Chapter Four: Banished Before Dawn

 Akira's POV

“Keep moving.”

Rough muscular hands tightened around my arms, jerking me upright when my knees buckled.

“I am moving,” I replied weakly. “You don’t have to drag me like a criminal.”

“You stopped being one of us the moment the Alpha said so,” a guard replied.

I laughed weakly at his funny joke. “That's very funny. 

Yesterday you bowed when I passed.”

“That was yesterday, not today.”

Stone paths turned to dirt beneath my bare feet. And as we continued silently, Crimson Moon Clan slept peacefully, already forgetting my name.

“Where are you taking me to exactly?” I asked, though I already knew.

“Beyond the eastern markers, where you belong.”

Exile? Permanently exile?

I swallowed hard. “At least give me shoes, that would be much appreciated.”

Silence followed, as none of them showed me mercy. Another guard scoffed. “Shouldn't you have thought of that before failing the Moon.”

I twisted my head toward him, completely taken aback at his abuse. “Say that again.”

He leaned closer, breath warm with contempt. “You failed the whole pack. The Moon rejected you, same as Lucien, because of your weakness.”

Something hot flared in my chest. “The Moon didn’t reject me,” I said. “You did.”

His grip tightened painfully. “Be careful.”

“Why?” I asked hoarsely. “You’re already throwing me away. What do I care about anymore?”

Somewhere ahead of us, we saw torches flickering along the boundary path. The air began growing heavier, thick with the scent of ancient magic and severed bonds.

“Stop,” one of them said.

They released me abruptly, then I stumbled, catching myself on trembling legs.

“Beyond this point,” the first guard said, “you are no longer under Crimson Moon law.”

I lifted my chin. “I was never under your mercy.”

He hesitated, but it was just for a heartbeat.

“Go,” the second guard snapped. “Before we change our minds.”

I took one step forward slowly, the pain exploded behind my eyes, my body finally rebelling against my will. I gasped, clutching my side.

“You’re bleeding,” one guard muttered with sympathy. “Good,” the other said. “Let the wild finish what the Alpha started.”

I turned slowly. “Tell Lucien something for me.” They paused on their track. 

“Tell him,” I said, voice shaking but sharp, “that this isn’t over.”

One of them snorted, wondering what I was saying. “You won’t survive the night, there's no need making promises that you won't keep.”

“Neither will his conscience,” I replied.

They didn’t answer me, and with that, I crossed the border alone.

************

The forest wasted no time in swallowing me whole. Branches from different angles clawed at my skin, roots snagging my feet as I staggered blindly forward. Every breath burned more than the last breath. Every step felt borrowed, and heavy. 

“Moon,” I whispered, lifting my face toward the sliver of silver barely visible through the canopy. “Please.”

But nothing happened. “I know you can hear me,” I rasped. 

“You always have, and nothing has changed.”

The silence that followed was deafening. I laughed bitterly at my predicament. “So that’s it? You let them do this to me without showing up for me?”

Then, a memory surfaced...Lucien’s voice, warm and sure. The Moon chose you long before it chose me. 

That horrible liar. I tripped and fell hard this time, the impact knocking the breath from my lungs. But I lay there, staring at the dark sky, my chest heaving slowly with anger.

“I gave everything, my all for the pack,” I whispered. “I obeyed every commandment. I endured more than anyone. I waited patiently to awaken.”

Still nothing happened, and my sacrifices nothing. “If you won’t answer me,” I said, “then stop pretending you ever cared in the first place.”

I heard a noise nearby, making me to freeze. 

“Hello?” I called weakly. Footsteps approached gradually.

I scrambled backward, my hands completely soaked with my blood. “Stay back,” I warned, though my voice trembled from fear of the unknown.

A shadow emerged, and I recognized it as one of the guards. “You came to finish what you started, right?” I spat.

He stopped a few paces away, not saying anything for a few seconds. “They told us to leave you here. But…”

“But what?” I demanded in fury.

He shifted uncomfortably, and I could see the guilt in his eyes. “This is wrong.”

I laughed out hard. “You think so?”

“You were supposed to be Luna,” he said quietly. “I watched you calm a berserk warrior, not once but twice. Something no one had been able to do. You just laid your hand on him, not with force. Neither was it with dominance.”

My throat tightened on hearing my good deeds once again. “Then why didn’t you stop them?”

“Because I’m weak too,” he admitted truthfully. “And so are you right now.”

The words stung...more than intended, but not the way he wanted them.

“No,” I said softly. “I was restrained, I was never weak.”

He frowned in confusion. “What?”

“Get out of my sight,” I said, pushing myself to my feet. “Before you regret seeing me like this.”

He hesitated, then turned and disappeared back toward the pack. I exhaled shakily, my thoughts crowded again.

Hours gradually blurred into pain and darkness. I walked until my legs gave out, crawled until my hands bled out the lady drop of blood in me, dragged myself until even hatred ran thin.

“Not like this,” I murmured. “Not on my knees.”

Then, my vision began blurring. “I’m sorry,” I whispered into the void. “If I failed you.”

A strange calm settled over me all of a sudden, as images of Maelis’s smile, Lucien’s cold eyes, the pack bowing without hesitation all rushed into my head. 

“They think I was weak,” I murmured to no one. A laugh bubbled up, low and broken. “If only they knew.”

“I was never weak, never, and they knew it,” I said, the words grounding me as darkness crept in. “I was only buried.”

Then, my eyes slid shut, but one last thought cut through the haze. It was sharp, very dangerous, but yet alive.

If I survive this… they will regret teaching me how to endure.

Then everything went black.