Loving His Broken Luna

Chapter 2

Lingering meant tardiness at school. Deviating from her “plan” did too, Renee worried as she showered after practice. The hot water and generic soap could only do so much to clean off the chlorine settled in her skin.

Brittany, who didn’t swim, bitched the whole time as if she did.

Honestly, what is her purpose? Renee wondered, listening to her pass through.

Renee’s shower came to an end. She grabbed her towel and her suit, which she also washed, then headed out to her locker.

“Like, oh my maker! That delicious hunk stayed through our practice,” she continued while Renee dressed.

“Psh, we all saw you over accentuating your curves,” Tammy’s voice cut through Brittany’s pride like a knife.

“Or lack thereof,” Davis, another Brittany, chuckled. “You musta looked so hot to him, Brit.”

Their tone set Brittany on the defensive.

“You’re just jealous he didn’t give a damn about you,” she snapped.

“Ah yes, the need to be ogled at by a grown man,” Tammy over exaggerated.

“Excuse me for lapping his attention right out of his hand,” Brittany flipped her hair over her shoulder for effect. “Not all of us have Jason following us around.”

“I did say you could have him!” Renee assured her from the bathroom.

“It’s not enough that you give him, sweetheart,” Brittany tisked.

“Hah,” Davis laughed. “Yeah! He’s gotta come with heart eyes and his d**k wrapped neatly in a bow.”

“Davis!” Brittany snorted, making her choke on her coffee.

“That sounds bad,” Tammy chortled. “Do you mean he’s long enough to be tied in a bow?”

“Oh my gods, Tam. That would be a medical emergency if…”

“Enough!” Brittany whined. “Someone help me get the stain out,” she pointed at her shirt. “It’s all your fault that it’s even there.”

Her pouting urged Renee to leave. ‘Wet hair, don’t care,’ she thought, as she tied it up in a messy bun on top of her head. It was time to move if she was going to make it to school on time by foot. After this she needed to be damn sure she put some space between herself and the madman.

Why couldn’t she be something other than human? Renee huffed as she opened the door only to see Jason’s terrifyingly calm face staring back at her.

=====

Kris

=====

Up until this morning, life has been one monotonous task after the next.

“Immortal? Try something new!” ads filled the screens in the gym, which were indirectly in poor taste. Very clearly written by a human… They couldn’t possibly understand what it was like to be immortal.

There wasn’t enough out there to keep him in order either. Having been alive for several hundred years can really put a damper on hope, he thought. Being away from his pack helped relieve some pressure of mating and settling down, but the fact remained: Kris was lonely.

Working out helped. It put him in a zone to deal with his looming depression over the matter.

“Ya done?” Kassian called his attention back to the weight station.

“Yeah,” Kris replied, throwing his towel over his shoulder. “Whipped clean and everything.”

“Thanks man,” his friend waved.

Kassian then turned to start his own set out of the corner of Kris’ eye. Usually Kassian could yammer on but today the wolf’s focus was on point. They’d see each other again soon enough to…

“Oof,” Kris complained internally.

Kris frowned, bewildered, as the shock of their collision rang through his senses. It was a girl. Uninjured. The same surprise raced through her too.

He’s been run into before. Plenty of humans found themselves in trouble with other beings within the territories, but this instance felt so alarmingly different.

“Hey,” he tried to soothe her.

For a fraction of a second, the girl’s body seemed to gently meld against him. Kris’ ability to scent her emotions quickly snared the moment she retracted from him.

“Sorry, sir…” he barely heard the girl apologize before she disappeared.

It all happened so fast. Kris forced himself to blink, to reset himself. Anxiety coursed through him as a constant rumbling, quietly quaking through his being.

“What the hell?” Kris questioned himself as he checked himself out. There were plenty of spells on the black market and shadow veil that could create the same response but each had its mark; the call sign left.

Kris settled on the men’s locker room door, concerned. Once inside, men of all species ignored him. It was just like any other day. Nothing out of the ordinary, except this.

Not only did his skin crawl, but he’d feel moments of hatred and resentment.

“Whatever this is,” he thought, “I’m going to personally shut them down.”

Kris tugged off his black tee shirt while he made his way to the changing rooms at the end of the row of lockers. It was frowned upon as a man of his status, but no one could know he was marked by whatever this was.

Every head turned as he crossed the threshold of the changing room.

“What?” he offered the offending stares, to which no one challenged.

That’s what he thought.

Once inside and sealed off from the others, Kris shucked off his clothes. Everything found its way to his pile on the bench while he posed to look for what might have appeared.

“Kris?” Kassian called as he made his way through the door. “Kris Ryn?” he called once more.

“Kass!” Kris raised his hand above the stall.

Kass’ chuckle was light but still Kris could hear him.

“Get over here and help me,” Kris demanded.

“Are you naked in there?” Kassian fought himself from delighting in his friend’s pain.

Kris ripped open the stall’s curtain, exposing himself.

“Better?!” he quipped.

Kassian chortled.

“What’s eating you this morning?”

“Seriously, I don’t even know. Some girl ran into me and now I can’t stop fvcking shaking.”

Kassian’s smirk turned to dread.

“Have you found a call sign?”

“Not yet. I’ve checked everywhere that I can see.”

“I’m not checking your goods,” Kassian quickly countered.

“What? Why? There’s only so many places the mirror can reach.”

“Check his ass cheeks!” someone on the other side of the lockers interjected, amused.

“There’s also only so many places those tags come up, man.” Kassian frowned, then pointed at the row behind them, whispering, “need to invest in that…”

“You do not need to invest in these!” Kris whisper growled at his friend. “Why did you come in here anyways?”

“Oh, you left your phone,” Kassian pulled the retrieved item from his hoodie pocket. “Crystal called like four times.”

Kris rolled his eyes and looked up at the ceiling in defeat.

“Trouble with the lady?”

“Ugh, it’s not even… I think she knows it’s not going to be more so everything is a comparable offense.”

“Ah…” Kassian accepted. “We’ll just turn this on silent then.”

Kris chuckled.

“Seriously though wolf, can you check my back at least?”

“Yeah bro,” Kassian helped his friend, checking his back, behind his head and ears. “Nothin’ man. If it was a vicious hex or spell the mark would be raised and itchy as fvck.”

“I’m not itchy….just almost jittery; like I’ve had too much caffeine,” Kris complained.

“Man I don’t wanna get your hopes up or nothin’ cuz no one deserves that torment, but have you considered that it might be that you’ve found your mate?”

Kris frowned deeply at that.

“It didn’t,” he answered honestly.

“Think of it,” Kassian hastily replied. “Bro, there’s no tags on you at all. If it was anything off of the markets or beyond the veil, you would have known immediately.”

Kris glanced at the mirror once more, his eyes flitted around, looking for the shape of his mating glands. They were still lightly colored, like his skin. Not red, raised, or itchy.

“You think so?” Kris nervously asked, trying to sound confident in the matter.

“It’s worth checking into,” Kassian assured Kris.

A small twinge in his phantom tail, which was nonexistent standing as a human, felt like it began to wag.

“Put your clothes on,” Kass grinned. “Let’s see if we can find her.”

Kris hurried, throwing on his clothes on quickly, while his friend continued on.

“Do you remember what she looked like?”

“N-uh… it all happened so quickly,” Kris stammered out. “I can remember what she felt like…”

“Oh good,” Kassian teased. “We’ll rule out who it is by laying on top of every chick you see.”

“Shut up…” Kris retorted, realizing what he said. “She was smaller than me. Her head maybe came up to my shoulder…”

“You just described every chick in IV,” Kass replied, ignoring Kris’ glare.

Kris then took his phone, ignoring Crystal’s incoming call. Her timing was impeccable, like she knew something was up.

“Where do you think your mystery mate went?” Kassian pulled Kris’ attention back to himself.

“Women’s locker room.”

Kass straightened up.

“We’re going to have an amazing start this morning!”

“Now what?” Kris groaned.

“Aren’t those humans always saying, “Try something new?”

“And?” Kris questioned. “What does a crappy ad have to do with…”

“You just suggested we go into the women’s locker room to find her,” Kass grinned. “I’m all about seeing a few extra t**s in the morning, but that might get us thrown out.”

Kris shook his head.

“I did not say to do that.”

“I’m pretty sure you did.”

“I did not,” Kris grumbled. “Let’s check the pool.”

“That was a quick turnaround…”

“She came in with a group of swimmers,” he added, sniffing his shirt.

“That doesn’t mean she is one.”

“That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try,” Kris urged as the two left the men’s locker room.