Chapter Five: The Law That Hunts

The first thing that breaks is the silence.

Not with sound—but with will.

The pressure crushing my chest fractures as something inside me snaps awake, sharp and incandescent, like a star cracking its shell. I gasp, fingers digging into Caelan’s sleeve as the invisible tether between us tightens, pulses, recognizes.

Alaric Mooncrest takes a single step back.

That should terrify me.

Instead, it enrages him.

“You feel it now,” Alaric says softly, wonder and menace threading his voice. “The Moon Born stirs when threatened. Just as the texts warned.”

I bare my teeth. “You don’t get to quote laws you helped twist.”

Alaric’s pale eyes cut to me. “Careful, Lyra Noctis. You stand on the edge of execution.”

Caelan finally exhales, like he’s been holding his breath for years without knowing why. His hand tightens around mine—not protective, not claiming.

Anchoring.

“What is he talking about?” Caelan demands. “What did I awaken?”

I don’t answer him.

Because answering would mean admitting what I’m only beginning to understand myself.

Instead, I step forward, placing myself fully between Caelan and Alaric. The Alpha’s dominance presses against my back, testing, probing—but it doesn’t overwhelm me the way it once did.

That terrifies Alaric far more than any defiance could.

“You were never meant to survive a bond,” he says. “That was the law.”

“The law was wrong,” I snap. “Or lying.”

Alaric’s gaze sharpens. “There is no difference.”

Behind him, the air shifts again.

Not one presence.

Several.

My heart sinks as shapes emerge at the edges of the street—wolves in human skin, their eyes glowing faintly as they step fully into awareness. Enforcers. Council hounds. Each one radiates submission to Alaric, their heads lowered even as their gazes flick hungrily toward me.

Seven of them.

Of course.

“Stand down,” Alaric orders them calmly. “She is not to be harmed. Yet.”

Yet.

Caelan stiffens behind me. “You brought soldiers into a human town?”

“They won’t remember us,” Alaric replies without looking away from me. “Humans never do.”

My pulse roars in my ears.

This is it. The moment I always feared. Capture. Trial. Erasure made official.

I glance back at Caelan, my chest tightening painfully. His face is pale, eyes burning with questions and something dangerously close to anger.

“I told you to forget me,” I whisper.

“Not happening,” he says instantly.

Alaric chuckles. “Ah. There it is.”

His gaze flicks between us again, satisfaction curling his lips. “The beginning of attachment. Fascinating.”

I snarl. “Touch him and I will—”

“Die?” Alaric finishes coolly. “You’ve threatened that before. The law is not afraid of your death, Lyra. It’s afraid of what happens if you live.”

The words slam into me harder than any blow.

Before I can respond, Alaric raises his hand.

The world tilts.

Dominance crashes down like a tidal wave, forcing my knees to bend despite my resistance. Caelan grunts behind me, his breath punching out of his lungs as the pressure tries to crush him into submission.

“No,” I choke, fury ripping through me. “Get out of my head!”

Something answers.

Not rage.

Not fear.

Authority.

The pull between me and Caelan flares white-hot, and suddenly I’m not pushing against Alaric’s will—

I’m matching it.

The ground beneath my feet hums. The air vibrates, moonlight bending unnaturally as if the sky itself leans closer to listen.

Alaric freezes.

“You shouldn’t be able to do that,” he whispers.

I straighten slowly, shock and power warring inside me. “You shouldn’t have come for me.”

The enforcers hesitate, unease rippling through them as my presence shifts—no longer hunted, no longer small.

Recognized.

Caelan gasps sharply, clutching his chest. “Lyra—something’s wrong.”

I turn just in time to see his eyes flash silver.

Not glowing.

Claiming.

The bond surges.

Alaric’s head snaps toward him, horror finally breaking through his composure. “Impossible.”

I feel it then—clearer than ever before.

Caelan Ashford is not just Alpha-born.

He is mine.

The realization slams into me with devastating clarity.

And somewhere deep in the unseen distance, something ancient answers our joined awakening—

A howl that does not belong to any pack.

The Council has felt it.

The hunt has begun.