Chapter #8 Return of The Shadow Luna

Emara Dell POV

Back to BloodFang

When we walked from the cabin, Corvin took the lead, and we followed, Shadow Luna, Silver Wolf, and Bone Wolf walking in perfect silence.

By the time we reached BloodFang territory, the pack was already gathered. Hundreds of wolves. Shouting. Foaming with fear.

“Demon!”

“She killed our guards!”

“That thing beside her...monster!”

“She should have stayed dead!”

Lyrina and ex-Beta Veega stood on the steps of the packhouse, fanning the crowd like wildfire.

“That creature slaughtered two of our own,” Lyrina shrieked. “And she commands it!”

Veega pointed at me with trembling fury. “She brought death to our gates! She is a curse!”

Corvin snapped.

“ENOUGH!”

His voice cracked like thunder across the courtyard. Still, the crowd hissed and surged.

Lyrina smirked. “You see?” she called. “She’s corrupted everything! This is not our Luna. This is Nyra’s mistake!”

Fenric snarled and stepped forward with murder in his eyes...But I lifted my hand.

Silence dropped like a falling star.

My power rose, cold and ancient, shadowfire rippling out from my feet in a spreading ring of silver-black. Every wolf in that courtyard felt it. The Alpha Command hit like a divine blade.

KNEEL.

They dropped. Every wolf. Every warrior. Lyrina. Veega. Even Corvin staggered beneath the pressure as my voice filled the air.

“I am the Shadow Luna,” I said, my voice layered with Morana’s ancient echo. “I bow to no one.”

They trembled.

“Balance will be restored,” I promised. “Even if I must drag every one of you screaming into the light.”

Rowan stood beside me, his silver eyes blazing. Fenric smiled like a god of death finally fed. We turned our backs on the kneeling pack.

Corvin reached toward me once, but I didn’t look back. I led Rowan and Fenric toward the abandoned East Packhouse, the one no one dared enter. Shadows parted for me like curtains.

“This is home now,” I said.

Corvin didn’t follow. He walked alone toward his keep. And the pack, all of it, knew who ruled the Nightfall Range now.

The Shadow Luna and her Bone Wolf.

_________________________

Lyrina Veega POV

Emara Dell was supposed to be dead.

No, she was dead. I made sure of it. I watched her bleed into the snow. I heard her last breath. I felt the life leave her body. I dragged her into the frozen waste myself.

So why in all the burning hells was she walking back into the pack like a queen, with shadowfire curling around her like a crown?

Why the fuck was she breathing? Why was she powerful?Why was she chosen? This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. I spent my whole life training to be Luna. The perfect daughter. The perfect heir. The perfect mate for Corvin. And then she walks in, soft and pathetic and weak, and the goddess lifts her up?

A mistake. It had to be a mistake.

I paced the length of our private quarters, my fingers tearing through my hair as the crowd outside roared her new title.

Shadow Luna. Shadow Luna. Shadow Luna.

Every chant stabbed me like a knife.

I spun toward my father. “This is impossible. She died. I watched her die.”

He said nothing. Just sat there with his jaw clenched, his eyes dark, studying me with that judge me or kill me stare he always used when he thought I might embarrass him.

“I killed her!” I shouted, my voice cracking. “I did what you told me to do. I fixed the problem. She was supposed to rot out there. Rot.”

“Be silent,” he snapped.

“She came back! With power older than this fucking mountain! Do you understand how insane that is?”

Father stood. Slowly. Too calm.

“Lyrina,” he said quietly, “pull yourself together.”

“I am together!” My voice pitched high, hysterical even in my ears. “She shouldn’t exist! None of this should be happening. She was nothing yesterday. Nothing. A fat nobody. And now she’s...she’s...”

“Stronger than you,” Father finished.

My entire body went cold. He stepped closer. His voice softened in a way that made my skin crawl.

“This is not the time for tantrums. We cannot outmuscle her. We cannot out-alpha her. But power… can always be stolen.”

I froze. His eyes gleamed.

“There are rituals older than wolf law,” he murmured. “And darker than goddess blessing. Magic that can strip a Luna’s spirit. Or claim it.”

My heart hammered.

“And… would it work?” I whispered.

“It has before,” he said. “If the vessel is prepared. If the target is weakened. If the goddess looks away at the right moment.”

Prepared. Weakened. Claimed. An electric shiver shot through me. Yes. Yes. There was still a path. I could still win.

My thoughts snapped to Fenric, the monstrous, perfect creature who stood behind Emara like a carved god. The way he looked at her, like she was worth dying for. Worth killing for.

His body. His horns. His voice. His violence. My stomach twisted, hot and hungry and desperate.

“He’ll be mine,” I breathed.

Father looked sharply at me.

“Lyrina..."

“I saw him,” I said, trembling with something between envy and lust. “He is perfect. He is made of magic and bone and moonlight. A real guardian. A real mate. Not… not like Corvin. Not weak. Not blind. Not undeserving.”

“He will not look at you twice,” Father bit out. “He is bound to her.”

“Then I will unbind him.” I smiled, slow and sharp. “And when her magic is mine…”

He stared at me, horrified. Just a flicker. But I saw it.

And I didn’t care.

“She has everything that should’ve been mine,” I whispered. “Power. A goddess’s blessing. A title I earned. A pack kneeling. And now a creature like that guarding her?”

My breath shook.

“Nyra chose wrong. The world chose wrong. And I refuse to live in a world where Emara Dell has everything I trained for.”

My father didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. The silence between us was agreement. Plots began to take shape. Rituals. Blood. Opportunity.

I licked my lips.

“She stole my future,” I whispered into the cold air. “So I’ll steal hers.”

And willing or not…...Fenric would kneel for me.