CHAPTER 3-The Mark of Shadows

After Elder Corvin’s disappearance, the entire Blackfang compound felt different. The air was still, heavy, as though the forest itself was holding its breath. The patrols continued to search till the day after, but there was no trace of him, no footprints, no scent, nothing. It was as if the old man had melted into the mist.

Samantha watched from the healer’s hut window as warriors returned empty-handed. Their faces were drawn, their eyes wary. Elder Corvin had been many things to the pack; a prophet, a nuisance, a relic of old faith, but his vanishing left a hollow unease that even the Alpha couldn’t disguise.

“Do you think he’s dead?” Taylor asked quietly, sorting dried herbs beside her.

Samantha hesitated. “No. He wouldn’t just… disappear. He said he’d see me again.”

Taylor glanced at her, brows raised. “He told you that?”

“Yesterday morning. Before he vanished.” Samantha’s voice softened as she remembered his words trust the one that stirs within. “He knew something was coming.”

Taylor sighed. “He always ‘knew something.’ Last winter he said the snow was crying for the moon’s lost daughter.”

Samantha frowned. “And then the fever hit.”

Taylor went still. “You think—?”

“I don’t know.” Samantha tied the last of the sage bundles and hung them to dry. “But I don’t think he was crazy.”

Before Taylor could reply, the hut door burst open. A young boy stumbled in, panting. “The Alpha...he’s...calling a meeting...all ranks.”

Minutes later, the pack gathered in the courtyard. Alpha Rowan stood at the center, flanked by Cade and the senior warriors. His expression was grim.

“Elder Corvin is gone,” Rowan announced. “There are no signs of struggle, no scent trail, nothing to suggest foul play. Until we know otherwise, we will assume he left willingly.”

Whispers rippled through the crowd. Willingly? Samantha thought bitterly. The elder could barely walk without his staff.

Rowan’s gaze swept over them. “The border attacks are escalating. We believe we have picked up a trail heading north and plan to find the creature who is causing so much chaos in our home. Until further notice, all pack members stay within the inner perimeter after dusk.”

He paused, his eyes lingering on Samantha for a moment before moving on. “That includes the healers.”

Cade’s voice carried next, clear and firm. “We’ll double the watch at night. No one goes into the woods alone.”

Taylor leaned close to Samantha. “Guess that means you can’t wander off collecting flowers anymore.”

But Samantha wasn’t listening. Her mind was already in the trees in the quiet space where Corvin had spoken to her. A faint itch prickled at the base of her neck, a sensation she couldn’t name.

As the crowd began to disperse, Cade approached her. “You shouldn’t look so worried.”

“I’m not,” she lied.

“You are.” His tone softened. “I heard you were with Corvin yesterday.”

She nodded slowly. “He said strange things about the goddess, something about the moon waking again.”

Cade’s jaw tightened. “You don’t believe him, do you?”

“I’m not sure what to believe.”

He sighed. “Sam, you know the old stories are just that, stories. The Moon Goddess doesn’t interfere with us anymore.”

Her gaze flicked to his. “Then why do you pray to her before every hunt?”

He blinked. “Habit. Tradition. You can call it whatever you want.”

She didn’t answer. The silence between them stretched, familiar and tense.

Finally, he stepped closer, lowering his voice. “I don’t want you going near the forest. Promise me.”

Her lips parted, ready to argue, but the look in his eyes, fierce, protective, almost pleading, made her stop.

“I promise,” she whispered.

But that night, under the weight of a restless moon, Samantha broke the very words she spoke.

The forest called to her, not with sound, but with a pulse, deep and steady, matching her heartbeat. She slipped from her room and crossed the clearing barefoot, the damp grass cool beneath her feet.

The woods welcomed her in silence. Every shadow seemed alive, every branch whispering her name.

When she reached the old willow, the place she’d found Elder Corvin the day before, the air changed. The scent of pine thickened, mingling with something metallic.

Then she saw it.