Page 44 of Fool Moon First Aid

My father exchanges a knowing look with Zane, who suddenly finds the pattern on the carpet utterly fascinating. “Her father proposed a mating bond. With Tyler hitting twenty-seven?—”

“That’s a bullshit rule, and you know it,” I cut him off, my irritation boiling over. This custom, waiting until twenty-seven for the spirit comet’s blessing, for that just in case moment, feels stifling.

He just raises an eyebrow, letting me vent until I run out of steam. “We had to consider that you might not find a mate on your own, and I need a luna worthy of leading the clan,” he says, using that politician’s tone I detest. It always puts me on edge. “We accepted.”

“What?” I explode, quickly cutting Tyler and Brody off our link to regain some semblance of control. I need a moment to corral my thoughts.

My mother attempts to soften the blow. “We didn’t know.”

It doesn’t help.

“I will give you three until the next full moon to make it official with your new mate,” my father says. “If you reject Ava, you will have the chance to find another luna. If Ava rejects you, then you will be lost to your spirit animal, and I won’t allow that to happen. Reject Ava, and you’ll accept Natalie as your luna, or they’ll fight for position of luna to avoid the wrath of nature all together.”

I’m seething, my gaze locked outside the window, to where the shadows of the trees play across the clan’s lands. My jaw is clenched so tightly it hurts, and my body is a live wire of fury.

Screw this.

My options are a joke. Instead of dignifying this sham with a response, I storm out, leaving their expectations and my rage echoing in the room behind me.

Ava

I’m just about dying of boredom and hunger when my stomach decides it’s had enough of my moping around. It rallies the rest of me to shuffle from my bedroom down to the kitchen without tripping over my own feet. Not going to lie, I slide down the steps on my butt.

I catch Tyler in full gaming mode downstairs with his headphones on, lost to the everything except for his virtual battlefield. He’s yelling at some poor soul on the other end, while anarchy unfolds on-screen. Honestly, I’m kind of glad I’m spared the audio experience, though part of me is curious about the creative expletives he’s tossing around.

Spotting a basket of rolls on the breakfast table, I dive in. Holy heaven, this roll is a cloud of sweet perfection. I demolish it so fast, I end up with hiccups. Great. Just what I needed. Seriously, what’s the evolutionary advantage of hiccups? They serve absolutely no purpose other than to annoy me to the brink of insanity.

My hiccup induced spectacle finally tears Tyler away from his digital conquest. He whirls around, nearly entangled in a mess of cords, and removes his headphones with a haste that borders on comedic. “Ava!” he exclaims with a mix of reverence and desperation—a tone that sends a thrill through me. It’s intoxicating, and something inside of me demands to hear him say my name again.

Trying to shake off the flurry of thoughts, I manage a casual, “Morning, Tyler.”

“Ah, you’re up!” His excitement is contagious, and his grin is so big, it’s a wonder his face can hold it. “Found the rolls, huh?”

Cue my perfectly timed hiccup.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got just the thing,” he declares with a wag of his finger, striding over in those baggy sweatpants that do nothing for his figure but somehow add to his charm. He grabs a sugar pourer from the counter. “Open up.”

“I feel like there’s a that’s what she said joke dying to be made here,” I grumble but play along, sticking out my tongue as he chuckles.

“My mom swears by sugar for hiccups,” he shares. “Hit or miss, but hey, worth a shot.”

“And when it was a miss?” I ask, sugar dissolving awkwardly in my mouth.

“Ethan had a knack for scaring them out of me,” he says, that smile of his never faltering.

As I try not to choke on sugar and suppressed hiccups, I wonder aloud, “Where’s everyone?”

“Ethan was summoned by the alpha, and Brody’s pulling a twenty-four-hour shift,” he explains nonchalantly.

“That’s insane,” I blurt out, feeling a mix of admiration and concern for Brody.

“It’s the doctor life.” Tyler shrugs, giving me a look that says I’m partly to blame for Brody’s absence today.

Ouch. That hits harder than I expected. I’m the one who put distance between us, after all. I’m the architect of this awkward situation, and now I’m living in the mess I made.

“Sorry,” I mutter, fiddling with another roll, the guilt gnawing at me. There it is, that pesky conscience of mine, making me feel all the feels I usually dodge.

“So, what game had you so hooked?” I shift the topic, genuinely trying to see Tyler in a new light. Maybe I’ll give this whole situation a chance, like Eloise suggested.

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