~~~5. The Man Behind The Mask.

Moonless woke up sore in places he didn’t have names for. Every muscle ached. Even the parts of him he never had to think about before now made themselves known with a dull, insistent throb.

He lay still for a moment, blinking up at the canopy of leaves, letting the previous night settle back into memory in pieces.

Beside him, Brayden slept on his left side, facing away as his chest rose and fell evenly.

Moonless eased himself up, wincing, and crawled toward the stream a few feet away.

The water was cold enough to make him gasp, but he needed it to feel clean, or at least less like something had been taken from him without his say.

Then his gaze caught some marks along his collarbone and throat.

Hickeys.

Relief and shame tangled together in his chest. He had given away something he could never get back, to a stranger he would never see again after this morning. But at least, it was better than where he had escaped from.

‘He is the Alpha King. Ask him for money,’ he told himself. ‘Get out of this pack. Never look back.’

A rustle came from behind.

Brayden was stirring.

Moonless scrambled for his torn clothes, yanking them on with shaking hands, putting distance between himself and the water’s edge before Brayden’s eyes opened.

Brayden sat up slowly, one hand pressed to his temple. He groaned.

“Are you—” Moonless started, reaching toward him on instinct.

“Don’t.” Brayden’s hand shot up, stopping him. He rose to his feet, swaying slightly, and gave Moonless a look that was equal parts confusion and something harder underneath. “Give me a moment.”

Moonless dropped his hand and said nothing.

Brayden exhaled, steadying himself against the tree. “I’m sorry. For last night. That was— I wasn’t myself, and you didn’t deserve to be caught in it.” He straightened, meeting Moonless’ eyes properly for the first time since waking. “But… I can make it right.”

Moonless opened his mouth to answer.

And that was when Brayden dragged a hand through his hair, the motion pulling his open shirt further off his left shoulder, baring more of his chest to the pale morning light.

Moonless’ eyes caught on it before he could stop them. Every word died in his throat.

A tattoo, small and dark, inked just above his heart—a crescent moon split clean through the middle, one half smooth, the other jagged like something had been torn rather than cut, the two halves bound together by a thin circling line, like a wound stitched shut and called whole.

The same tattoo he had seen on the chest of the man who had called him “my favorite experiment.”

Moonless staggered back a full step, his breath catching.

“What’s wrong?” Brayden frowned, stepping toward him.

“Stay away from me.” Moonless kept backing away, putting a tree between them. His mind raced, stitching together every rumor he had ever half-believed.

The Alpha King who had never taken a mate, not once, in his four years on the throne. The whispered theories that always followed him that something was wrong with him, that no omega had ever been enough.

Moonless had dismissed those rumors as nothing more than gossip.

What if they had never been rumors at all? What if the real reason was that the Alpha King had spent years hiding behind an iron mask in an underground breeding facility, testing omegas like livestock instead of ever choosing one?

“You—” Moonless’ voice cracked. “You’re him.”

Brayden’s frown deepened. “What? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Who did you say I am?”

“Don’t lie to me!” Moonless’ back hit another tree. His legs wanted to run, but his body had nothing left to give. “You’re the one—”

“I have no idea what you’re accusing me of.” Brayden’s voice hardened, his patience thinning. “But you’re clearly not well, and you’re not making sense. Come with me to the palace. We’ll sort this out properly, and if what you’re saying is true, I’ll investigate it myself.”

“No.” Moonless shook his head. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

“That wasn’t a request.”

“I said no!”

Brayden’s eyes raked over Moonless: the panic, the erratic movement, the accusations that came from nowhere he could trace.

*I don’t think he’s lying.* Grey spoke for the first time. *But something feels off. We can only know when we bring him along with us.*

Brayden opened the mind link between him and Grey so Moonless wouldn’t hear what he was discussing with his wolf.

“For now, he is an Omega with no name. And he’s hurling wild claims the moment we woke up from a one-night stand. It doesn’t add up cleanly.”

*Those wanting the throne destabilized could easily plant a stranger.*

“Exactly at the period my rut is uncontrollable.” He smirked. “He’ll come with us to get to the bottom of this.”

“You need to come with me,” Brayden said again to Moonless, his voice firmer. “For your own safety, if nothing else.”

“You monster!” Moonless breathed shakily before he turned and started running.

*We need to stop him, Brayden.* Grey said.

Almost immediately, a sharp whistle cut through the trees.

Brayden’s instincts screamed a half-second before his mind caught up. An arrow, hurtling from the treeline, aimed directly at the fleeing omega.

*They’ve come to silence him,* Grey whispered and cold horror flooded through Brayden. *Whoever sent him here is cleaning up the evidence.*

“Look out—!” Brayden screamed, skidding over to Moonless’ side.

Too late.

Moonless felt a searing pain tearing through his shoulder, his balance gone in an instant. He staggered sideways, his feet slipping on loose earth at the cliff’s edge.

The ground cracked beneath him.

Brayden lunged with his hand outstretched. “Wait—!”

Their fingers never met.

The earth gave way, and Moonless dropped into the ravine below, swallowed by the roar of the river.

Brayden stood frozen at the edge, staring down into the dark, the accusation still ringing in his ears.

“You’re him.”

Brayden’s guards found him a few minutes later, breathless, asking for answers he didn’t have. He gave the only order that mattered.

“Search the river. Every mile of it, if you have to. I want him found.”