The sickened luna’s last chance

Chapter 8

Ella POV

The new boy in class was strange, or so the other kids said.

They said that he was too quiet, that he stared for too long, that his interest in paper airplanes was too obsessive. They said that he didn’t play with them on the playground because he would always ruin their games with his weirdness.

And then the teacher seated him next to me, and I saw those big blue eyes and the way his face lit up when he saw me folding a paper airplane underneath my desk, and I knew we were supposed to be good friends.

“It’s okay. They think I’m weird, too,” I said as we sat together in the big flower field out behind the school, making daisy crowns. “The other kids don’t like me because of what happened to my mom. They think I’m bad luck.”

Liam tilted his head, a few soft golden curls falling into his eyes. “What happened to your mom?”

I shrugged. “I dunno. She died when I was a baby. But that was a long time ago, and I’m a lot bigger now, so it doesn’t bother me.”

He reached out and took my hand. “It’s okay if it does bother you.”

“Why?”

“Because we’re best friends now, and friends are supposed to be there for each other when they’re feeling sad. That way, you can still feel sad but it’s not so lonely because we’ve got each other.”

Liam was right-we were best friends. Inseparable, even. We were practically attached at the hip all through second, third, and fourth grade.

Until his father, the Head Alpha of the Alpha Council Supervisory Board, sent him away.

I didn’t even get to say goodbye; Liam just stopped showing up to school, and when I asked our teacher where he went, she said he went off to some kind of special camp for ‘kids like him. And he wasn’t coming back.

I didn’t know what that meant until years later, when it finally hit me: his father, ashamed of Liam’s shy nature and too- inquisitive mind, sent him to the type of place where they hammer special kids into an ordinary mold.

His father wanted him to become the Head Alpha of the Board.

And now he was.

who had been taken from me all those years ago; he was charming and outgoing, he smiled wide and initiated

still Liam.

slip away. Even when Alexander

now you’re the Head of the

just a little too much. “My

blinked at that, wondering exactly what went on at that camp. But before I

hand. “It’s a pleasure to see you

1/3

time he had seen Liam, Liam had hardly been able to say hello to him. He then

would try to use my reunion with an old friend I thought I’d never see again to get what he wanted. And of course Alexander wouldn’t stop him,

relief, Liam simply nodded. “I assure you, I’ll give Alpha Alexander

could only give a dry laugh

to me once more, “how have you been all

words could come. What was I supposed to tell him? “Nice to see you again, but I’m dying”? Or perhaps “The very man you’re evaluating to run for Alpha King is refusing to mark or divorce me, even

me”?

wore back to the young,

grip on me. “We’re doing well,” he cut in. Again with the we. Like it fucking meant anything. “Ella is just under a lot of stress because we’re under a lot of

my pulse spike, heat crawling up

my daughter,” he said. “Despite

wanted to laugh. Or

it?” His voice was soft, and he

was palpable. I thought, for a moment,

Alexander might be even less inclined to listen to my wishes if I blurted everything out and caused his

Only little frustrations for now, just enough to piss him off but not enough to make him lash out in the opposite

I said, quickly recovering. “But we’re fine. Aren’t we, darling?” I turned to him and gave him what I hoped

me for a moment as if trying to sense an ulterior motive, but when he

and relaxed somewhat.

however, didn’t seem particularly convinced. But he didn’t press the matter any