Marked by the Alpha Team (Luna Merrick) novel Chapter 36

Luna’s POV

I have never felt this weak in my entire life, and at first, I honestly thought I was just overreacting. Maybe I had pushed myself too hard at practice, or maybe I didn’t sleep well enough the night before and my body was just trying to catch up, or perhaps it was as a result of almost going crazy carlier in the day, but the longer I lay there on my bed, the more I realized that this wasn’t normal, and no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise, I couldn’t ignore it.

My limbs felt heavy in a way that didn’t make sense, like they didn’t belong to me anymore, and even lifting my hand slightly felt like too much effort. It wasn’t just tiredness either, because tiredness doesn’t make you feel like your strength is being drained out of you from the inside. This felt different. It felt like something was happening to me, something I couldn’t explain, and that alone made my chest tighten with tease.

Then the heat started, and that was when everything became impossible to ignore. At first, it was just a small warmth. something I could have brushed off as nothing, but it didn’t stay that way for long. The heat spread slowly through my body, starting from my chest and moving outward until it felt like it was everywhere at once.

My skin burned, not sharply, but in a deep, constant way that made it hard to focus on anything else. It felt like I had been locked inside a sauna with no way out, like the air around me had turned thick and suffocating, and every breath I took only made it worse. I shifted slightly on the bed, trying to get comfortable, but even that small movement made me groan under my breath because my body hurt in ways I couldn’t describe,

My muscles felt sore, my bones felt heavy, and my skin felt too tight, like it couldn’t contain the heat building inside me. For a moment, my mind drifted back to what Orion had said earlier that day, and even thinking about it made my head hurt even more. He had mentioned something about a full moon, about things getting worse, and at the time, I had told myself to brush it off because it sounded ridiculous, but now, lying here like this, I couldn’t help but wonder if he had been serious.

My eyes slowly shifted toward the window, even though it took effort just to move my head, and I stared at the sky outside, hoping for some kind of answer, but the sky was a little too dark, and there was no full moon in sight. That only made the confusion worse, because if this had something to do with the full moon, then why was I already feeling like this when tomorrow wasn’t even here yet?

A soft sound escaped my mouth before I could stop it, something between a groan and a weak breath, and that was enough to get Ivy’s attention from across the room. She had been lying on her bed earlier, probably doing her own thing, but the moment she heard me, her voice broke through the silence.

“Luna?” she called out, and I could hear the confusion in her tone immediately. “Are you okay?”

I wanted to say yes, I really did. It would have been easier to lie, to brush it off and say I was fine, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. My body hurt too much, and the heat was getting worse by the second, making it harder to even think straight.

“My whole body hurts,” I managed to say, my voice coming out weaker than I expected, and I swallowed slowly before continuing. “And it’s too hot in here.”

Even speaking felt like too much effort, but I forced myself to go on because I needed some kind of relief. “Can you turn the air conditioner higher or something?” I added, closing my eyes briefly as another wave of heat rolled through me. “It feels like I’m burning.

There was a short pause after I said that, and I could hear the slight shift of her bed as she got up, but her response wasn’t what I expected.

“Luna… the AC is already on the highest setting,” Ivy said, and there was clear confusion in her voice. “It’s literally freezing in here.”

I frowned slightly at that, even though it hurt to do so, because what she was saying didn’t make any sense to me at all. There was no way the room was cold when I felt like I was being cooked alive. The heat was unbearable, pressing against my skin

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12:19 Sat, May 30 M MM

Chapter 35

and sinking into my bones, and I couldn’t understand how she wasn’t feeling it too.

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By the time I managed to open my eyes again, Ivy was already walking toward me, and the moment she reached my side. she froze. I didn’t need her to say anything to know that something was wrong, because the look on her face said it all. Her eyes widened as she took in my condition, and I realized just how bad I must look when she let out a soft gasp.

“Why are you sweating so much?” she asked, her voice filled with concern now, and I could feel it too, my skin/damp and my clothes sticking uncomfortably to my body like I had just stepped out of a shower. I tried to answer, but the words didn’t come out properly, and before I could even try again, she reached out and placed her hand on my forehead./

The reaction was immediate.

She jerked her hand back like she had been burned, her eyes going even wider as she let out a loud gasp./What the fuck!” she blurted out, and the panic in her voice made my chest tighten even more. “Luna, you’re burning up!”

She looked at me like she couldn’t believe what she was seeing, shaking her head slightly as if that would somehow make less real. “That’s not normal. That is definitely not normal.” Then, without wasting another second, she grabbed my arm gently but firmly, trying to pull me up. “Get up,” she said quickly. “We’re going to the hospital right now.”

I shook my head weakly, the movement alone making me groan softly because even that felt like too much. “No…” I whispered. my voice barely there, and she froze immediately, staring at me like I had just said something ridiculous. “What do you mean no?” she asked, her tone rising slightly. “You’re literally burning up right now!”

“I don’t think the hospital can help me,” I said, forcing the words out even though my throat felt dry and my head was spinning. She stared at me like I had completely lost it, and honestly, I couldn’t blame her because this sounded insane even to me. “It probably has to do with them,” I added after a moment, and that only made her frown even more.

“With who?” she asked.

“The football boys,” I answered, my voice weak but clear enough for her to hear, and I could see the confusion deepen on her face immediately.

“What do they have to do with you having a fever?” she asked, and 1 let out a shaky breath before continuing.

“One of them told me it was going to get worse,” I said slowly. “He said this is just the beginning.” I paused for a second, trying to gather enough strength to keep talking, because even speaking felt like too much effort now. “Orion said it has something to do with the moon.” I added finally. “He said the full moon is going to make it worse. I don’t know how, but I have a feeling this is just a preview of what’s to come.”

The moment those words left my mouth, everything went quiet.

Ivy didn’t respond right away, and for a second, I thought maybe she hadn’t heard me properly, but then she spoke again, her voice slower this time, like she was trying to be sure of what I had just said. “Did you just say… the full moon?” she asked, and I nodded weakly.

“The moon in the sky?” she added.

“Yeah…” I whispered, expecting her to call me crazy, or laugh, or say something normal, but she didn’t.

Instead, her eyes slowly moved away from me, and she turned her head toward the wall on her side of the room. I followed her gaze without thinking, and for the second time since I moved in, I paid attention to what was there. The posters, the wolves, and the strange half–human, half–wolf creatures I had always ignored because I thought they were just part of her weird interests. I had never asked her about them, never cared enough to, but now, for some reason, I couldn’t look away.

“Ivy…” I called weakly, iny voice barely above a whisper. “What are you looking at?”

She didn’t answer immediately. She just stared at the wall for a few seconds longer, like something had finally clicked in her head, before slowly turning back to me. Her expression had completely changed, and that alone made my stomach twist in a

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