His Blue Moon Princess

Skipping School

The next morning, I could still feel his lips against my forehead, like traces of a burn. I stayed in bed for a while, thinking it over and over. The whole evening had felt so unreal. Damian exuded this aura of untouchability, yet he was so close to me. I could also feel his wolf, a raging beast that could get violent any second, unlike his human self that acted so gently sometimes. I can’t fully understand him, but I sure want to.

I feel something moving on my bed, and I notice Bobo’s head looking at me. The way he’s resting his head on the mattress is a bit funny because I can’t see the rest, as if he’s just some bodyless, floating head. I laugh.

“You hungry, Bobo?”

He lets out what I guess is an affirmative growl. I guess I missed the training for this morning. I hope Tonia won’t hold it against me, as I got to sleep late. I take a quick shower, and I can’t help but remember Damian’s scent. Is it so enticing because he is my mate? Or do other female werewolves feel it, too? My wolf growls loudly. Yeah, I don’t like the idea either. I choose a pair of dark jeans and an oversized grey t-shirt and pull my hair up in a messy ponytail while exiting my bathroom. Bobo is right there waiting for me.  

Tonia, however, is absent from the apartment that day. She just left me a somewhat mysterious note, saying: “Pack Business. Will be back in the afternoon.” I read it, and just cook breakfast for Bobo and myself. I wonder what’s going on. A Rogue attack? Or from another Clan? I heard the Purple Clan is quite aggressive…

I can’t help but leave my thoughts to drift to my own Clan. But am I still part of the Jade Moon anymore? I wish I knew what happened. It’s been a month and a half now. December is coming, what is Alec doing now? Did he manage to pay his debts off?

“Bobo, can we go out? Please.”

The wolf ignores me, his massive head still in his plate. But I can’t even bother with what’s in mine. I get up and go back to my bedroom to grab a white hoodie that seems warm enough, get a pair of sneakers, and head for the entrance.

But once I push the handle, it won’t open. What? I’ve seen Tonia go in and out about a dozen times! I look at it, and there’s just a keyhole. Did Tonia close it after leaving? Bobo probably knew I wouldn’t be able to go, so he didn’t bother to stop me. Great!

Annoyed, I go back to eating my breakfast, trying to think. Is there a chance there is a spare key somewhere? If we are locked inside, they must have a plan in case an emergency arises? Like a fire or something. I try to convince Bobo a bit longer, but he ignores me as usual, even when I threaten to stop cooking. How can he be even more stubborn than Tonia?!

Annoyed, I try to keep myself busy, but all I want is to exit the apartment and at least take a walk in the city. I know how crazy it is after what he’s done to me, but I can’t help but worry about Alec. He is my brother, after all. And there is the matter about Marcus…

I still can’t remember clearly what happened that night, and it worries me more than anything. I see bloodstains everywhere each time I try, and I’m scared I’ve done something terrible. They got rid of my dress when they found me, but every time I picture it, she’s not white anymore…

Bobo doesn’t care about what I do all day. I guess he’s confident I won’t be able to find the spare key -if there is one- anyway. As soon as I start innocently reading one of my study books, Bobo resumes his favorite activity: sleeping. It doesn’t take five minutes until he starts snoring.

Usually, when he’s napping, Tonia takes over in watching me and she won’t leave the room I’m in. This time, however, Tonia’s away, and I may have two to three hours of no-surveillance time. After a few minutes, I get up to grab a cup of water in the kitchen, checking if Bobo will wake up and follow me. But he doesn’t. I can hear him snoring peacefully, and I don’t know if I should be glad he won’t wake up or a bit annoyed that he is that confident in me not being able to leave.

Taking my chance, I tiptoe to the entrance and take a look at the keyhole once again. Can I try and force it with a hairpin, like in movies? I don’t feel too confident about the idea. And all the clicketing might wake up my bodyguard. I try to force the handle a couple of times as quietly as possible, but of course, it won’t just open. So frustrating! I was about to turn around and give up, when I heard steps outside. Is Tonia coming back earlier than planned? But to my surprise, it turns out to be a teenager, with a hoodie and a backpack.

“Liam?” I ask, surprised to see the younger brother here.

He puts an index on his lips, mimicking to shut up with a pissed look. Actually, it seems like he is a bit… anxious? Is he avoiding someone? He looks at me from head to toe, then whispers softly.

“You alone?”

“No, Bobo is sleeping in the salon, but…”

He makes a grimace, and is about to close the door behind him, coming in anyway, but I put my feet in between. He looks at me with a surprised look and mimics with his lips so I would understand.

“What are you doing?”

“I was about to go out!”

“What? Alone? Why? Brother know?” He frowns.

Why so many questions?! I’m pretty sure the “Brother” he’s thinking about is Damian, and I can’t help but hesitate a second, biting my lip. Will he report me? He understands my reaction and shakes his head.

“You can’t! He is going to get real mad!”

This time it’s my turn to make a “stay quiet” gesture. We can still hear Bobo snoring, but I’m pretty sure he keeps waking up from his nap anytime if he hears something suspicious, and I’m running out of time.

“What about you?” I ask.

He shrugs and shows his backpack.

“Skipping school. Nath’s gonna beat the s**t out of me if he grabs me.”

“Okay. I won’t tell if you don’t tell.” I suggest.

Great, now I am bargaining with a school-skipping teenager.  

“No! Damian will kill me!”

Looks like is much more worried about his older brother’s reaction than Nathaniel. I thought I was lucky that he chose today to try and sneak here, but now turns out he is focused on making me stay! As if having to dodge Bobo is not going to be complicated enough! I insist.

“Please! I only need a couple of hours, Tonia is away, and Bobo is sleeping like a baby!”

His eyes light up all of a sudden, and he makes a sneaky grin.

“Right! The meeting! There was an attack this morning, so now they are all meeting up at the Tower! I forgot about that stupid thing.”

What attack? Is it bad? And what is this Tower now? Vincent mentioned once that the Blood Moon Clan’s headquarters was actually in a skyscraper, the tallest of the city. Is that where they are now? My wolf instantly asks if we can go meet our mate. I want to go to, but before I can even think twice about it, I feel my wrist grabbed, and Liam takes me out of the apartment.

I’m a bit shocked, but before I can say anything, he carefully closes the door behind us.

“How did you get in, by the way?”

“It’s an eight digits code: 20071203. I just found it by chance after trying a few times. I’ve seen my brother use that one before.”

How funny, it’s the exact date of my seventh birthday. I wonder if something happened to Damian that day? I follow Liam to the elevator, as I don’t remember coming to the building. While the elevator gets down, I realize what I just did. I escaped the room! I feel bad for Bobo, but hopefully, I will be back before he wakes up.

Next to me, Liam seems a lot less nervous now that he knows his brothers are busy. He looks more like Damian than Nathaniel. The youngest of the three has messy dark brown hair, not as black as his brother, but his eyes are almost the same as Damian, a dark grey. He is a bit smaller and thinner than his brothers, though, and still has his teenager features. We are probably the same age if he is in high school now.

“What?” He asks suddenly, noticing that I was staring.

“Sorry, but it’s kind of the first time we see each other properly, so…”

He rolls his eyes.

“Oh, I got plenty of time to look at you when you were in the hospital. But you look better now, not like a skeleton.”

He is as straight-forward as a teenager. I wonder why his brothers made him look after me, too, when I was hospitalized since he doesn’t look very responsible. Maybe he was being watched at the same time.

We finally get downstairs, and I can’t help but to breath in profoundly when we exit the building. Free at last! It may only be a couple of hours before I go back to my golden cage, though.

“Okay, what now, princess? Where do you want to go?”

“You’re going to follow me?” I ask, surprised.

“Hell yeah. I don’t want my a*s kicked when we get back just because you stupidly tripped and hurt yourself or something. I’m sticking with you, so tell me where is it we are going.”

“We’re going east, then.”

I start walking, but he just looks at me as if I was doing something stupid.

“What?” I ask, dumbfounded.

“What, are you waiting for me to shapeshift? Aren’t we supposed to get there fast?”

I shake my head. “I can’t shapeshift. I’ve never done it before.”

He stares at me for a few seconds, shocked. “Wow, you really are as useless as you look. Okay, I get it. Never mind then, let’s walk like stupid humans. But you better walk fast!”

We did walk for quite a while. I hadn’t realized how far we were from the Jade Moon turf. At some point, we even took the subway when Liam realized where we were headed, and he paid the tickets for both of us. Surprisingly enough, he wasn’t asking me anything. He even took his headphones out to listen to some music on the way, and asked me if I liked any music in particular. I didn’t, but he still kept talking to me about his favorite groups, telling me which songs I should listen to and about the concerts he wanted to go later that year.

“Liam? Can you tell me about your brothers?”

He looks a bit surprised by my question but put his headphones back into his backpack. We were walking through the last streets of the city, a few minutes away from our destination, and I had meant to ask him for a while now.

“What do you want to know?”

“I don’t know, things like… What do they do for a living? And where do they live?”

“Just that? Well, I’m not sure about what Damian does… He is busy with Alpha stuff most of the time. Meetings and all. But he owns five or six buildings and some establishments in the city. Like the one you live in.”

What? I thought he earned the apartment, not the whole building!

“Nathaniel is mainly at his restaurants. It’s been his dream since we were kids, so Damian lets him runs all the restaurants and hotels we have when he’s not busy with the Clan.”

“I thought he had a different Clan?” I ask, confused.

“You really know nothing, don’t you? Nathaniel is the Alpha of the Velvet Moon Clan, but it’s basically a branch or an ally of the Blood Moon Clan. It’s like the same pack. It’s just so that Damian and he can split the work.”

“Wait, the Velvet Moon is Nathaniel’s pack?”

This Clan is another of the biggest ones in the City. Even I know a few places they own and about how big their turf is. Now that I think about it, the Blood Moon and Velvet Moon turfs overlap a lot, but I had thought that it was just related to being allies, not being a branch of the same Clan!

“Yeah, he killed the former Alpha and took his place about three years ago. The easiest way to get the job done; they were super annoying before.”

I’m stunned by how casually Liam can say such things. Is this really a thing to say out loud? And talking about Nathaniel, too, I can’t imagine him killing someone as simple as that; it sounds so… coldhearted. 

But then again, he is a Black.