Marked by the Alpha Team (Luna Merrick) novel Chapter 31

Third-person POV

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Orion was walking toward the academic building with one of his friends when it happened. The morning air was cold, and the campus paths were already filling up with students moving from one class to another. He was walking at an easy page with his backpack hanging over one shoulder while his friend Marcus talked beside him about an assignment they had due later that week.

Orion listened with half an ear, nodding occasionall

his mind kept drifting elsewhere. The last few days had been strange, especially with Luna suddenly appearing in their lives and turning everything upside down without even knowing it, and he was still trying to decide what to do about Theo and his childish antics.

They had barely made it halfway across the courtyard when a voice suddenly broke through the noise around them.

“Orion!”

The sound of his name being shouted made him slow down immediately. At first he thought he had imagined it, but when he heard it again, louder this time, he turned around to see who could possibly be calling him like that in the middle of

campus.

What he saw made his eyebrows lift in surprise.

Luna was running straight toward him.

She was pushing through the crowd of students like someone who had been chasing him for a while, her curls bouncing wildly around her face as she ran. Her breathing looked rough even from a distance, and by the time she finally reached him, she was clearly out of breath. She bent slightly forward with her hands resting on her knees, pulling in deep breaths like she had just finished a long sprint. Orion stared at her in confusion, not expecting to see her here like this, especially not chasing after him.

She lifted one hand weakly in his direction, silently asking for a moment to catch her breath before speaking.

Orion glanced toward Marcus. “Go ahead to class,” he said calmly. “I’ll meet you there.”

Marcus looked between the two of them, clearly curious about what was going on, but he didn’t ask questions. He simply shrugged, nodded once, and continued walking toward the building, leaving Orion alone with Luna in the middle of the walkway.

Orion turned his attention back to her. By now she had straightened up, though she was still breathing harder than someone like her should have been after a short run.

“How long have you been running after me?” he asked, tilting his head slightly. “An athlete like you shouldn’t be panting this hard over a few minutes of running.”

His tone carried a bit of sarcasm, meant more as a small tease than anything serious. Even though he knew they weren’t exactly close enough for jokes like that, the words slipped out anyway.

Luna finally looked up at him, and the moment their eyes met. Orion’s expression changed completely.

Something was very wrong. Her eyes were wide and slightly unfocused, and her face had gone pale in a way that made her look like she might collapse at any moment. The frustration and stubborn pride he was used to seeing in her were gone, and in their place was something much more fragile,

“What happened?” he asked quietly.

For a moment Luna didn’t answer. Her lips trembled slightly, and Orion saw tears suddenly start to fill her eyes. She looked like she hated herself for even being there, like coming to him had been the last thing she wanted to do.

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12:18 Sat, May 30 MM M

Chapter 31

Then her voice came out in a shaky whisper. “Help me.”

Orion felt his chest tighten immediately.

“I think I’m going crazy,” she said, her voice unsteady as she tried to hold herself together. “I keep hearing voices, and they won’t stop.”

The moment she said the word “voices,” Orion understood exactly what she meant Jace had already told him and the others that Luna’s senses were beginning to change. Her hearing had already started sharpening, and if she didn’t know what was happening, the sudden flood of sounds would feel overwhelming.

Looking at her now, Orion could tell that was exactly what was happening. She looked terrified, like she was barely holding herself together.

“Come with me.” he said immediately.

He stepped closer and gestured toward the quieter path beside the courtyard. “Do you need help walking?”

Luna quickly shook her head, wiping a tear from her cheek as if embarrassed that it had fallen at all.

12:18 Sat, May 30 MM M

Chapter 31

“Look at me.”

The firmness in his voice finally reached her, and Luna’s eyes snapped open. Her gaze locked on his face.

Orion kept his hands steady on her shoulders, holding her attention firmly. “Focus on me.” he said calmly. “Only me.”

Luna tried, but it wasn’t easy. Her breathing was still uneven, and the tears running down her face blurred her vision. The voices in her head were still crashing into each other, dozens of conversations mixing together until she couldn’t separate them anymore, but slowly, she forced herself to focus on Orion.

Just Orion, and then something changed.

The familiar scent hit her all at once, pine, smoke, and something warm and wild underneath it. The scent wrapped around her senses so suddenly that it almost felt like it had been hiding until that exact moment. She had smelled it before whenever she was near Orion and the others, but never like this, and never when she was alone with him. Now it surrounded her completely, filling her lungs with every breath she took

The strange heat in her body returned instantly, spreading through her chest and down her arms until she felt slightly dizzy. Yet at the same time, something else began to happen.

The voices started to fade.

At first it was barely noticeable, like someone slowly lowering the volume on a radio. The overwhelming noise that had been filling her head moments earlier began to soften, the dozens of overlapping conversations fading into something distant and manageable.

Luna blinked slowly as the chaos inside her mind continued to quiet. Her breathing gradually slowed as the panic loosened its grip on her chest, and the tight pressure in her head began to ease, and for the first time since the voices started, she could actually think.

Without realizing it, she found herself staring directly into Orion’s eyes. His golden eyes were surprisingly steady and calm, holding her attention completely. The world around them seemed to fade away until he was the only thing she could focus

1. on.

The storm in her head finally disappeared, and silence filled the space where the voices had been.

Luna let out a shaky breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Her hands slowly dropped from her ears, her shoulders relaxing as the tension left her body. For several seconds she just stood there, staring at Orion like he had pulled her back from the edge of something terrifying.

Finally, her voice came out soft and amazed. “They stopped.”

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