Rejected by the Moon, Claimed by Night

The Lycan in the Trees

Lucien should have been the most frightening thing in the woods, but the way he kept looking at me; steady, unblinking, and almost unnervingly focused, made my skin prickle all the same.

His silver-gray eyes seemed to strip me down piece by piece, brushing past my pride, my defenses, and everything I used to hide behind, until I felt bare beneath that predator’s stare. I hated that. I hated that I noticed how long his strides were, or how easily he moved through the dark as if the forest itself belonged to him.

Still, I forced myself to keep pace beside him as he led me deeper into the black edge of the woods.

The air grew heavier the farther we went, dense with pine, rusted iron, and something older. Something that pressed against my chest like a warning.

Then the trees gave way to an open space.

A hidden den rose from the side of a jagged cliff, it wasn't built like any polished pack house I had ever seen. This place looked carved for war. It had stones with hard angles, and shadows clinging to every corner like they had been bred there.

Several massive, dark-haired lycan warriors moved through the darkness, and the moment we stepped into view, they stopped.

Every sharp amber gaze turned to me.

They looked at me like I was a problem, a threat, or something that had wandered in where it did not belong and might, at any moment, become lethal.

Lucien did not acknowledge them. He walked straight into the main stone hall and pointed toward a rough wooden bench near the wall.

I sat because refusing to, would have been stupid.

He remained standing.

His presence cast a long shadow across the room, and I hated how small it made everything feel.

Then his voice broke the quiet.

“Why did Edward really throw you out?” Lucien asked, his low, vibrating voice breaking the silence like a heavy hammer. “An alpha does not alienate an alpha-line descendant over a delayed shift alone.”

I leaned back against the stone wall and folded my arms, lifting my chin even though my pulse had already started misbehaving.

“Maybe he was just intimidated by my winning personality. Or maybe he’s just a polished, shallow coward who panics at the slightest threat to his fragile authority.”

Lucien did not blink, not even once.

That cold, still expression of his only made my irritation worse.

“I do not have time for clever deflection, Arieth. He called you a witch. He called you a disgrace to the alpha line. A true leader does not scream accusations unless he is terrified of the truth.”

For a moment, I said nothing because the words hit too close.

My mouth tightened, and the memory of Edward’s face twisted through my mind again; the disgust, the fear, the way he had looked at me like I was something rotten he could not afford to touch.

“He was terrified,” I admitted, and the c***k in my voice annoyed me more than the truth itself. “My bloodline is supposedly extinct, and he was scared of what that legacy meant for his position.”

A deep chuckle cut through the room.

It came from the doorway.

A blunt, heavily built warrior leaned against the stone frame with a look of open amusement, his mouth twitching as if he had been waiting for a reason to laugh.

“Well, Boss, she certainly has enough mouth to compensate for lacking a wolf,” Noah Reed said, shaking his head as he walked in. “Though if she keeps talking to you like that, I might have to dig a hole for her before morning.”

I narrowed my eyes on him.

“If you try to dig a hole for me, you’ll be the one lying in it, enforcer.”

Noah let out a sharp laugh that bounced off the stone walls and made the air shift just enough to ease the pressure in the room.

“I like her. She’s small, but she’s vicious. Can we keep her, or is she going to poison our food with that witch blood Alfred was crying about?”

Lucien’s tone dropped.

“Noah, leave us.”

The humor drained out of the room at once.

Noah lifted two fingers in a mock salute and disappeared back into the shadows, still grinning to himself.

Now it was only Lucien and me.

The heat in the air changed.

Lucien took one slow step toward me, then another, until the firelight caught the hard edges of his face and the old scars on his skin. He looked down at me like he already knew too much.

“He was right to fear you,” Lucien murmured, his eyes flashing with a dangerous, possessive intensity. “You are hiding something deep inside your blood, Arieth.”

My heart slammed hard enough to hurt.

“I am not hiding anything from you,” I snapped, though the words came out tighter than I wanted. His closeness was doing things to my skin that I refused to examine too closely.

To prove my point, and to escape the weight of him, I stood up and moved toward a cluttered wooden table near the hearth.

That was when I saw it.

A strange charm, carved from dark old bone, hung from the shelf edge. It seemed to hum quietly, almost like it recognized me.

Like it was calling to me.

Before Lucien could stop me, I reached out and pressed my bare fingers against the cold carved bone.

The pain hit instantly.

A violent wave of black magic ripped under my skin, sharp and vicious, like lightning made of shadows. My hazel eyes flashed silver so bright it hurt. My breath caught in my throat as power exploded through my veins, ancient and untamed, awakening something deep inside me that had clearly been waiting far too long.