The Wolf Who Shattered Her Oath to Luna

Chapter 6

By the fourth night, sleep gave up on me.

Every time I closed my eyes, the Alpha’s Call rushed back—soundless and heavy, that moment when it should have dragged me under and instead broke against whatever kept me standing.

I lay on my back, staring at the low ceiling, counting knots in the wood. Lysa snored softly on the pallet across from mine. Outside, Nightwind’s noises had thinned to the odd bark, a distant laugh, branches creaking.

Under it all, like a pulled-too-tight string, sat Luna.

She’d never felt this loud before.

I swung my feet to the floor, hissed at the cold, and gave up on pretending. Downstairs, the house was dark, one ember glowing in the hearth. My parents’ door was closed, my father’s snore a low rumble behind it.

I slipped into my jacket and stepped outside.

The village under the moon looked unreal—cottages silvered, shadows thick. The air smelled of damp earth, pine… and the faint metallic buzz of the wards at the edges of our land.

I followed the pull in my chest toward the trees.

The infirmary’s roof slid past on my right. I touched the doorframe out of habit; the wood felt calm. Normal. The pressure in my ribs only grew when I turned toward the treeline.

The closer I walked, the more it built. Not sound—more like a headache, but in my bones.

The nearest ward-stone stood a few strides into the forest, as tall as my hip, carved with old runes that should have glowed faintly blue.

They didn’t.

From a distance, it looked fine. Moss. Dewy spiderweb. But up close, the magic in it felt…wrong. Not empty. Twisted. Like somebody had taken the hum of the wards and tied it into a knot.

I set my fingertips to the stone.

The world lurched.

For a heartbeat I wasn’t in the forest. I was inside a web of light: Luna-thread laced from stone to stone, tree to tree, pack to land. One strand—the one under my hand—was frayed.

Something tugged on it from the outside.

I sucked in a breath. The stone burned cold under my skin. Instinct yelled at me to pull away. My fingers tightened instead.

Show me, I thought, not sure who I was talking to.

The tug shifted, like whoever was on the other end had just noticed I was there.

Awareness brushed the edge of my mind—cold, unfamiliar. Not a voice, exactly. More like the feeling of being watched from far away.

My heart stuttered.

“Rhea?”

The shout snapped everything.

I jerked my hand back and spun.

Kael stood a few paces away, hair mussed, shirt half-buttoned, a lantern swinging from his hand. Light carved his face into sharp planes.

“What the hell are you doing out here alone?” he hissed. “Do you want Thorne to spontaneously combust?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” I said. My own voice sounded off. “The wards are…noisy.”

He squinted past me at the stone. “They look the same.”

“They’re not.”

Kael edged closer. “You going to explain, or is this one of those Hollow things I’m supposed to politely ignore?”

I swallowed. “Someone’s pulling on them,” I said. “From outside. Like last time, before the rogue got through. Only louder. Sharper. Like they know exactly where to poke.”

His easy humor vanished. “Rogues?”

“Rogues don’t do careful.” I shook my head. “They smash. This is…surgical.”

He went very still. “Have you told Cassian?”

“I’m telling you.”

“Rhea.”

“If I wake the Alpha up in the middle of the night to say ‘hi, the Hollow girl feels weird,’ he’ll put me in a box just to get some sleep,” I muttered.

It was a joke. Sort of.

Kael didn’t laugh. “Tomorrow, first thing,” he said. “You tell him. If the wards are cracking, I don’t care what Thorne thinks of your label.”

I looked back at the stone.

The wrongness was still there. Just…waiting. Like whatever had tugged on that frayed line had let go for now. Or pulled back to watch.

A shiver crawled up my spine.

“Tomorrow,” I agreed.

Kael fell into step beside me as we turned toward the village. “And if you sneak out here alone again,” he added, “I’m telling your mother.”

“Traitor.”

“Damn right.”

Nightwind slept under Luna, roofs silver and still. But the silence didn’t feel peaceful anymore.

It felt like the whole pack holding its breath, waiting to see what the Hollow girl would do next.