The crescent pact

Chapter 13: The wolf and the flame

(Kael’s POV)

I should’ve let her hate me.

That would’ve been easier — safer. But how do you hate the one thing the moon itself has chosen for you?

When the hunters attacked, I didn’t think — I acted. One moment, Lyria was in my arms; the next, she was gone, the air scorched with moonfire.

I can still smell her scent — jasmine, pine, and something ancient. It haunts me like a curse.

I’m hiding in the ruins beneath the forest now, blood seeping through my sleeve. The Council will come for me soon; they always do when the bond reawakens. But this time, it’s different. She’s different.

Lyria doesn’t just carry the moon’s light — she commands it. When her power burst, I saw something no Alpha should ever see — the mark of the lost Luna, glowing on her skin.

The mark of the one destined to break every law of the Pact.

I close my eyes, trying to block out the image of her face — the fear, the confusion, the way her lips parted when the bond flared between us. The way my wolf howled her name like a prayer.

“Kael of the Crescent,” a voice hisses from the shadows.

I spin, claws extended. It’s Darian, my second-in-command — and the last person I wanted to see.

“She’s alive,” he says, eyes gleaming. “But the Council has declared her rogue.”

My heart stops. “What?”

“They say she attacked their scouts. They’re hunting her as we speak.”

I feel the world tilt. My control fractures, the wolf inside roaring to life. “If they touch her—”

Darian raises a hand. “Then what? You’ll expose the bond? You’ll risk everything you’ve built for a girl you barely know?”

I grip his collar, pulling him close. “She’s not just a girl. She’s the key to the Moon’s curse — and the reason I’m still breathing.”

He stares at me, realization dawning. “You’ve bonded.”

I release him with a shove, pacing, fists trembling. “The mark ignited. It’s not supposed to happen again — not after what the last Luna did.”

“Then you know what that means,” Darian says quietly. “The prophecy’s beginning again.”

I look up at the full moon slicing through the ruins. The wind carries her scent again — faint, desperate, calling me home.

“I won’t lose her,” I whisper. “Not to the Council. Not to fate.”

The wolf within me growls in agreement. And under the moonlight, I let the beast rise.