C1

“I love you, Lestat. You know I do. This is for you for us. Don’t you want our pack together again?”

My mother’s grip sinks into my shoulders, fingers bruising. Her eyes, wild and bright, burn with a blue fire. People say I’ve got her eyes. Do I really look that fierce?

The thought twists my stomach. I feel sick. Honestly, the last thing I want is to frighten anyone, least of all the girl I met here.

I can’t bring myself to hit my mother. If I try, she’ll just tie my hands to this ancient wooden chair, too. For now, it’s just my chest and legs caught tight in these thick ropes. She ties knots like a fisherman, strong and secure. Maybe if I’d gone hunting with her before the family split, this would all be different. But the fights, the pack wars… Everything blew up. Now my parents are deep in a nasty divorce, and High Alpha Lestat’s father is forcing her out of the Adebayo Moonfang Pack.

To stop it, she kidnapped me. She wanted to grab Magnus and Elijah, my brothers, but I fought her off so they could escape. I’m stubborn. I only give in when she threatens them, not me.

She finally lets go of my shoulders and steps back. I can actually breathe again. Her coat smells wrong—like wilted flowers and my stomach churns.

Inside this dark, rotting cabin, the air feels stale. There’s a little window—the only thing that lets in a bit of cool breeze from the Whispering Moon Woods. Mostly, it’s just the smell of damp leaves and dirt on dirty old floorboards.

I keep telling myself: I need to escape. The door is there, right behind her. She leaves after checking on me every day. No lights, nothing. When night falls, it’s think-you’re-blind dark. Every animal in the woods starts up their own violence growls, shrieks, howls. Honestly, it’s tempting to say yes to her, just for some peace and quiet.

She sighs and motions to a plate stacked with meat, trying on a sweet smile.

My stomach hurts from hunger. The meat smells incredible.

“I brought this for your wolf,” she says gently. “Eat. You haven’t eaten in five days.”

“I’m not hungry.” My voice betrays me when my stomach grumbles.

She laughs a little, sharp and bright. “Is your little wolf crying? Come on, don’t you want”

“I hate you.” My voice shakes. I didn’t think she’d actually drag me this far right to the edge of the territory. She made me drink silver-laced water before. My limbs turned useless.

After that, I stopped eating anything she brought. I’d rather starve than let her control me. She wants to use me to get at Magnus and Elijah, and pressure my father for pack resources. Our family knows all the Alpha laws and tricks. She’s counting on that.

She strokes my cheek, hands icy. “You look just like your father. He’s the only Alpha I’ve ever loved,” she whispers, almost wistful. “We ran the Mooncrest Territory together, under the full moon. You’re from that love, you know.”

My jaw clenches. All I want is to see that secret girl again.

I still don’t know her name. She’s tiny a little smaller than Magnus and Elijah. Wild, tangled golden hair. One eye green, one blue. No shoes, dirty feet, and she wears this torn-up white dress. She looks like she’s walked straight out of the forest, but she always brings me water and a handful of berries.

Three days ago, she’d slipped in, bold as anything. Offered me berries. I gobbled them down. She ate with me, slow and quiet.

“I can’t bring more this has to last for a while,” she said. “But I’ll come tomorrow.”

She handed over her water bottle, too. She kept her word every time. I called her Berry Fairy, and she wrinkled her nose.

“Ew,” she said, laughing.

“All right, then Princess?”

“No way. Princesses are powerless. I’ll be a queen. The Moon Queen. No one orders the queen around.”

“Okay, Moon Queen,” I said, smiling.

She tried my ropes, but couldn’t work the knots loose. Still, I admired that she tried. She told me she’s an orphan, living with Lady Genevieve Whitlock and Victor Whitlock, and it sounded like she wasn’t treated well. When I’m out, I’ll bring her to the Adebayo Alpha Keep. Dad will look out for her. She’s the Lost Luna Heiress, but I don’t know it yet. I just want her to eat real food, wear shoes, and live safely.

“You don’t have to eat,” Mother says, breaking my thoughts. “But I’ll leave it here. I made it for you—with love.”

Her phone buzzes. She checks it, scowls hard. Probably the Alpha Council. Magnus and Elijah got away in Crimson Moon City. By now, they’ve made it to the pack house. Everyone knows my family runs the Alpha Dominion.

“I have to go,” Mother says. “Be a good boy. I’ll bring you a deer next time.”

She slips behind me, yanks my arms painfully back. Pain shoots through both shoulders. I scream—can’t help it as tears sting my eyes. Cold metal snaps on my wrists. Silver handcuffs. The fury in my stare doesn’t faze her.

She just grabs a cup of silver water, claws at my jaw until it opens, then pours it down my throat. I choke, spitting, but she pinches my nose. I swallow or choke. Hatred thrums through me—at her and at my own helplessness.

She’s done now. She kisses my forehead and slams the door behind her.

I stare at the hulking iron wolf crest on the wall a big “M” for Moonfang in the middle. Mother still believes she belongs to the First Alpha Bloodline. The elders will never allow her into the Silverclaw Ancestral Estate again. Not a chance.

As the sun goes down, darkness creeps in. My head pulses and gets heavier with the poison in my blood. The Moon Queen isn’t coming tonight. Maybe she saw what my mother did to me.

My father always told me: " An Alpha protects his pack. Right now, I’m barely anything—weak, beaten, useless.

Everything fades the pain, the world and then, nothing.

Slap.

“Wake up! We have to run!”

My eyes snap open. Smoke chokes the room, and the orange glow of fire eats away at the dark.

“Come on, Lestat!”

My voice is tiny. “Moon Queen?” I cough through the smoke, throat on fire.

“Get up! You have to stand!”

She’s got a bone knife, and she’s already cut my legs free. “I can’t break the silver cuffs.”

I try, but my legs betray me, and I fall. Pins and needles everywhere. I can’t stop the cry of pain.

She drags me up, her scent cutting through the smoke. Sweet grass and berries. “The cabin’s burning! Move!”

Flames roar. The wind smashes the door, slamming it open and then shut. The iron wolf crest above crashes down, swinging free and lurching straight for my head.

The Moon Queen shrieks and shoves me hard. The iron jaw slams into her shoulder instead, then rolls off and slices my arm open. The pain snaps me fully awake.

“Are you okay?” I shout.

Tears shine in her eyes, but she just nods and grits her teeth. Right now, she’s every inch a queen.

“We have to run!” I yell.

She grabs onto me. The whole world’s gone orange with fire. The heat is unbearable. Trees crack and fall in the woods around us.

“There’s a pond that way!” she screams.

We sprint over burning grass, lungs screaming. My arm pours blood, but I keep going—she’s hurt, too.

We make it to the pond. We drop hard at the edge. If the fire comes, we’ll dive in.

My legs collapse. My head spins like mad, so I try to breathe deep and ride out the pain.

She kneels next to me, dress rustling softly. “Are you okay?” Her voice is low.

I can’t find words.

“Don’t die.” She’s so close I can feel her breath.

I manage to crack my eyes open. Haloed by firelight, she almost looks like some wild spirit—beautiful and fierce.

“I won’t,” I say. “Promise.”

She smiles, then I black out.

When I wake, I’m in a white hospital room under harsh lights. My father stands by the bed, along with my grandmother and Uncle Louis. They look shaken.

“How do you feel, Lestat?” Dad asks carefully.

“Tired. But okay.” I scan the room. “Where is she?”

“Who?”

“That wolf girl—she saved me. She dragged me to the pond.”

Grandmother and Uncle Louis exchange a sharp look. They’re hiding something.

“There was no girl,” Father says.

“Yes, there was! She was hurt! She saved my life”

“We only found you, alone,” Grandmother says, voice hard. “No one else. We would have helped her if she were there.”

“You’re lying!”

“It’s the truth,” Uncle Louis says, quiet but firm. “But when you’re strong, I’ll help you look for her. I promise.”

I let it go—Uncle Louis’s word is gold. “Did you catch Mother?”

“The elders will handle her,” Grandmother says, all steel. “You need rest.”

“Where did you find me?”

“ Right at the woods’ edge. Near the border.”

Four days out, and I’m released from the clinic. I look everywhere for the Moon Queen. Nobody’s seen her. Uncle Louis even brings in trackers nothing. The doctor tells me she wasn’t real. Just something my mind made up to help me survive the fire.

They’re wrong.

The scar on my arm is ugly and real enough. The silver water, the fire, the ropes none of that was a dream. The Moon Queen cut me free, pushed me away from the falling iron. If she hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here.

I can’t stop thinking about her. Is she still with her cruel aunt and uncle? Does she have enough to eat or even shoes? I swear by the moon, I’ll find her. I’ll be her Alpha knight, and someday, I’ll bring my Moon Queen home.

The door crashes open. Magnus rushes in, wild-eyed and breathless.

“Lestat, you gotta come now,” he pants, pale as a ghost. “Mother’s at the pack border, and she didn’t come alone.”