The Moon’s Chosen

The howl lingered long after it faded, a jagged echo carved into the marrow of the night. It slithered through the pines, scraped across the bones of the forest, and settled in the lungs of every Blackwood wolf like a sickness.

Cassian’s call.

A summons. A challenge. A promise of blood.

The pack stiffened around Lena, their shoulders squared, eyes reflecting firelight. Some snarled in defiance, others trembled with the primal pull of it, but every throat was tight with rage.

Kade’s growl cut through them all. Deep. Unyielding. The sound of stone splitting beneath pressure.

“Enough.” His voice cracked like thunder, and the silence that followed was a silence of obedience, of respect. His golden eyes burned in the half-light as he stepped forward, lifting his chin toward the stars. “You hear him. You feel his hunger. But let him howl all he wants. The moon will not favor him. Not here. Not on Blackwood soil.”

The pack erupted, their voices tangling with his, defiance rising like a storm. They howled, not in answer to Cassian, but in rejection of him. The sound rolled through the trees, filling Lena’s chest until she swore her ribs would burst.

Her wolf surged, clawing at her skin, whispering to join in. To throw back her head and bare her throat to the sky. To claim her place.

Her lips parted, but the sound caught in her throat. Human hesitation clashed with wolf instinct, and she bit down on it until her jaw ached.

Kade’s gaze cut through the throng, straight to her. For a moment, the world fell away. His eyes held her like a tether, burning, binding, pulling her into something deeper than sound.

Then he turned, raising his arm. “Prepare the circle.”

The order rippled outward like a commandment. Wolves shifted, moving with practiced unity. Torches sparked to life, one after another, lining the clearing. The flames licked higher, casting shadows that seemed to move with their own hunger. Stones were dragged, etched with ancient sigils, forming the boundary of the sacred ground. The air thickened, heavy with history, with law older than any mortal crown.

Lena stood frozen, watching as Blackwood readied itself for war not with swords or guns, but with fire, blood, and the weight of their ancestors.

Her wolf pressed against her ribs, restless, keening. Ours. Ours. Ours.

“Lena.”

Kade’s voice was suddenly close, pulling her back. She blinked and found him at her side, his presence so solid, so consuming, it made the torches flicker as if the fire itself bent toward him.

He reached for her chin, tilting her face up until she could do nothing but drown in his stare. “Do you feel it?”

Her throat tightened. “The fear?”

His lips curved—not a smile, but something darker. “The bond.”

Heat shot through her veins. She wanted to deny it, to shove him back, to call it a trick of adrenaline—but the truth roared in her blood louder than any denial. The bond was real. Alive.

“You’re part of this now,” Kade murmured, voice low enough for only her to hear. “Cassian knows it. That’s why he taunted you with his howl. He’ll come for me, but he’ll try to break you too. He’ll dig into your fear, into your human skin. He’ll try to make you doubt.” His thumb brushed her jaw, rough and searing. “Don’t let him.”

“I—” She swallowed hard. “What if he’s right? What if I’m not strong enough?”

Kade leaned closer, until his breath scorched her ear. “Then hear me now, Lena. That vision you saw? That fate? It is not ours. Cassian thinks fear will break us. He’s forgotten one thing.” His lips grazed her skin, sending shivers racing down her spine. “I don’t fight alone anymore. I have you. And the wolf within you is far stronger than you realize.”

Her chest heaved. The wolf inside her surged, pressing harder against the cage of her humanity, aching to answer him.

She almost said it aloud. Almost told him she felt it too—the power, the pull, the way her veins throbbed with something no human heart should carry. But the words tangled with fear and died on her tongue.

A drumbeat shook the air.

She turned, startled. Wolves had gathered in a circle, their bodies half-shifted, fur and skin mingling beneath the torchlight. In the center, two elders knelt by the earth, painting sigils in ash and blood. The ground itself seemed to vibrate with each stroke.

Kade’s hand slid from her chin, his jaw tightening. “The laws are invoked. There’s no turning back now.”

The pack began to chant, voices rising and falling in cadence with the drum. Ancient words Lena didn’t recognize but felt deep in her bones. Words that tasted of iron and smoke, of storms and death.

Her pulse thundered. The wolf in her belly pressed harder, desperate to answer.

Cassian’s howl had been a promise.

And the moon, swollen and merciless above them, was listening.

The chanting bled into the night until it became indistinguishable from the pulse of the earth itself. Each word struck Lena’s chest like a hammer, rattling her bones, stirring the restless beast clawing beneath her skin.

Kade moved to the center of the circle. The torchlight gilded his bare chest, the scars etched across it, the corded muscles beneath his skin. His shadow stretched long and commanding, the kind of shadow that swallowed every other in its path.

The elders’ voices rose, calling the ancient law into being. A duel of Alphas. Not merely combat, but a binding rite. The victor would command not just flesh, but the loyalty of every wolf bound to the land.

The air grew colder. The torches guttered.

Then the forest split with a howl so vicious it peeled bark from trees.

Cassian.

The sound came closer, crashing through the timber, cracking branches like kindling. Wolves bristled along the circle’s edge, lips curled, throats vibrating with barely restrained fury.

And then he emerged.

Cassian Wilder.

He stepped into the torchlight with the swagger of a king who believed the crown already his. His frame was tall, broad, cloaked in a wolfskin blackened at the edges. His hair was silver at the temples, catching the firelight, but his eyes—those feral, icy eyes—were shards of winter.

The crowd snarled.

Cassian didn’t so much as flinch. His gaze swept over them with contempt, as though they were ants gnashing at the boots of a predator. Then his eyes landed on Lena.

And stayed there.

Her wolf roared inside her, not in fear, but in violent rejection. Her skin prickled, breath catching, as if something primal deep within recognized him not as a rival, but as a threat to mate, to bond, to us.

A smirk tugged at Cassian’s mouth. He tilted his chin, inhaling deeply, nostrils flaring.

“Well, well.” His voice was velvet stretched over steel. “So the rumors are true. The great Alpha Kade Wilder… has tainted his bloodline with a human.”

The pack erupted, snarls and howls breaking the circle until Kade raised his hand and silence dropped like a blade.

“Choose your words carefully,” Kade growled, his voice low, deadly. “This circle is sacred.”

Cassian’s laugh cut the air, sharp and cold. “Sacred? It’s a pit. A grave waiting to be filled. And tonight, brother, it will be yours.”

He stepped forward, bare feet crunching against the sigil-painted earth. The air between them tightened, crackling with so much tension Lena could scarcely breathe.

Kade didn’t move. He stood tall, golden eyes locked on Cassian, shoulders squared in the kind of stillness that screamed of violence barely leashed.

Cassian tilted his head, his gaze sliding back to Lena. “She’s marked. I can smell it from here.” His lips curled in a cruel smile. “Do you know what that means, little human? When your Alpha falls, you’re mine by right. His bite becomes my bite. His bond, my bond.”

Lena’s chest seized. Rage ripped through her, so sudden and raw it nearly doubled her over. Her wolf howled, clawing to tear itself free, to shred him for daring to say such words.

Kade’s growl tore through the clearing, so loud it shook the torches. “You will never touch her.”

Cassian bared his teeth, delighted by the fury he provoked. “We’ll see.”

The elders raised their hands. The chanting ceased. The world seemed to hold its breath.

“By moon and by blood, the law is set,” the eldest intoned. His voice cracked with age, but the power in it made Lena’s skin ripple. “The circle is sealed. Only one Alpha leaves it standing.”

The torches flared, fire snapping higher, as if the flames themselves understood the gravity of what was about to unfold.

Kade’s gaze never left Cassian. His chest rose, fell. Then he glanced at Lena—just for a heartbeat. Enough for her to see the promise burning there.

Mine.

Then the elders spoke the final word.

“Begin.”

The air shattered.

Cassian moved first, faster than a man his size should be capable of. His body blurred, half-shifting mid-stride, claws erupting from his hands, teeth flashing like ivory blades.

Kade didn’t flinch. He met him head-on, a beast unleashed, golden eyes blazing. His own shift rippled through his skin, bones cracking, fur spilling like ink across muscle. In the space of a heartbeat, two Alphas collided, wolf against wolf, power against power.

The ground quaked.

The pack howled.

And Lena—her wolf screaming in her blood—clutched her chest, gasping, as the bond burned hotter than fire.

The moon had chosen.

But the night had only just begun.