The Lost Beta 13 - The Binding Moon

The Sacred Grove revelation seemed brighter than the next day that evening. Emily and a funny feeling walking around the healer's cabin. Her fingers lightly touched the rune-marked bark of the trees and murmurs, memories she couldn't remember, and even truths that weren't part of her life as an omega were carried by the breezes. Her history was colliding with her future in the breeze, and she wasn’t certain if she was ready.

Alexander talked to Rowan, the weathered warrior who had been her father's servant, inside. Rowan’s presence was a direct challenge to Alpha Maddox’s authority, and even now, Emily could hear the growl in Alexander’s voice, straining to keep the peace. “If you defy Maddox now, we must be ready for war,” Rowan warned. “And the pack may not follow.”

“We don’t need them all to follow,” Alexander muttered. “Just enough to stand.” His loyalty burned in every word, a stark contrast to Emily’s own doubts. She wanted to fight, but for what? For justice? Revenge? Or for the girl she used to be before memory buried her?

Emily stepped inside just as Rowan’s eyes found hers. “You have your father’s gaze,” he said softly. “And his fire. But you need more than fire to lead.”

“I didn’t ask to lead,” she replied.

“No,” Rowan said. “But you were born too.”

That evening, the council of rebels met beneath the slivered moon. They were a scattered group of elders, warriors, young wolves still learning to shift but every eye turned to Emily as she stepped into the circle. Alexander stood beside her, his presence grounding hers like a vow.

Rowan lifted the Moonstone, a relic once belonging to Emily’s father. When it pulsed with light at her touch, the air shifted. Some gasped. Others knelt.

“The Moonstone responds only to the bloodline of the First Alpha,” Rowan declared. “We are bound to her now.”

Emily’s throat tightened. “I don’t want blind loyalty. If you follow me, know that I may fail. I may fall. But I won’t run.”

A silence followed, then murmurs of assent. One by one, wolves stepped forward, drawing blood across their palms to seal their allegiance. When Alexander followed, he didn’t flinch. “I was bound to you long before tonight,” he said.

The moment felt holy. But in the shadows beyond the grove, Maddox’s spies watched and fled.

Three days passed in tense preparation. Training routines sharpened into war drills. Emily pushed herself harder than anyone, testing the instincts that memory had gifted back to her.

But with each memory came another ghost. Her father’s face, fierce and warm. Her mother’s lullabies, haunting. The whisper of betrayal. She kept it all locked behind her eyes, but Alexander noticed.

“Talk to me,” he urged one night as they sparred. “You don’t have to carry it alone.”

“I do,” she said, ducking his strike. “Because the burden is mine. They died for me, and now I owe them more than tears.”

He dropped his blade. “You owe them the truth. And yourself, grace.”

A scream cut through their moment. It was a shattered and bloodied scout, he staggered into the clearing. “The Hunter,” he gasped. “He’s here.”

They found the scout barely alive. His wounds were savage, too clean for any rogue. The Hunter wasn’t just a myth. He was real. And he’d tracked Emily’s bloodline.

In Rowan’s war tent, maps were unrolled and legends told. “The Hunter was created by the First Alpha’s enemies to erase the bloodline entirely,” Rowan said. “He’s not fully a wolf. Not fully human. He doesn’t stop.”

Emily’s stomach twisted. “Then he’ll keep coming for me.”

Alexander slammed his fist against the table. “Let him. We’ll end it.”

But not everyone shared the same courage. One of the council’s younger members, Lena, tried to flee that night. She was caught at the border.

“I’m sorry,” she wept. “I didn’t sign up to die for a ghost.”

Emily stared at her, heart cracking. “I’m not a ghost. I’m your future.”

Emily’s power continued to grow, but so did the side effects. Runes burned across her skin in dreams. Her vision blurred in daylight. She began to hear voices, not memories, but warnings.

“You are awakening too quickly,” the healer said. “The blood of the Alpha Queen was meant to rise slowly, not all at once.”

Emily gritted her teeth. “Then tell it to slow down.”

She collapsed during a training session. Alexander caught her, fury in his eyes not at her weakness, but at the curse twisting inside her.

“We’ll find a way to protect you,” he said.

But Emily had another fear. What if the power consuming her also corrupted her? What if she became the very thing they fought against?

One night, she slipped into the woods, seeking silence. But there in the shadows stood a girl with her face, a twin? No. A mirror?

“Wake up,” the girl said, vanishing. “You don’t have much time.”

Maddox moved faster than expected. A faction loyal to him ambushed the supply line two nights later. Wolves were killed. The healer’s mate among them.

Grief lit a fire in the camp. Emily stood over the graves and spoke with steel in her voice. “We will mourn. But we will not break.”

She turned to Alexander. “It’s time.”

Plans were redrawn. Paths into Maddox’s stronghold mapped. The rebellion would begin with a targeted strike to free those imprisoned unjustly and spread word of the prophecy’s return.

Rowan disagreed. “You are too valuable to risk.”

But Emily insisted. "I've to take the lead for I'm their leader."

Alexander nodded. “Then we stand together.”

They moved under cover of fog, striking just before dawn. Maddox’s outer guard fell with ease, too much ease.

Inside the keep, they found empty cells and false trails. It had been a trap.

A shriek tore through the air. Lena had stayed behind, guarding the rear. Now she is gone.

Emily’s heart sank. “He wanted me to come,” she whispered. “The Hunter wanted me here.”

Too late, they realized the truth. A rune had been activated when Emily passed the keep’s threshold. A trap meant only for her.

Runes sparked beneath her skin. Her vision dimmed. She collapsed on the ground.

Even Alexander couldn't stop what had started, yet his roar shattered the air.

Deep beneath, in chains, she woke up. Ancient magic surged through the walls. Across the room stood a figure draped in black. The Hunter.

“You are the last,” he said, voice hollow. “And I was born to end you.”

Emily met his gaze. “Then why wait?”

“Because you are incomplete,” he replied. “You don’t even know what you are yet. And once you do, you’ll beg me to finish it.”

She closed her eyes, calling to the part of her that still burned. To the bloodline that refused to die. The chains sparked. Cracked.

“You’ve made a mistake,” she whispered.

The Hunter tilted his head. “Have I?”

The chains shattered. Light poured from her skin.

And from the shadows beyond the cell, a voice called her name not Alexander’s. Her brother’s.

"Emily?"the voice gruffed but yet distinct. “It’s me... I’m alive.”