The Moonlit Arena

The fire still smoldered in the clearing where the rogues had fallen. The pack was silent now, scattered in a rough circle, their bodies steaming from the shift back to skin, their eyes fixed on Kade. But when he looked at them, his hand still pressed against Lena’s shoulder, they didn’t see only him anymore.

They saw them.

Lena could feel it—the change. No whispers of doubt, no sidelong glances. Every eye burned with recognition. Her wolf basked in it, prowling just beneath her skin, her heartbeat a rhythm that pulsed in sync with Kade’s.

“Tonight was not the war,” Kade said, voice low but carrying through the trees. “It was a warning. Cassian’s hounds wanted us to bend. We did not. We never will.” His golden eyes gleamed as he swept his gaze across the pack. “The challenge will come at moonrise. On our soil. Before our dead and our living. And when it does, there will be no doubt in his mind, or in any of yours…”

He pulled Lena forward. Her breath caught as dozens of eyes locked on her.

“…that Blackwood runs with two alphas now.”

The pack roared. Howls shook the trees, rising, echoing across the borderlands where Cassian’s ears would hear them. Lena’s chest ached with the sheer force of it. Her throat ached to join, and when her head tilted back, the sound that left her lips wasn’t tentative anymore. It was strong, wild, a sound that belonged to the forest and the moon.

Kade’s lips curved faintly, proud, fierce.

The night throbbed with that unity, but beneath it Lena felt something else: the ticking of time. The moon sliding toward zenith. The battle approaching like a storm no one could stop.

Later, when the fire had died and the pack dispersed, Lena followed Kade back to the hollow. She was still trembling—not with fear, but with the intensity of what she had become.

Kade stopped her in the threshold. “You fought like you were born to it.”

Lena met his gaze. “And Cassian?”

His jaw clenched. “He won’t come as a man. He’ll come as what he truly is. A wolf sharpened on cruelty. He’ll want blood. Mine. Yours. Both.”

Lena swallowed, the weight of prophecy pressing against her ribs. “Then we give him neither.”

His hand cupped the back of her neck, drawing her closer. His forehead pressed to hers, hot, grounding, unshakable. “That’s my mate.”

The bond thrummed like a vow sealed in bone. And when the moon climbed, there would be no more waiting.

The challenge had come.

The pack gathered at the edge of the burial grounds. Torches burned low, throwing their firelight across stone markers and bare earth. Above them the moon hung full, vast, pale, a silent witness to what was about to unfold.

Lena stood at Kade’s side. Her skin prickled, her wolf pacing within. Every instinct screamed that tonight would split something open—that after this battle, nothing would ever be the same.

Cassian came with his wolves at his back. They moved like a tide spilling across the earth, lean and merciless, their eyes already locked on prey. Cassian himself stepped forward, tall, scarred, his presence like poison in the air.

“Kade,” he called, his voice deep, resonant, filled with mockery. “Still hiding behind graves and oaths? Or will you finally fight like the wolf you claim to be?”

Kade’s growl vibrated through the ground. “You want this land, Cassian? You want my blood?” He bared his teeth, every word a blade. “Then step into the moon’s arena and take it.”

Cassian’s smile was sharp as a knife. “Gladly.”

The pack drew back, forming a wide circle—Blackwood on one side, rogues on the other. The air grew taut, so heavy with anticipation that Lena could barely breathe.

Kade stripped off his shirt, muscles gleaming beneath the silver wash of moonlight. His eyes burned gold, his wolf already pressing against his skin. He turned his head slightly, just enough for Lena to hear the rasp of his voice.

“Stay out of the circle, Lena. No matter what happens. Do you hear me?”

Her chest constricted. “Kade—”

“Promise me.”

The weight of command in his tone was crushing. She could only nod. But her wolf snarled at the order, refusing silence.

Cassian stepped into the circle, his body rippling, bones snapping, fur exploding across his skin. His wolf was monstrous—larger, darker, eyes like red coals. The rogues howled in unison, a sound that twisted the night.

Kade followed, his shift clean, seamless, a golden beast emerging where the man had stood. The power that rolled off him made the earth itself feel alive.

And then, without signal, without warning, the fight began.