Perfect Luna, Double Crowned

Chapter 19 – Bait

The charm felt heavier than bone should.

It sat in my palm like a piece of Ashridge torn straight out of the past—three little teeth wired together, a twist of dark thread through the center. Once, I’d made dozens of these. For luck. For “protection.”

Now it just looked like a liar.

We’d pulled back from the snare‑ridden creek to a flatter stretch of ground where the packs could breathe without tripping over steel. Two fires burned low, one on either side of the invisible line, heat mingling in the cold air.

Caelan and Rylan stood with me between them, the charm passing from my hand to theirs, then back again.

“This is your work?” Caelan asked quietly.

“My teacher’s,” I said. “I tied enough of them I could do it in my sleep. We thought they scared off bad spirits.”

“Turns out they called worse ones,” Rylan muttered.

Stormclaw and Moonfang ringed us in a rough circle. Not mixing exactly, but not glaring daggers either. Not yet.

“We can keep cutting these down,” Taryn said. “Burn them. Patrol harder.”

“And stay one step behind whoever’s hanging them,” Liora added. “Forever.”

Kade eyed the charm like it might bite. “You said we needed a new game, not theirs. What does that look like, Luna?”

Dozens of eyes swung to me.

No pressure.

I rolled the charm between my fingers, feeling every twist of wire, every notch of tooth. “Whoever’s doing this wants three things,” I said. “Blood on the road. Wolves in traps. Me running in circles until I drop.”

“Ambitious,” Kade muttered.

“So we give them something else,” I went on. “We stop being the ones stumbling into snares and start being the teeth waiting on the other side.”

Finn frowned. “You want to… set a trap for the trappers?”

“Pretty much,” I said. “They’re baiting us with wolves and humans. Fine. We bait them with something they want badly enough to show up in person.”

Rylan’s gaze sharpened. “You.”

“Me,” I agreed. “Specifically, me very obviously cutting down their pretty little charms on the same path, at the same time, for several nights in a row.”

Caelan’s head snapped toward me. “Absolutely not.”

Rylan’s wasn’t far behind. “You’re not walking around with ‘kidnap me’ painted on your back.”

“Already am,” I said. “Every time I step onto a road with guns or a trail with silver.”

“That’s different,” Caelan said. “That’s necessity. This is dangling raw meat.”

“It’s control,” I said, voice sharper. “Right now they’re choosing when and where to hit. We react. We patch. We bury. I’m done reacting.”

The charm dug into my palm. I let it.

“You both keep saying you won’t let anyone else write my choices,” I said. “That includes the ghosts of Ashridge and whatever fanatic thinks stringing up pups’ colors is a good recruitment tool.”

Silence pressed in.

Rylan’s jaw worked. “Say we agree,” he said. “Your brilliant plan involves what? You strolling down the path humming while they throw a net over you? We jump out and shout ‘surprise’?”

“I’m not stupid,” I said. “We use human cover. Patrols hidden off‑trail. You two somewhere you can get to me before anyone drags me into the dark.”

“So you as bait,” Caelan said slowly. “Us as jaws.”

“Now you’re getting it,” I said.

Kade whistled under his breath. “I like this one better when it doesn’t involve you in the middle.”

“Middle is where I live,” I said. “Might as well use it.”

Liora rubbed her temples. “Rowan is going to have an aneurysm.”

“Rowan told me to pick my battles,” I said. “This is one.”

Rylan met Caelan’s gaze over my head. Something taut passed between them—anger, fear, something like reluctant respect.

“If we do this,” Rylan said, “we do it my way on territory choice. I know where their trails cross with least human traffic.”

“And my way on fallback routes,” Caelan added. “If this goes sideways, I’m not losing you because no one planned an exit.”

“Deal,” I said, too quickly.

“No,” they said together.

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

“We’ll discuss terms,” Caelan said.

“Extensively,” Rylan added.

The fact that they’d managed to unite on something—annoying as it was—tightened my throat in a stupid, painful way.

“Fine,” I said. “Extensive terms. While you two argue, I’ll actually get work done.”

I turned to the circle of watching wolves.

“Here’s what I need,” I said, letting my voice carry. “Mixed patrol pairs. One from each pack. People who can move quiet, shift quick, and not panic if the person they’re guarding starts glowing.”

A few short laughs, sharp with nerves.

“Taryn, Jace, Kade, Liora,” I went on. “You four start sketching positions along the creek and the old game paths. I want eyes on high ground and at least three ways out of every pinch point.”

They moved automatically. Muscle memory. War memories, bent to something new.

“And the bait?” someone called from the back. “Who’s guarding her?”

“I am,” Caelan said.

“So am I,” Rylan said, in the same breath.

The echo of it rolled through the circle, raising hairs.

I didn’t look at either of them. If I did, I might lose my nerve.

“Good,” I said. “Then anyone who wants a piece of me has to get through two alphas and half the forest.”

Finn’s eyes were huge. “You’re really going to just… walk out there?”

“I’m really going to make them think I’m predictable,” I said. “Same path. Same time. Same stupid healer cutting down their work.”

“And when they come for you?” Taryn asked.

I looked down at the Ashridge charm in my hand, then met her gaze.

“Then,” I said, “we stop cutting wires and start catching ghosts.”

The charm snapped between my fingers with a sharp crack.

Bone dust drifted to the ground.

For the first time, the idea of being bait didn’t just feel like recklessness.

It felt like taking back my forest, one trap at a time.