The Heartless Alpha’s Beloved Luna (Avery and Gideon) novel Chapter 563

Bjorn’s POV

I waited until the house was completely quiet before I moved.

That meant waiting for the TV to go off downstairs, and then for the gap under my door to go dark, and then for another full hour after that just to be safe. I sat on my bed with my backpack in my lap and my flashlight in my hand and watched the minutes tick over on my alarm clock.

11:00.

11:30.

11:47.

Okay.

The backpack had taken me most of the afternoon to put together. I had the flashlight, obviously. I had the pocketknife Dad gave me, the one he’d made me promise to be careful with, which I had been.

I had three granola bars and a juice box, because I wasn’t sure how long this would take. I had a compass, although it might have been a toy, I also wasn’t sure of that.

And I had a photo of my mom I’d taken from the frame on the kitchen counter two days ago, while the thing wearing her face wasn’t looking.

I stood up, putting on my backpack, and opened my door as slowly as it would go.

The hallway was dark. Behind my dad’s door, I could hear his snoring. He said he didn’t snore, but he did. Mom always laughed about it.

I didn’t know if that thing slept, but I didn’t stick around to find out.

I took the stairs one at a time, keeping to the edges where they didn’t creak.

The back door barely made a sound. I stepped out into the night air and pulled it shut behind me with both hands, inch by inch, until the latch clicked as quiet as I could manage.

The grounds were empty. The sky was clear, millions of stars shining overhead. My wolf was already awake with his ears up, nose sniffing everything. He’d been wound up since dinner. Said we should have snuck some extra food from the fridge.

I looked over my shoulder and hurried across the long.

Sebastian’s car wasn’t on the road. I stopped at the treeline and looked both ways, then stood there and waited.

“I know,” I thought back. “But Mom could be out there. And no one else is gonna help her except for us.”

“She’s gonna be so mad…”

“She can’t be mad if she’s dead,” I replied.

My wolf whined again.

“Don’t be a baby,” I said out loud this time. I wasn’t sure if I was saying it to him or me. Maybe both. Either way, he stopped pouting after that.

I clicked the flashlight up to the higher setting, adjusted the straps on my backpack, and stepped between the trees.

The forest seemed to swallow up all the other sounds of the nighttime. The shadows felt long, like fingers reaching for me. I kept my eyes focused on the flashlight beam and hurried, jaw clenched just like Dad’s.

“Don’t be a baby… Don’t be a baby…”

That weird feeling in my chest was still there, guiding me forward. I couldn’t explain it, but I felt something tugging me through the forest, something silver-colored guiding me off the path, through the shrubs and baby trees. I followed it, because I sensed Mom on the other end of it, and I didn’t question it even though I knew she’d probably tell me I was supposed to question stuff like that.