Between The Moon And The Mark

The door clicked shut behind Derek with a finality that echoed through the Luna’s chamber like a distant growl in the night. Silence followed—thick, heavy, almost alive. Diva didn’t move. She stood there, still as stone, staring at the space he’d just occupied. His scent—that unmistakable blend of pine, musk, and something darker—still lingered in the air. It tugged at something deep in her chest. Something primal.

She turned slowly, almost cautiously, and made her way back to the bed. The long cloak she wore dragged against the floor like fallen leaves in the forest. When she sat, the fabric gathered beneath her hands, soft and wrinkled, but her body remained rigid. Her heart was racing—not from fear, but from something more dangerous: doubt.

Everything he had said… it looped in her mind like an old hunt replaying itself. Derek—Alpha of the Bloodfangs, the one who once dragged her into duty and denied her the right to choose—had just stood before her not as a leader, but as a man. And not just a man. A mate, raw and exposed, asking to be chosen.

Not through bond.

Not through obligation.

But through will.

Her brows drew together. She exhaled slowly, rubbing her temples as if trying to press the confusion out. Inside her, her wolf stirred—uneasy, tail flicking in agitation. He’s not lying, the wolf whispered, a low vibration in her chest. He’s changed.

“But what if he hasn’t?” she whispered aloud, voice dry and rough as gravel. “What if this is just another cage? Just built with softer chains?”

Moonlight spilled in through the arched window, painting silver streaks across the stone floor. Her gaze drifted there, to the edge of the dresser where his pendant hung—the Luna’s symbol, engraved and cold. She rose and walked to it slowly, as though approaching prey. Her fingers trembled as they closed around the chain. It was cold, heavier than it looked, and radiated a weight far beyond its size.

She lifted it. For a breath, it hovered in her hand—then her arm pulled back, ready to throw it, to send it crashing into the wall, to feel it shatter the way he once shattered her spirit.

But she couldn’t.

Instead, her fingers clenched around it like claws around a wound.

A growl rose from her throat—low, conflicted. Her wolf was pacing now, back and forth behind her ribs, torn between instinct and longing.

She crossed to the window and brushed the curtain aside. Down below, torches flickered in the courtyard, lighting up the silhouettes of scattered packmates still lingering from the night’s gathering. The wind carried their voices up to her like whispers in the trees.

“I heard he finally confessed…”

“Do you think she’ll take him back?”

“She should leave. He doesn’t deserve her.”

“She loves him. Anyone could see that tonight.”

The curtain dropped from her hand like a cut vine. She backed away from the window, shame crawling up her spine like ice. Her grip on the pendant tightened until it bit into her skin.

And then the memories struck like a rogue wave.

The night he refused to speak to her, wouldn’t even look at her as she stood in front of him trembling and half-shifted.

The day he told the pack she’d never be their Luna.

The silent dinners.

The hunger.

The loneliness in a house full of howls.

The cold ache of being mated, but never chosen.

Her wolf whimpered inside her.

He broke us, she thought, blinking hard. And now… now he wants to fix it?

She dropped onto the bed, the pendant still clutched tightly in her hand. The sheets smelled like lavender and stormwind—familiar and strange. Her breath came in uneven waves. The confusion wasn’t just in her mind. It pulsed through her body, through the bond that still faintly tied them—flickering, damaged, but not severed.

Is he really a changed Alpha… or just afraid of losing control?

Her thoughts twisted, tangled with dreams she hadn’t dared speak aloud. The seer’s prophecy. The voice of the stranger in her vision. The possibility that her true mate might still be out there.

Was she holding on to Derek because of love? Or because she didn’t want to be abandoned again?

The pendant slipped from her fingers and landed softly on her chest. Her body curled into itself, an instinctual defense against a world that had wounded her too many times.

Her wolf whispered bitterly, He could’ve marked us. But he didn’t.

And yet… maybe he would now.

Tears threatened, but she blinked them away with a sharp inhale. She wouldn’t cry. Not for him. Not tonight.

A knock came—soft, respectful. She didn’t move.

“Who is it?” she called, her voice barely more than a growl.

“It’s me, Luna,” came Mira’s voice—quiet, earnest, the youngest warrior in the ranks. “I just wanted to say… whatever you decide, some of us believe in you. Not just as our fighter. As our Luna. As someone worthy of love.”

Diva’s throat tightened. She couldn’t respond. Could only close her eyes and hope Mira felt her gratitude through the silence.

When the footsteps faded, she leaned against the headboard, hand still resting on her chest, over the pendant. Sleep wouldn’t come tonight. Not while her wolf paced. Not while the past prowled around her. Not while her heart still hadn’t decided.

Maybe tomorrow she’d have her answer.

But tonight, she would feel.

She would remember.

She would breathe.

And she would listen to the wild, aching hum of her heart… trying to decide whether to forgive him—or walk away with her soul still intact.