All Chapters of THE DORMANT LUNA Book 1: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

NEAH A massive wolf appears at the Iron Valley border. Silver gray fur. Old. Scarred. Every movement deliberate. Powerful. He shifts at the tree line. Stands naked except for the scars covering his body and the authority radiating off him like heat from a furnace. Alpha Marcus goes to meet him. Liam and Caleb flank him. Warriors position themselves at strategic points. Ready. I watch from the porch with Theo and Shane. Every instinct screams danger. But something else whispers underneath. Something that feels like recognition even though I've never seen this man before. "Who is that?" I ask Theo. "I don't know. But every wolf in the territory just submitted without being told." His eyes are sharp. Calculating. "That's not normal Alpha energy. That's something older." The stranger speaks. His voice carries across the dista

NEAH I can't sleep. Can't eat. Can't think about anything except Gregor's words. The fifth member is someone close to you. I sit in the warriors' quarters with every piece of information I have spread across the floor. The photograph. The USB files. The names Marcus gave us. Pack records going back twenty years. Someone close to me. Family. Friend. Pack. I eliminate options. Diane didn't know the full scope until my mother told her. Caleb is impossible. The guys are too young. Elena is confirmed as Subject One, not a council member. That leaves the adults. The ones who were around when the project started. I pull up Iron Valley pack records. Every member. Every transfer. Every visitor logged over the past two decades. And I find it. Alpha Marcus. Caleb's father. The man who raised

NEAH I stand in Alpha Marcus's office at dawn. The letters are spread across his desk. Evidence of twenty years of secrets. Twenty years of protection disguised as surveillance. Marcus sits behind his desk and ages a decade in front of me. The Alpha who was always steady, always calm, always in control crumbles. "You know," he says. Not a question. "I know you've been reporting on me. I know Elena asked you to watch over me. I know about the Bloodline Project." I pause. "What I don't know is why you never told me the truth." He's silent for a long moment. When he speaks, his voice is raw. "Elena contacted me the night before the crash. Told me what was coming. That the project had found her. That she was going to fake her death to protect you. She asked me to take you in if anything happened." "And you agreed." "I agreed

NEAHSomething Is Waking UpThe medical wing smells like antiseptic and wolf. Dr. Sera moves around me with efficient precision. Blood pressure cuff. Stethoscope. Reflex hammer. I sit on the exam table in a tank top and jeans while she catalogs everything my body is becoming.Liam stands against the far wall. Arms crossed. Eyes tracking every movement Dr. Sera makes. He has not left since we walked in an hour ago."Heart rate is fifty-two beats per minute," Dr. Sera says. She pulls the stethoscope from her ears. "That is significantly slower than your baseline three weeks ago.""Is that bad?""Not bad. Different. Wolf resting heart rate averages between fifty and sixty. Human averages seventy to eighty. You are shifting closer to wolf physiology."She makes a note on her tablet. Moves to test my reflexes. The little hammer taps my knee. My leg kicks faster than it should. She frowns. Taps again. Same result."Reflexes are forty percent faster than your last assessment."I look at my h

NEAH Seven days. That is all we have before the compound assault. I train like my life depends on it. Because it does. My body is different now. I notice it in every session. The way I move. The way I react. I am faster than I was a month ago. Not wolf fast. But the gap is closing. Caleb comes at me full speed in the training ring. I match him for thirty seconds before he finally overwhelms me. A month ago I could not match him for five. He shifts back to human form. Breathing hard. Grinning. "You are getting scary fast." "Not fast enough." "Fast enough that I actually had to try. That is new." I wipe sweat from my forehead. My hands are shaking. Not from exhaustion. From the adrenaline still coursing through me. And something else. That second pulse beneath my ribs beating faster than my human heart.