Defect

San-Shi-San

"I'm not." I whispered.

"Not what?" she asked absentmindedly gathering her trash.

"Not..." I clenched my fists, should I tell her? "I'm not Luna." I whispered so quietly I could barely hear myself.

"Sorry, what was that?" she stopped moving to lean her ear closer to me.

So, I repeated myself.

"Eh?" she stuck her ear even closer to me.

I leaned forward and whispered quietly again, "I'm not the Luna."

Those were the words that caused me to spill the beans on how I wasn't his true mate, yet he wanted me to pass off as if I was.

Aria sat there, absolutely dumbfounded. "You know there's a rumor that second-chance mates exist?"

I leaned back in my chair, "we don't even know if I have a wolf."

"Do you know why werewolves and witches are at each others throats all the time?"

I shook my head.

"It's because, a long time ago, a young femme wolf went to a witch and told her that this man had marked her against her will. Which, you may or may not know, it's super taboo." She started playing with the edge of her napkin.

"I didn't know that." I sighed. After the Eldon ceremony, I wasn't really taught the ways of the wolf.

"Oh, to humans... it's the equivalent to... rape." She rubbed the back of her neck, looking incredibly uncomfortable. "You're forcing yourself on someone without their consent. Its, like, the same thing you know?"

I nodded.

"Anyways, feeling pity and anger the witch helped mask her mark, and even scent. Almost completely removing the mark, which is essentially impossible. As it turned out, the wolf was lying. He did have her permission. He had just done something to really anger her so she went to have it removed."

I didn't know any of this.

"He found out, and blamed the witch. Long story short, a whole war happened and we've never seen eye to eye since then. The wolf never believed the witch, and pretty soon we were all forbidden to use that method."

We both stayed quiet for a while.

"But, second chance mates. Those can happen." She gave me a wide smile. I couldn't help but laugh at how cheesy her smile looked, and son she joined me in my laughter.

We were broken out of laughter when my phone started ringing. It was Nick. Both Aria and I sighed. Our time together was over.

"Here," she tossed me her apple, "go feed your starving lackey."

I smiled at her and left to go throw my trash away. Then I made my way up the stairs and to Ms. Rhodes room. I didn't bother picking up my phone.

When I entered the room, Nick was pacing back and forth and before he could say anything I tossed him the apple. He caught it with one hand, took a big bite out of it and plopped right down into his seat.

While Nick munched on his apple, I went and gave Mayra and Robin a welcoming hug. I turned to her mom and gently touching her hand I asked, "How're feeling Ms. Rhodes?"

"Venus," she smiled, "I'm gettin' better."

I smiled back at her, "I'm glad."

I sat down next to Mayra and we all spoke quietly. It was mostly just Ms. Rhodes asking questions about whatever was on the T.V. and Robin answering them. They were watching some sort of teen pregnancy show.