All Chapters of Moonshadow: The Full Saga: Chapter 71 - Chapter 79

They smelled the smoke before they saw it.Luna's head snapped up mid-stride, nose catching the acrid tang of burning wood and scorched fur on the wind.Wrong direction.Too close.*Home.*She ran faster.The chain at her wrist pulsed, the other weapons strapped across her back thrumming with barely contained power. The Cradle's armaments recognized urgency, responding to the spike of adrenaline flooding her veins.Beside her, Orion's golden wolf surged forward, lips pulled back in a snarl that promised violence.Kael struggled to keep pace, still healing, his breath coming in ragged gasps.The possessed wolves they had freed ran behind, shame and determination driving them forward.Riven brought up the rear, moving like something broken trying to remember how to be whole.They crossed the northern border at full speed.The wards Luna had carefully woven shimmered weakly—not broken, but *strained,* as if something massive had been pressing against them for hours.The forest opened up.

The throne was a problem.Not a literal throne—Luna had refused the ornate monstrosity the elders tried to install in the main den, all carved wolf heads and aggressive symbolism.The *concept* of the throne was the problem.Three days after the Gathering Stones, Luna stood in what had become her "war room"—a repurposed storage den now crammed with maps, reports, and far too many wolves with opinions—and wondered if she had made a catastrophic mistake."The Stonepaw Pack is refusing to send warriors," Niko reported, exhaustion roughening his voice. "They say their Alpha knelt under duress. That Kaelen's oath does not bind them.""The Riverbend territory is blocking supply lines," Rhea added from her corner. "Claiming toll rights. Old law. They want concessions before they let our scouts through.""And the Ashwood Pack—" Kerran shuffled through parchments, frowning. "—is demanding that any leyline anchors come from 'voluntary territories only.' Which is code for 'not our wolves.'"Luna

The warning came at dawn, delivered by a scout so terrified he could barely speak.Luna was in the war room, staring at maps she had memorized weeks ago, when the young wolf stumbled through the door.Blood streaked his face.His eyes were wide, pupils blown with shock."High Alpha," he gasped. "The western border. You need to come. Now. Please."Luna was moving before he finished speaking, Orion at her heels.Something felt *wrong.*Not just urgent.*Wrong.*The air tasted like copper and burnt sugar.The forest was too quiet as they ran, no birds, no small creatures rustling through undergrowth.Just silence.Waiting.The scout led them to a clearing Luna recognized—a place where she had trained with Kael weeks ago, teaching him to control the gravity fluctuations that still plagued him.Now it was scorched.The grass blackened.The trees at the perimeter bent inward, as if recoiling from something at the center.And there, kneeling in the ash—Luna's heart stopped."No," she whispe

The assault came at midnight.No warning.No scouts reporting movement.One moment, Moonshadow was quiet, wolves resting after the exhausting triumph of the challenge circle.The next, the forest *erupted.*Fire.Not normal fire.*Holy fire.*White-gold flames that did not consume wood or earth but burned *essence,* searing through pack bonds, disrupting leylines, turning the very air into agony for anything touched by the Moon.Luna was thrown from sleep by the first explosion.She hit the ground already moving, Orion beside her, both of them racing toward the clearing as screams tore through the night.The scene was chaos.Wolves scattering.Dens collapsing as holy fire ate through their foundations.And at the perimeter, pouring through gaps in the defenses that should not exist—The Holy Clan.Dozens of them.Warriors in white armor inscribed with binding runes, wielding weapons that *sang* with purification magic.And at their head—Luna's blood turned to ice.Cassian.Her half-b

The shift began at dawn.Wolves across the continent woke to something they had never felt before.A *presence.*Not intrusive.Not controlling.But there.Constant.Undeniable.Like the Moon Herself had finally opened Her eyes and was *watching.*In the Northern Territories, Alpha Karn of the Frostpaw pack stumbled from his den, hand pressed to his chest.The pack bond—which had always been a quiet hum, connecting him to his wolves—It *sang.*Louder.Clearer.And beneath it, something new.A thread.Silver.Leading *away.*Toward something vast and powerful and ancient."What is that?" his Beta asked, feeling it too.Karn closed his eyes.Reached along the thread.And *gasped.*"The Heir," he whispered. "She has ascended."---In the Southern Reaches, the Sunfire pack had been at war with their neighbors for three generations.Blood feuds.Territory disputes.Grievances so old no one remembered what started them.Alpha Lyris stood on her border, sword drawn, facing Alpha Tormund acr