All Chapters of Marked By Moonfire: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

The first lesson the Hunters taught was obedience. The second was discipline. The third was never, ever hesitate. Nova had failed them all. She was twelve when they set her first trial. The courtyard of the Compound was crowded with eyes, hard and expectant. A wolf was chained to the post, its muzzle bloody from where it had tried to bite through iron. Its sides heaved with ragged breaths, ribs visible beneath a matted coat. The elders stood around the circle, Ezra among the apprentices behind them. He was already taller than most, jaw set with determination. He carried himself like someone destined to be respected. “End it” , the elder commanded, thrusting a blade into Nova’s hand. Her fingers curled around the hilt, small against the steel. The wolf’s eyes found hers, wild yet strangely lucid. She stepped closer, heart hammering, every instinct screaming to obey. But when

The storm had passed, but the silence it left behind was worse. Nova lay curled on the thin mattress she had scavenged, dagger still clutched in her hand. Sleep refused her, offering only fragments—faces she had killed, faces she had failed to save, Kilian’s eyes burning through them all.By dawn, she gave up, dragging herself to her feet. The warehouse was colder in daylight, its emptiness stark. She wrapped her coat tighter and slipped into the streets, every sense on edge.The city moved like a beast waking from slumber. Merchants opened stalls, steam rose from food carts, and voices mingled in a dozen tongues. Normal. Ordinary. And yet, underneath, she felt it: the Hunters. Always watching. Always circling.She caught a whiff of fresh bread from a nearby stall, but it only made her stomach turn. A merchant’s laughter rang too loud, too sharp, like a blade scraping glass. The world seemed alive with colors and sounds, yet none of it belonged to her anymore.Nova kept her head down,

The pack compound rose out of the woods like a fortress woven into the land. Timber walls stretched high, lanterns glowing at intervals, casting warm circles of light on watchtowers above. The scent of wood smoke mixed with the tang of damp earth and the faint, wild musk of wolves. Wolves patrolled silently, some two-legged, others in fur and fang, blending seamlessly into the night. Each step they took carried purpose, a rhythm Nova could feel in her chest.Nova’s instincts screamed at her to flee. The last time this many predators had surrounded her, they had been targets. Prey. But Kilian’s hand on her shoulder anchored her, steady and unyielding. His presence was a tether she couldn’t—and didn’t want to—ignore.“Walk,” he murmured. Not a command, not quite. More like inevitability.She obeyed.The gates opened with a groan, and voices rippled through the compound as they stepped inside. Wolves stopped mid-task to stare. Some with suspicion, others with thinly veiled hostility. She

The morning bled slowly into the compound, pale sunlight dripping through the trees like liquid gold. Smoke from early fires curled into the air, mingling with the earthy scent of damp soil and pine. Nova stepped out of her small lodge, the chill biting her cheeks, her dagger strapped at her hip like a lifeline. Every step on the frost-tinged grass made her muscles tense, reminding her how long it had been since she had moved freely without caution. The distant caw of a crow and the rustle of leaves under the feet of early risers added a quiet rhythm to the morning, grounding her in the world even as unease coiled in her stomach.The world around her moved with purpose. Wolves in human form carried buckets of water, hauled timber, and sharpened blades. Children darted between huts, laughing, their eyes flashing gold before fading back to human brown. Above it all came the steady rhythm of the compound waking: the thud of fists against flesh, the crack of wood against wood, the barked