Chapter One: The Moon's Mistake

(Zyandra's POV)

The night smelled like iron and smoke.

Every full moon did.

I stood in the clearing, watching the silver light slip between the trees, heavy and ancient. The pack surrounded me, silent and waiting. They wanted this done.

I didn’t.

The marking ceremony — the moment an Alpha met their destined Luna — was supposed to be sacred. Romantic, even. But I’d never believed in that kind of fate. Love chosen by the Moon Goddess wasn’t love; it was control dressed in prophecy.

Still, I stood there, head high, heart steady. If I refused, the Elders would say I’d doomed my lineage, broken the Goddess’s cycle. An Alpha must never be alone.

So I stayed.

“Begin,” Elder Myra said, her voice trembling with age and power.

The pack bowed their heads. The air thickened, thrumming like a heartbeat. I felt the Moon’s pull — faint, reluctant, like it was waiting for me to open a door I didn’t want to open.

I gritted my teeth. “Let’s get this over with.”

Myra began to chant. The fire blazed higher, its flames dancing white instead of orange. The earth itself seemed to breathe beneath my feet. The power came alive, swirling around me, cold and sharp as glass.

But then — something went wrong.

The magic hiccuped. The flames shuddered. The pull that was supposed to feel like destiny suddenly twisted, snapping in a direction it shouldn’t have. My breath hitched.

And then — I heard it.

A rustle.

A crunch of leaves.

Someone was here.

The pack turned instantly, eyes glowing gold, ready to tear apart whatever dared interrupt. But before they could move, a voice cut through the night — startled, confused, human.

“Whoa—uh, sorry! I didn’t mean to—whatever this is—”

A young man stumbled into the clearing with a small blinking controller in his hand. A beeping noise came from his backpack — steady, mechanical.

I froze.

He wasn’t one of us.

He looked between the fire, the circle of wolves, and me — wide-eyed, pale. “I’m just looking for my drone. It crashed somewhere around here, and the tracker led me to—uh…” His gaze flicked to the glowing symbols under my feet. “Yeah. Here.”

The pack growled in unison. Myra hissed. “A human? At a marking?”

I barely heard her. Because the moment his eyes met mine — the bond hit.

It slammed into me like a storm. My lungs seized, my vision spun, and the Moon’s power flooded through me, wild and uncontrollable. My knees nearly buckled under it.

No.

It couldn’t be. The Moon wouldn’t—

A human?

The young man took a step back, clearly thinking he’d stumbled into some kind of deranged bonfire cult. “Okay, this is… weird. I’ll just, uh—go.”

But he couldn’t. Neither could I. The bond had already recognized him. The magic pulsed between us, invisible but strong — a tether made of light and instinct.

“What’s happening?” he whispered, his voice shaking. “Why do I feel—” He pressed a hand to his chest. “It’s like something’s pulling—”

“Quiet,” I snapped, more to the Moon than him. My voice carried power, and the forest itself seemed to hush.

I could hear the pack murmuring behind me. “The Goddess has chosen,” someone breathed.

“The Alpha’s Luna is human.”

“Enough,” I growled. “He’s nothing. Just a boy who wandered too far.”

But that wasn’t true. The bond thrummed stronger, glowing faintly against my skin — a mark blooming across my collarbone like molten silver.

He saw it. “What… what is that?”

“Nothing you’ll live long enough to understand,” one of my Betas hissed.

The boy stumbled back. “I didn’t do anything! I swear—I was just tracking a stupid drone!”

His words twisted something in me. Fear. Desperation. He didn’t belong here — and I hadn’t wanted any of this.

I turned to the fire, my voice sharp. “End the ceremony.”

Myra’s eyes widened. “Alpha, we can’t. The Moon’s already claimed him.”

“I said end it!”

But the magic ignored me. The Moon had made its choice, and there was no unmaking it. The fire dimmed on its own, and the circle of wolves bowed their heads.

The ceremony was complete.

The boy blinked, confused, breathing hard. “Is this—some kind of joke?”

I stared at him, the mark still burning on my skin. “You shouldn’t have come here.”

He gave a shaky laugh. “Yeah, I’m starting to realize that.”

Silence fell, heavy and wrong. The wind whispered through the trees like a warning.

He glanced around, trying to smile. “So, I’ll just grab my drone and go, and we’ll forget this whole—”

“You can’t leave.”

His smile faded. “What?”

“The bond won’t let you.”

He looked at me like I was insane. “B-bond? What bond?”

He swallowed, backing up again. “Okay, I don’t know what kind of forest cosplay this is, but I’m leaving.”

He turned — but the moment he crossed the circle’s edge, he stumbled, gasping. The bond snapped tight like a leash, pulling him backward. He hit the ground, dazed.

“Still think it’s cosplay?” I said quietly.

He looked up at me — terrified now. “What are you people?”

“Monsters,” I said. “And now, apparently, so are you.”

He stared at me like I’d cursed him. Maybe I had.

I turned away, my voice low. “Take him to the guest quarters. He stays until I say otherwise.”

“Alpha—” Myra began, but I didn’t let her finish.

“The Moon made her mistake,” I said. “Let her live with it.”

The boy tried to stand, shaking, the tracker still beeping weakly in his hand. He looked at me like he wanted to ask something — but couldn’t.

I didn’t wait for him to speak. I walked away, the bond tugging softly at my chest like a crue

l reminder.

I hadn’t wanted a Luna.

I especially hadn’t wanted a human one.

But fate, apparently, didn’t care what I wanted.