BENEATH THE MOON'S BITE

Luca

I should've known something was weird the moment I woke up, with the scent of burnt pine and damp earth filling the scent of my bed sheets. The kind of smell that only means one thing: something's coming, not something good or something ordinary, just heavy enough to stir the wolf in me that never used to speak.

The morning was quiet, my house was as quiet as a grave yard. My aunt had left early, like she always did on full moon days. She never said why, and I stopped asking after my thirteenth birthday. I just knew not to follow, peek or even question.

The shift wasn't supposed to happen until sundown and everyone knew that....at least, that's what the elders preached, you wake with the moon, then shift with the stars and afterwards find your place under the sky and accept it. But my skin was already itching, and my muscles were twitching. Like underneath my skin, my new wolf was waking, it felt early-uninvited and impatient.

I pushed the blanket off and sat up slowly, my shirt stuck to me and I was damp with sweat. My heart was thudding like I had run a mile in my dreams or maybe I had, maybe I was running from something I couldn't name or maybe I already knew and I just didn't want to admit it.

By midday, I couldn't breathe.

I avoided the training fields, where boys our age tried to guess what rank they would shift into tonight, boasting about bloodlines they didn't earn, and laughing about how weak Omegas were, how they should be culled, controlled and used. I said nothing, I just listened with my head down, but my heart was pounding unusually.

Because I didn't feel like a Beta today, at least not like I used to.

When I found Rafe behind the stables, he was sitting on that crooked fence we carved our initials into years ago. His back was to me, but I could feel him, his warmth and breath.

He always looked like he belonged to the land, his eyes were wild, golden, and somewhat beautiful, with an aura that screamed 'born to command', but I never said that out loud, because it would probably get to his head.

He turned before I spoke, "You okay?"

I wasn't.

But I nodded anyway and climbed up beside him, trying not to wince as the heat under my skin grew worse again.

He gave me a long look, like he could see through the smile I forced, like he could hear my thoughts, but Rafe being Rafe, he didn't press, he let me carry my silence.

He didn't hold for long.

"Luca," His voice dropped, and it felt unusually light, "Something's not right with you."

I tensed up a bit, "Oh it's nothing.... just my nerves."

His eyes narrowed, "No it's more".

I couldn't hold the lie any longer, "I feel like I'm burning from the inside."

He went still.