Chapter 5: The Second Cage

The horn split the night again, shriller, closer.

Dareth swore under his breath, already pulling me toward the door. "We have to get you to safety—"

"No." My voice sliced the air sharper than I intended, though inside I felt more fragile than glass. My wolf stirred weakly in my chest, scratching at the hollow cage of my ribs, but the strength I once knew—the strength of an Alpha—remained muted, asleep, unreachable.

Dareth’s grip tightened. "Luna, listen. You’re not at full strength—"

"I know," I hissed, forcing myself free. "But I won’t run while the rogues are here. Not again."

His jaw locked, eyes burning with the same stubbornness that mirrored mine. For a heartbeat, he said nothing. Then the third blast of the horn thundered through the palace walls, shaking the floor beneath us. The sound was closer, urgent, like a warning too late.

From the hall came hurried footsteps—Chloe, clutching her cloak around her thin frame. Her face was pale, but her eyes… they darted between me and Dareth like a guilty thing caught in the light.

"What’s happening?" she whispered, though her tone carried more calculation than fear.

Dareth’s gaze narrowed. He didn’t answer her question. Instead, he studied her too long, suspicion sharp in his stare. I felt it too—the same unease, the gnawing thought that her arrival was no accident. That somehow, once again, Chloe stood where chaos bloomed.

I stepped closer, my voice cold. "Why are you here? You shouldn’t even be in this wing."

Her lips trembled, feigning hurt. "I heard the horns. I… I thought it wasn’t safe to be alone."

"Or maybe you knew this was coming," I shot back, venom curling in each word. "Like last time."

The flicker in her eyes betrayed her before she could mask it. Dareth caught it too. His body stiffened, his hand subtly shifting toward the blade at his side.

"Enough," he muttered, though his tone wasn’t aimed at me. It was a warning for her. "If you’re hiding something, Chloe, now isn’t the time to play innocent. You picked a dangerous moment to wander where you shouldn’t."

Before Chloe could respond, the walls shook with the impact of claws and fists against stone. Screams erupted down the corridor, guards shouting, steel clashing. The rogues had breached the palace.

Dareth pulled his weapon free, his eyes darting to me. "Stay behind me, Luna. Your power—"

"—is still mine," I snapped, though the truth cut me deeper. The wolf inside me was sluggish, every attempt to summon her strength meeting a wall of silence. My limbs felt heavier than they should, my breath too shallow. Since binding myself as Luna, my Alpha fire had dimmed to an ember. And tonight, when I needed it most, that ember refused to spark.

The door splintered inward.

The first rogue lunged through—feral, stinking of blood. Dareth met him with a vicious slash, steel sinking deep. I moved instinctively, my body remembering what my wolf had forgotten. I ducked, twisted, seized the rogue’s arm, and drove my knee up. But where once I would have snapped him in half, now my strike only staggered him. Pain rippled through my own weakened muscles.

Snarling, the rogue turned on me. His claws grazed my shoulder, heat flaring as blood soaked my sleeve. I clenched my teeth, shoving back with all I had left. My vision blurred.

"Luna!" Dareth’s shout was distant, drowned by the clash of more rogues flooding in.

I fought, but every movement felt slower, clumsier. Each breath tasted of iron and ash. My body betrayed me, reminding me cruelly that I was no longer the unstoppable Alpha who once led the Moonveil Pack. I was Luna now, bound, weakened.

Chloe shrieked as another rogue barreled toward her. For a heartbeat, instinct told me to let him have her. To let fate pay her back for every wound she’d carved into me. But my hands moved anyway, seizing a chair and smashing it into the rogue’s skull before he reached her.

She stumbled back, clutching my arm. "You saved me—"

I yanked free, hatred coiling hot. "Don’t mistake necessity for mercy."

Dareth cut down another, his blade slick with blood. His eyes met mine, then darted to Chloe—still too close, still too suspicious. "We can’t hold this hall. We need to move!"

We stumbled into the corridor, rogues snapping at our heels. The palace had become a battlefield. Smoke choked the air, the tang of wolfsbane stinging my throat. My wolf whimpered inside me, useless, as if drugged.

At every corner, the rogues pressed harder. And through it all, Chloe clung to us, her presence an anchor I wanted to sever. Dareth’s suspicion sharpened, his gaze cutting to her whenever the rogues seemed to anticipate our steps.

"You’re leading them," he growled at one point, shoving her behind him as he blocked a strike. "Aren’t you?"

Chloe’s eyes went wide, wet with false tears. "I—I’m not! I swear, I don’t know why they’re here!"

But I knew. In the marrow of my bones, I knew she was at the center of this storm again.

We reached the courtyard just as the gates shuddered. More rogues poured through, their howls splitting the night.

That was when they overwhelmed us.

Two rogues came from behind, striking faster than I could anticipate. My weakened body faltered, claws dug into my arms, jerking me back. Chloe screamed as another rogue seized her cloak, yanking her to the ground.

"Dareth!" I choked out, struggling, thrashing. My fists landed blows, but they were weak, dull. Every strike that once could shatter bones now barely bruised.

Dareth turned, his face twisted in fury, cutting down one after another. But the rogues dragged us, half-lifting, half-dragging, toward the broken gates. The air outside reeked of fire and wolfsbane, a trap laid open for us.

Chloe cried, “Kaelus—help me!” her voice shrill, echoing into the chaos.

And I realized—she hadn’t called for Dareth. Or even me. She called for him.

My stomach lurched as I was thrown against the ground, my wrists pinned, claws biting into my skin. My wolf tried to rise but collapsed again, leaving me to fight with only human frailty. My vision spotted black.

Dareth’s roar tore the night as he charged, slashing down the rogues holding Chloe first—his suspicion clear, his disgust sharper. Then he turned for me, cutting through the ones dragging me toward the gate.

Blood sprayed across my face, hot and fishy. The rogues' grip slackened. I collapsed onto the dirt, gasping, my body trembling, throat raw from silent screams.

"Luna—" Dareth grabbed me, hauling me upright. "Stay with me. Don’t you dare give in now."

I tried to stand, but my knees buckled. He half-dragged me back toward the inner yard, guards rallying to form a barrier. Behind us, the rogues regrouped, their snarls echoing through the night.

And then—the sound of another battle, fierce and thunderous, from beyond the walls. Kaelus.

The bond tugged faintly. I felt his presence at the border, steel and fury clashing with the invaders. But he did not come. Not yet. He fought for the pack, for the walls—but not for me.

By the time he arrived, blood soaked the stones and the rogues’ numbers had thinned. Dareth’s arm was cut, my body bruised, my wolf silent. Chloe, though scraped and shaken, had not a single true wound.

Kaelus strode into the courtyard, his cloak torn, his blade dripping. His eyes scanned the scene—not for me. Not for the Luna left gasping, trembling, bleeding by the steps.

They locked on Chloe.

He rushed to her side, hands grasping her shoulders, voice raw with urgency. "Are you hurt? Did they touch you?"

Chloe shook her head, trembling in a carefully crafted fragility. "I’m fine… Kaelus, I—"

I stood frozen, breath caught in my chest. The world tilted, sound collapsing around me. My blood dripped onto the stones, my body weak, my soul weaker.

He didn’t look at me. Not once.

The rogues had come for the pack, for blood, maybe even for me—but Kaelus’ only fear was losing her.

And in that moment, I realized that the cage I fought to escape was not built of bars or chains. It was him.

But the night was not done with us.

Before Kaelus could take another breath, another horn split the darkness—low, guttural, and distant, but answered by dozens more. From beyond the shattered gates, shadows swelled again. The rogues had not been broken. They had only been waiting.

I felt the shift in the air, the tremor beneath my knees as more feet pounded the earth. Dozens. Maybe hundreds. The courtyard lit with the gleam of their eyes, silver and savage, as wave after wave poured in.

Dareth cursed, dragging me behind him though his arm trembled from blood loss. "They’re regrouping—too many this time!"

Kaelus snarled, shoving Chloe further into his shadow. His blade rose again, but his stance faltered, exhaustion leaked from every line of his body. He had been holding the border, fighting without pause, and now his strength bled as freely as mine.

I tried to rise, to bare my teeth, to call on the wolf inside me—but she lay curled in silence, dormant, deaf to my desperation. My body was human-weak, sluggish, each muscle screaming betrayal.

The rogues surged. Steel met claw, sparks against fangs. The courtyard became a whirl of red and black, a storm of snarls and screaming steel.

Dareth struck down one, two, three—then staggered when the fourth tore across his back. He roared through the pain, still standing, but slower now. Kaelus cleaved a path through another cluster, but his breath rasped ragged, his eyes flickering with fatigue.

They fought like dying stars, burning everything they had left. And in that space between their strikes, the rogues found their opening.

Hands like iron clamped around my arms. My scream tore loose as claws dug deep, dragging me backward through the smoke. Dareth spun, too slow, his blade slicing air as three rogues wrenched me toward the gates.

"Luna!" His voice shattered, rage and panic fused.

At the same time Chloe shrieked, her cry piercing above the chaos. "Kaelus! Save me!"

I twisted, and my blood iced. Another pack of rogues had her, pulling her cloak tight around her throat as they hauled her across the stones. She thrashed, but her eyes sought only him. Always him.

Kaelus broke formation, cutting toward her with a snarl that tore his throat raw. "Chloe!"

That moment of devotion cost us both.

My captors yanked me across the threshold of the gates, my heels scraping stone slick with blood. I fought with everything left in me, clawing, kicking, teeth snapping uselessly. But I was too weak. My Alpha’s might was gone, smothered under the bond I had chained myself to. Every struggle felt like drowning.

Dareth tried—gods, he tried. His blade split one rogue down the spine, then another, but more swarmed him, dragging him back from me. His roar rattled the walls. "Luna! Hold on!"

I wanted to answer. To promise I would. But another blow struck my ribs, driving the air from my lungs. My scream choked off into silence.

The gates loomed behind me, broken wide, the night yawning like a hungry maw. Beyond them, the forest writhed with waiting eyes. Reinforcements. An endless tide.

Chloe’s cries tangled with mine as we were dragged side by side, our bodies scraped raw by stone and dirt. She still screamed Kaelus’ name like it was salvation. And Kaelus—Kaelus fought toward her, not me, his desperation naked, his fury merciless.

But the rogues were too many.

I caught one last glimpse as they pulled me beyond the gates, Kaelus buried under a swarm of shadows, Dareth staggering with blood dripping down his side, the courtyard awash in chaos.

The night swallowed me whole.

Chains bit my wrists, claws gouged my arms as they hauled us into the trees. The last sound I heard before the forest closed around us was Kaelus shouting her name—never mine.

And in the crushing dark, realization cut sharper than any fang.

This time, I wasn’t just caged.

I was stolen.