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

I went to the secluded lair beside Whispering Falls.


During these past few months of our estrangement, Lucian had been patrolling the territory's border.


He hadn't offered me any support or guidance, but at least he'd left the den we had once shared.


I pushed the door open, and a chill gust immediately billowed out from the den, untouched for so long.


Yet, the scent was so achingly familiar, a pang of sorrow made my eyes sting.


In the beginning, this was where I had lived; it was our first home after we’d become mates.


It was only later, when I truly couldn't endure the days without him, that I'd moved to a place closer to the heart of the pack.


Before I knew it, we had been mated for five years.


Yet, in these five years as destined mates, aside from the hardships we'd weathered together at the very beginning, I could no longer find even a whisper of love.


Lucian would leave just like that; in his attempt to make me submit, he hadn't contacted me through our mind link for three whole months.


It was genuinely hard not to suspect that the love he’d once professed for me had all been a facade.


I shook my head, forcing myself not to dwell on what had happened.


Carefully placing the moonstone fragments in the center of the den, I collapsed onto the bed.


My lower back must have been fractured; it throbbed with constant pain.


I was on the verge of fading away anyway; what did a little pain like this matter?


I drifted into a hazy sleep. When I next awoke, it was with a violent start.The door creaked open, and Seraphina stood silhouetted in the entrance to our den, her eyes cold as she surveyed me.


"The Alpha doesn't even want you anymore? And you still have the heart to sleep?"


"What an idiot. If I were you, I’d sever the mate bond now, take a hefty compensation, and get the hell out of Stone Creek."


I looked up at her, my voice dripping with sarcasm.


"You’re just hoping we sever our mate bond so you can wiggle your way into my spot, aren't you?"


My words struck a nerve; her expression flickered, but she recovered quickly, her voice brazen.


"So what if I am? For months, I've been the one at the border, helping the Alpha manage the threat of rogue wolves, offering him combat support."


"Whenever he called, no matter how late, I was there in an instant. Sometimes, I’d even go on patrol with infected wounds."


"And you? While we were out there risking our lives, you were here, in the heart of Stone Creek, basking in the Moon Goddess’s adoration. Do you even deserve to be his mate?"


When I stood with Lucian against those dangers, she was still a nobody, probably drifting from one strange pack to another.


Back when we’d first mated, Lucian was still focused on threats from within Stone Creek. The two of us, we devised strategies side-by-side, confronting the old-guard packs who were greedily eyeing our territory and resources.


Losing blood, making sacrifices – those were the easy parts. The real challenge, the most critical part, was partaking in the Blood Moon Ritual.


And yet, as fate would cruelly have it, both of us were dangerously sensitive to the Blood Moon’s energies.


Chapter 3