All Chapters of Bound by the Cursed Moon: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

Female Lead POV: Rhen Thornwolf"Rhen. Rhen, wake up, you are shaking the entire cot."Sable's voice pulled me out of the dream before I understood I had even fallen into one, my whole body damp with sweat despite the cold night air drifting through the healer's hut window, my heart still pounding from something I could not fully remember. The candle beside the cot had burned low, its flame guttering, throwing strange shadows across the walls that made the last fading pieces of the dream feel even less like something I had imagined and more like something that had reached for me deliberately.I pressed a hand to my chest, trying to steady my breathing, trying to convince myself that dreams did not carry the weight of actual memory even when they felt this vivid, this real."What happened," I gasped, pushing myself upright, and immediately regretted it as the room tilted sideways for a moment before settling."You fell asleep beside my cot an hour ago," Sable said, watching me with ope

Male Lead POV: Kieran Ashveil"You are still fighting like a man who thinks he has to win alone, Kieran, and that is going to get you killed in front of both packs."My father's voice cut across the training ring, and I lowered my fists, chest heaving, sweat soaking through the shirt I had already changed twice since dawn. Three days remained until the clearing, and every hour of training only seemed to sharpen how much I still did not know, a gap my father had apparently been waiting twenty two years to point out."I do not know what that means," I said, more sharply than I intended."It means you plant your feet like you expect no one is coming to help you," he said, circling me slowly, the same measured stillness he wore into council chambers now aimed entirely at picking apart my stance. "It means you have spent your whole life being taught that leadership is a weight you carry alone, and now, when it matters most, that lesson is going to cost you the fight."I wanted to argue, th

Male Lead POV: Kieran Ashveil"Kieran, get down!"Dorian's shout came a half second before the arrow that would have taken me through the throat instead buried itself in the fence post behind me, still humming from the force of it, silver tip glinting even in the dim evening light. I dropped low on instinct, my pulse hammering, scanning the tree line for a shape I already knew I would not find in time."Where," I demanded, already moving toward the shadows at the edge of the training yard."Northeast ridge," Dorian said, sprinting past me with a speed I had not seen from him since his own healing wound. "Two shooters, maybe three. Kieran, this is not Vane testing the boundaries of the old law. This is Vane trying to end the trial before it even starts."We found the ridge empty, of course, the shooters long gone into terrain they had clearly scouted for exactly this kind of retreat, leaving nothing behind but two more arrows lodged in tree trunks and the unmistakable scent of wolfsban

Male Lead POV: Kieran Ashveil "He is not fighting alone either, Kieran. Look at the tree line. Vane brought more than a hunter with him today." Dorian's warning reached me the moment we stepped into the clearing, and my stomach dropped as I followed his gaze to the shadows beyond the gathered packs, at least four armed figures positioned along the ridge where the arrows had come from two nights before. Both packs stood assembled on opposite sides of the clearing, Thornwolf and Duskmoor elders watching in tense silence, my father beside me with a stillness that did not quite hide the fury simmering underneath. "That violates the old law," Alaric said quietly, his voice carrying just far enough for the nearest witnesses to hear. "Trial by combat means one combatant each. Duskmoor's Alpha knows that as well as I do." "He knows," I said, watching Malachi Vane step into the clearing from the opposite tree line, silver blade already drawn, expression unreadable in the way only someone wh

Male Lead POV: Kieran Ashveil "The old law says you won the trial, Ashveil, but do not mistake a technicality for peace, because I am not finished with either of you, not by a long distance." Duskmoor's Alpha spat the words at me across the council fire that evening, his face still twisted with the same fury he had worn since Vane's blade hit the dirt, and I understood in that moment that whatever the old law technically decided, this fight had only shifted shape, not ended. My father stood beside me, arms crossed, the grim stillness of a man who had expected exactly this reaction and prepared for it anyway. "The law is clear," Alaric said, his voice carrying the flat authority of a reigning Alpha who had spent decades learning exactly how to make defiance sound reasonable. "Your combatant lost. Your archers violated the terms of single combat in front of two full packs as witness. You are fortunate this council is not demanding your standing for that alone." "My standing," Duskmoo