Cast Out
Pain. That was all Aria could register at first. Her body slammed against the damp forest floor as the guards hurled her past the boundary of the pack lands. The ground felt like stone beneath her, cold and brutal. The sharp sting of broken twigs pierced her skin, but it was nothing compared to the hollow ache in her chest. Rejection. The word echoed inside her, cruel and final. She groaned and rolled onto her side, the world spinning around her. Her throat was raw from screaming. Her hands were scraped and bloodied. Her limbs felt like they didn’t belong to her anymore. Still, she dragged herself to the base of a massive pine tree and slumped against it, gasping. The guards didn’t look back. She heard their footsteps fade into the shadows like they couldn’t get away from her fast enough. She was no longer part of their world. She was something less than rogue. Something not worth protecting. Tears stung her eyes, but she blinked them back. She refused to break. Not here. Not like this. She wrapped her arms around her knees, trying to breathe through the tightness in her chest. Everything was quiet too quiet. The night air held no comfort, only tension. The trees around her felt like silent sentinels, watching. She wanted to scream. To fight. To beg. But what was the point? “I don’t belong here,” she whispered, her voice hoarse. “I don’t belong anywhere.” Her words vanished into the dark, unheard. Then came the heat. It started in her spine, like a pulse of molten fire. Aria froze, her breath catching. The warmth spread, slow but powerful, wrapping around her ribs, curling into her fingers and toes. Her skin tingled. Her heart skipped a beat. A vision flashed behind her eyes. Flames. Silver flames. A circle glowing with ancient light. And in the middle of it stood a woman tall, regal, with glowing eyes like the moon. Her lips didn’t move, but Aria felt the words in her bones. Awaken. Her eyes snapped open. She was no longer just cold and hurt. She was burning from the inside out. “What’s happening to me?” she gasped, clutching her chest. Her fingertips glowed faintly, just like in the vision. Her heartbeat slowed, steadied. Her breathing calmed. The pain dulled. She pushed herself upright. The forest looked different now brighter, sharper. She could hear everything. The rustle of a fox in the brush. The flap of an owl’s wings. The far-off snarl of a rogue wolf. But instead of fear, she felt something else rise inside her. Power. Not borrowed. Not gifted. Hers. A rustle in the trees made her turn. Glowing yellow eyes blinked at her from the darkness. A rogue. It crept closer, low and feral. Aria didn’t run. She stood tall, her chin lifted, her fingers still faintly aglow. She didn’t understand what was happening yet. But she knew one thing for sure. She wasn’t weak. Not anymore.The Breaking PointThe gates of Eldara trembled.Not from enemy battering rams, nor the weight of bloodspawn, but from the magic now surging beneath its foundations wild, unleashed, and ancient.Above, the sky had split open.A storm churned where the heavens should be, and from the crack in the clouds, shadows poured like ink.Kael stood at the mouth of the crypt, still catching his breath, the remnants of the First Moonborn’s power wrapping his arms in glowing runes. Aria stood beside him her aura pulsing like a star, eyes lit silver, a wind that touched nothing howling around her.They were no longer just warrior and Alpha.They were something more.Something reborn.“Velkar’s gone,” Kael said, voice hoarse.“He’s not retreating,” Aria replied, gaze fixed on the sky. “He’s gathering.”Above them, the tear in the heavens widened.Sera and Garron reached them moments later, followed by a contingent of Eldara’s strongest warriors.“The seal’s gone,” Sera said grimly. “But it pa
Beneath the Bones The city stirred before the dawn. But the winds were wrong. It wasn’t just the howling cold of the coming storm it was deeper. A hum beneath the earth. A tremor that whispered beneath every cobblestone. It rattled doors. Frightened horses. Made even the strongest warriors glance uneasily at the ground. Aria felt it first, standing at the edge of the Moonwell. Something was shifting. Not in the air but in the bones of the world itself. She pressed her palm to the cold stone at her feet. It pulsed back. And the pulse wasn’t alive. It was… waking. --- Kael was already in the war hall when she arrived, her steps brisk, her expression set. “They’re coming,” he said, eyes still on the map. “I know,” she said. “But it’s not just Velkar. It’s the seal. It’s breaking.” Sera appeared beside them, cloak damp with frost. Her face was pale. “The Moon Circle confirms it. Old magic is leaking through the cracks. We estimate hours before a full breach.” “Can we stop
The Crown and the Fire The wind that swept through Eldara the next morning carried no warmth. Instead, it carried whispers of magic, of power, of the night before. The ancient Rite of Binding had not only tethered Kael and Aria’s souls in strength, it had ignited something far older, something the people could feel. The magic that had slumbered deep beneath the capital stirred now. And with it came the fear… and the hope. Everywhere Aria walked, eyes followed. But for the first time, they did not look at her with doubt. They looked at her with belief. With reverence. The Moonborn had claimed her place. --- Inside the armory, Kael stood over a table strewn with weapons new blades forged with lunar runes, arrows tipped with silver. Garron was shouting orders nearby, but Kael’s focus stayed fixed on the eastern map. A red marker sat too close to Eldara’s border. "They’ve moved faster than we expected," he muttered. He sensed her before she entered. Aria, dressed in new armor
Alliances in the DarkThe council chamber burned with tension.Around the great stone table, the surviving leaders of Eldara gathered weary, bloodstained, but unbroken. Sera, Garron, Eira, and the new envoys from the Border Packs sat at attention. Beyond the walls, the storm of war still howled but inside, the fate of their world was being forged.At the head of the table stood Kael. His voice was low, iron-hard.“We have one chance one. Velkar’s forces grow stronger with every fallen soul. The seal weakens with every battle. And if we do not stand united now there will be no kingdom left to rule.”Aria watched him, heart thudding.He no longer spoke as a cold king who ruled alone. He spoke as a leader standing beside his people and beside her. The change in him was real. But the war was not won yet.Across from Kael, the elder from the Eastern Clans Lord Vaelen rose.“We stand with you,” Vaelen said. “Not because we trust your Council. But because the girl” he nodded to Aria, “has
The Tides of TrustSnow fell thick and heavy as dawn broke over the war camp.Aria stood outside her tent, cloak pulled tight, breath misting in the cold air. Beyond the camp’s edge, the forest loomed dark unnaturally quiet.Too quiet.The wind stirred, carrying scents she could barely place. Old magic. Faint blood. Something more.They’re watching us, she thought.Behind her, Kael approached. She didn’t turn, but sensed him by the way her pulse shifted steady, alert.“We’ll move soon,” he said. His voice was lower in the cold, rougher. “Before Velkar gathers more.”Aria nodded. “The men are ready.”“They follow you,” Kael added quietly.At that, she finally glanced at him. His gaze was steady no trace of the cold Alpha King he’d once been. Only the warrior. The man who now stood at her side without demand or doubt.“They follow you too,” she replied softly.A faint smile tugged at his mouth. “They follow us.”For a heartbeat, something warm flickered between them.But before either c
March of the MoonbornThe horns of the Northern Keep rang out at first light.Low, deep, echoing through the frozen valley.The war-host had gathered.At the head of the column, Aria rode beneath the silver banner of the Moonborn. Her armor gleamed in the pale sun, her blade resting at her side. The crescent mark on her nape burned steady not with pain now, but with purpose.Kael rode beside her, dark cloak sweeping behind him. His presence at her side was no longer just a command it was a choice.A bond reforged in fire.Their eyes met briefly. No words were needed.Behind them, the wolves of the North gathered warriors from every clan, even rogues who had once fought against Kael’s rule. Now they stood as one.United not by council decree, but by her.Aria.The one who would not bend.The one who had called the Moonfire and survived.Word had spread through the ranks. A whisper at first, now a chant:Moonborn. Moonborn. Moonborn.Kael’s gaze swept the lines of warriors. “You’ve do