Chapter Five - Six Years Earlier

Darian's POV 

The night Nia vanished from the prison cell was the night sleep stopped coming easily to me, although I did not understand that truth immediately because anger is a convenient thing and it hides many other emotions that a man does not wish to examine too closely.

When the guard burst into my office breathless and pale and told me that the prisoner was gone, my first reaction was not fear or regret but fury that burned through my veins so quickly that I knocked the chair behind my desk onto the floor before the man had even finished speaking.

“What do you mean she is gone?” I demanded, my voice loud enough that two other warriors rushed into the corridor outside the office doors.

The guard swallowed hard before answering.

“The cell was locked when we checked earlier, Alpha, but during the midnight inspection we found the door open and the prisoner missing.”

My hands curled slowly into fists.

“Are you telling me,” I asked carefully, “that a woman who had bee beaten, and barely able to stand simply walked out of a locked prison cell?”

The guard lowered his eyes.

“We are investigating how it happened.”

“You should already know how it happened,” I replied coldly. “You were responsible for guarding her.”

Within minutes the entire lower level of the fortress was crawling with warriors. Torches lit the damp corridors as every storage room and passageway was searched. I went down there myself even though the stench of the cells had always irritated me, because I needed to see the place with my own eyes before believing the report.

The door of the cell hung slightly open when I arrived. One guard was unconscious on the floor with a swelling bruise along his temple while another stood rigid beside the wall as if hoping that absolute stillness might save him from my temper.

I stepped inside the cell.

There was blood on the floor.

It had dried in a dark stain that made something twist unpleasantly in my chest.

“Where did she go?” I asked quietly.

No one answered.

My wolf stirred restlessly beneath my skin as I studied the marks on the ground, the faint trail that led toward the storage shelves at the back wall.

“Move that,” I ordered.

Two warriors shoved the shelves aside and revealed the narrow opening behind them.

A tunnel.

The realization struck me hard enough that I felt it in my teeth.

“She was helped,” I said slowly.

The guard nearest the door dropped to one knee immediately.

“We had nothing to do with it, Alpha.”

I did not respond because my attention remained fixed on the dark passageway disappearing into the earth. For a moment I considered following it myself, but reason forced me to hold back.

Instead I ordered every scout in Dark Crest Moon to search for her.

That search consumed the next several days.

At first I told myself that my insistence on finding her had nothing to do with concern. I said it was about authority and discipline because a prisoner escaping from the Alpha’s custody was an insult to the entire pack. I said it was about justice because if she had murdered a Gamma guard then she needed to face proper judgment.

Those explanations sounded reasonable.

They also sounded hollow every time another scout returned empty handed.

Lyra remained at my side through all of it.

She spoke gently when the council gathered to discuss the situation and she kept a sympathetic expression whenever Nia’s name was mentioned, although I noticed that she never spoke that name directly.

“She fled because she knew the truth would destroy her,” Lyra said one evening while standing near the window of my office.

Her tone was soft, almost regretful, but the certainty within it scraped against something in my chest that I did not want to examine.

“You seem very sure of that,” I replied without looking at her.

“Would an innocent woman run from judgment?”

Her question hung in the air.

I finally turned to face her.

“An innocent woman who believes no one will listen might.”

Lyra studied my face carefully before offering a small sad smile.

“You are still too kind to her, Darian.”

The word irritated me more than it should have.

Weeks passed and the search gradually slowed as my warriors ran out of places to investigate. The council advised me to let the matter go because the pack had more urgent concerns than chasing a fugitive who had likely died somewhere in the wilderness.

Lyra supported that advice.

“Dark Crest Moon needs stability,” she told me one night as we walked through the courtyard after a council meeting. “The pack needs to move forward.”

I nodded because the words made sense even though something inside me resisted them.

It was around that time that Lyra began speaking about the coronation ceremony.

“You promised the pack a proper Luna,” she reminded me gently.

“You are already acknowledged as Luna,” I replied.

“That is not the same as a sacred coronation before the Moon Goddess.”

I told her that preparations required time.

She accepted that explanation for a few days before asking again.

“The elders believe the delay is unusual.”

“I will arrange it soon.”

Soon it became another week.

Then another.

Each time she raised the subject I found a reason to postpone it, although the truth was that I could not explain why the idea unsettled me so deeply.

Six months passed after Nia disappeared.

Winter arrived early that year and the cold winds seemed to carry more problems with them than usual.

The first sign that something was wrong appeared in the trade reports.

Two merchant caravans traveling through our territory were attacked by rogues despite the patrol routes that should have kept those roads safe. A grain shipment from the southern valley was delayed because the supplier suddenly demanded higher payment for the same goods. A minor border dispute with the neighboring ridge pack escalated into a skirmish that left three of our warriors injured.

Individually those problems might have been manageable.

Together they formed a pattern that bothered me more with each passing week.

Then there was Lyra’s pregnancy.

At first I had accepted her announcement without question because the idea of an heir seemed to reassure the pack during a time of uncertainty.

Six months later her body looked exactly the same.

The thought lingered long enough that one night I left Dark Crest Moon alone and rode deep into the mountain forest where an old priest lived in quiet isolation.

The man studied me for a long time before speaking.

“You carry questions heavier than most Alphas who visit this temple.”

“I carry problems,” I replied.

“Those two things are often the same.”

When I explained the strange misfortunes surrounding my pack and the circumstances of Nia’s disappearance, the priest listened without interrupting. His expression remained thoughtful as he placed several small carved stones across a wooden board and moved them with slow deliberate care.

Minutes passed in silence.

Finally he lifted his gaze toward me.

“The shadows around you are not natural.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means someone has drawn misfortune toward your territory.”

My jaw tightened.

“Who?”

“The woman who stands beside you.”

The answer struck me like a physical blow.

“You speak about my Luna?”

“I speak about the one who calls herself Lyra,” he corrected calmly.

Anger flared inside me.

“She is my fated mate.”

The priest’s expression remained unchanged.

“She is an ancient witch who once brought devastation across several territories while searching for something she lost.”

I stared at him in disbelief.

“You expect me to believe that story?”

“I expect you to consider why your pack began suffering only after she arrived.”

The thought settled into my mind with uncomfortable precision.

“And what does this have to do with Nia?”

His eyes held mine steadily.

“The balance you broke when you cast her aside must be restored.”

“You mean I must find her.”

“Yes.”

“And if she is dead?”

“Then the misfortune surrounding you will continue until nothing remains.”

Those words echoed in my thoughts during the entire ride back to Dark Crest Moon.

When I arrived I summoned the pack physician immediately.

The man entered my office looking confused and slightly nervous.

“You asked for me, Alpha?”

“You confirmed Lyra’s pregnancy six months ago,” I said.

His confusion deepened.

“No, Alpha.”

I leaned forward slowly.

“You are the physician of this pack.”

“Yes.”

“And yet you are telling me you never examined the woman who claims to carry my child?”

“That is exactly what I am telling you.”

The room felt colder suddenly.

“Leave,” I said.

By the time the physician closed the door behind him my anger had turned into something sharper.

I ordered Lyra brought to my office.

She was not in her chambers.

The guards said she had left the territory shortly before dawn.

The realization that she had fled settled into my chest like ice as there was no traces

Five years later a scout mentioned a rumor circulating among traveling merchants.

“There are whispers in Blood Throne territory about a woman who resembles the former Luna of Dark Crest Moon.”

The words were enough to send me there myself.

I entered their lands disguised as a merchant because appearing openly as Alpha could have sparked unnecessary conflict hiding from my conflict with the alpha. For most of the day I walked through their settlement without finding any sign of the woman I sought.

By the second week, I began to suspect the rumor might have been meaningless gossip.

Then I heard a small voice behind me asking for help. I turned to the direction, scare away the wolf away and help the boy up as he stare into my eyes with tears in his. 

Something about his face made me pause.

His eyes were familiar in a way I could not immediately explain.

“Where is your family?” I asked.

“My mother is close.”

Footsteps approached through the trees.

The woman who stepped into the clearing wrapped her arms around the boy instantly.

“Are you hurt?” she asked him.

“I am fine.”

She exhaled slowly and then looked up at me.

The moment our eyes met the world seemed to tilt.

Because the woman standing in front of me was Nia Isolde, my Demoted Luna.