Fractures and flames
1342 Words
Lyra — Exiled by the Moon
They locked her in the Hollow Den — once a ceremonial chamber, now repurposed for containment. Lyra clawed at the stone walls, scent bleeding from her skin like poison.
She hadn’t just lost the bond.
Her wolf was turning on her.
She could feel it in her spine — the slow withdrawal of her inner beast, furious, betrayed by the lies Lyra had fed it.
“You were supposed to win,” she whispered, rocking herself. “You stole the scent. You wore it perfectly. You fooled them. Why aren’t you fighting for me?”
But there was only silence inside her mind now.
No wolf-song.
No connection.
Just emptiness.
Lyra screamed. The sound echoed, but no one came.
---
Darius waited in the upper spire, the one where he’d once imagined bringing his mate — the real one. The air was sharp. The shadows thick with the weight of what he’d ignored.
The door opened. Averie stepped in.
Not timid. Not fragile. Not his.
He stood. “You should have come to me first.”
She tilted her head. “Why? So you could ignore me again?”
“That’s not fair—”
“You’re right,” she cut in, stepping closer. “It’s not fair. None of it was. Not when I woke up scentless. Not when Lyra pretended it was hers. Not when you chose her without ever waiting to know if something was wrong.”
His throat bobbed. “You don’t understand—”
“I understand perfectly, Darius.” Her eyes burned. “You were afraid. Not of losing me. But of being wrong. Of what it would mean to the pack if their golden Alpha made a mistake.”
“I felt something with her,” he said, weaker now. “I thought it was fate.”
“But you knew it wasn’t complete,” Averie whispered. “You knew it didn’t burn.”
Silence.
Then—
“She’s breaking,” he murmured. “And I don’t know if I feel sorry for her or myself.”
Averie stepped back. “That’s not my burden to carry anymore.”
---
That night, the Moon rose blood-orange. Kaelen and Averie slipped away from the walls of Highfang and into the northern glade — the place where seers said soul-bonds could be sealed by moonlight alone, without Council sanction.
But time was short.
The bond had begun to hum at a dangerous frequency. It buzzed in their bones. In their skin. In the silence between words. If they didn’t claim it soon — if they resisted too long — it could backlash.
“Are you sure?” Kaelen asked as they approached the glade.
Averie turned to him.
“I’m not sure of anything,” she said. “But I choose you. Not because of a scent. Not because of a Rite. But because when I was lost, you found me. And you didn’t want to own me. You wanted me to choose.”
He took her hands.
“And I choose you,” he said. “Even if this ends in fire.”
They stepped into the glade.
The Moon fell across their skin like silk and ice, and the air around them shimmered. The ground pulsed. And then—
Their bond ignited.
Not a claiming.
Not a mark.
But a tether.
Made of choice, forged in pain, and baptized in truth.
Miles away, the Council felt the pulse.
So did Darius.
And deep in her stone cell, Lyra let out a scream of pure, helpless rage.
The Moon hadn’t even faded from the sky when the Council summoned them.
Averie and Kaelen stood in the Hall once more — this time, unmasked, fully bound, their scent tether humming through the chamber like wildfire.
Riven was livid.
“You completed the bond without our sanction. Without Rite. Without tradition.”
“We completed it under the Moon,” Averie said. “Isn’t that the oldest Rite of all?”
“You defied structure,” another Elder snapped. “What’s next — alphas chosen by instinct alone?”
Myrra, surprisingly, remained quiet.
Her gaze was locked on Averie’s hands — still glowing faintly from the aftershock of bonding. Not gold. Not silver. Something new. Something ancient.
“You felt it, didn’t you?” Myrra finally said. “The way it burned through the glade. That was no ordinary tether.”
“It was choice,” Kaelen said. “That’s what makes it dangerous to you.”
Riven slammed a staff against the floor. “The bond must be severed.”
Averie didn’t flinch. “Try.”
A challenge. Not a threat.
But in it was fire.
The Council erupted.
Voices rose. Elders shouted. The word banishment was whispered. So was execution.
And above it all — the Moonstone trembled.
Cracked.
Just slightly.
But enough.
Enough to mean the laws were failing.
----
Far beyond the borderlands, beneath the sleeping soil of the Dreadfen Woods, something stirred.
The Wyrmroot vines shivered. The moss curled in on itself. And from deep below, where scent and memory fused into ancient magic, a creature stretched.
It had no name.
Not anymore.
It had only scent.
The scent of wolves.
The scent of stolen fates.
The scent of a girl once marked by the gods, now claimed by another — and that imbalance, that twist in fate, had awakened it.
It rose slowly, shaking the centuries from its limbs.
It remembered Averie.
It remembered the day her scent was cut from the thread of destiny.
And it was angry.
Back at the stronghold, Myrra found Averie and Kaelen before the guards could.
“There’s going to be a vote,” she said. “By dawn. If they rule against you, they’ll force a severance. It’s painful. Sometimes lethal.”
“We won’t let it happen,” Kaelen said darkly.
Myrra looked at Averie. “You need more than courage. You need allies. There’s a law, buried deep — an ancient clause. If your bond is recognized by the Lunar Flame, no Council can break it.”
“What’s the Lunar Flame?” Averie asked.
Myrra paused. “It’s not a what. It’s a who.”
Averie’s heart pounded. “Who?”
Myrra’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“The Moon-Blessed Alpha. The one your scent was meant to awaken. The one who vanished before you were born.”
Kaelen’s jaw tightened. “Are you saying she was never meant to be with Darius?”
“No,” Myrra said. “I’m saying Averie’s scent was divine. And someone tried to bury that truth before it could ever fulfill its purpose.”
" so you mean we have to go to the Luna flame" Averie asked
" and where can we find her"
" leave that to me" Myrra said leaving to get something.
-----------
They left at twilight.
Myrra gave Averie a scroll, bound in obsidian thread — the symbol of the Lunar Flame. “You’ll know her when you see her,” she said. “She doesn’t hide. She burns.”
Averie and Kaelen rode swift, silent across the edge of the Dreadfen. The air was thick with old magic. The trees whispered. The sky bled orange.
Averie clutched the scroll tighter. “What if we’re too late?”
Kaelen glanced at her. “Then we burn the rules to the ground.”
They reached the Flame Cavern before midnight.
It looked like nothing — a cave swallowed by brambles.
But inside… the walls pulsed with veins of fire.
And in the center stood a woman cloaked in living flame — her hair silver, her eyes deep crimson, her skin glowing like embers.
The Lunar Flame.
She turned slowly. “You brought chaos with you.”
Averie stepped forward. “I brought truth.”
“And love?” the woman asked.
Averie looked at Kaelen. “Yes.”
The Lunar Flame raised one hand. “Then come. Let the Moon decide if it’s enough.”
- Writer
