Beneath the Alpha's Moon Chapter 192: A Reminder

Mai’s P.O.V.

I woke up feeling... wrong.

Sothing gnawed at the edges of my mind, a whisper just out of reach. My sheets were tangled around my legs, and my skin felt damp, as if I had been thrashing in my sleep. My heart pounded, but I couldn’t rember why.

I sat up slowly, rubbing my temples. My body felt heavy, my mind sluggish. There was an unease in my chest, a deep-rooted fear that slithered through my veins. Sothing had happened. I was sure of it. But what?

The whispers.

I could still feel the echoes of them in my bones, but their words were lost. A sickening dread curled in my stomach. I must have done sothing.

But what?

At breakfast, I couldn’t focus. The sll of eggs and bacon made my stomach twist. I poked at my food, barely taking a bite, while my mother, father, Ollie and everyone else talked about pack matters. Their voices blurred together, background noise to the storm in my head.

Liam promised to stay away from .

The thought kept looping in my mind, over and over, making my hands tremble. He promised.

I gritted my teeth, gripping my fork so tightly my knuckles went white.

I hated his mother. Hated her soft voice, hated the way she looked at like I was a disease. Like I was a monster that needed to be kept away from her son.

Liam wouldn’t really stay away, would he?

I clenched my jaw, shoving my plate away. I didn’t want to eat. I didn’t want to sit here, pretending everything was fine when it wasn’t.

I needed to see him.

***********

When I walked into the classroom, I braced myself. I expected the worst—Liam avoiding my gaze, turning away, pretending I didn’t exist.

But instead—

He waved.

With a smile.

My breath caught in my throat.

For a mont, I just stood there, frozen in place, staring at him like he was the sun himself.

He was smiling. At .

I didn’t think. I rushed forward, sliding into the seat beside him.

"I thought..." My voice was quieter than I intended. "I thought you wouldn’t want to talk to today."

Liam blinked at , tilting his head. "Why?"

I hesitated. How could I tell him that I had watched him through my mirrors? That I had seen the way his mother begged him to stay away from ?

That I had heard him promise?

I forced a laugh, shaking my head. "Nothing. It’s nothing."

His eyes lingered on for a second too long, but then he shrugged. "Well, you were wrong."

The tension in my chest loosened, just a little.

The entire morning, we talked. We laughed.

For the first ti in what felt like forever, things felt... normal. I felt normal. No tension, no whispers in my head clawing for attention, no suffocating thoughts about what I might have done last night. Just us. Just Liam, sitting beside like he always had, like nothing had changed.

And I wasn’t going to question it.

Liam even did sothing unexpected—he forced to participate in classwork. He had never cared if I participated before or not.

I was lazily spinning my pen between my fingers, barely listening to the teacher drone on, when Liam slid his notebook toward .

"Co on, Mai," he whispered, nudging my arm. "Just answer this one question."

I glanced down at the open page. A simple math problem. I scoffed. "Why do you care so much?"

"Because," he said, flashing a grin, "I have to suffer through this, so you do too."

I rolled my eyes. "That’s the worst reason I’ve ever heard."

His smirk widened. "And yet, here you are, still arguing instead of just doing it."

I groaned dramatically but picked up my pen anyway. My handwriting was sharp, almost aggressive, as I scribbled down the answer.

Across the room, a few students turned their heads, stealing glances at us. I could feel their confusion without even looking.

People didn’t understand why Liam was tolerating . It used to make him uncomfortable—the staring, the whispers, the judgnt. He would shrink in his seat, try to make himself smaller, like he could disappear under their scrutiny.

But today?

Today, he didn’t seem to care.

He leaned toward , tilting his head just enough to whisper, "You got the answer wrong, by the way."

I shot him a glare. "Then why’d you let write it?"

"Because now you have to do it again." His eyes glimred with amusent. "Co on, it’s basic algebra."

I groaned, but there was sothing strangely comforting about the way he treated like I was just another student. Just Mai.

Not the girl with the dangerous smirks. Not the girl who people warned their kids to stay away from.

Just... .

I didn’t understand what had changed.

Lunch ti ca in a blur. The mont I stepped into the cafeteria, I spotted Liam sitting at his usual table. He was already halfway through a sandwich, flipping lazily through a book with his free hand.

I was walking toward him when—

"Mai! Over here!"

Becky’s voice cut through the chatter.

I turned my head, spotting her at my usual table across the room. She was already seated with the others—girls I used to sit with, the ones who followed because it was easier to be my friend than my enemy.

She was smiling, waving over like I was supposed to fall into my place beside her. Like I was her BFF.

I hesitated.

Then, without a word, I walked past her and sat down next to Liam instead.

The hall erupted in whispers.

Becky’s smile didn’t drop imdiately. No, it lingered for a second—confused, expectant. But then her expression hardened, her lips pressing together like she had just tasted sothing bitter.

"Really?" she said, loud enough for the whole table to hear. "You’d rather sit with him?"

Liam stiffened beside . I felt the shift in his breathing, the way his shoulders locked up.

I ignored her.

Becky let out a scoff, flipping her hair over one shoulder. "You’re really sothing else, you know that?" She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table, her voice dropping into a fake whisper. "What’s the deal, Mai? Trying to make up for scarring his face?"

The cafeteria went silent.

It was instant. The quiet rippled outward like a shockwave, conversations dying, forks and spoons pausing mid-air.

Everyone turned to look.

Liam exhaled sharply. His fingers curled into fists on the table, knuckles white.

I... I didn’t know what to say.

The old without Liam would have lashed out. Becky would’ve been in tears by now, humiliated beyond repair. I would have smiled, smug, victorious.

But now?

Now, I just felt...trapped.

My hands clenched in my lap. My nails dug into my palms, sharp and unforgiving. I wasn’t used to this. Wasn’t used to feeling small.

I could feel Becky waiting, the entire cafeteria waiting, expecting to snap. To give them the show they always got when soone dared to challenge .

But for the first ti in a long ti, I felt sothing I didn’t know how to deal with.

Guilt. Sha.

Liam suddenly reached for my hand.

I looked up, startled, as his warm fingers wrapped around mine and pulled to my feet.

"Let’s go," he said, voice steady.

I followed without question.

Without looking back, without acknowledging the stares, the whispers, the judgnt.

Liam led out of the cafeteria, through the empty hallways, out the school doors.

And I let him.

I didn’t ask where we were going. I didn’t need to.

We walked until the trees swallowed us whole.

The mont we stepped into the forest, the weight in my chest eased—just a little. The air was cooler here, untouched by the suffocating walls of the school.

Liam stopped in a clearing and turned to . Then, without hesitation, he shifted.

Bones cracked, muscles stretched, his body twisting and reshaping in a way that should have been painful but wasn’t. And then, where Liam had been standing, a wolf remained—a large, gray-furred wolf with familiar blue eyes.

He gave a look.

I arched a brow. "What?"

He flicked his head to the side, gesturing.

I shook my head. "Oh, you don’t have to worry about my feelings, I’m ok now."

He let out a huff through his nose.

I sighed. "Fine."

Carefully, I moved closer and swung a leg over, settling onto his back.

And then he ran.

The forest blurred around us, trees flashing by in streaks of green and brown. The wind whipped through my hair, tugging at my clothes, and as he kept running, I felt like I could breathe again.

When we finally stopped, we were at the lake.

Liam shifted back, pulling on his clothes before turning to .

I stared at the water, then at him.

The words burned in my throat, but I forced them out. "I’m sorry."

Liam blinked. "What?"

I clenched my fists, hating how small I sounded. "For everything. For... what I did to you. For what I’ve done to you."

He studied carefully. "Alright. Who are you, and what have you done with Mai?"

I scowled. "I’m being serious."

"So am I." He sat on a rock, motioning for to sit too. "The Mai I know wouldn’t just apologize. She’d lace it with sarcasm or insults."

I sighed and sat down. "I don’t know what to do, Liam."

His brows furrowed. "What do you an?"

I hesitated, then whispered, "Becky was right."

Liam frowned. "Mai—"

"And not just that," I cut him off, swallowing hard. "Last night... I think the whispers took over again."

Liam went still.

I curled my arms around my knees. "I don’t rember what happened. But I know I did sothing. Sothing terrible."

My chest ached. "I can feel it, Liam. I know it’s bad. I just... I don’t know what I did yet. I’m really bad news, Liam."

Liam didn’t say anything for a long ti.

Then—softly—he asked, "Do you want to rember?"

I hesitated.

Did I?

Or was it better to stay in the dark?

I bit my lip, staring at the water.

The reflection that stared back at wasn’t mine.

It was sothing else.

Sothing waiting to be unleashed.

And I had no idea what it had done.