The wolfless Heir

The lost cause

The chirping of early morning birds finally grew loud enough to drown out Raven’s distant cries. As Mallory walked farther away, the distance offered a bitter, aching kind of relief. With every single step she took, fresh, hot tears streamed down her cheeks, cutting clean paths through the grime on her face. The bitter cold of the night draped around her shoulders like a shroud, and suddenly, a sharp, searing cramp tore through her lower stomach.

She hissed in agony, slamming her hand down over her abdomen, but she couldn't suppress the cry that ripped from her throat.

"Arrhhggg!" she gasped, stumbling blindly.

She forced her tear-blurred eyes upward, taking in the sky, which remained pitch black and heavy with storm clouds. Her battered, exhausted legs finally buckled beneath her weight. Mallory collapsed face-first into the damp pile of dirt and rotting leaves on the forest floor.

Instantly, fresh, warm blood began to stream heavily from her body, pooling beneath her. Looking down with shaking eyes, she realized the trail of blood behind her had multiplied; she was hemorrhaging, losing far too much blood to survive for long.

In the distance, a haunting chorus of howls rose into the night air. Mallory clutched her hand tightly to her chest, her every thought anchored entirely to Raven. She knew deep down that Kaelen would already be aware of her disappearance by now. She threw a panicked, desperate glance back down the trail she had crawled—it still wasn't nearly far enough from the giant oak tree where she had left her baby. Once Kaelen’s elite trackers picked up her scent, it was only a matter of time before they discovered the infant.

"Moon Goddess, please... please help me," she choked out, her voice ragged and weak.

Her body felt heavier by the second, draining of warmth and life. She barely possessed an ounce of strength left to twitch a finger, let alone run. Yet, fueled purely by a primal, fierce motherly instinct, she forced her failing limbs to gather together. Ignoring the warm, sickening drip of blood soaking through her long dress, she muttered a fierce vow to the empty dark.

"Just a little more distance..." she whispered into the wind.

Flattening her body against the earth, her fingers clawed desperately into the damp soil. With every single inch she dragged herself forward, a fresh wave of blinding agony radiated through her core, wringing a soft, pathetic whimper from her lips.

"Son... you have to be safe. Mother will protect you," she muttered feverishly.

In her mind, a bittersweet hallucination bloomed—she pictured holding a healthy, laughing Raven in her arms, rocking him back and forth while singing the soft moonlight lullaby she had made up while he was still growing in her womb. Back then, he had always kicked happily whenever her voice filled the air.

A weak, heartbreaking smile touched her pale lips. For a split second, the agonizing pain of her ruined body melted away into a numbing haze, and she kept crawling, leaving a dark, crimson ribbon trailing behind her in the dirt.

The howls grew louder, creeping closer through the timber, but Mallory shoved her impending terror aside. Now was not the time to surrender to fear.

Tragically, she was entirely wrong, and realization struck her a moment too late.

Without warning, she had crawled straight into the most lethal trap of all: the dangerous, heavily contested territory border. Right in front of her path, standing tall and menacing under the canopy, stood a massive, coal-black wolf. Its razor-sharp eyes were locked directly onto her—a ruthless predator that had just stumbled upon crippled, easy prey.

Mallory sniffed the air desperately, her worst, most paralyzing fear instantly confirmed. The foul, rotting stench of a rogue filled her nostrils. Throughout his reign, Kaelen had spent years waging bloody wars against rogue invasions, driving them to absolute desperation. And right now, his beloved Luna had gift-wrapped herself as the ultimate bait.

Panic clawed at her throat, and she desperately attempted to shift into her wolf form. But it was utterly impossible. Her body was far too shattered, broken, and drained; the sheer physical toll of attempting a transformation right now would kill her instantly.

The rogue wolf began to circle her slowly, pacing like a vulture as it watched her pathetic, desperate attempts to drag herself away. It bared its dripping, yellowed teeth, stepping closer before rearing its massive weight up onto its hind legs, raising a lethal claw to strike.

Closing her eyes tightly, Mallory surrendered to the inevitable. If dying right here in the dirt was her final punishment, she would accept it, so long as Raven remained hidden.

Wham!

A heavy, bone-crushing swipe tore through the air, but Mallory felt no pain. Snapping her eyes open, she stared in utter shock: the massive black wolf had been violently knocked flat onto its back, pinned down by a much larger, fierce grey wolf perched squarely on its chest.

At that exact second, human voices shouted from a distance through the thicket.

"We found the Luna! She's over here!" a male voice roared.

Over a dozen heavy footsteps pounded across the forest floor. Letting out a long, ragged exhale, Mallory finally allowed her tense, agonized muscles to go entirely limp.

The grey wolf quickly shifted back into its human form, dropping to his knees right beside her just as the rest of the pack trackers rushed into the clearing.

"My Luna! The Alpha has been searching everywhere for you," the lead commander gasped, his voice tight with panic.

Mallory couldn't care less about his deep, panicked voice or the looming wrath of her mate. She was panting hard, fighting the black spots dancing across her vision. The commander leaned down, pressing gentle, urgent hands to her shoulders, before yelling up at the surrounding men.

"Her body is freezing cold! We need to get her back to the Redclaw infirmary immediately!"

"Wait—what about the child, Commander? There's no baby with her," a more subtle, hesitant voice called out from the group.

Mallory’s ears strained to listen. We have to find... she thought frantically.

Looking around with hazy eyes, she recognized the familiar scenery instantly—they were right at the edge of the pack's outer borders. She had made it this far on pure willpower alone. If she could just throw these men off the scent, their search for Raven would end here, saving her son.

Summoning the absolute final fragment of her life force, she reached out and painfully tugged at the commander’s heavy tunic. He snapped his attention back down to her.

"Luna..." he breathed.

Fresh, hot tears streamed down Mallory’s bruised chin, mixing with the dirt and blood.

"I killed him... I did kill him..." she choked out.

The words dissolved entirely in her throat as her eyes rolled back, her body finally giving out completely as she plunged into total unconsciousness.

Pandemonium erupted instantly among the trackers. They knew Kaelen would ruthlessly tear out every single one of their throats if his Luna died on their watch. Without wasting another second, the commander scooped up Mallory’s limp, bleeding body, shifting back into his massive grey wolf form to haul her across his back.

Back at the Redclaw pack palace, absolute chaos reigned.

Kaelen was pacing his grand hall like a caged beast, his fury shaking the chandeliers. In his mind, the Moon Goddess had dealt him a crushing humiliation: the woman he loved had defied his direct commands, and Lucy, a lowly maiden, had openly spat in his face by refusing his orders.

Only one unfortunate soul was currently available to bear the full brunt of his volcanic rage: Lucy, who had been brutally caught while attempting to flee the palace grounds.

She was currently slammed down hard onto her knees right in the center of the grand hall, shivering violently before the raging Alpha of the Redclaw pack.

"Where is the abomination?! Where is my Luna?!" Kaelen roared, his voice shaking the foundation of the room.

Lucy kept her lips sealed tight, staring stubbornly at the stone floor.

Kaelen clenched his fists so hard his knuckles cracked; long, lethal claws erupted from his fingertips, and he lunged forward, wrapping a heavy hand around Lucy’s throat. She clawed desperately at his iron grip, gasping for air as her feet lifted off the floor. With a brutal flick of his wrist, he hurled her across the room.

Lucy crashed heavily against the stone wall, collapsing into a heap as she coughed violently, struggling to drag oxygen back into her burning lungs. Kaelen took two menacing, heavy steps toward her, his eyes blazing red.

"I will ask you one more time—where is my—"

"Alpha! They found the Luna!"

A breathless, panicked voice cut sharply through the heavy tension of the hall.

Kaelen froze, tearing his lethal glare away from Lucy and fixing it on the trembling tracker who had just burst through the doors. "We need the pack healer immediately. She is in terrible shape," the tracker reported, panting heavily.

From across the room, Lucy watched through tear-filled eyes as the grey wolf trotted past the grand hall toward the pack infirmary, carrying Mallory's broken form. Lucy let out a shaky, desperate breath of relief.

Kaelen’s expression darkened into something terrifying—a volatile mix of desperate longing and murderous detest. He whipped back around, pinning the tracker with a stare that could turn stone to ash.

"Where is it?" Kaelen demanded, his voice dropping into a lethal, dangerous whisper. "Where is the abomination?"

The tracker swallowed hard, bowing his head slightly in terror.

"We carried out your exact orders, my Alpha," the tracker replied, his voice trembling. "At the east river... it is no more."

All the color drained completely from Lucy’s face. Deep inside her soul, her inner wolf let out a heartbreaking, shattered howl. We've lost him, she thought, tears blinding her vision as she stared toward the direction of the infirmary, wondering if Mallory would even survive if she ever found out that baby Raven had been drowned.