Neglected Luna: Her White Wolf Rises

with a title. For eighteen years, I played the role of

and another wolf's musk on his c

ond-Blockers to numb our sacred connection, hidin

to the Moonlight Hotel. I expected to f

my own teenage son, Ja

eered through the door. "I'm ashamed she's my

blade. They mocked my lack of

exists because I poured my entire essence i

k" solely to

y plotting to replace me with th

ful Luna? They're

the mirror, my hazel eyes flash

r sixteen years, but tonight, at t

pte

a smear of lipstick on a collar, nor the alien scent of perfume clinging to a sui

my husband-a celebrated architect-was ostensibly on business in Chicago. Jacob, our sixteen-year-old son, was supposedl

. But a banner notification lay upon the glass, a preview of a message that seemed to lock my diaphragm in

ng about that hotel room. You owe me a Round 2... soon.* It was followed by

insistent sound, the violent thumping within my own chest,

ly decent boy. Was he... entangled with someone? Someone older? The notion was not a bucket of sludge, but a slo

een-year-old boys, I knew, were vessels of impulse, driven by a hormonal tide they barely understood

personal failure, a stain upon my own maternal competence. So I did what any desper

on navigating the treacherous terrain of the teenage years. Using an anonymous accoun

M) is in an inappropriate relationship with someone older. The message mentioned

tly. Suggestions on how to broach the subject wit

ded like a stone thro

ld up. You're assum

at could that mean? Of cour

ive heat rising in my

ully. The phrasing. 'You owe me a Round 2.' Does that sound like a boy o

der. I scrolled back up to my own post, re-read

a credit card and someone over 21 to check in. Can a 16-yea

ty-dollar-a-day limit that I had set myself. He complained about it ceaselessly.

absurd. These were strangers on the int

ut it was already beginning to sprout. The comments kept coming, a cascad

another man

en, both obscene and accusatory. My

th

d in glossy magazines as the model husband and father, a visionary architect who sti

erous I almost laughed.

entum. The commenters were like coroners, diss

one that made the floorboards s

nal. Do not fixate on one suspect without more data. Who else, a man, has access to the device? A 16-year-old boy is

my skin, as if a window had been opened onto a winter landscape; the fine hairs

uld n

th

led into a thick, choking dread. My stomach churned. A wave of nausea so profound washed ov

I told myself. *He'

ning made me jolt. Keys rattled

m home! S

amiliar, echoed from the fo

tic smile. He was still in his travel clothes, a tailored blazer and expensive

ing his briefcase and pulling me into a hug. He smelled of expensive cologne and the

as he studied my face. "Hey, you oka

amous Chicago chocolatier. "I brought yo

yes that had looked at me across a thousand dinner ta

li

al muscles feeling stiff and fo

ouch, usually a comfort, now felt like the bars of a cage. "Poor baby. Why don't you go up and take a hot bath? I'll ha

est. I leaned my head back against his chest, the rhythm of

ared if I remained a moment longer, the woman who had played the part of 'wife' for twenty years

erformance flawless. "Go on, I

e'd left by the counter. My hand was shaking. I felt a pang of

was dead. "Use mine, honey, check whatever you want." He had nothing to hid

oming paranoid, driven to madness

rried his suitcase into the laundry room. I unzipped the main compartment, pulling

pped the fr

t something small and

led i

he faux-marble pattern swirling in the vinyl, and the pattern

The same brand, I realized with a fresh wave of nausea, that I had found a stray one of in

ir in the small room, thick with the scent of detergent and his cologne, now seemed a toxic vapor; eac

into place with a s

sn't

never

my hu

it. A new notification from Reddit. I crawle

t message from

f it is, don't confront him. Gather proof. Then, you will take everything he has built, from the Ita

placed by a glacial calm. The tears that ha

y son, upstairs, being greeted by his deceitful, manipula

e separate from me, like the components of a well-oiled machine executing a command with

l me