The Heartless Alpha's Beloved Luna Novel

---- Chapter 341 Avery's POV The drive home took hours, but | hardly noticed any of it. | remember the rain starting somewhere around the second hour, fat drops hitting the windscreen faster and faster. | remember stopping for gas at some point and sitting in the car afterward with my hands on the wheel and my forehead dropped against it for about thirty seconds before | made myself keep going. Finally, | pulled into the driveway at just past three in the morning.

My mother was still awake, sitting in the kitchen in her robe with a cup of tea gone cold in front of her and a bandage wrapped around her forearm. She stood the moment | came through the door "He's not back," she said. "| know." | dropped my bag. "How bad is the bite?" "It's fine. It's not deep." She held up her arm. "Avery, I'm so sorry. It happened so fast. He was just sitting at the table eating his dinner and then he started shifting out of nowhere. Then he attacked me and ran off." ---- "Did you call the police?" Her face fell.

"I did, but they told me that it would have to be twenty-four hours until they start a missing person search." "What?" | breathed. "He's ten! That makes no sense for a kid his age!" "I know." My mother passed her hands over her face. "They said that given his track record with the school, he's likely just throwing a tantrum and will return." My jaw clenched. | couldn't believe it. My son had been missing for hours and the human police wouldn't do anything because he already had a record as a "troublemaker". "rm sorry, Avery," my mother said softly.

"It's not your fault." | was already reaching for my raincoat. "Stay here. I'm gonna go look for him." "Okay. Be safe." "Iwill" | searched our street first, going up and down both sides, calling his name. Nothing. | checked the backyard, the side alley, and the small park at the end of the road. | walked four blocks in every direction with my hood up and the rain coming down hard ---- and my throat getting raw from calling his name into the dark. Then | stopped on the corner and thought about what | would do in his position. Bjorn in pup form, terrified and ashamed, in the middle of the city.

He wouldn't stay in the open. He wouldn't go anywhere with people. He'd go somewhere familiar, somewhere he felt safe, somewhere small and contained where he could just wait it out. Suddenly, | knew exactly where. The playground was six blocks away, tucked between two. residential streets behind a low iron fence.

We used to come here when he was little, before his wolf started causing problems He used to love the tunnel slide-the long enclosed one that curved at the bottom-because you couldn't see into it from the outside and he could sit in there and look out at the other kids without being seen. Iran the whole way. Just as | suspected, Bjorn was in the tunnel slide. | almost missed him. The whole park was empty and dark and the rain was coming down hard enough that the sound of it drowned out everything else.

But then | looked at the slide and saw a faint, dark shape at the curve of the tunnel, and | crouched ---- down at the opening A small, dark-furred pup looked back at me with miserable eyes. "Hey," | said. "There you are." He whimpered softly and scooched further into the slide. He was shivering badly. Even from here | could see that his fur was completely soaked through. "Come here," | said, opening my arms. "Come on. It's just me." He didn't move. | reached into my pocket and pulled out the tiny pouch that | always kept on me, just in case | ever needed it Peppermint.

"Breathe in," | said gently, holding the pouch toward his muzzle. He flinched away, but then he caught a whiff of it, and slowly, he extended his neck and snuffled tentatively. A few moments passed. It took longer than usual. His wolf was fighting it, exhausted and terrified, but eventually, his eyes brightened. After a few minutes, he shifted. Where a pup once huddled, a boy now lay curled up in a ball. ---- He looked up at me with glassy eyes. "Mommy?" My heart cracked. "Come here, baby," | whispered. | held my arms open, and Bjorn scooched into them.

| held him tightly against my body, tucking him into my coat, then stood.