Chapter 4 The Truth

Luna POV

My hands stopped moving. The coffee cup that I was carrying dropped off the fingers and broke down. Nobody else noticed. No other person perceived how the world had simply slipped out under my feet.

He was still looking at me. His green eyes had not yet settled out of my face since he crossed that door. He was not the same as he was at the wedding. During the ceremony he had been sad. He now looked as though he could not believe I was there. Either I could vanish as he blinking.

I should have run. I ought to have toiled in the other room and stepped out of the window. I ought not to have stood there and be frozen as he approached me. But I couldn't move. I was experiencing such a sensation as though my body was aware of something that my mind was not. Some part of me had been waiting on him.

"Hi," he said. His voice was gentle and cautious, as though he were scared to have me crack. "My name is Ethan."

I knew his name. I had heard somebody say it during the wedding. He said it himself, however, which was different. It seemed to me that he was making the first approach to me. As though it should be like all the rest does not count.

"I'm Rose," I said automatically. It was a lie that I could not retract. He leaned his head a little, as though he had known that I was not telling the truth, but was afraid to go too far.

"Can we talk?" Ethan asked. "Somewhere private?"

Before I could reply, Sarah came out in front of the counter. She stared at Ethan as she knew him. Maybe she did. Perhaps that was the phone call I had overheard with him. And there take your break, Luna, said Sarah. She used my real name. In front of him. She did it on purpose.

When I gave him my actual name, Ethan changed his face. His features were relieved as though someone had just informed him that he was not dying. "Luna," he whispered. "Your name is Luna."

There is an explanation, I can explain, I said, fighting my way between you. But Ethan shook his head.

I know you, I know you, Sarah, he told her. My brother informed me about that old hunter who stopped working and opened a cafe in town. He told me that you had been assisting people to leave our world. He turned back to me. "She's been protecting you. She was aware of what you were fleeing.

I was as if the ground was dropping out underneath me. "What do you mean, your world?" I asked. "What are you talking about?"

Ethan looked around the cafe. Customers were still occupying some few tables. He shook his head. "Not here. Please. Give me five minutes to go with me. You may not mind listening afterwards, I will go and you will never see me again. I promise."

There was something in me that wished to say yes. I was screaming in myself to trust him. However I had already realized that you should not trust a person. I looked at Sarah. She gave me a nod, as though she was saying that it was all right. Just as she knew I had to listen to whatever he had to say.

I was trailing Ethan out of the cafe and into an alley of the building. The noise of the city seemed very distant here. This was very hushpuppy and black and seemed another world.

There are things that I must say to you, Ethan, said. His hand had been going through his hair as though he were nervous. And I would not at all believe you, mon. But I want you to hear me nevertheless.

"Okay," I said. My heart was throbbing like it was in my ears.

You have heard of werewolves, eh? he asked. "You've heard the stories."

I almost laughed. You mean such a monster of the fairy-tales? The thing that eats people?"

Something like that, Ethan said. He didn't look crazy. He looked serious. "Except we're not monsters. We're just people. Those who are able to transform into wolves. Individuals who had been residing in the woods around Pine Ridge since time immemorial."

The world started spinning. "That's not real," I said. "That's not possible."

It is crazy, I know, Ethan said. "But it is real. And you are allied to it, like you wanted to be or not.

"How?" I demanded. "I'm not a werewolf. I'm just a normal human being."

Ethan took a step closer to me. Your grandmother was a member of us. A werewolf. Your mother never informed you because she did not want you to live a normal life. But that blood is in you, Luna. It's always been in you."

I shook my head. This couldn't be happening. This wasn't real. My stepfather fixed that marriage, he wanted money, I said. "That's the only reason. He sold me to your brother."

He did want money, Ethan said. but it was not all that. Kieran wanted you, because he believed that you were merely a human being, to manipulate and exploit. However, the true motive as to why your stepfather had to get you married is due to the fact that he was aware of your bloodline. He knew what you could become."

"And what is that?" I inquired, I was not sure I would like to know.

Ethan gazed in me with these green eyes that had plagued me three months. "You're a healer," he said. "It's rare. Really rare. You can also utilize the supernatural ability that runs through you body to cure people. To heal werewolves. Can you see how precious that will make you?

I felt sick. That is why my stepfather was selling me to your brother, not as a wife, but as some sort of a tool?

"Yes," Ethan said. But something do you have to know. Something it would make me know the moment I caught you.

"What?" I asked.

"I know," Ethan said quietly. "But it's true. And it's not safe for you to be in the city anymore. My brother figured out where you were. He's on his way right now with pack warriors."

Behind Ethan, through the darkness of the alley, I saw headlights turn onto the street. Car doors slammed. I heard voices calling out my name.

"They're here," Ethan whispered. He reached out his hand to me. "Come with me. Let me protect you. Let me show you the truth about what you are."

I looked at his hand. I looked at his face. I looked at the cars pulling up to the café behind him. And I realized that running from my wedding had only delayed the inevitable.

The supernatural world had found me. And this time, there was nowhere left to run.

Ethan stepped even closer to me. "The bond you felt at the wedding. The connection between us. That wasn't just attraction. That was real. We're mates, Luna. Werewolves have one person in the entire world that they're supposed to be with. One person that their soul recognizes as their other half."

"No," I said, backing away from him. "I don't believe that. I don't believe any of this."