Bound by the Onyx Moon

The air was cool, damp, like the familiar scent of pine and earth at night. The moon was low in the sky. Its gentle silver light spilled across the hillside clearing. The ceremony was complete. It was time for the pack members to return to their regular pattern of living. Serena stood behind Lucian, her hand still clutched firmly in his, and her heart pounding in her chest. What she saw in the ritual, she had never seen before. Then everything went much crazier, but somehow it was solid.

It was that odd feeling she knew was still there in her head. The Onyx wolf which had once given her the impression of devouring and denying feeling was now, out of the blue, with her.

“You alright? ” Lucian tilted back but there was an edge of concern in his voice that she could not brush off. Serena nodded although she still couldn’t quite dismiss that gnawing feeling deep in her gut.

“Yup... It's just... This is gonna take a lot of time to get use to,” Luna felt all of the weight that the title Luna put onto her, the fear that kept digging in her mind, the fight that was coming, all of it bothered her.

He wrapped his thumb around her flesh and gave her a steady tug of her hand. “You’re not alone, we’re going to do this together.

Serena wanted to believe him. He made these warm comments that were reassuring to her, and she totally loved how he said it. But it’s something that still bugs the hell out of her.

Was she so willing to hold on to him as an equal? Or was the Onyx wolf within her a power that would rend them instead, pull them apart rather than sent them aloft together?

Before she could voice what she dreaded, Dorian stepped out from the shadows, his face taut with tension and his eyes staring ahead with fear.

“Lucian,” Dorian said in a low, almost like aDorian’s voice. ” There is “ some stuff at the southern border.

Lucian tensed up and his eyes registered quickly. “What kind of trouble? ”

And while Serena’s flash to Dorian was a quick one before she answered. “A bunch of rogues. And they’re different... too organized, they’re too organized to be random. They’re getting closer."

The word “rogues” made Serena almost pug her lips at hearing it, for she had long ago been conditioned to think of rogues as dangerous, selfish wildmen, typically vicious and cruel, who would enter pack territory this way.

“Do you think they know the Onyx wolf? she asked.

Lucian looked at her with a cold, hard face. “Stick with the pack Serena, I’m going to be OK.

“ But we’re meant to face this together. she said, her brow slightly furrowed.

For an instant Lucian stared wide awake but soon again descended into a comatose blank. “I’m not going to be there a long time. As long as you stay with the others, okay?

The Onyx wolf began to move deep with in her, anxious, agitated, and hungry for freedom, Serena could feel it. It was wild and sharp, the power she'd achieved.

“I’m going with you,” she said emphatically, but doubt was steadily growing in her gut.

Lucian ’s jaw tightened, the looks of frustration on his face shifting. “Serena, this is not the time for stubbornness.

But, before she could argue anymore Dorian cut her off.

“I think she needs to come with us, Alpha. And studied Lucian, his eyes resolute.

“She trained harder than she had ever trained when you were unconscious. I know what she can do out there.” She’s ready for it. ”

Serena’s eyes locked with Lucians and they just stared at one another for a moment. She could see the conflict in his eyes — the fierce protective instinct that drove him to do everything in his power to protect her from harm, but also a quiet sense she was no longer the same person she’d been. She had transformed and there was a strength within her that demanded attention.

He sighed, relaxing his body a bit. “Okay. But hang close, ” he eventually said.

They hastily moved into the shadows of the forest.

The air turned swampy now, with panic like a dense mist hanging in the atmosphere; inside Serena there was the Onyx wolf circling like a toxic gas, yanking her in every conceivable direction. It felt like the ground under her hooves were quaking with electricity.

When they crossed the southern border, her senses sharpened further. The sound of rustling leaves and howls at a distance, something was really wrong. It was as if they were going into a trap.

Lucian raised a hand, summoning them to stop, and his eyes scanned the dark edge of the clearing ahead; a few dark shapes wandered that line slowly, their backs to him.

“ Serena, you should wait.” “No, this is going to get nasty,” Lucian finally rasped to Serena lowly.

However, Serena could not deny the call of the Onyx wolf, and she took a step forward, her heart racing as the sheer will of her being leapt forward and made her move, to move.

Lucian frowned slightly at her but then held her back, " Thread carefully" he muttered.

They hesitantly started to move, crunching the dry underbrush underfoot. The rebellious wolves were gossiping under the radar, their focus diverted. They did not glimpse the incoming trio save for some flickering of a campfire glowing in the distance

Muscles tightening, she sensed, her senses alert. And Onyx’s wolf was humping under her skin—he wanted to bite, this instant.

Then one of the rogues turned with his eyes glittering evilly in the semi-darkness and said growling with vile frustration “They found us It's time.

Lucian stiffened beside her. “Prepare yourself, ” he muttered under this breath.

And before Serena could tell her to shut the fuck up, the world erupted. An instant jolt in the air sending the rogue wolves conserve the night fall in one blip, their eyes sparkling with some decided brightness, and one had the gall to swipe his claws out in front of her, teeth on display.

The Onyx wolf surged to the surface and Serena could feel her body shifting, muscles tightening, senses sharpening - everything around again sharpening, more clear, faster.

“Serena!” Lucian shouted, urgency woven through his voice.

But she was already moving. The rogue was slow to swing, but Serena was speeding up. Twisting in quick a fashion, using the velocity to bring him off balance, clawing outwards and slamming the rogue back onto his rear.

As she faced the others, the breath stuck in her throat. There, in front of her, was a person she never thought she’d see again — her mother.

Isolde.

Serena was so surprised to see her mother that she was speechless. She was swept by a surge of emotions: disbelief, shock, a flurry of memories, some sweet and some bitter. It was like being paused in time. There was only her mother, there in front of her, as real as the earth she stood on.