Hold the Line, Luna

Our pack was ambushed. In the chaos, my mate, Alpha Ridley, rescued his first love, Yolia, and left me to be captured. He had the gall to call it my duty as Luna.

The howls of the rival Red Fang pack came from all sides on the night of our Blood Moon Hunt.

A silver dust bomb exploded nearby.

White-hot shrapnel tore across my cheek, and blood instantly streamed down my face.

"Ridley!" Yolia shrieked, stumbling into my mate. "I'm hit! The silver… it burns!"

She crumpled into his arms, a shallow, angry red line marking her pale skin.

Ridley's entire focus shifted in a heartbeat.

The look he gave Yolia—a mix of tenderness and raw panic I had never once received—was a fresh wound in my chest.

"Yolia! Are you okay?" he asked, frantically examining her tiny wound.

And me? His fated mate, clutching our son as blood dripped from my chin? Utterly ignored.

"Mama, blood!" Leo pointed at my face, his eyes wide with fear.

"It's okay, sweetie," I forced myself to stay calm.

Another wave of attacks hit. The Red Fang Alpha roared, "Hand over the Black Moon pack's treasure, or you all die tonight!"

Treasure?

The only thing we had was the sacred relic of the Moon Goddess, left by our ancestors.

"In your dreams!" Ridley snarled, shoving Yolia behind him. "Leo, come here!"

My son immediately squirmed out of my arms and ran to his father.

Ridley pulled both Yolia and Leo behind him.

He glanced back at me, his eyes as cold as a stranger's.

His command was chillingly simple. "Christine, hold them off."

Then, I watched my mate retreat, holding another woman and leading our son away.

"Wait! Ridley!" I tried to follow.

"Christine, hold the line!" he ordered without looking back. "It's your duty as Luna!"

My duty as Luna?

I've been chained by that damned duty for years!

In all my years mated to Ridley, I gave him everything, even tolerating his blatant favoritism for Yolia.

But now? It was going to get me killed.

I wanted to fight back.

But it was too late.

The Red Fangs surrounded me.

"Well, look what we have here. A lone she-wolf," the enemy Beta licked his lips. "And the Black Moon pack's Luna, no less."

Silver shackles clamped around my wrists. A searing burn shot through my body.

I tried to shift, but the silver suppressed my wolf.

"Ridley!" I called to him through our mind-link.

Only silence answered.

He’d severed our mind-link.

The Red Fang Alpha loomed over me, a cruel smirk on his face as he drew a silver dagger. "Let's hear you scream, Luna."

"Tell me where the sacred relic is, and I'll make your death quick."

The blade slid across my arm.

Agony flared, so intense it threatened to drag me into unconsciousness as the silver seared my flesh.

"I don't know," I gritted out.

"Is that so?" He cut me again. "What about your mate, then? Why'd he leave you behind?"

Because in his heart, I wasn't worth a single strand of Yolia's hair.

"He'll be back for me," I choked out, the words tasting like ash in my mouth.

"Hahaha!" The enemy Alpha laughed. "Look at this pathetic creature! Still defending the man who abandoned her!"

Another cut.

This time, across my face.

Blood poured down.

Just as I thought I would die right there, a strange chant echoed through the forest.

All the Red Fang wolves froze.

Their eyes went blank, and one by one, they collapsed.

"Poor child," an old voice whispered in my ear.

I looked up to see an old woman in a black robe. Her eyes were an eerie purple.

"A witch?" I asked weakly.

"Indeed," she said, undoing my shackles. "Your destiny is far more special than you know, Christine Shadowmoon."

"I don't know you."

"But I know you." The witch reached out with a withered hand and touched my wounds. Miraculously, the pain vanished. "Ancient power flows through your veins. The blood of the Luna Prime."

The Luna Prime? That was the bloodline of the legendary first queen of the werewolves.

"Impossible," I shook my head. "I'm just an ordinary..."

"Ordinary?" The witch scoffed. "What ordinary she-wolf could survive this much silver exposure? What ordinary Luna could possibly radiate a scent so purely of the Moon Goddess herself?"

My heart skipped a beat.

I did feel something waking up inside me.

"However," the witch's tone shifted, "this power is sealed. There is only one way to unleash it."

"What way?"

The witch's gaze turned deep and strange. "I will grant you a taste of this power for three days. Within these three days, you must experience a true death in the presence of your fated mate, or the one you love most. A true death is the only path to rebirth."

I felt a powerful energy surge within me.

The power I had always craved.

And as for death?

I thought of Ridley's cold eyes, his tenderness for Yolia, the sight of him running away and leaving me behind.

Maybe death was the best choice after all.

"I understand," I said, getting to my feet. "Thank you."

The witch waved her hand, and the world around me twisted and warped.

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing on the cliff's edge at the border of the Black Moon territory.

Waves crashed against the rocks below with a deafening roar.

I took a deep breath and opened my mind-link.

"Ridley."

A few seconds later, his frantic voice came through. "Christine?! You escaped?"

"The cliffs," I said calmly. "Come say your goodbyes."

"What? Christine, what the hell are you talking about?"

I severed the link before he could say more and walked to the cliff's edge.

The sea wind whipped my hair around my face.

Moonlight spilled across the turbulent water, beautiful, like a path to another world.

I heard hurried footsteps behind me.

But when I turned, it wasn't Ridley.

It was Jaxon.

His face was white as a sheet, his eyes filled with terror.

"Christine! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

I took a step back, my heel hanging over the edge.

"Let me go," I said, looking calmly at Jaxon's pale face.

He lunged forward, grabbing my arm in a death grip.

"Don't you dare jump for that bastard. Are you out of your mind?!"