The Summer Moon
Chapter 33 -

Malia

I woke the next morning to sunlight shining into my eyes. I rolled over and groaned, then immediately relaxed when I felt the warmth of Ty's body next to mine. He stirred a little, wrapping his arm over my back gently.

Ty.

Memories of yesterday came flooding back to my mind and I shot up quickly to a sitting position. Looking at the space around me, I immediately recognized his room. How did we get here? Tyrese was hurt. There was so much blood.

I spun around quickly to look down at the boy lying next to me, quickly noticing the blood had been cleaned from his skin and replaced with a small bandage on his side. Tyrese is a wolf.

My heart pounded in my chest and suddenly it felt harder to breathe. As if Ty knew how I was feeling, his eyes shot open and looked straight up to me. That familiar blue met with mine, "Malia," he whispered, his voice still heavy with sleep. My head began to spin, visions of last night's events flashing through my mind. Emily's party. The wolf. Ty turned into a wolf. A wolf turned into Jesse. I stole his car. Ty was injured. We were on the stretcher, Ty was going to be okay. "Malia, calm down," Ty sat up beside me and I instinctively reached out to his side. I gently rested my hand on the dressing, careful not to hurt him. "I'm fine, it healed," Ty said, as if he knew what I had been wondering. He slowly peeled the dressing off his chest and my eyes went wide as I reached out to push it back down. Ty stopped and took my hand in his, "Relax". His hands went back to the dressing and he pulled it off. I stared at him in fright, my eyes wide as I looked at his perfectly intact skin. My hand reached up to brush over its smoothness, the blood and wound that had been there yesterday were gone as if they'd never existed. Not even a scar was left in its place. This can't be real, I must be dreaming. Did I just dream up the events of last night?

My eyes looked up to Ty's and he was giving me a small smile. "It healed, I'm okay," his hand came up to cup my cheek, but I backed away. Last night was real, and there was no way he could have healed this quickly. That's impossible. "You-you turned into a-a w-wolf," I managed to stutter out. I stepped off the bed, suddenly feeling the need to put space between us. "Malia," Ty's voice was soft as he stepped off the bed as well.

"Tell me it wasn't real," I mumbled, suddenly feeling tears coming to my eyes. My throat tightened, and the room around me blurred.

"I can't" Ty took another step closer to me and I tried to back away but fumbled in my steps. His arms were on mine impossibly quickly, holding me steady. The air suddenly felt thick as my breathing picked up pace once more. No. This couldn't be real. He's lying. He has to be lying.

But you saw it yourself last night.

"Malia, it's okay, please calm down," Ty slipped his finger under my chin and tilted my eyes up to meet his. Tears now flowed in a steady stream down my cheeks. "Please, let me explain," Ty's eyes were sad, begging me to listen, but my head was beginning to ache. This was all too much.

"You turned into a wolf," I repeated myself again, more confident this time.

"I did, but Lia, please, I can explain," Ty held me tight as I tried to back away once more.

"What are you Ty?" I whispered, asking the question I was terrified to know the answer to, the question that would change everything.

"I'm a werewolf," Ty said, looking directly in my eyes. My breath caught in my throat. No. This isn't real. This isn't happening. I have to leave. I have to go. I need to run.

"I want to go home," I yanked my arms away from him, pressing myself back against the wall, trying to put more distance between Ty and I.

"I won't hurt you," Ty said quietly, but he didn't attempt to stay any closer. "Please, please just let me talk."

"Take me home," I said more sternly this time. I wrapped my arms around my body, hugging myself.

Ty's head fell in defeat, as he walked over to the closet and began pulling on some clothes. "Let's go," Ty walked by me, without an attempt to reach out for me, and out the bedroom door. I followed him down the stairs and out to the car. Ty held the car door open for me but I suddenly felt frozen in place. My dad, who I suspected was also a wolf, would be waiting for me at home.

Ty raised his eyebrows at me. "You want to drive or something?" He asked, leaning back against the car. My tears picked up again and I bent over to face the ground.

"Lia," Ty groaned, his arms coming to wrap around me once more. I leaned into his chest. I felt so pathetic, but this was all too much for me. Everyone around me had been lying. My dad lied, Ty had lied, Emily lied, did my mom know too? "I can't go home, my dad-" I started.

"I know," Ty interrupted me. He rubbed my back gently and held me there for a while. When I finally felt my tears calming, I backed away slowly and Ty watched me carefully.

"You can stay here if you want, I can sleep on the couch if that makes you more comfortable. Or there's a guest room you can stay in," Ty offered, and I smiled at him. That was really sweet. He was always so sweet. I nodded my head slowly and followed Ty back into the house.

We walked back up to Ty's room and I sat on the bed. "I'm gonna get you something to eat," Ty said before turning and leaving the room again. I laid back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. I had so many questions, but I was scared of replaceing out their answers.

Ty was a wolf, but he wouldn't hurt me, at least I didn't think he would. He'd never been anything but sweet to me, but he had been lying to me all this time. And I watched him kill that other wolf so easily, without mercy, but he was protecting Jesse.

Ty returned with a tray of food and interrupted my thoughts. I thanked him and slowly picked away at it, but truly I wasn't that hungry. My mind kept racing as Ty sat on the couch across the room watching me.

"I can leave you alone for a while if you want," Ty said, and I looked up to meet his gaze. His eyes were dull, sad, and I could tell he was feeling particularly emotional right now. I found myself furiously shaking my head. As scared as I was, for some reason I was still craving his presence. I wanted his arms around me, I wanted to pretend none of this was happening.

"Can you, um," I began awkwardly, unsure how to word it. I pulled back the covers on the bed a little, patting the empty space beside me, and Ty's eyes went wide. Like a streak of lightning, he was at my side once again, pulling me into his arms. Like I'd been without oxygen all morning, being in his arms suddenly made it easier to breathe. He let out a sigh, rubbing his hand soothingly down my back.

"Ty, what happened last night? You were hurt," I asked one of the questions burning in my brain. I had been so scared Ty was going to die. The other guys had said he had been attacked, but by who? Other wolves?

"Rogues," Ty said, as if he could read my mind, and I widened my eyes a little. "They're wolves that don't have a pack, they tend to be more aggressive, impulsive, unpredictable. I was," he paused, looking for the right word. "Distracted, overly confident, I thought we got them all and turned my back. It was my fault," I watched as his eyes looked down to the floor, almost as if he was ashamed of what had happened.

"Are they going to come back?" I asked hesitantly. He paused again, thinking carefully about his next answer, which only told me that this wouldn't be the last attack.

"I won't let them hurt you, Malia, I'll never let anyone hurt you" Ty pulled back slightly, closing his hands on either of my cheeks as he focused his eyes on mine. My heart pounded in my chest, and I felt myself wanting to wrap my arms around him and kiss him with everything I had. I wanted to go back to yesterday, but I couldn't. I couldn't get the images of the wolves out of my head.

"But what about you?" Ty looked up at me surprised, that familiar sparkle coming back to his eyes. He paused a moment before answering.

"I'll be okay, I'm strong and I've been training my whole life for times like this," he said slowly, and I wondered what he meant by that, but I was too overwhelmed by everything going on right now to ask anymore questions. "Lia please-" Ty began but I cut him off before he could continue.

"I think I need to sleep more. I'm not ready for this," I mumbled. I could feel my mind shutting down, this was all too much. "Can you just stay here with me? Hold me and we can pretend that none of this is actually happening?" I pleaded with him and he easily gave in. His arms tightened around me, allowing my head to crash against his chest. I could never fit in this world, I didn't even want to know that this world existed. I had never been one to believe in fairytales and fantasies, mom never even let me have those types of books growing up. But if that's what Ty's world was, how could I ever be a part of it?