On the night she was meant to be claimed, Eira Thorn was publicly rejected by her fated mate and banished without reason. Left broken and alone, she ventures into cursed lands no wolf dares cross—and disappears. But fate has other plans. Waking in a forbidden territory ruled by magic and shadows, Eira finds herself hunted for a power she doesn’t understand, haunted by a mark that shouldn’t exist, and torn between the Alpha who betrayed her, the Beta who would die for her, and the ruler of a kingdom that shouldn’t be real. A dark force stirs beneath the surface of their world. And at the center of it all… is her.
View More~Eira
The wind bites like it knows my name. It tears through the Hills of Trepidation, lifting the edges of my cloak, whispering warnings I no longer care to hear. The horse beneath me shifts restlessly, hooves crunching frostbitten earth, but I don’t stop riding. Not for the cold. Not for the ache in my bones. Not even for the sob locked in the back of my throat like a secret I refuse to give voice. I know what you’re thinking. Why is she riding away from everything she’s ever known? From the people she loved? From the only home she had? The truth? I’m not leaving because I want to. I’m leaving because I wasn’t given the option to stay. I was cast out—tossed aside like something unworthy, something unwanted. Exiled without explanation. Banished by the very hands that once held me in celebration. But for you to understand the mess I’ve been dragged into—the betrayal, the humiliation, the cruel twist of fate—I have to take you back. Just a few hours. That’s all it takes for a life to unravel. It began like a dream. The morning of the Moon Calling was bathed in gold. The air was sweet with pine and promise. I walked the pack grounds with a foolish smile on my face, breathing it all in—the laughter of the younglings, the scent of roasted hazelnuts from the market tents, the distant echo of flutes tuning for the ceremony. Tonight, Aeron would be named Alpha of the Obsidian Moon Pack. And I… I would be his Luna. His mate. His fated. My heart danced just thinking about it. I imagined how his lips would taste under the moon’s blessing. How it would feel to finally stand beside him—not as the quiet healer of the east wing, not as the orphan girl taken in by the pack—but as his equal. His chosen. His beloved. I wandered past the ceremonial field where the elders practiced their chants. I saw the altar being polished with sacred oils, moonstones arranged in concentric circles. Everywhere, people moved with purpose. And me? I floated. I searched for him, of course. Through the training grounds. The main hall. The cliffs where he used to run with Caelum and I as kids. But Aeron was nowhere. Only Caelum found me. He stood near the stables, arms crossed, his eyes gleaming under the shade of his hood. “You’ve been hunting shadows all morning,” he said with a soft smirk. “Looking for him?” I shrugged, heat rising to my cheeks. “Is it that obvious?” Caelum stepped forward and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. He’d always been gentle with me in ways I didn’t understand until I was older. “You look beautiful, Eira,” he said, and there was something in his voice—some quiet ache. “He’s lucky. You’ll make a magnificent Luna.” I smiled. “Thank you, Caelum. That means more than you know.” He hesitated like he wanted to say something else, but instead he gave a short bow and walked away. I never saw him again before everything burned. By evening, the maids were at my side, draping me in silk the color of moonlight. My red hair was brushed and woven with wildflowers and crystal pins. They painted soft shimmer over my eyes and lips, humming lullabies passed down from the time of gods. When I looked in the mirror, I didn’t see the quiet girl anymore. I saw a queen in waiting. Then came the howls. Long and deep—ancient and commanding. The signal that the ceremony had begun. The courtyard blazed with torches. Shadows flickered across a sea of wolves gathered in silence. The altar stood tall, draped in obsidian cloth, the sacred markings etched in bloodroot ink. Above us, the moon hung massive—a watchful, gleaming eye. And Aeron… finally, I saw him. Standing at the foot of the altar, dressed in ceremonial black with silver threading across his shoulders. His eyes met mine only for a heartbeat—and then he looked away. I ignored the flutter in my chest. I stepped up beside him, heart pounding. The priest raised his staff, the crowd holding its collective breath. “Tonight,” the elder intoned, “we honor the goddess Selene. Under her gaze, we bless the union of Alpha Aeron Blackvale and his fated mate, Eira Thorn—” “I can’t.” The words shattered the silence. At first, I thought I misheard. But the moment Aeron stepped away from me, the entire world tilted. “I cannot go through with this,” he said louder, voice flat and final. “I will not accept Eira as my mate.” The silence after was violent. “No,” I whispered. “Aeron, what are you saying?” I stepped toward him, but he avoided my gaze. My fingers reached for his arm and touched only empty air. “This decision has been made with the Council’s blessing,” he continued, addressing the crowd. “The bond will not be completed. The ceremony is over.” He turned and walked away. I ran after him—eyes burning, heart splintering—but two guards seized my arms before I could reach him. “Let me go!” I screamed. “Let me talk to him!” The priest backed away. The crowd parted like a wound. I fought the guards and was able to throw them off me and to the ground with strength that I never knew I had. But in spite of the chaos unveiling behind him, Aeron didn’t look back. And then his father—Alpha Marius—stepped forward, face a mask of fury. “How dare you make a spectacle of this sacred ceremony,” he spat. “You disgrace the name of this pack.” “I deserve answers!” I cried. “He was mine! We were fated—” “You are nothing,” Marius growled. “You are unworthy. You were brought into this pack out of pity, and now you’ve proven yourself a stain upon it.” “I did nothing—” “You are hereby exiled, Eira Thorn,” he declared. “By decree of the Alpha’s bloodline and council vote. Leave tonight. Do not return.” No trial. No defense. Just banishment. I was dragged away from the altar as the crowd watched, silent and unmoved. Some turned their heads. Others stared, eyes gleaming with curiosity. No one came forward. Not even Caelum. And now… here I am. Riding into the unknown, cloak pulled tight around my shoulders, my only companions the cold and the silence. I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t know if I’ll survive long enough to find out. The only thing that is certain is that I can’t ever go back to Obsidian.~Ivy The hooded figure stood close enough for me to see his face now—no mask, no shadow conveniently hiding his features. I didn’t know him. I would have remembered if I had. His eyes studied me with a kind of deliberate patience, the way someone watches a fire to see if it will spread or die out. “I’m Caelum. I was a friend of your mother,” he said when he noticed that I stared at him without recognition. I flinched at the words. Not because I believed them, but because of the certainty with which he spoke them—as if no argument I made would matter. “You were?” I kept my voice flat, guarded. “Funny. She never mentioned you. Why’s that?” He smiled faintly, like he’d heard that before. “She wouldn’t have. Not to keep you safe.” Safe. The word sat uneasily in my mind, as if it had no right to be here. I folded my arms, keeping the weight of my stare on him. “If that’s your way of earning my trust, you’re failing. Who are you and what’s going on here? How did I get here?” “I c
~Clone Aeron The order was not spoken. It slid into my mind like a shard of black glass, smooth and cold, pressing until I understood. Find the destabilizing variable. No name. No location. Just the impression of movement through the western forest and the faintest pull, like gravity turned personal. The pull had been there before — small, distant — but now it yanked like a hooked line, tightening with every breath. I adjusted the leather strap of my gauntlet and started walking. It was an order that I had to execute alone. I didn’t know what the “destabilizing variable” was but following the directions given, I was convinced I would find what I was sent to find. The barracks behind me dissolved into the treeline. The air here was damp with moss and rotting leaves, the kind of damp that clung to skin. Above, the moonlight bled through jagged branches. I moved in silence, every step measured. I’d been built for this — moving unseen, unnoticed — but tonight something felt… differ
~Omniscient POV The forest never truly slept. Even now, with the moon caught behind a thick lid of cloud, the undergrowth pulsed with sound—soft shifts of leaves, the scratch of claws on bark, the faint chitter of something small and hungry in the dark. Kyle paced in front of the hut like a caged animal. The masked man had taken Ivy inside over an hour ago. The door was shut, the gaps between the rough-hewn planks glowing faintly blue from whatever sorcery was at work within. He kept glancing at it, as if glaring at the wood would somehow hurry the process along. The ground under his boots was already worn from his pacing. His attention kept drifting to the treeline. The forest loomed—silent in ways it shouldn’t be. He stopped. There it was again—movement. Subtle, just beyond the line where the torchlight from the hut dissolved into black. The shadows bent unnaturally, as if something was slipping between them. Kyle stepped forward, trying to mask his fear by acting cour
~Ivy I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me but when I moved closer, I knew they weren’t. It was actually my mom. She looked nothing like I remembered. She looked dangerous, powerful and scary as hell. Her eyes were glowing and she hovered over the floor at a reasonable distance. I turned around hoping to see the hooded figure but I didn’t see him anymore. I called out to him but I was replied with silence. The racing in my chest told me to run but I didn’t. The air shifted—just enough for me to notice. Then… it was gone. I turned towards where my mom was but she simply wasn’t there anymore. No sound. No flicker of robes. Nothing. It was almost like she was never there. I exhaled—too fast, too loud—and turned back toward the far wall. She was there. Close. So close I felt the brush of warm breath against my cheek. My knees almost buckled, but my body betrayed me—I didn’t move, couldn’t move. Her gaze pinned me in place, a pale white glow humming faintly in the dar
~Ivy The sound of my own breathing was too loud in this silence. Not the normal kind of silence—the oppressive kind, like the world was holding its breath, waiting to see if I was going to make a wrong move. I kept my steps light, pressing my boots into the soft moss carpeting the forest floor. The figure ahead of me—hooded, quick—never glanced back, but I feel their awareness pressing at the edges of my mind. They knew I was here. The trees closed in tighter the farther I went. Their trunks were ancient, swollen with age, bark peeling like the pages of a book too often read. Thin ribbons of light slip between their branches, not sunlight, but something colder, pale as moonstone. I ran after the hooded figure, trying to catch up and see where they were headed but they were a lot faster than me. I quickened my pace, weaving between roots as thick as my arm. The air smelt faintly sweet, like dried fruit left in a jar too long. Something shifted beneath my feet making me stop. The
~Kyle The book didn’t look like much at first to be honest. If anything, it looked too old and too pathetic to carry any useful information. The pages were yellowed, the cover half-eaten by time and maybe rats, and the spine crackled every time I turned a page. Nothing screamed forbidden in this book—but then again, the real ones never did. I sat on the worn library floor, legs crossed, back against the crooked bookshelf. Beside me, she was slumped over her arms, head resting on a book she hadn’t even finished flipping through. I thought she’d just dozed off. Normal. Cute, even. She’d been tired. We both were. But then the book I was holding whispered. Not audibly. Not in the haunted manor sense. But my hands went cold. My skin prickled. The air shifted around me like something was watching. I looked down and there it was—barely a line scrawled in the margins. A language I didn’t know but could suddenly read. Protective Warding: All intrusions from the unbound shall invoke curse
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