Chapter #5 Little Cabin of Chaos

Emara Dell POV

The Next Morning

I woke up to the smell of something heavenly.

A sizzle. A crackle. A muttered curse that sounded like Rowan burning himself.

I groaned and rubbed my eyes, stretching under the thick blankets. Everything hurt in a deep, sore, satisfying way. The kind of pain that said I had died, resurrected, walked across half a mountain, and used magic for the first time.

“Rise and shine, my resurrected queen!” Rowan announced.

I blinked at him.

He was holding a pan of scrambled eggs like he was presenting treasure to a monarch. Berries were piled in a wooden bowl next to him, and he was wearing an apron made of…a torn blanket?

“What are you wearing?” I said.

“We don’t shame domestic couture in this household,” he sniffed.

I laughed and sat up. “You look ridiculous.”

“You’re welcome.”

We took our plates outside to the tiny porch we’d fixed yesterday. Morning sunlight broke through the trees, reflecting off the silver protection wards humming around the cabin.

The eggs were delicious. Rowan looked incredibly proud.

Halfway through my first bite, a deep voice rolled through my mind like a purr wrapped in thunder.

“Good. Eat. You need strength.”

The fork slipped from my hand.

“Rowan.”

He froze mid chew. “Do not tell me a bear is behind me. I swear to the goddess....”

“I heard a voice.”

He stared. “Like…Nyra voice?”

“No. A woman. An ancient…wolf voice.” I swallowed hard. “She sounded like…she was inside me.”

Rowan’s eyes widened. “Emara....your wolf.”

“My…wolf?”

My heart thudded, a deep pulse that shook my ribs.

“I am Morana,” the voice said softly. “Your shadow. Your strength. Your wolf reborn.”

“Morana,” I whispered.

Rowan’s grin exploded across his face. “Oh my gods, you have a wolf! A scary ancient one! Bitch, this is incredible!”

“He is loud,” Morana remarked dryly.

A snort burst from me. Rowan looked offended.

“Tell your wolf I am a delight.”

“He is…amusing,” Morana conceded.

“HA!”

I covered my face as Rowan did a little victorious cheer-dance on the porch.

But Morana’s tone shifted, deepening with an authority that thrummed through my bones.

“Little one, we must become strong. Your body is blessed. Powerful. But it must be conditioned. Forged. Sharpened like blade and shadow.”

A shiver ran down my spine.

“…she wants me to train,” I whispered.

Rowan slammed his plate down. “Say no more. I volunteer as tribute.”

“You?” I raised a brow. “You used to get winded walking up the packhouse stairs.”

He placed a dramatic hand over his chest. “I have ascended. I am a Silver Wolf now. Please respect my new era.”

Morana chuckled. Actually chuckled.

“Fine,” I said, smiling despite myself. “Train me.”

__________________________

Training Day

We cleared the meadow beside the cabin. Sunlight streamed through the pines as Rowan paced in front of me like a drill sergeant from a fantasy gym commercial.

“Rule one,” he declared, “you are not allowed to call yourself weak ever again.”

“Okay.”

“Rule two, if you apologize for breathing, I’m biting you.”

“Fair.”

“Rule three....Emara, focus!”

“I AM focusing!”

“You are staring at moss.”

“It’s pretty!”

“MORANA, HELP.”

Morana sighed inside my mind like Rowan was exhausting her too.

“Center your shadows, little one.”

I exhaled and lifted my hand. Shadowfire curled around my fingers, warm and alive, like moonlit smoke.

Rowan’s eyes lit up. “There she is. My badass demon shadow luna queen.”

We trained for hours.

Rowan ran me through basic combat stances. Morana guided my breathing from inside. Shadowfire responded like a loyal animal, shaping shields, forming lashes of silver, even lifting a rock twice my size.

I felt strong. I felt capable. I felt… damn good. Power didn’t feel scary anymore. It felt like mine. It felt like I deserved it.

We paused only once when Rowan flopped dramatically into the snow.

“I am dead. Buried me here. Tell my future mate I was hot.”

“You are insufferable,” I said.

“And yet you love me.”

I grinned. “I do.”

We kept training until the sun dipped low and our breaths formed soft puffs of frost in the air.

That strange bond inside me, the heartbeat I didn’t recognize, kept pulsing slowly and steadily, and it was getting closer. Like something ancient was walking across the world toward me.

Rowan noticed the way I touched my chest.

“You feel him again?”

“Yes…”

“What’s it like?”

I chewed my lip. “Hungry. Possessive. Dark. But warm too. Like…a voice that hasn’t spoken yet but already knows my name.”

Rowan shivered. “Sounds like a stalker, but sexy.”

I laughed. “I’m not scared.”

“You shouldn’t be. You’re the Shadow Luna now. Destiny bows to you.”

The bond pulsed again. Closer this time. Morana stirred.

“He comes,” she whispered, almost reverent. “He who was promised. He who burned for us once. He will burn the world to protect us now.”

My breath hitched.

“Do I know him?” I asked.

“Not yet.” A deep, ancient hum. “But he has known you across lifetimes.”

I shivered. Rowan linked our arms. “Whoever he is, I’ll vet him. If he makes you cry, I’m burning his house down.”

We walked back to the cabin together, the snow crunching softly beneath our feet. The world felt calmer. Safer. And still humming with destiny.

Whoever he was, he was coming for me.

And for the first time in my life…..I wanted to be seen.

Really, truly seen.

_____________________________

Alpha Corvin Draxen POV

Dawn at the Stocks

The cold hit me first. It was sharp, bitter, and wrong.

I strode into the courtyard expecting to see her head bowed in the stocks, shivering, and humiliated, exactly where I’d ordered her to be.

Instead… they were empty. Open. Frost-coated. Silent. A chill crawled down my spine. I stepped closer and the scent hit me.

Blood. Fear. And the Veegas. My wolf, Grey, slammed against my ribs so violently I staggered.

“You fool,” he snarled inside me. “You let them touch our mate.”

I gritted my teeth. “She is not our..”

But the denial tasted like iron. The bond had been real. Brutal. Immediate. And I had spit on it. I forced myself to breathe, swallowing down the panic clawing up my throat.

“Track her,” I ordered the nearest patrol. “Now. I want her body recovered before the sun is fully risen.”

Body. The word scraped something raw inside me. Grey paced with fury.

“We felt her life fading,” he growled. “They killed her. Our mate. Our Luna.”

My chest tightened until breathing hurt. I turned sharply and strode directly to the packhouse, my boots slamming the stone. Wolves scrambled out of my way. Everyone knew the look on my face.

Death. Alpha wrath. Guilt I refused to name.

Lyrina stood near the hearth, her blonde hair perfectly braided, wearing a smug smile that curdled my stomach.

“Corvin,” she purred, “is something wrong?”

Grey lunged inside me. “She did it. She enjoyed it.”

I stepped closer until I towered over her. She faltered, just slightly. Her eyes flicked sideways, toward her father.

I could smell it. Her guilt, shame, and panic. It was written all over her pretty features.

“You took her from the stocks last night,” I said quietly.

Her throat bobbed. “I...I don’t know what you...”

“Tell him, Lyrina,” Beta Veega snapped, attempting cold authority, but the tremor in his voice betrayed him.

My vision blurred red. Grey roared. “Murderers.”

“You were to discipline her,” I said, my voice shaking with restraint. “Not butcher her in the woods like an animal.”

“She humiliated you!” Lyrina cried. “She wasn’t fit to breathe the same air as you...”

“You,” I hissed, “took my mate.”

The room froze. Lyrina’s face cracked into something ugly. “No. No, she wasn’t...she couldn’t be...”

“She was,” I growled.

Her breath hitched. Beta Veega took a step forward. “Alpha, with respect...”

“Do not speak,” I snapped, unleashing enough alpha command to make him stagger. “You both crossed a line.”

Lyrina looked like her world was collapsing.

“Corvin...”

“You will never be Luna.”

She went absolutely still.

“No, you can’t do that! Corvin, I...!”

“Get out of my keep.” My voice was ice. “Both of you.”

Beta Veega bristled. “You can’t strip me of...”

“I can,” I said coldly, “and I just did. Remove your Beta insignia. Now.”

He hesitated. I stepped forward, releasing a surge of dominance that slammed him to his knees. He ripped the silver badge from his chest with shaking fingers.

I turned on Lyrina. “You’re lucky to be alive.”

She flinched like I’d struck her.

“Leave,” I said. “Before I decide otherwise.”

They fled. The door slammed behind them. Grey curled inside me, wounded and seething.

“You failed her,” he said softly.

I swallowed hard. “I know.”

Footsteps approached behind me.

A scout bowed low. “Alpha… we found it.”

“…her body?”

The scout hesitated.

“No, Alpha. There’s blood. A lot of it. Signs of… of a death struggle. But there’s no corpse. No tracks. No scent past a certain point. It’s like she… vanished.”

A hollow ache opened in my chest. Vanished. Grey lifted his head.

“Our mate is gone,” he whispered.

I dismissed the scout and stood there in the empty hallway, my breathing uneven, my chest tight, and the enormity of what I’d lost came crashing over me.

My mate was gone. Because of my cruelty. Because of my cowardice. Because I let the worst parts of me speak in the moment she needed the best.

I sank to my knees. Grey howled inside me.

And for the first time ever......I let myself grieve.