Chapter 111: The Wise One's First Trial

The dispute arrived on a cold morning, carried by messengers from two packs who had been feuding for generations. The Stone Ridge pack and the River Bend pack shared a border along a range of low hills, land that had been claimed by both sides for as long as anyone could remember. The hills were not particularly valuable—the soil was thin, the water scarce, the game sparse—but they had become a symbol, a point of pride, a wound that neither side was willing to let heal. Elara received the messengers in the meeting hut, a fire crackling in the hearth to ward off the winter chill. Caleb sat beside her, his presence steady and supportive. Damon and Ayla were with a caretaker, their laughter drifting through the walls, a reminder of why this work mattered.

Chapter 112: Damon's First Hunt

Damon had been waiting for this day since he could walk. The pack's traditions were clear: at six years old, a child was old enough to join their first hunt. Not as a hunter, not yet, but as a participant, a learner, someone who would watch and listen and begin to understand what it meant to provide for the pack. The actual killing would be done by the adults, the child's role limited to observing and perhaps tracking, but the experience itself was a rite of passage, a threshold crossed. Damon had been counting down the days for months, waking each morning with the same question: "Is it time yet?" Each time, Elara or Caleb would remind him that the hunt was held in the autumn, when the deer were fat and the weather w

Chapter 113: Ayla's Gift

The first time Ayla healed someone, no one realized what had happened. It was a small thing, almost nothing—a scratch on Damon's hand from a sharp branch, bleeding lightly, stinging enough to make him whimper. Elara was busy with Kael, who had been fussing all morning, and Caleb was outside chopping wood. Ayla, three years old and always watching, toddled over to her brother and put her small hand over his cut. "Better," she said, with the certainty of a child who had not yet learned that the world did not always bend to her will. Damon stopped crying. He looked at his hand, then at his sister, then

Chapter 114: Family Bonds

The years passed as years do—slowly when you were living through them, quickly when you looked back. Damon's tenth birthday came and went with the usual celebration: a feast, some gifts, stories told around the fire. Ayla turned seven a few months later, her celebration smaller but no less joyful. They were growing, both of them, in ways that Elara noticed every day and Caleb pretended not to see. Damon had lost the roundness of early childhood, his face sharpening, his body lengthening. He moved with a confidence that had not been there a year ago, his steps sure, his decisions quick. He had made friends among the pack's other children, formed bonds that would last a lifetime, learned to navigate the complicated social waters of a community that was both family and something more.

Chapter 115: Young Wolves

Damon had been restless for weeks. It started subtly—a shorter temper, a tendency to snap at Ayla over small things, a reluctance to sit still during meals. Elara noticed it first, as mothers do, cataloging the changes with a mixture of concern and recognition. She had been young once, had felt her own wolf stirring, had struggled to contain the wildness that came with growing up. But Damon's restlessness grew worse as the weeks passed. He stopped eating as much, pushed food around his plate, claimed he wasn't hungry. He slept poorly, tossing and turning, sometimes waking with a gasp as if emerging from a nightmare he could not remember. He spent hours alone in the forest, returning with scratches on his arms a

《MOON-BOUND HEARTS》全部章節：第 111 章 - 第 115 章

Chapter 111: The Wise One's First Trial

Chapter 112: Damon's First Hunt

Chapter 113: Ayla's Gift

Chapter 114: Family Bonds

Chapter 115: Young Wolves