The Wolf Who Shattered Her Oath to Luna

Chapter 10

By the time Sera finished poking at the ward‑stone and the bodies were hauled away, my legs felt like they’d been swapped for hollow sticks.

Cassian didn’t give me a choice about where I went next.

“Home,” I said, when the last rogue had been dragged off.

“Infirmary,” he countered. “Then we see if you fall over or just pretend you’re fine.”

“I am—”

My knees chose that moment to wobble. Cassian’s hand shot out, steadying me with embarrassing ease.

Kael whistled softly. “Congratulations, Alpha. You’ve discovered her off switch.”

“Shut up, Kael,” we said in unison.

The infirmary smelled like boiled herbs and blood and sharp soap. Mara’s eyes widened when we staggered in—me pale and shaky, Cassian with dried rogue gore down his arm.

“What happened?” she demanded.

“Rogues tested the wards,” Cassian said. “We pushed back. Rhea overdid it.”

“I didn’t—”

Mara ignored me, her healer instincts switching on. “On the cot. Now.”

Arguing with my mother when she used that tone had never ended well. I let myself be guided to the nearest pallet. The room tilted once, then steadied.

Sera slipped in behind us, Helena at her shoulder. Nia abandoned her stack of bandages, eyes wide.

“Vitals are stable,” Mara muttered after a moment, fingers cool on my wrist. “Burned palm, overtaxed channels, exhaustion.” Her look at Cassian was sharp. “You plugged her straight into the wards, didn’t you?”

“I plugged myself into her,” he said. “It held.”

“That’s not the same thing as safe,” she snapped.

Helena raised a hand. “We can argue about safe later. Right now, we need to understand what just happened while the pattern’s still fresh.”

Sera’s gaze landed on me, bright and avid. “Rhea, describe everything. From the moment you touched the stone.”

“Can I get water first?” I muttered.

Kael shoved a cup into my hands before anyone else could move. “Already ahead of you, Hollow girl.”

I sipped, throat grateful, then closed my eyes. “It pulled me in. The same web as before—lines of light from stone to stone. One was frayed. Something on the outside was…chewing at it. Not random. Aiming right where it was thinnest.”

“The presence?” Helena asked.

I nodded. “Cold. Curious. It felt…annoyed when I grabbed the line. Like I’d grabbed its fingers in a door.”

“And then Cassian joined you,” Sera said.

“Yeah.” I cracked one eye to glance at him. He was leaning against the wall, arms crossed, knuckles white. “He told me to share. I didn’t exactly have a manual.”

“When I took her wrist,” he said slowly, “I felt the wards. Not just weight. Structure. Like—”

“Like a riverbed,” I supplied. “You widened it.”

He inclined his head. “Whatever was on the other side slid along that channel. Tested me. Then backed off when we pushed together.”

Sera’s lips moved around silent thoughts. “An external mind using Luna’s current as a probe…balanced by two internal anchors…” She focused back on us. “You understand this makes you a conduit pair.”

The words landed like stones.

“A what?” I asked.

“In the oldest records,” Helena said quietly, “there are mentions of Luna‑touched wolves who could channel Her power between them and the land. Ward‑keepers. Always in pairs—Alpha and conduit, or sometimes siblings. We thought those lines died out.”

My stomach lurched. “You think that’s what this is?”

“I think,” Helena said, “that tonight, if either of you had let go, that crack would’ve become a door.”

Silence pressed in.

“So your solution,” Mara said, folding her arms, “is to experiment on my daughter until we’re sure she’s a walking lightning rod.”

Sera flinched. “Experiment is an ugly word.”

“Accurate, though,” Kael muttered.

Cassian pushed off the wall. “We’re not turning her into a tool,” he said, voice low. “We are already in someone else’s sights. I won’t go in blind.”

He looked at me. Really looked. “We do this on your terms, Rhea. If you say stop, we stop.”

My laugh came out thin. “Feels a little late to ask for consent after you used me as a surge protector.”

A flicker of guilt crossed his face. “Fair.”

Helena leaned on the foot of the cot. “We can start small. Controlled contact with the wards, with full backup. No battle, no rogues. Map what you feel. See what Cassian feels through you. The more we know, the harder it is for whoever’s out there to surprise us.”

“And if the Council finds out,” Mara said, “that you’ve turned the Hollow girl into a custom ward‑channel?”

Cassian’s jaw tightened. “They already think she’s a risk. At least this way, the risk is ours to use.”

Everyone looked at me then.

Rogue blood still stained the Alpha’s sleeve. My palm throbbed. Somewhere out beyond the trees, that cold presence hovered at the edge of the wards, waiting for another weakness.

If I said no, they’d try something anyway. Without me. With less control. With more casualties.

Luna pulsed, quiet, under my skin.

“Fine,” I said. “We test. Slow. My rules.”

Cassian nodded once. “Your rules.”

I caught his gaze. “And you don’t get to keep calling me Hollow,” I added. “Not in private.”

Something like a smile ghosted across his mouth. “Then you’ll have to help me find a better word for what you are.”