1_THE MOONBRAND LUNA

CHAPTER 1;THE MOONBRAND LUNA

I had spent twenty-six years trying not to be a burden. Keeping my head down, doing what I was told, avoiding the kind of attention that led to consequences. In our pack, girls like me didn’t get seen—we served, we obeyed, we endured.

I cooked for the elders. I stitched up the warriors’ clothes. I taught the younger pups to read. I smiled, nodded, lowered my gaze. I blended in so well they almost forgot I existed.

But when Alpha Thorne died, and the pack began looking for a new Luna, something strange happened.

The Seer chose me.

Not the warrior’s daughter. Not the silver-haired beauty everyone adored. Not the Beta’s ambitious niece.

Me.

“Mira,” the Seer had said, her voice firm and eyes cloudy with power, “You will carry the mark. You are the one.”

At first, I thought it was a cruel joke. So did everyone else.

“That girl?” someone had laughed. “She flinches when someone raises their voice. She can’t even shift properly.”

And it was true. My wolf was small, underfed, sluggish. Some said she was broken. Others said she was hiding.

“Maybe the Seer’s power is fading,” my cousin whispered that night as we gathered for the choosing ceremony. “Because if Mira becomes Luna, we’re doomed.”

The next morning, I stood before the council, waiting for them to announce the new Luna. My palms were sweating. My legs trembled.

Alpha Rael stood in front of the gathered wolves, tall and broad and terrifying. He didn’t look at me when he spoke.

“We honor the Seer’s vision,” he said, voice like thunder. “But the Luna must be strong. Brave and Worthy.”

Then he turned to the crowd. “So we offer Mira one chance to prove herself. Survive the Shifted Trial. Come back alive. Only then will she take the mark.”

The Shifted Trial.

No one came back from it. Not alone. Not unmarked.

They called it tradition. I called it punishment,But I didn’t argue. I just nodded.

That night, I packed nothing.

They took me at dawn.

Dumped me in the dead woods, where the wild rogue wolves lived—feral, cursed, untethered from the Moon.

“This is mercy,” one of the guards muttered before disappearing. “Better than letting the pack tear you apart.”

At first, I didn’t cry. I just walked. And walked.

I lasted a day on berries and rainwater. Then I stopped walking.

Then the moon rose, And something inside me… snapped.

My shift was brutal. Bones cracked, tendons tore, my throat bleed from screaming. My wolf didn’t purr or ease into form—she ripped her way out.

And when I opened my eyes again, everything was different.

I smelled everything—fear, rot, blood, lies, And I wasn’t afraid anymore.

I wasn’t silent anymore. I wasn’t broken. For the first time, I wasn’t small.

I was something else,And when I howled, the forest trembled.

I don’t remember what I did next.

Only that when the guards came for my body days later, they find me waiting.

I was Alive and Standing firm. I was Staring at them with glowing gold eyes.

I was Naked, Bleeding and Whole.

And behind me… the corpses of three rogue wolves.

I returned to the pack in silence. My Head high. Shoulders back.

Alpha Rael met my gaze for the first time.

And he didn’t speak.

He just stepped aside. He Let me pass.

Later that night, the council carved the Luna’s mark into my shoulder, And I didn’t flinch.

Because something inside me was wide awake now. And she was hungry.

As the moon dagger carved into my shoulder, marking the crescent of the Luna, I didn’t cry out.

The pain was sharp, hot, and alive—but I welcomed it. It made me real again.

The council watched in stunned silence. Even the Elders seemed unsure whether to be proud or afraid.

No one expected me to return, let alone survive the Trial and bring back three rogue heads.

I had gone into the forest as a servant. I returned as Luna.

But just as the last stroke of the mark was etched, something strange happened.

The blade sparked against my skin.

Not just blood but a glimmering Light.

A faint, silvery glow burst from the wound—so brief it might’ve been imagined. The Seer’s eyes widened. Gasps echoed around the chamber.

One of the Elders dropped to his knees.

“She bears the Moonbrand,” he whispered.

“Moonbrand.” The word rippled through the room like thunder.

Alpha Rael’s eyes narrowed. “That’s impossible.”

“No one’s carried the Moonbrand since the War of the Blood Moons,” the Seer said, her voice shaking now. “Not in centuries.”

I looked down at the wound.

The blood was still wet. But it shimmered—silver, not red.

Suddenly, I felt dizzy. The room swayed.

And then I heard it—a voice, not my own, whispering inside me:

“You are not theirs.”

“You were never meant to serve.”

“You were hidden for a reason.”

The council didn’t notice the way I swayed, the way I clutched my chest. But the Seer did.

She rushed to my side, grabbing my wrist. Her eyes rolled back, her body going stiff.

A second later, she dropped my hand like it burned her.

She stumbled back, pale and trembling. “Someone cloaked her—someone powerful. She’s been bound since birth. Hidden from all of us.”

The room erupted.

Alpha Rael stepped forward, towering over me. “Who are you?” he growled.

But I didn’t answer. Because in that moment, my wolf surfaced again—and she was furious.

A growl tore from my throat—low, wild, and ancient.

Not just a wolf’s. Something older.

And for the first time, I saw fear in the Alpha’s eyes.

But the twist wasn’t done. Because from the back of the chamber, a woman stepped forward.

She is Slim, Beautiful and Dressed in moon-silk.

Nelly.

My aunt.

The one who disappeared twenty years ago.

She smiled at me. It was Cold and strange.

“I warned them not to suppress you,” she said, voice smooth as velvet. “But your mother chose loyalty over blood. She sealed your birthright… to protect the pack from you.”

The council shouted. Alpha Rael barked for her to be restrained. Warriors moved toward her.

She didn’t flinch.

She turned to me instead.

“You’re not just Luna, Mira,” she said.

“You’re the last of the Moonborn.”

And then she vanished—right before their eyes.

She Vanished like smoke. And I stood there, blood glowing on my shoulder, everyone staring.

Because now they weren’t just afraid of me.

They needed me.

Or they feared what I’d become if they didn’t.