Chapter 80

Aria

Lucas nuzzled into my lap, his mismatched eyes wide as I read aloud the story from the children’s book. He’d found it in the playroom at the hospital, and snuggled up into bed with me, practically begging me to read it for him.

“And then the rabbit said,” I continued, “‘But how can I trust a wolf who eats rabbits for dinner?’”

Lucas gasped, clutching the edge of his blanket like it might protect him from the imaginary wolf in the story. “What did the wolf say next, Mommy?” he asked eagerly, practically bouncing in the hospital bed beside me.

I smiled. “He said, ‘Because friends are not food.’ ”

Lucas giggled, his laughter brightening the sterile hospital room more effectively than the sun streaming through the windows. It eased some of the tension in my chest, even if only a little. With the story finished, I set the book down, smoothing the sheets over his little legs.

“What do you think? Should we keep going, or take a break and play a game?” I asked.

“I wanna play a game!” he cheered, sitting up straighter. “Let’s play I Spy!”

“Alright, you go first,” I said, leaning back against the stiff pillows. “What do you spy with your little eye?”

Lucas scrunched up his nose in thought, his expression comically serious. “Something... white.”

“Hmm…” I pretended to look around the room exaggeratedly. Liam sat in the corner, reading a book of his own, but I could tell he was really watching us and trying not to smile. “Is it… the walls?” I asked.

“Nope!” Lucas giggled.

“The bed sheets?”

“Close, but nope!”

“Your… socks?” I reached under the blanket and tickled his feet, sending him into fits of tiny laughter.

He grinned wide, kicking at me. “Okay, okay! You got it!”

“Ha! I knew it,” I teased, ruffling his chestnut hair. He ducked away with a squeal, his laughter filling the room again.

It was moments like these that made everything feel a little less overwhelming. Despite everything that had happened—the fight with Lily, the toxicology report, and the horrifying realization that someone had deliberately tried to harm me yet again—Lucas’s presence never failed to make me feel at ease.

Just then, a soft knock at the door interrupted us, and the doctor stepped inside, clipboard in hand. I recognized him immediately from the last time I had been here—the night that I found out that werewolves were real. Doctor Edward.

“Well, Aria,” he began, glancing at the chart in his hands, “I must say, you’re a marvel.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure I would go so far as to say that.”

“No, really,” he said, pulling up a chair beside the bed. “Your recovery has been remarkable. Given the amount of the drug in your system, you shouldn’t have bounced back so quickly. Your human DNA should’ve made it much harder for your body to metabolize it, but somehow… you did.”

“Somehow?” I repeated skeptically.

“Well…” He hesitated, then added thoughtfully, “You do have a trace amount of werewolf DNA in your system, as we discussed last time. But it’s such a small amount that it shouldn’t have been enough to protect you like this. It makes me wonder if there is more to your genetic makeup than we initially thought.”

Liam lifted his head a little, blinking as the realization washed over all of us.

I frowned. “Are you saying that you think I might have more werewolf DNA than we initially thought?” Despite myself, I couldn’t help but feel my heart pound a little with excitement. To say that I had grown somewhat attached to the idea of being less human than I thought lately would be an understatement.

But what, or rather who, made me wish I was more werewolf than human, was something that I wouldn’t admit just yet. Not even to myself.

“It’s a possibility,” the doctor admitted. “Would you be open to another DNA test? We can dig a little deeper and get a more thorough analysis.”

“Sure,” I said, shrugging. “Why not? It’s not like I don’t spend half my time around werewolves anyway.”

Liam snorted a little. When I glanced over at him, he was clearly trying to hide a smirk.

Lucas perked up. “Does that mean Mommy’s a wolf like me?”

The doctor chuckled as he prepared a syringe. “We’ll see, little guy. For now, let’s just get this blood drawn.”

I held out my arm, and the doctor worked efficiently, drawing a small vial of blood. Lucas watched intently, surprisingly not bothered by the sight.

“Done,” the doctor announced as he capped the vial. “We’ll send this off to the lab. It might take a little longer than last time, though. I want to make sure it’s thorough this time around.”

“Thanks,” I said, flexing my fingers as he packed up his supplies.

Just as the doctor left, the door swung open again. This time, Darren stepped in, his presence filling the room instantly. His gaze was stormy, his expression unreadable, but the tension radiating off of him was palpable.

I felt myself tense up a little just at the sight; he had rushed out so abruptly before, immediately after I had told him about leaving my drink with Tracy. What did he learn while he was gone?

He immediately turned to Liam.

“Liam, pack a bag for Lucas. We’re going to the pack lands.”

Lucas perked up immediately. “The pack lands? Really?”

“Yes,” Darren said shortly, before turning to me. “And we need to talk.”

With that, Liam quickly took Lucas out of the room, soothing his protests with the promise of a piece of candy from the machine down the hall. I swallowed hard as I watched them go, trying to brace myself for whatever bombshell Darren was about to drop.

Once we were alone, I murmured, “What is it?”

“It was Tracy,” he said coldly.. “She’s the one who drugged you. And she sent everything to the elders—the video from last night, the information about your mating mark, all of it.”

My heart sank. “So… they know? The entire pack knows?”

He nodded grimly. “Yes. I thought it could just stay between the Lunar Labs employees, but now all of Moonglow pack knows.”

I sat back, my mind racing. The implications were staggering. It was one thing for a small group of Darren’s closest pack members to know about our matehood, but the entire pack?

That was a whole different level of exposure—and danger.

“What happens now?” I asked quietly.

“I’m going to the pack lands to meet with the elders and try to mitigate the situation,” Darren said. His eyes locked onto mine. “And you’re coming with me.”

I blinked, startled. “What? Me? But I’m… I’m human. I thought I wasn’t allowed to go there.”

“Typically, you’re not,” he said firmly. “But the elders requested to meet you, so an exception has been made.”

I swallowed hard. I knew that I couldn’t directly be harmed by a pack member as Darren’s Luna, but last night had made it pretty clear that pack members—like Tracy—could still harm me with indirect methods. The drug that could have killed me was a testament to that.

Darren, almost seeming to read my mind, said softly, “I’d… feel better if you were by my side after everything that happened, for what it’s worth.” He paused, glancing away, and I swore I saw the faintest shade of pink tinge the tips of his ears. “So I can protect you.”

His words set my heart racing. Darren wanted to protect me—truly protect me.

I wasn’t sure if anyone in my life had ever cared so much about me, except for Bella, of course. And the thought made my cheeks heat a little.

“I’ll go,” I said softly, meeting his eyes. “If it’ll help.”

Darren seemed to let out a sigh of relief, his shoulders slumping a little. “Very well,” he said, the slightest smile tugging at his lips. “We’ll head to the pack lands tomorrow.”

Lucas, who had just stepped in through the door with a lollipop in hand, suddenly grinned and raced across the room, throwing his arms around me.

“Yay! Mommy and I are going on a trip together!”