chapter 5
910 Words
Chapter Five: The Mark of the Moon
The moon hung high over Raven Hollow, pale and swollen. It bathed the streets in silver, casting shadows that whispered secrets. Riven stood on Ayla’s rooftop long after she’d gone back inside, eyes fixed on the sky. Something stirred deep within his chest. A pull. A warning.
The full moon was coming.
And with it, the Marking.
Inside, Ayla lay on her bed, wide awake. Her fingers traced the obsidian crescent at her neck. Her mind was a hurricane—memories colliding, truths unraveling. She couldn’t deny what she was anymore. Duskborn. Descendant of a forgotten bloodline. Hunted.
But why her?
She’d lived a quiet life. She hadn’t shifted, hadn’t killed, hadn’t even felt power—until Riven.
Her phone buzzed.
Unknown Number: You’re not safe with him.
Another message followed.
Meet me at the cemetery gates. Midnight. Come alone.
She stared at it, heart thundering. A trap. Obviously. But something in her gut twisted—not fear. Recognition.
At the cemetery it was silent, as always . Fog coiled around tombstones like smoke. Ayla kept to the shadows, hoodie up, pendant tucked inside her shirt.
A figure emerged from the mist.
Tall. Broad. Familiar.
Her breath caught.
“Lucien?”
He smiled—a slow, smug curve of lips she hadn’t seen in years. Lucien Blackmoor. Cassian’s second son. Her childhood friend.
Her first love.
“You’re real,” she whispered.
“As real as the night you left me to burn.”
She flinched. “I didn’t know—”
“I waited for you. You promised you’d come back.”
“I was a child, Lucien. I barely understood—”
“I never forgot you.”
His said ,
“Why did you ask me to be here?” she asked.
“I came to warn you. Cassian wants you marked. Bound. If he gets to you during the full moon, it won’t matter who you were. You’ll become his.”
Ayla’s blood ran cold. “Marked?”
Lucien nodded grimly. “The Mark of the Moon. It’s an ancient rite. Permanent. If you’re marked by an Alpha, your blood, your power—your will—belongs to him.”
“And Riven?”
Lucien’s eyes darkened. “He’ll fight to protect you. But it won’t be enough. Not against Cassian.”
“Why help me, then?” she asked, searching his face. “Because of the past?”
“Because despite everything… I still see her in you. The girl I loved. The one who used to sneak me books and bandage my bruises.”
Her heart twisted.
Lucien took a slow step forward. “Come with me. I can get you out of the city. I have a safehouse. You don’t have to fight this war.”
But Ayla wasn’t that girl anymore. The one who ran and hid.
“I am not going to hide with you,” she said.
“Then you’ll die.”
He turned, disappearing into the fog without another word.
Riven stood in the corner of Ayla’s bedroom when she returned.
“You followed me,” she said.
“I smelled him,” Riven replied. “Lucien.”
She didn’t deny it.
“He offered me safety,” she said. “But only after telling me I’m about to be claimed.”
Riven’s eyes glowed faintly. “It’s true. Cassian will use the full moon. The Duskborn weren’t just healers—they were vessels. If he marks you, he’ll be stronger than any Alpha in a thousand years.”
“Can you stop him?”
“I can try.”
“That’s not enough.”
He stepped closer, eyes softening. “I can protect you. But you have to trust me.”
“I do.”
“No secrets?”
“No more secrets.”
He reached into his shirt and pulled out a pendant nearly identical to hers—only his bore a scratch across the crescent.
“Two halves,” he murmured. “Of a bond long broken.”
Their pendants pulsed faintly. A resonance older than magic.
“What does it really mean?” she asked.
“It means we were chosen.”
Ayla never realized she was shaking until he wrapped his arms around her. the tension in her body desolved. He was warmth. He was gravity. He was the truth that had waited for her since the fire.
And when he kissed her—it wasn’t soft.
It was possession. Desperation. A promise sealed not with words, but mouths and hands and heat.
His breath brushed her lips. “When the moon rises… I’ll fight him. But if I fall—”
“You won’t.”
“If I fall,” he said again, firmer, “you run. You take the pendant and go. There are others out there. The old bloodlines. They’ll help you.”
“No,” she whispered. “We end this. Together.”
Riven’s voice broke slightly. “You still don’t understand. If I mark you first…”
Her eyes widened. “You’d bind me to you.”
“Better me than him.”
She didn’t move away. “how does it feel like?”
He placed his lips at the curve of her neck. “Like burning. Like becoming something you can never undo.”
She shivered, not from fear—but anticipation.
And she whispered, “Then burn me, she said
- Writer
