Luna. Chapter 53

(Lyra's POV)

"Asher, sweetie, time to go!" I called from the front door of the Moonlight Pack school.

My son came running out with his backpack bouncing against his small frame. At four and a half, he moved with the coordination of someone much older. Today he'd built something in engineering class that had apparently amazed his teacher.

"Mama, look what I made!" He pulled a small device from his pocket. It looked like a cross between a compass and a calculator, with tiny gears that moved in perfect synchronization.

"What does it do, baby?"

"It tells you when storms are coming. Not just weather storms though. Other kinds too." His dark eyes were serious as he studied the device. "Mr. Peterson said it shouldn't work, but it does."

I knelt down to his level. "What other kinds of storms?"

"The kind that make people's hearts hurt. The kind that change everything." He tucked the device back into his pocket carefully. "But it's okay, Mama. Some storms bring good things too."

The drive home was quiet except for Asher humming a melody I didn't recognize. He often did things like that now - humming songs no one had taught him, fixing broken things without tools, knowing things he shouldn't know.

Dr. Elena said it was normal for children with his genetic combination. I wasn't sure there was anything normal about it.

"Mama?" Asher looked up from his car seat. "Are you excited about your birthday tomorrow?"

Tomorrow. My twenty-fifth birthday. The day I would finally shift for the first time.

"I'm nervous," I admitted.

"Don't be nervous. Your wolf is really pretty. She's been waiting a long time to meet you."

My hands tightened on the steering wheel. "How do you know that?"

"She told me. When I was still in your tummy, she used to sing to me." Asher went back to humming that strange melody. "She's going to love you so much, Mama."

That night, I sat on my bed looking at the moon through my window. Full and bright, calling to something deep in my chest that had been stirring for weeks now.

Twenty-five years old tomorrow. Finally time for my wolf to emerge.

I wasn't sure I was ready.

But according to my four-year-old son, she'd been ready for a very long time.