Chapter 5

Devlin’s POV

The moon looks lonely in the sky on the day it has its longest journey. Not a single star. I wonder how it feels.

Was it yearning for company? Or it preferred solitude.

I lie in the grass and watch it and ponder about it. I think it prefers solitude. It gives it the ability to shine, no stars to share in its glory.

Just like me. Unchallenged. The moon shines brightest alone.

And that’s how I like it.

"Why aren't you at the bonfire?"

I ignore Cece and close my eyes. Letting her voice fade into the night. Cece’s my cousin, my closest ally, the one person I’d actually admit I like being around.

She's the only one worthy of my attention. I hope she knows she's lucky. People’ll beg for my attention. They’ll fight for it. They'll bleed for it.

"Do you think she'll cave in? And undo the ritual?"

"She won't." My answer is immediate.

Certain.

Selene won’t. I know her better than her pathetic group of friends do. Better than Damien does. She’s stubborn. Sharp-edged. Dangerous. Trust me, I know.

I like to think I made her that way.

She won't break. She never does. At least for me. But preadventure she does tonight, I told Vey I wanted to witness it. I want to be there when she rejects Damien after the oath it's broken.

I doubt she will though. I know her.

Since my family decided to make ShadowCrest its home, a decision I’ll never understand, I’ve been fighting battles that weren’t mine.

The Draxmores have conquered kingdoms and nations. Our flag stands high in different wolf nations. We were thriving in Lycan's Hollow, feared everywhere, respected everywhere. And then, out of nowhere, my mother gets the urge to move to ShadowCrest. And since the Luna's word is law. We moved.

I hated every moment of it till I met Selene. My little kitten. She was just seven, the smallest seven year old I have ever met.

I chuckle, weird how ten years have passed.

Ten years of her, stubborn and unyielding. Ten years of me throwing walls in her way, and her finding ladders to climb over them. Every time I push, she tries to outwit me the next time. Most wolves crumble when I bare my teeth.

But Selene runs, strategizes and levels up. And that’s exactly why I can’t stop. I love the chase, I love learning new ways to break her. I love when she's leveled up and I bring her straight down to zero.

I hung her to a tree once. Next time, she learns to climb. I locked her in the dark. She starts carrying a flashlight. She always thinks her defiance makes her clever. It doesn’t. It makes me clever.

Because it proves she only grows when I cut her down. And in my pastime, all I do is wonder how much I can cut, so she doesn't regrow.

It became a challenge. My purpose. How much before Selene Caelum breaks?

I stopped party tricks and went straight for pain. Pain, as the Luna always says, is the only thing that evokes change.

"Then what will happen? Luna says we have a chance of being a power couple if the bonding happens tonight."

I laugh. Damien? A power couple? He can’t even stand straight without tripping over his own shadow. Selene has a better chance. Draven, my wolf, agrees, but Draven’s judgment is clouded where she’s concerned. He feels for her. I shut him off every time. He’s pathetic when it comes to her. And I won’t be.

"Damien is dumb."

Cecilia scoffs at me. "He's the Luneborn."

The words slam into me. It's Impossible.

I sit up, eyes narrowing. "How?"

"The witch sensed the aura on him. Luna confirmed it. He walked into the ceremony in his wolf form. His wolf is black and has the eyes of the moon."

My jaw tightens. "Eyes of the moon." That’s a Luneborn marker, sure. The aura too.

But Damien?

Selene’s Damien?

The boy was barely qualified to be a werewolf.

Draven rumbles. "He can’t be." Finally, he and I agree. "Luneborns are usually women. The moon goddess’ essence in flesh."

"The last one was a man," I remind him. A Draxmore.

That’s how my family rose. That’s how we own the kind of power other wolves only dream of.

Draven’s growl is approval, but my mind spins. If Damien is really a Luneborn, the Alpha lineage will shift. The moon goddess will decide. The pack will obey. Wolves will bend to rules the Draxmores never wrote, and I hate it. I look up at the moon, just a rock that thinks it’s divine. A light that meddles in fates she doesn’t own. She always thinks she can dictate and wolves kneel.

Not me though. Never me.

"Imagine if the moon oath isn’t broken. The Alpha lineage will shift," Cece whispers, almost afraid.

She’s right. The Luneborn’s child is usually Alpha-born, unless they marry into Alpha blood or kill their way into it. If Damien bonds with Selene, if he becomes Alpha… she could be Luna.

Luna Selene. The thought tastes like poison.

Draven snarls in disgust, and for once, I don’t silence him.

If the moon oath is broken, Damien bonds with Cece. Perfect. Crisis averted.

A flicker of movement catches my eye. I turn. Landon, Bea, Alyssa, and the sixth one, I don't know his name so I always refer to him as that, sneak past, slipping into the pack house. Idiots. Being here uninvited is trouble. Sneaking in is death, if caught.

"I’m coming," I mutter to Cece, rising.

I follow them. Whatever plan they have, I’ll enjoy watching it explode in their faces. And if Selene survives tonight, I’ll make sure she hears how her little friends begged for mercy.

They head for the Correction wing. Their steps are too confident, too precise. They know where they’re going. My eyes narrow. Is this the witch doing?

Did the witch tell them Damien was the Luneborn? Did she help them forge the oath? Moon oaths aren’t easy. They require knowledge, power, certainty. Maybe she’s here to undo it. Maybe she thinks she can unbind Selene from Damien.

Now where’s the fun in that?

"Devlin."

The voice halts me. I straighten and turn.

"Luna."

"Son."

"Dad."

Awkwardness.

Always awkward. Always strained. I feel their gazes glaring into me, trying to decide if I was being their obedient son. I rarely am.

"Why aren’t you at the bonfire? History is about to be made tonight." My mother’s demands. I nod like I understand. I don’t.

"You…" She starts, but my father cuts in.

"That’s if the girl breaks the oath."

Ah. The grand history. Damien and Cece bonding.

"Is he really the Luneborn?" I press.

Luna nods.

"And if he doesn’t marry Cece tonight then it’s…" My father falters under her gaze.

"The marriage will take place tonight. Even if I have to kil…" She cuts herself off when her eyes meet mine. As if I didn’t already know what she’s capable of. How she escapes the curse of the moon is the only thing I'd like her to teach me. Some wolves truly deserve death.

"The moon oath, depending on the clause, could last across several lifetimes." I try to be useful.

My father lowers his voice. "There’s no oath."

What?

"The boy won’t bond with Cece, no matter what we do to him."

I nearly laugh. Damien strong enough to resist? Loyal enough to endure pain? Because of love? It's laughable

I think of Selene and the pain she will be in and I want to be there. It’ll be nice to see her break. So broken that her wolf, when it emerges, is as broken as her and void of the scent that intoxicated me today.

No. Draven growls.

I ignore him. I always ignore him.

An idea forms, wicked and sharp. The kind of idea only a Draxmore would dare whisper. The kind the Luna will climax too.

"What if we make her a mere human?