Claimed By Four: The White Wolf Luna

POV: Luna

My boots slap wet cobblestone and my lungs are already quitting. Not dramatically. Just… done. Like we're not doing this anymore, find another way to breathe.

Behind me, three of Raven's enforcers are closing in. Blaze, Knox, Gage. Wolves. Shifted just enough that their claws click on stone. Knox laughs. Blaze spits to the side. Gage doesn't make a sound, which is worse. Gage never makes noise before he hits someone.

"Stop running, little nothing!" Blaze shouts. "Raven just wants a word."

Knox grins. "A word with teeth, more like."

Don't trip. Don't trip. Don't you dare trip, Luna, you clumsy…

My shoulder clips a stack of crates. Pain shoots up my arm. The stupid kind. The kind that makes you mad because it's your own fault. The stolen council papers crinkle inside my jacket. Maybe thirty seconds before they catch me. Maybe ten minutes after that before Raven decides which word she wants.

Last time someone upset Raven, Fawn ended up in the river. I remember the splash. Nobody talked about it after.

The alley forks. Left goes deeper into the warrens. Dark, twisty, familiar. I could hide. But if they corner me down there, nobody hears anything. Right opens onto the main thoroughfare. Summit procession is coming back. Crowds. Witnesses.

I go right. Not brave. Just don't wanna die where nobody finds me for a week.

I burst out of the alley mouth and slam into something solid. Not a person. A wall. That's my first thought. Then the wall moves, and I'm on the ground, palms scraping wet stone, papers scattering, and I make a sound like oof and taste blood where I bit my tongue.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't…" I wheeze, scrambling backward. "Just don't kill me, I'll go, I'll…"

I look up.

Silver eyes. Calm. Still. Too still. Aiden. The Twin Alpha. The Silver Wolf. The guy who runs Aidion like a chessboard. He's frozen. His hand is halfway raised, like he was about to catch me or push me away. His nostrils flare. His pupils blow wide.

Why's he looking at me like that? Like I broke something. Stop looking at me. Please stop looking at me.

Behind him, Raven's arm is hooked through his elbow. Possessive. Claimed. I know her. Everyone in the lower district knows Raven. The Alpha's consort. His strategist. The woman who ordered Blaze and Knox and Gage to chase me.

She looks down at me. Her expression shifts, confusion then recognition then something cold. She smooths a wrinkle on her sleeve, just a quick press of her thumb. Then her fingers tighten on Aiden's arm.

"Well." Her voice is clipped. "That's convenient. Blaze, restrain her. She stole council transcripts."

"Wait."

Aiden's voice. Quiet. Just one word. But Raven's jaw tightens and the enforcers stop.

He crouches. His hand moves toward my face, slow, like he can't stop himself. His fingers hover near my jaw.

And then something explodes behind my ribs.

Not a spark. Not a gentle warmth. A crack, deep and old, like something that's been stitched shut my whole life just split open. The mate bond. The one every shifter gets once. The one I was told I'd never have because I'm wolf-less. Empty-blood. Broken.

I can't breathe right. My chest hurts. My eyes sting. Dammit.

"No." Aiden's voice is rough, barely a whisper. "That's… no. That's not…"

"I didn't do anything," I say, words fast and stupid. "I swear, I was just listening, I didn't mean…"

"Quiet." Not angry. Scared. "Just be quiet. Let me…"

He doesn't finish. Because the sky changes.

The sun slides behind the moon. Nobody predicted this eclipse. The light goes amber, then rust, then bruised violet. Shadows stretch wrong. Lanterns flicker. Somewhere behind me, a child starts crying. Somebody drops a basket of apples. I hear them roll across the cobblestones.

My teeth vibrate. Like a tuning fork hit my spine. The eclipse isn't just above me. It's inside me.

And then something ancient in my blood cracks open.

Just a crack. But through it pours a smell that's not a smell. It's cold, like moonlight, and it demands. It rolls off my skin in waves. Shifters in the crowd start dropping to their knees. Wolves. Bears from the summit. Mountain lion diplomats. They fold toward me, shoulders curling, heads dipping.

I'm on my hands and knees, palms bleeding, and powerful people are kneeling, and I'm thinking, please stop. Please stop. I'm nobody. I'm a nobody from the lower warrens and I can't even shift and you should NOT be kneeling to me.

"What is that?" Raven steps back, hand over her mouth. "What is that?"

Blaze is on his knees, jaw tight. "Alpha. Alpha, what is she?"

Aiden stares at me. Thin tracks of silver slide down his cheeks. He's bleeding from his eyes. Actually bleeding.

"I don't know." His voice cracks. "I've known everything for years, and I don't know."

Raven's face goes blank. Her hand drifts toward the knife at her belt. "This is a trick. A Lunissa parlor trick. The old bloodlines had glamour magic. This is nothing."

"I can smell her." Aiden still isn't looking at Raven. "I can smell her like I can smell the sky. Like I've been breathing wrong my entire life and I didn't know until right now."

The eclipse swallows the last sliver of sun.

And the howls start.

The first one rips from the south, from the Jathorne border. Black and ragged and furious. A sound like something caged that just felt the lock turn. It hits my chest like a bruise.

The second is deeper. A rumble, not a howl. The ground under my palms shudders. Something ancient in the mountains just opened its eyes.

The third… I don't hear anything. Just a pocket of silence where a shadow bends wrong, and I feel something smile at me from miles away. A blade laid flat against my throat. Not cutting. Just there.

The fourth howl is dragged out. Reluctant. Like it's coming from underground, from behind a wall somebody built on purpose. Angry. Like the howl doesn't want to exist.

Four lines pull tight inside my chest, yanking me in four directions at once.

I look up at Aiden. His thumb brushes my cheekbone. Wonder and terror and grief all mixed together on his face. Behind him, Raven's knuckles are white on her knife hilt.

The howls echo again, closer now, closing in.

And I realize, very calmly, that I'm not going to survive tonight. Not because someone will kill me.

Because four things are coming for me. And they won't stop.

I just wanted to not be nobody. I didn't say what I wanted to be instead. I should've been more specific.