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Lahat ng Kabanata ng Marked By Moonfire: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

68 Kabanata

Prologue – Ashes of the Hunt

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

Chapter one - Echoes of blood

Rain hammered against the broken windows of the abandoned warehouse, steady as a heartbeat,relentless as the memories Nova tried to bury. The place stank of rust, mildew, and something sourthat clung to the air no matter how wide she cracked the door. It wasn’t safe, not truly, but at leastthe walls muﬄed the city and the Hunters who would slit her throat if they ever found her.She paced the length of the cracked concrete floor, boots scuﬃng softly, dagger sheathed at herhip. Every sound made her twitch: the drip of water from a corroded pipe, the scrape of a rat acrossbroken glass. Shadows leapt with each flicker of lightning, twisting into monstrous shapes thatteased her with reminders of what she had fought and what she had lost.But it wasn’t the monsters that unsettled her most. It was the silence that followed.Nova stopped near the gaping hole in the roof, tilting her head back. Rain slid down through thejagged opening, glimmering like shards of glass as they fell. She

Chapter two - Broken Reflection

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,

Chapter three - When prey strikes

By nightfall, the city’s ruins bled into the forest. Cracked streets dissolved into dirt paths, and half-toppled buildings gave way to trees that clawed at the sky. Nova’s boots sank into damp soil, each step heavier than the last. She told herself she should turn back—return to the shadows she knew, to the dangerous comfort of anonymity.But she didn’t. Something pulled her forward, insistent and invisible.Every sound magnified in the darkness: the rush of wind through leaves, the snap of twigs beneath her weight, the cry of some unseen bird. The deeper she went, the less it felt like entering unknown territory and more like crossing a threshold she had always been destined to breach. Her senses sharpened, every rustle and distant echo taking on weight, meaning. She could almost feel the earth beneath her feet remembering her passage, guiding her.And then she felt them.Eyes in the dark.Silver glints among the trees, low and steady. She slowed, hand drifting to the dagger at her b

Chapter four - Within the Wolf’s Den

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

Chapter five - Silvered Dreams

Night pressed down on the compound like a living thing. The fires in the courtyard had burned to embers, and the laughter of the pack faded into silence, replaced by the steady rhythm of crickets and the distant hoot of an owl. The air smelled faintly of smoke and damp pine, and even in the quiet, Nova could feel something in the shadows—an invisible weight she couldn’t name, a presence she both feared and couldn’t pull away from.She sat on the edge of her narrow cot, boots still laced, dagger balanced across her knees. She told herself she didn’t need sleep, that exhaustion was safer than dreams. But her body betrayed her, eyelids heavy, heart dragging her into restless slumber.When sleep finally came, it was not kind.She found herself in a field washed silver by moonlight. The grass stretched endlessly, sharp and glistening as blades. Above, the moon spilled light too bright to be natural, searing across her skin. She tried to shield her eyes, but the glow sank deeper, pressing a

Chapter six - First blood, First step

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

Chapter seven - Fire and Shadows

The courtyard glowed with firelight. A great blazeroared at its center, sparks climbing into the night skyuntil they vanished into the canopy of stars. Wolvescrowded around the flames—some in human form, othersshifting between—laughing, growling, blending into a chorusof belonging.Nova lingered at the edge, arms folded tight across her chest.The warmth of the fire barely reached her, though the air wasthick with the scent of roasted meat, herbs, and smoke. Everysound grated against her—too loud, too careless, as if they hadnothing to fear. As if war and blood weren’t crouching justbeyond the trees.She crouched low, dagger resting across her knees. Old habits.Hunters never gathered like this without a reason. Huntersdidn’t laugh around fires. They sharpened blades, mappedambushes, and drank in silence. To sit in peace like this felt liketempting fate.A ripple of laughter rose from the circle as two wolves wrestlednear the flames, shifting mid-grapple, bodies twisting,

Chapter eight - Moonlit Tether

The compound slept, but Nova’s body refused to rest.Her dreams had been fractured things—moonlight dripping silver across her skin, whispers in a language she didn’t know, fire burning inside her chest until she woke gasping.She pulled on her boots and slipped outside. The night was sharp and cool, carrying the scent of pine and damp earth. The fires in the courtyard had burned low, leaving only embers thatglowed like dying stars.She walked without direction, letting the quiet press against her. The compound felt different at night—less like a fortress, more like a cage. Every creak of wood, every shifting shadow, made her skin crawl.And then she saw him.Kilian stood at the edge of the clearing, gazing into the forest as though he could see through the trees and into the heart of thenight itself. The moonlight carved silver lines along the scars that wrapped his forearms, catching in his dark hair. For the first time, she saw him not as Alpha, not as predator, but as aman carr

Chapter Nine - Embers of Fate

Silence settled over the clearing, thick and heavy, carrying the scent of iron, sweat, and scorched earth. The rogues had fled, leaving only the echoes of violence behind. Nova sank to her knees, staff abandoned beside her, arms trembling. Every muscle screamed in protest, every breath burned. She had survived, but at what cost?Kilian stood a few paces away, chest rising and falling with a steadiness that belied the storm of the fight. His eyes caught hers across the clearing, glowing faintly in the moonlight, and for a heartbeat, she forgot the pain in her arms, the ache in her legs, even the lingering smell of blood.The bond throbbed between them—hot, unrelenting, and impossible to ignore. Normally, she was the hunter, the one in control, but standing there, exhausted and raw, she felt exposed. Vulnerable. And yet the pull toward him was undeniable, a tether that made her pulse thrum faster than the fight had ever done.“You should be resting,” he said softly, voice carrying acros

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