Chapter 172

Ava

I held the moonstone up to the light, scrutinizing it closely. It looked… off. Just slightly, like some part of it wasn’t catching the light like it normally would.

“Ava?”

The sound of Chris’s voice snapped me out of my haze, and I quickly lowered the moonstone. “What’s up?” he asked, cocking his head.

The sudden return to reality had me second guessing myself. On another glance, the moonstone looked as normal as it always did; cool and slightly heavy, a bluish-green hue that would glow ever so slightly beneath the light of the moon.

I pursed my lips and handed the moonstone back to him. “It’s likely nothing,” I said with a wave of my hand. “Just my imagination playing tricks on me.”

He clasped the chain back around his neck, still looking concerned. “You sure? You seemed pretty focused there for a moment.”

I nodded, forcing a smile. “Yeah, I’m sure,” I replied. “I’m just stressed about all of this, that’s all. It’s… frustrating.”

“Tell me about it.” Chris sighed, reaching out to cup my cheek. His palm was warm against my skin, and I couldn’t help but lean into his touch. “Thank you for being by my side through all of this, Ava. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

Before I could respond, he leaned in and kissed me. His breath tasted heavily of wine, but I found myself melting into the kiss anyway. For a few moments, we lost ourselves in each other, the weight of our problems momentarily forgotten. Chris’s hands pushed up beneath my shirt, his fingers tracing patterns on my skin that sent shivers down my spine.

Suddenly, we stumbled, nearly knocking over one of the wine barrels. I gently pushed Chris away, both of us breathing heavily.

“Chris,” I said softly, “now is not the time.”

He nodded and ran a hand through his hair once again. “You’re right. I’m sorry, I got carried away. It’s just... with everything going on, I need to feel close to you.”

“Later,” I reassured him, smoothing down the front of my shirt. “But we have responsibilities right now, and Leonard and Ophelia are outside waiting for us.”

“Always the voice of reason,” Chris said with a small smile. “Let’s go.”

We made our way back upstairs and outside to the patio, where Leonard and Ophelia were engaged in a quiet conversation around the table. They looked up as we approached, concern written across both of their faces.

“Everything alright?” Leonard asked, his gaze flickering between us.

Chris nodded, taking his seat and picking up his fork. “Yeah, just needed a moment. Sorry about that.”

Ophelia raised an eyebrow, a knowing look in her eyes. “A moment, hm? Is that what they’re calling it these days?”

I felt my cheeks heat up, but Chris just chuckled. “Nothing like that, I assure you. Though not for lack of trying on my part.”

“Chris!” I exclaimed, swatting at his arm.

The rest of dinner passed in relative silence, the brief moment of levity giving way once again to the weight of our situation. As we cleared the plates after the meal, Ophelia suggested we move to the living room where we could be more comfortable.

“Good idea,” Leonard agreed. “I think we all need to relax a bit. This stress isn’t good for any of us.”

Soon, the four of us were settled in my living room, none of us really speaking as soft music played on the radio and glasses of wine were clasped in our hands. Chris sat in the armchair by the window with his chin in one hand and a faraway look in his eyes, the perfect picture of dejection. The sight of him looking so utterly defeated made my heart ache.

“Chris, darling,” Ophelia said, walking over to him and putting her little dog in his lap, who curled up immediately, “you must try to relax.”

“How can I?” he scoffed. “I feel like a failure of an Alpha. Like I’m doomed to bring Moonstone into misery.”

“Chris, don’t say that,” I said, reaching out to squeeze his shoulder. “It’s not your fault. You’ve been working tirelessly to fix this.”

He huffed and slipped the moonstone out from behind his shirt. “I don’t know. What if... what if I’m the problem? What if the missing moonstone was never the issue? What if I’m not the rightful Alpha, and that’s the real reason why the blight has set in?”

Leonard leaned forward, his expression serious. “Chris, that’s bullshit and you know it. Remember how well the GMO worked on my farm? It’ll work now, too. You’ve been an excellent Alpha, leading us through this crisis.”

Ophelia nodded in agreement. “Exactly. Your ingenuity in coming up with the GMO is really amazing, darling. Don’t sell yourself short. I may not know much about werewolf Alphas, but I can tell that you’re one of the best.”

Chris was silent after that, although the disbelieving look he shot Ophelia was practically palpable in the air. I was about to reassure him again when a sudden thought struck me. It was a long shot, but given everything that had happened, I couldn’t ignore it.

“Wait,” I said, standing up abruptly. “I’ll be right back. I need to check something.”

The others looked at me in confusion as I hurried upstairs to my bedroom. Flinging the door open, I began rifling through the closet with a cacophony of noise.

“Ava?” I heard Chris’s voice call up the stairs.

“What’s going on, Ava dear?” Ophelia added.

“Just… Just give me a minute!” I called back, my heart racing as I continued my frantic search.

I remembered a small box of Ethan’s things that I had never gotten around to cleaning out. If my suspicion was correct… “Aha!” I found the box on an uppermost shelf, covered in dust by now but still intact.

Grabbing the box, I rifled through it, tossing aside old papers and knick-knacks until I found what I was looking for: one of the plastic toy moonstones that Ethan had tried to have made all those years ago. Back when the first bout of blight had destroyed that factory.

With my heart pounding, I rushed back to the living room, the toy moonstone clutched in my hand. “Come outside,” I commanded, turning on my heel and striding toward the back door. My friends followed me to the backyard.

“Ava?” Chris asked, looking bewildered. “What’s going on? What’s that you’re holding?”

Without a word, I held the toy moonstone up next to Chris’s moonstone, taking care to hold them both in the light of the moon. The others leaned in, their eyes widening as they realized what they were seeing.

The two stones looked almost identical.

“What’s going on here?” Leonard breathed, although it seemed as though he already knew the answer.

“This,” I said, holding up the toy moonstone, “is one of the toys that were manufactured by that factory that Ethan had built here.”

Chris unclasped his necklace, holding the moonstone up for a closer inspection in the light. Just like the toy, it did have a slight glowing quality from the glow-in-the-dark paint, but it wasn’t real. The actual moonstone had more of an ethereal quality, and this… This was manufactured.

“It can’t be,” he muttered, his face pale. “This has to be the real moonstone. It has to be. We got it back from Olivia…”

“No,” I said, pointing my finger. “We got it from Dedrick. Olivia got away.”

The implications hit us all at once. Chris’s face drained of color, his hand dropping to his side. The moonstone—or rather, the fake moonstone—dangled from his fingers, looking dull and lifeless in the moonlight.

“No,” he whispered. “No, this can’t be happening.”

Gritting my teeth, I threw the fake moonstone down into the dirt and met Chris’s gaze.

“That’s why the blight is spreading,” I said. “Because the real moonstone is still out there somewhere, and we’ve all been tricked like a bunch of chumps.”