All Chapters of Moonchild; The Rise Of the Lycans: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Principal Jaxon POVThe scotch burned down my throat, but not enough to wash away the exhaustion. Five days of plague. Five days of watching my students suffer while I could do nothing.I sat behind my desk, my office was dark except for the desk lamp. Outside, the school slept peacefully for the first time in nearly a week.Antoinette sat across from me, drawing smoke from her pipe. The sweet smell of opium filled the room. The great leader of the Wiccae clan had her privileges, her old habits that no one dared question."You know it was her," she said, releasing a thin stream of smoke. "The Moonchild."I poured another finger of scotch. "It's speculation. We don't know anything for certain.""Don't we?" She tapped ash into the crystal tray I kept for her pipe. "We've been through five days of plague. Dead animals on the first day. Darkness and gray skies on the second. Boils sprouting like mushrooms on the third. Water turning to poison on the fourth. And tonight..." She took anoth

Nivia POVWhat the –?I gasped, stumbling to one of the benches.Goosebumps covered my skin."No!" I shook my head, "This isn't real."But it was. I gripped the back of the bench, my knuckles white as I coughed more of that strange smoke. Each cough felt like it was pulling something out of me, something that had been sleeping deep inside. Something that was finally waking up.The silver smoke rose from my mouth and disappeared into the night air, but I could still feel it inside me. Moving through my veins. Changing me. Transforming something fundamental about who I was."Stop," I begged my own body, my voice barely a whisper. "Please stop."But my body didn't listen. The smoke kept coming, kept pouring out of me with each painful cough. It was beautiful and terrifying at the same time.I fell to my knees beside the bench, my legs too weak to hold me. The coughing was so violent now that I thought I might break apart, shatter into a million pieces.My vision started to blur. Black sp

Claire POV I watched Justin leave the bonfire area, following after that pathetic Nivia. Of course, he'd noticed her leaving. He always noticed everything about her, even when he was supposed to be busy with setup duties. I waited a few seconds, then slipped away from my friends. Sonia was too busy flirting with some junior to notice, and the others were caught up in their own drama. Perfect. I followed the direction Justin had gone, staying in the shadows. My heart was pounding, but not from fear of being caught. From anger. Pure, burning anger that he'd chosen to follow her instead of spending time with me. The sounds of the bonfire faded as I moved toward the trees at the edge of the field. Then I heard it - coughing. Violent, desperate coughing. I crept closer, hiding behind a thick oak tree, and what I saw made my stomach turn. Nivia was on her knees beside the old bench, coughing like she was dying. And Justin was there, kneeling beside her, holding her against his ch

Mateo POV.I headed in the direction she'd run, using my enhanced senses to track her scent. Vanilla and something wild, something that had been stronger tonight. What had happened to her? Why had she been acting so strange?I found her by the old classroom blocks, far from the bonfire, far from everyone. She was sitting on the steps of Block C, knees drawn up to her chest, crying quietly.Even angry and hurt, she was beautiful. The moonlight made her blonde hair look silver, and her pale skin seemed to glow. How had I managed to stay away from her for weeks? How had I resisted this pull?"She let him touch her," Loki reminded me bitterly. "She chose him over us."I pushed the thought away and approached slowly, not wanting to scare her. She looked up when she heard my footsteps, and her red-rimmed eyes widened."Mateo," she said, starting to stand. "I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean for—""Why?" I asked, cutting her off. The question I'd been dying to ask. "Why him?"She flinch

Claire POVI stormed away from Justin, my body shaking with rage and humiliation. He'd rejected me. After I'd literally thrown myself at him, offered him everything, he'd still chosen her.The tears on my face were real now, burning hot with shame. I'd degraded myself, and for what? For him to tell me he was starting to love her?Starting to love Nivia Randolph. The pale, skinny nobody who'd been invisible until the mate bond forced people to notice her.I stopped halfway back to the bonfire, needing a moment to compose myself. I couldn't let everyone see me like this - face flushed, clothes disheveled, tears streaming. I was Claire Garrett, daughter of the Beta. I didn't cry over boys.But God, it hurt. Eighteen years of history meant nothing to him. All our shared memories, our families' expectations, the future I'd imagined - none of it mattered because she was his mate.I heard footsteps behind me and tensed, thinking Justin had followed me. But when I turned, it was Kyle approach