The Moons Choice

Chapter Five What Balance Had Been Made Of

The first thing that the pack lost was patience.

No one noticed this at first. Unnecessary arguments started over things that never used to be a problem. Like the schedule for training, the areas where people were allowed to hunt and where everyone sat during meals, with the council. People were getting loud fast. You could see the anger in the way people were showing their teeth when, usually, they would just talk things through and calm down. The council meetings used to be a time for words to settle disagreements, but now it seemed like that was not happening anymore.

“Enough,” Elder Korrin snapped one morning, slamming his staff against the stone.

The wolves did not quiet.

They looked at him, as they were confused and they also felt restless. They were getting really annoyed, but they did not know what was bothering them about the man.

That was when the elders started to get really worried about the situation, with the elders. The elders were getting anxious. They did not know what to do.

Millie had never been the one to lead meetings. She had never given orders to people. Millie had never even yelled at anyone before.

She would sit near the back of the room with her hands folded in her lap. She was always listening very carefully to what was being said.

The room just felt more stable when she was in it. The funny thing is how nobody really knew when this started happening. The room always seemed to feel better when she was around. The room felt steadier when she was there.

Now, the thing just did not work.

The hunters came back with nothing a lot of the time. This was not because the forest did not have animals. It was because the hunters had disagreements in the middle of the hunt. They would split up early and misunderstand the signs that the hunters had been following for years. The hunters would misjudge these signals. That is why they returned empty-handed more often, because honestly, the forest was full of animals. They were no longer following signs that were more or less second nature to them, which was the main problem.

Two enforcers got into a fight near the armory. They actually came to blows, which was unheard of for the people of this park. It was a pretty intense situation. There were actual blows. Blood hit the stone.

They stood there, catching their breath, really shocked. It was like they were waking up from some kind of trance.

One of them said, "I do not know why I did that," and they looked at their hands. Their hands were shaking a lot. The person was really confused about what they had done. They kept staring at their shaking hands.

Neither did anyone else.

Kids started waking up from dreams, crying about the Moon being too loud. The relationships between them began to suffer. People were getting really frustrated and annoyed with each other. The Omegas and their mates were not getting along like they used to. The Moon was still being too loud.

There was a feeling that something was not quite right. It was like a building that had a support taken away, but you could not see it.

The elders got together for an emergency council meeting.

Elder Maevra said, “She stabilized conflict,” slowly and she meant Millie. You could tell that she was getting really scared. She said that she did not make things better with magic or strength. She made things better by being there.

Elder Korrin’s mouth thinned. “You’re saying the Beta’s daughter—”

“Was a keystone,” Maevra cut in. “Yes.”

The room was really quiet. Silence fell heavy over the chamber. It was like you could hear nothing at all. The silence was very strong. It felt like it was weighing down on everything in the room.

Another elder spoke up, saying that she never actually learned how to be, like a Luna.

"No," Maevra said in agreement. The Moon went ahead and trained her anyway.

The pack grounds outside were really stirred up. People were getting upset. The pack grounds were filled with a lot of unrest.

Millie was not there, and that made things feel really tough. When orders were given, it felt like they were being mean. Every correction stung. The people around me, like the wolves, seemed to be saying yes to everything. Deep down, they were still very angry. You could tell they were resentful.

It was now a case of obedience without harmony, hierarchy without balance.

That night, the Beta stood alone in Millie’s old room.

Her bed was still neatly made. Her scent, faint but lingering—soft, grounding.

He sank onto the mattress and pressed his hands to his face.

He said to himself quietly, I should have stopped him.

Miles away, the Alpha staggered beneath the same Moon, breath ragged, chest aching.

Back in the pack, the breaking point came quietly.

A challenge was issued.

It was not openly issued. But it rippled through the ranks like a tremor beneath stone.

If the Alpha came back now, the people would not get down on their knees just because they feel loyal to the Alpha. It was only because the pack was starving for balance. The balance that the pack needed was really important. They had to have it, or things would not be right and they would do what they had to do to get the balance back.

Millie had taken it with her when she went away. In the city where humans live, there she was. She did not have any bad dreams.

And the pack finally figured out the truth, but it was too late for them.

The pack had never lost its king. They had always been very hopeful about the king. They had only ever thought about their king, but it had never even occurred to them that they had lost someone even greater.

They had lost their queen.