The Luna Choosing Game

My wolf was rampaging in my mind, begging me to run, to be free, to give myself over to my natural side and forget myself and my worries for a while.

I was on the edge, so close to giving over. I needed to go to someone, but I didn’t know how. Nicholas had made me promise that I would go to him when I was feeling like this, but that wasn’t possible now.

Susie was always an option, but she had her own troubles to worry about. And likely Mark was with her, especially since I didn’t see him with Nicholas and I knew he wasn’t watching my room tonight.

Veronica was another choice. She was likely locked up in the library for another long night of research. The thought of joining her there was usually a soothing nothing. But right now it made my skin crawl. I wanted to be free, not confined to a box.

It was that notion that drove me out into the gardens, where I knew Julian was lurking. Before I had earlier left him, he had expressed his own desire not to return to his room tonight. He said he had a lot of thinking to do.

I didn’t blame him. What I hadn’t expected was that I would end up with a lot of thinking to do too, now.

Letting my feet guide me, and maybe my heart guide my feet, I flew down the staircase. Property © NôvelDrama.Org.

At the doorway leading outside, Brian stood guard. When he saw me coming, he wordlessly stood to the side and pushed open the door for me. He didn’t even ask me what I wanted or why I was crying. Nor did he ask Julian if I was allowed into his space at such a late hour.

Brian, somehow, seemed to have an innate ability to know everything, like he had eyes and ears everywhere. Maybe he knew about Bridget and Nicholas. Maybe he knew I would come looking for Julian.

Maybe he didn’t know, and was simply letting me speak to Julian anyway. I didn’t know.

I nodded my head in thanks as I passed him and entered the gardens. This late, only the string lights woven through the foliage lit the pathways. The moonlight above cast a soft glow, illuminating the edges of the otherwise imperceptible edges of night.

The shadowy visage of Julian stood out from the darkened flowers and trees because of this

moonlight.

His back was to me. As I approached, his gaze was up at the moon. He didn’t look at me

approaching, though he must have sensed my presence by now.

I wished I was calm, so that I could appreciate the view better. The stars were so much brighter here than back home in the city. But my heart was recently shattered, and I was barely holding together the agony swelling within me. As well as the wild.

So I do what I had wanted to do in Nicholas’s doorway. I covered my face with my hands and I sobbed so loudly that my lungs hurt.

Julian, alarmed, immediately turned to me. “Piper? What’s wrong?”

“I didn’t… I don’t…” My thoughts were a messy. I struggled to hold myself together long enough to speak. “I went to see Nicholas… Bridget was there.”

He stiffened.

“I want to run. Nick said to go to him… when this happened. But… But… what do I do when he’s the cause?”

Julian gripped me by the shoulders.

I looked up into his eyes.

I wouldn’t. F–For Elva.”

“I want to run, Julian. But I promised you and I promised Nick that

It was only thoughts of Elva now that kept me gripping to the edge of my humanity. But Julian looked down into my eyes and told me, “Let’s run.”