want them to stay?” She asks me.

“No,” I shake my head.

She looks back up at them. “You can either leave on your own or I can have you forcedly removed. Your choice.”

The door closes with a latch.

“Raise your top sweetie,” she starts the cut at the waistband. The jean material is sticky with my blood and clings to my skin. She only cuts them open to my upper thigh. I have four deep gashes that are around four inches long. “Why aren’t you healing?”

“I haven’t shifted yet. I just heard her voice when I was running from the albino.”

Her eyebrows scrunch together. “How old are you?” She numbs my leg with a cold gel.

“I turned thirteen this past April.”

“Late shifter,” she shrugs. “Sometimes that happens but you don’t smell new.”

“That’s what everybody has said since I met the pack.”

She starts with the first suture. “What do you mean? Didn’t you grow up with them?”

I shake my head. “No, I didn’t even know about wolves until I was nine-ish. Dylan came up to me and asked if I wanted to see his wolf. When I asked him if it was a pet, he looked at me funny and told me he was a werewolf and that I was too. I didn’t believe him but here we are and I’m probably gonna have my first shift without him.”

“Who is your Alpha?” she asks.

“Travis Matthews of the Blood Shadow Pack.” Everyone knows the Blood Shadow Pack. We are the biggest pack, taking up most of the North Texas area. Mr. Matthews has multiple betas, and each beta has their own gamma.

I watch as she pushes the needle into my flesh for the last time. After she ties it off says, “All done. I’ll get you a pair of scrub pants to wear back to your room after I finish covering it.”

I kick off my shoes and quickly change into the green scrubs, tightening them at the waist so they don’t fall. I’m putting back on my shoes when Dr. Jones opens the door, and everyone pushes back in.