ManyWriters

The day my diagnosis of the "Shadow-Eaten Moonlight" disease was confirmed, a tremor seized my entire body. I desperately forged a mind-link with Lucian, the Alpha who had neglected me for months, threatening to sever our sacred mate bond if he didn’t return to the Stone Creek pack.
He did come back, but not alone. He returned with a stunning young she-wolf at his side.
"Seraphina saved my life during an attack by rogue wolves," he announced, his tone leaving no room for argument. "She’ll be staying in the Alpha’s cabin. As Luna, you ought to show some generosity."
I stood rooted to the ground, every muscle rigid, my voice a raw, hoarse whisper as I confessed, "I'm fading, Lucian."
But he merely scoffed, a chilling sound. Without a single glance, he ground the Moonpetal flower—a gift from Kyle, the very symbol of my vanishing soul—beneath his heel.
"I’ve returned, haven’t I?" he sneered. "Do you find these theatrics amusing?"
Triumph danced in Seraphina’s eyes. A single, delicate pronouncement from her—"The Luna’s negative aura will hinder my recovery"—was all it took for Lucian to expel me from the Alpha's cabin.
Cast out and utterly alone, my life force continued its relentless drain.
As I drew my last breath in the den at Whispering Falls, the sanctuary we had once shared, Lucian was leisurely patrolling the pack lands with Seraphina by his side.
A month slipped by before his Beta, Garrick, finally pierced through his ignorance, the truth delivered via their mind-link:
"Alpha," Garrick’s mind link told him, "the one who saved your life during the Red Creek ambush… it wasn’t Seraphina. It was our Luna, Ilana…"

Shadow Eaten Moonlight

But my voice was like ice as I stopped her.


"Seraphina, tell me, before the Moon Goddess, was it truly you who saved Lucian during the Red Creek ambush?"


The truth was, during those three months of estrangement, I had sought Lucian out once.


That day was the Blood Moon Festival. I’d personally prepared blessed offerings, shifted into my wolf form, and traversed three perilous territories to reach the border, my only wish to share the sacred ritual with him.


I’d thought, we can't keep on like this forever. One of us has to swallow our pride.


If Lucian wasn’t willing, then I would be the one.


But who could have known? The moment I arrived, I spotted a pack of rogue wolves lying in wait at Red Creek. They were brandishing sharp daggers, laced with shadow poison, and they lunged straight for Lucian.


A blade pierced his back, and he collapsed, instantly unconscious.


Chapter 5