LOGINTo be a mother is to have your heart walking around outside your body. To be a Lunar Bride is to have that heart hunted by gods and ghosts. I didn't wait for permission. I didn't wait for an escort. I took the rage that was boiling in my veins and refined it into a weapon. Caleb had made the mistake of thinking I was the same broken girl who had been kicked into the mud five years ago. He thought he was playing with a healer. He forgot that a healer knows exactly how to make a body stop working. "Marcus!" I roared as I stormed into the courtyard. The Beta was already mobilizing the reserves, his face a mask of terror. "Luna, the Princess—" "I know," I cut him off, my voice a jagged blade. "The Seer is gone. But she isn’t lost. She’s a beacon. I can feel her light being choked out in the mines. Give me the fastest mare in the stables and the vials of Liquid Moonlight. Now!" "You're too weak, Elena," Marcus argued, grabbing my shoulder. "The Moonstone is drained. Yo
The Echo in the Woods I didn't call for the guards to follow me. If the "Echo" could walk through walls and bypass the senses of elite warriors, an army would only get in the way. I shifted into my silver wolf form before I even hit the garden floor, the transition a jagged explosion of light. I didn't head for the main gates; I followed the scent—or the lack of one. There was a trail of nothingness leading toward the Whispering Woods. It wasn't a scent of fur or skin; it was the scent of a vacuum, a hole in the world where a person should be. And in the center of that hole was the faint, sweet smell of Aries—scared, curious, and trusting. Aries! I called out through the pack link, but there was only static. The resonance was jamming the mental connection. I pushed my limbs harder, my silver paws barely touching the blackened earth. The trees moved past me like ghosts. The deeper I went into the woods, the colder it became. The "Echo" was leading him toward the Weeping
The air in the Silver Moon territory had turned thick and cloying, smelling of stagnant water and old copper. It had been three days since Caleb’s apparition at the border, and the "Great Devourer" was already living up to his name. He wasn’t attacking with teeth and claws; he was eating us from the inside out. I stood in the palace apothecary, my eyes burning from lack of sleep. On the table before me lay a cluster of black-veined lilies and a vial of water taken from the royal well. Both were corrupted. The water didn't just look oily; it pulsed. Every few seconds, a tiny, dark ripple would move through the liquid, like a heartbeat made of ink. "It’s not a bacteria, Marcus," I said, rubbing my temples. The Beta stood by the door, his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. He looked thinner, the stress of the invisible siege carving deep lines into his face. "If it's not a poison, then what is it? Half the livestock in the southern valley died overnight. The warriors who
The morning after the Black Moon felt like a collective hangover for the entire Silver Moon Pack. The eclipse had been averted, but the spiritual toll was heavy. I spent the early hours in the infirmary, my hands glowing a faint, steady silver as I stabilized warriors whose internal systems had been jolted by the sudden snap of the magical vacuum. By noon, the palace was transformed. The "Festival of Light" had begun—a tradition to celebrate the moon’s return. The halls were draped in white silk, and the scent of roasting venison and wildflowers fought to mask the lingering smell of ozone and ash. I stood on the balcony of the Grand Hall, watching the pack members below. For the first time, they weren't looking at me with suspicion. They were looking up with a reverence that felt like a heavy cloak. "You look like you're planning an escape again," a deep voice rumbled behind me. I didn't need to turn to know it was Liam. He was dressed in a formal charcoal tunic, his
The victory should have tasted like honey; instead, it tasted like copper and cold sweat. The Great Square was being scrubbed of the Crescent Moon’s treachery, but the stone remained stained. I stood in the center of the royal bedchamber—my bedchamber—listening to the silence of the palace. It was a heavy, artificial quiet, broken only by the distant thrum of the rebuilding efforts outside. "She didn't just walk out, Liam." I didn't turn around. I was staring at the empty wall where the High Priest’s grimoire had once hung in a locked glass case. The velvet backing was still indented where the heavy, iron-bound book had rested for centuries. "The locks weren't picked," I continued, my voice a low, clinical rasp. "They were dissolved. Alchemical acid. The kind only a High Priest or someone trained by one would have access to." Liam’s reflection appeared in the window glass. He was standing by the heavy oak doors, his shirt unbuttoned halfway, revealing the fresh banda
The nursery smelled of ozone and iron. I sat on the floor, my legs tucked under me, pulling Aries into my lap. He was still vibrating, a low hum of Alpha energy radiating from his small chest that felt like a purring engine. Lyra was silent, her head resting on my shoulder, her eyes wide and fixed on the bloodstains marring the plush cream rug. Liam stood by the window, his back to us. His muscles were so tight they looked like they might snap. He was staring out toward the horizon where the Crescent Moon camp lay—a cluster of fires that looked like embers in a graveyard. “They tried to take them,” Liam said, his voice a jagged rasp. “In my own home. Under my own roof.” “They didn't succeed,” I said, my voice steadier than I felt. I reached out and touched his calf. “Liam. Look at me.” He turned. The emerald in his eyes was gone, replaced by a void of black. He looked like a predator that had forgotten how to be a man. “We go now,” he said. “I’ll call the hunt. We
The morning after the trial should have been a celebration, but the air in the Silver Moon palace felt like the moment before a lightning strike. I sat at the long, obsidian dining table, watching Aries and Lyra eat. They were oblivious to the storm brewing outside, arguing over who got the l







