The Alpha's Midnight Moon

Chapter 19: A Ghost in the Moonlight

The celebration in the Great Hall was unlike anything I had ever seen. Wolves in their human forms danced, laughed, and drank mead that smelled of honey and wild berries. Kaelen never left my side, his hand resting possessively on the small of my back, a constant reminder that I was now the Luna of the Midnight Moon.

"You look troubled, my moon," Kaelen whispered into my ear, his breath warm against my skin. "The pack loves you. The Elders fear you. The world is at your feet."

"I know," I replied, forcing a smile. "It’s just... so much has changed in such a short time."

I looked out over the balcony at the swirling snow and the distant lights of the village. And then, my heart stopped.

Standing at the very edge of the courtyard, half-hidden by a stone pillar, was a man. He wasn't dressed like a pack member. He wore a modern black coat, and his hair was styled in a way that looked starkly out of place in this ancient mountain sanctuary. As the moonlight hit his face, a cold dread washed over me, more chilling than the winter wind.

It was Mark. My ex-boyfriend. The man who had cheated on me and sent me running into the woods on that fateful Christmas Eve.

But how? How could a human find this place? And more importantly, why was he smiling? He didn't look like a man who was lost; he looked like a man who had finally found his prize.

Before I could point him out to Kaelen, Mark winked at me and vanished back into the shadows. My mental link with Kaelen spiked with my sudden spike of fear.

"Aria? What did you see?" Kaelen’s voice roared in my mind, his body instantly tensing into a combat stance.

"Someone from my past," I whispered, my voice trembling. "He shouldn't be here, Kaelen. He’s supposed to be hundreds of miles away."

The romance of the night was suddenly overshadowed by a dark mystery. If Mark was here, it meant Silas wasn't the only enemy we had to worry about. The world of humans and the world of wolves were about to collide in a way I never expected.