Moonpetals and Secrets

The mark on my arm still glows when he’s close not bright enough for anyone to spot, just a soft silver warmth that seeps right through my shirt like I’ve got a hot water bottle pressed to my skin. I’ve been dodging Ryder Blackwood like he’s carrying the plague ever since he pressed his palm to me in the cafeteria three days back, but Mystic Grove Academy only has so many classrooms for Advanced Shifting.

“Bennett.”

I jump so hard I nearly send the bucket of moonpetal water flying across the room. Ryder’s leaning against the door frame, arms folded over his chest, looking like he hasn’t slept more than two hours a night since Monday. Which he probably hasn’t word’s been spreading fast that the missing first year still hasn’t turned up, and the pack’s been running patrols around the clock.

“Blackwood,” I mumble, turning back to stirring my bowl. The petals are supposed to turn deep blue when you’ve got a handle on your focus. Mine are stuck somewhere between purple and grey. “What do you want?”

“We need to talk.”

“About how you went and marked me in front of literally everyone? Like I’m some kind of… I don’t know, pack property?” My voice comes out harsher than I mean it to, but I’m still mad about it. Zara’s been getting ribbed for hanging out with the “Alpha’s girl” even though he hasn’t said two words to me since it happened.

Ryder’s jaw tightens so hard I can see the muscle twitch. “You think I wanted that? You think I enjoy having half the school staring at us like we’re on display? That mark doesn’t work how you think it does ….how anyone thinks it does.”

I slam the stirring stick down hard enough to splash water over the edge. “Then for the love of everything, tell me what it means! My dad won’t pick up my calls, all my grandma’s journal has are stupid riddles about doors and balance, and I keep waking up covered in dirt and leaves even when I don’t shift at night.”

For a second he just stands there, looking like he’s debating whether to walk away. Then he surprises me by dropping down cross legged on the mat right next to mine close enough that the silver glow on my arm pulses like it’s alive.

“My mom had one just like it,” he says, so quiet I almost miss it. “Same shape, same warm silver light. She was part of the line that guards the Balance too before she left the academy.”

I freeze mid stir. No one talks about Ryder’s mom. Ever. The teachers change the subject when you ask, and the older students just shake their heads and say it’s better not to know.

“Left where?”

He shrugs, picking up a moonpetal from my bucket and turning it over between his fingers. “Doesn’t matter anymore. What does matter is that mark means we’re tied to more than just pack rules. When things start to go wrong here when the Balance gets thin we feel it first. Like how you’ve been having those nightmares about the woods, right?”

I nod without thinking. Every single night it’s the same: trees so tall they block out the sky, a door made of twisted roots and dark vines, and a voice calling my name that sounds exactly like my grandma but feels all wrong somehow.

“The first year didn’t vanish,” he says, his voice dropping even lower. I have to lean in just to hear him over the sound of other students packing up their things. “He was taken. Zara saw it happen pulled right off the path by something that looked like a wolf, but it wasn’t right. Too big, too fast, and its eyes were black as ink.”

My stomach lurches. Zara’s been acting off for days ….quiet, jumpy, saying she was just homesick. “Why wouldn’t she tell me?”

“Because she’s scared. Because whatever it was, it looked like one of us. And she’s worried if she talks, people’ll think she had something to do with it.” He looks up at me then, and for the first time since I met him, the tough Alpha act drops away. I can see how scared he is …..how much he’s carrying on his shoulders. “That mark didn’t just pick you out of nowhere, Maya. I don’t know what it wants from us yet, but we can’t keep pretending it isn’t there.”

The bell rings just then, making us both jump. As we stand up, I glance down at my bucket and the moonpetals inside have finally turned the deepest shade of blue I’ve ever seen, glowing like tiny pieces of sky.

“Meet me after dinner,” Ryder says, already heading for the door. “By the old oak tree at the edge of the Woods Beyond. I’ll show you what my mom taught me about keeping the Balance steady and why we need to find out who’s trying to tear it apart.”

I watch him go, my arm still warm where he’d sat close enough to touch me. Zara slides over to my mat a second later, chewing on her bottom lip like she always does when she’s hiding something.

“You heard all that, didn’t you?” I say.

She nods, pulling a crumpled piece of notebook paper out of her pocket. It’s a drawing ….the exact same twisted door from my nightmares, with my name written underneath in looping handwriting that I’d recognize anywhere. My grandma’s.

“I found this tucked under your pillow when I was looking for your hairbrush this morning,” she whispers, her hands shaking a little. “I was gonna tell you. I really was. I just… I didn’t know how.”

I fold the paper carefully and slip it into my jeans pocket. Whatever’s going on here …it’s way bigger than me, way bigger than Ryder, way bigger than anything they’re teaching us in class. And suddenly, I can’t wait for dinner to be over.