Avenging Luna
Chapter 174: Finding Out About The Shift

Chapter 174: Finding Out About The Shift

CHASE POV:

Leila’s piercing gaze burned holes into both me and Damon. If looks could kill, we’d be nothing more than ash by now.

"Too hot?" she repeated, her tone dangerously calm as she adjusted Ash on her hip. The little rascal, blissfully unaware of the brewing storm, started playing with his mom’s hair, completely unbothered by his earlier wolfish antics.

Damon chuckled nervously. "Well, you know kids these days..."

"Damon," Leila said, her voice low, "do I look like I’m in the mood for jokes?"

Damon’s face fell. "Uh, no. No, you do not."

"Why is Ash naked to his bare buttocks?" Leila asked again, her voice sharp and unwavering as her eyes darted between me and Damon.

Damon, the coward, threw me a quick glance before looking away.

She narrowed her eyes at me this time, her tone more forceful. "Is there something I should know that you’re not telling me?"

I swallowed hard, glancing at Damon, hoping he’d miraculously step up, but he avoided my gaze entirely.

"Fine," Leila said, her tone clipped. She picked Ash up and carried him into the closet to find him some clothes.

The moment Leila turned her back and carried Ash into the closet, Damon and I locked eyes, exhaling simultaneously.

"That was way too close," Damon muttered, running a hand through his hair.

"No kidding," I replied, my voice low. "I thought we were done for."

"Why is it always me?" Damon whispered dramatically, gesturing to himself. "I’m the one who gets stuck holding the naked wolf child while you get the benefit of mate privileges."

I smirked. "Mate privileges? If by that you mean being the primary target of her wrath, then sure. Privileges."

Damon grumbled something under his breath, and I rolled my eyes. Just then, a muffled voice came from the closet.

"Ash, sweetie, stop squirming!" Leila’s tone was patient but firm.

Damon shot me a look. "You think she bought it?"

"Not a chance," I replied, rubbing the back of my neck. "She’s just giving us time to dig our own graves."

"Great," Damon said sarcastically. "So, what’s the plan for when she comes back out?"

"There’s no plan," I replied grimly. "We just brace for impact."

"But so far we are in the clear as long as she doesn’t find out what really happened" I said giving us hope again whispering so she wouldn’t hear us. I was well aware of wolf super hearing just like us.

Damon and I shared a moment of pure relief, both of us exhaling loudly.

"That was close," Damon muttered under his breath, wiping his brow dramatically.

"For now," I hissed. "She’s going to dig until she gets the truth."

"No kidding," Damon replied, slouching against the wall. "But hey, we didn’t completely screw up. Yet."

Just as we were starting to think we might skate through this unscathed, we heard Leila’s voice from the closet.

"Honey baby, tell Mommy what happened," she cooed sweetly.

My heart sank. Shit.

Damon stiffened next to me. "You didn’t bribe him not to tell her?" I whisper-yelled.

"He was a wolf! How could I make him understand that?!" Damon hissed back, panic clear in his eyes.

We both froze as Ash began spilling every detail to Leila in that innocent, brutally honest way only a child could.

"Mommy, some big men came after me with long pointy thingies, and I was scared," Ash started, his little voice trembling slightly. "I called to you, but you weren’t here, so I called Uncle Chase. He came and rescued me with Uncle Damon, and they beat up the bad guys. Then they started saying I was adorable."

By this point, I’d stopped listening entirely because I already knew we were busted. Damon groaned quietly next to me.

"You saw the kid shift back the moment he spotted his mom," Damon muttered, shaking his head. "To think all the crap I tried to get him to shift, and that was the solution? We’re idiots."

"No, you’re an idiot," I snapped back.

From the closet, I heard Leila’s voice cooing to Ash. "Of course, you’re the cutest wolf. Don’t worry, baby, Mommy’s going to kick those bad guys’ butts."

I shot Damon a wide-eyed look. "You think she means us?"

"She definitely means us," Damon replied grimly.

Leila emerged from the closet a moment later, her expression calm but her aura crackling with restrained anger. Ash, now fully clothed, looking far too adorable in a little wolf-themed hoodie. He was perched on her hip, looking completely at ease.

"How long were you planning to hide from me that my son was scared enough to shift early?" she asked, her tone cold and demanding.

I opened my mouth to answer, but nothing coherent came out.

Damon, the genius, muttered, "Define ’hide.’"

Leila’s eyes flared. Damon was so dead.

Damon nudged me with his elbow. "Go on, mate privileges," he whispered mockingly.

I gave him a sharp glare before turning back to Leila, trying my best to muster an innocent expression.

"Well, uh..." I started, my voice trailing off. Damn, why was this so hard?

Leila crossed her arms, waiting.

"Alright, alright!" Damon blurted out, throwing his hands up. "Ash shifted early, okay? We didn’t know how to handle it, so we panicked and... well, Chase thought it’d be a good idea to stall you while we figured it out."

"You agreed to the plan!" I shot back.

Leila’s eyebrow twitched, and her eyes flicked between the two of us.

"Unbelievable," she muttered, shaking her head. "You two are a disaster."

"It wasn’t like that!" I cut in, raising my hands defensively. "We just didn’t want to...you know, worry you."

"Not worry me?" Leila echoed incredulously. "You thought hiding this would make things better? Chase, do you even know me?"

I opened my mouth, then shut it again. Good point.

Leila shifted Ash to her other hip and crossed the room toward Damon. "And you," she said, pointing a finger at him, "you let my son run around as a wolf while I was out of the loop. Do you have a death wish?"

"Technically," Damon began, clearly about to dig himself into a deeper hole, "it was Chase’s idea to—"

Leila gave us both a long, hard stare before shaking her head. "Unbelievable. You two are worse than pups yourselves."

Ash giggled in her arms, clearly entertained by the whole exchange. "Mommy, Uncle Damon said I was the cutest wolf ever!" he declared proudly.

Leila’s expression softened just a fraction as she glanced down at her son, then hardened again when she looked back up at us. "I’ll deal with you two later," she said, her voice icy.

Damon and I exchanged glances. Yep, we were royally screwed.

Damon and I stood silently, watching Leila as she carried the now-yawning little minx that had single-handedly brought about our current demise. I couldn’t help but notice how innocent and adorable Ash looked, especially when he yawned, his little mouth opening wide, making a soft sound that tugged at even my hardened heart.

For a split second, I almost forgot that this tiny traitor was the one who had spilled the beans.

Damon, on the other hand, had no such distraction. "Yo, man, good luck with your scary mate," he muttered, stepping back cautiously. "But I’m outta here."

"Wait, what?!" I hissed, turning to him, but he was already making his way toward the door.

"Brotherly bonds are great and all," Damon said over his shoulder, flashing me a cheeky grin, "but self-preservation wins every time."

With that, he bailed, his vampiric speed allowing him to vanish before I could even begin to argue.

"Coward," I muttered under my breath, glancing back at Leila, who was now tucking Ash into bed, completely unaware of my brother’s quick escape. So much for blood being thicker than water.

Now it was just me and her.

I was royally screwed.

Leila returned from tucking Ash into bed, her expression a mix of calm determination and simmering fury. She glanced around the room, her sharp eyes scanning. "Where’s Damon?"

"He bailed... apparently, you scared him," I muttered, still annoyed at my brother’s blatant abandonment.

Leila snorted, picking up a large wrapper from a nearby chair and shoving it into my hands. "Hold this," she said curtly.

"Uh... why?" I asked, blinking at her in confusion.

"I’ll be needing that when I shift back," she replied casually, leaving me absolutely stunned.

"Wait, what are you doing?" I asked, my voice rising with panic as I pieced together her intentions.

Leila turned her head, giving me an amused look as if the answer were obvious. "Paying back those stupid ancient fossils who dared scare my baby."

And just like that, she stepped back, and before my eyes, her form began to shimmer and change. Her bones cracked, her body rippled, and in seconds, standing where my mate had been was a massive, magnificent white wolf.

Unlike Ash, who had his signature black-tipped nose and tail, Leila was pure white, her fur gleaming like freshly fallen snow without a single blemish. Her size and stance radiated power, an aura of dominance that made even me—a royal vampire—take an unconscious step back.

I stared, momentarily caught in awe of her beauty and strength.

Then the reality of the situation smacked me in the face.

Leila turned, her golden wolf eyes locking on the door. With a powerful leap, she was out of the room, leaving me clutching the wrapper like an idiot.

"Wait! You’re just going to run after anyone who messed with Ash?" I called after her, my voice tinged with rising panic. "This isn’t going to end well!"

But of course, she didn’t respond.

Instead, I heard the heavy thud of her paws hitting the ground as she sprinted down the hallway, and the faint sound of startled vampires who were unlucky enough to cross her path.

Panic settled deep in my chest as I realized just how badly this was going to go. If I didn’t stop her, we’d be dealing with a lot more than angry council members.