December's Moon

9| AURORA

| AURORA |

A roar of voices filled the building as students filed through the reception room in the east wing and down the stairs that led to the lecture hall. Aurora smirked as a freshman rushing to get to the assembly nearly tripped over the heavy, ornate rug that sat in the middle of the room like a giant spiderweb.

The lively chatter shifted to hushed whispers as Aurora and Luca went down the stairs and entered the lecture hall. It was set up like a huge underground amphitheater with the lectern at the base. Rows of stadium style seats lined the sloping floor up to the back wall. The place was set up to hold about three times the actual student body, but even though the seats were never full, freshmen were still required to sit at the front for any and all assemblies. Only the seniors got to sit at the back.

Aurora took a spot next to Niki and Priscilla in the row right against the wall. The blue plastic chair squealed as she folded it down and plopped in. Luca filed into the row in front of her, sitting next to Nate and Zane.

Niki elbowed Aurora in the arm. "What do you think the assembly's about?"

"You think it has something to do with the Pack?" Priscilla suggested.

Aurora frowned, an uneasy feeling churning in her stomach. Ever since the announcement about the meeting rang over the loudspeaker, everything had felt off.

"Maybe," Aurora said. She twisted her choker around her neck, flipping the crescent moon pendant up and down like a coin—dark side of the moon, light side of the moon.

There were often other packs threatening their borders, and with Cypress Pass Academy sticking out like a peninsula, far removed from the rest of their Packlands, it made it an easy target. If anything serious was happening, it would be important to notify the students.

"I guess it could be an invasion or something," Aurora finally suggested.

"Shit, I hope not," Niki moaned. "I am not going through that again."

During their sophomore year, the Redwood Overlook Pack invaded their territory only a few miles from the academy. The entire school had essentially been put on lockdown for a month even after the Cypress Pass Pack cleared them out and chased them back to their own Packlands.

Aurora shrugged. "It's just a guess. I don't know any more than you do."

But that wasn't true, was it? She chewed on the inside of her cheek, thinking about the conversation she'd had with December last night. He was convinced there was something strange going on involving Malcom not showing up to class. Something involving the woods.

Aurora was starting to believe he was right.

Where was December, anyway? Aurora hadn't seen him since he ran out of combat class. She scanned the rows of students, even checking the junior, sophomore and freshmen rows, but he wasn't sitting in any of them.

Her icy heart thawed just slightly. Was he okay? Luca had hit him pretty hard in that match—hard enough that he freaked out and shifted. What if he was really hurt?

She shook the thought from her mind. Of course he was okay. She couldn't let herself think about him that way. He was the competition, after all. That was why she had to break up with him in the first place.