Loving Luna

The Pack That Chose Him

The first scream came from the eastern wall, sharp enough to split the night open. It was followed almost immediately by another from within the estate itself, closer this time, more desperate, as if the sound had been born inside the bones of the place.

Then the gates opened.

Blackwood wolves poured in.

Dozens of them.

Some were fully shifted, massive and furred, eyes burning with unnatural crimson. Others were caught halfway between forms—human hands ending in claws, jaws elongated, skin stretched tight over bone as if the transformation had been forced rather than earned. They moved wrong. They moved like something had broken inside them and never healed.

Not a pack.

No rhythm. No trust. No shared breath or instinct.

Just bodies driven by a single corrupted command.

Weapons turned on those they had once loved.

A woman ran through the gates with a child clutched to her chest, her breath tearing itself apart as she stumbled over broken stone. Behind her, a red-eyed wolf dropped low and gave chase, its movements too precise, too controlled, as if it were remembering how to hunt rather than choosing to.

Darius moved instantly.

“Wait,” Luna said, her voice cutting through the chaos like a thread of light.

He hesitated for half a heartbeat.

That was all it took.

The wolf leapt.

Luna raised her hand.

Golden light burst outward, expanding in a sudden wave that froze the creature midair. Its limbs locked, suspended as if time itself had been seized. The air around it shimmered, strained, then held.

Darius caught it as it dropped and forced it down gently, pinning it without breaking bone.

It snapped at him anyway, teeth inches from his throat.

“Jonas,” he said firmly.

The name landed like a stone in water.

The wolf paused.

Just for a moment.

A flicker of recognition passed through its crimson gaze, like a memory trying to surface through drowning darkness.

Then Lucian’s control surged back in.

The wolf lunged again.

Darius held it down harder this time, muscles straining.

“Jonas, listen to me.”

A snarl answered him, raw and feral.

His mark burned hot against his skin, and power rose in his voice without his permission.

Submit.

The crown offered it like instinct. Like breath. Like inevitability.

One command would end the struggle.

Darius stopped it.

He forced the word back down and met the wolf’s eyes instead.

“Your wife is here,” he said, voice steady. “Your son is crying.”

The wolf trembled.

“You know them,” Darius added.

A broken whine escaped the creature, something between grief and recognition.

“I won’t order you,” Darius said more softly. “But fight for them.”

The crimson flickered.

Then faded.

Jonas collapsed, shifting back into human form as if the monster had been peeled away from him. His wife ran forward instantly, dropping to her knees beside him.

“Jonas!”

He reached for her with shaking hands, as if afraid she might vanish.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“You came back,” she said, crying as she held him.

Hope tightened in Luna’s chest, sharp and fragile.

Darius felt it too.

Lucian’s control wasn’t absolute.

But it was spreading.

And it needed more than force to stop.

Another wave of wolves surged through the gates.

“Nonlethal!” Darius shouted.

Chaos broke open across the estate.

Ethan moved with a scarred wolf, intercepting it mid-charge. “Block entrances! No killing unless forced!”

Cassian caught a wolf at his throat, held it there for a breath, then struck pressure points instead, dropping it unconscious.

Mason stared at him for a second. “You showed restraint.”

“Don’t make it a thing,” Cassian muttered, already moving again.

Luna held the Book tightly.

It burned in her hands.

Names shifted across its pages like living ink.

Jonas Blackwood.

Amelia Blackwood.

Hundreds more.

Some names glowed silver.

Some pulsed red.

Lucian was using Darius’s bonds like threads in a web.

“He’s pulling through you,” Luna said.

“I know,” Darius answered.

His mark pulsed again, harder this time.

“He’s hitting every bond at once.”

“Can you stop it?” she asked.

“Yes.”

The answer came too quickly.

He could cut the pack off entirely.

But it would break them.

And it would break him too.

“How long?” Luna pressed.

“Long enough.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s the only one I have.”

Another scream echoed through the estate.

This one was different.

Children.

Darius turned sharply.

Luna grabbed his arm. “You dying won’t fix this.”

“It might stop him,” he said.

“Might,” she repeated.

“We don’t have time for certainty.”

“We don’t give him what he wants,” she said.

He stepped closer to her.

“He wants command,” Darius said.

“And sacrifice,” Luna replied.

That landed between them like a blade.

Lucian knew him too well.

Luna placed her hand over his chest.

“You don’t solve this by destroying yourself.”

“Then what do I do?”

“We go inside it.”

“That’s not a plan.”

“It’s the start of one.”

Wolves hit the gates again.

The line held, barely.

Luna looked down at the Book.

Jonas’s page shifted again.

RETURNED BY RECOGNITION.

“You brought him back,” Darius said quietly.

“I asked him to fight,” she replied.

“And he chose it.”

Darius looked out over the chaos.

Too many wolves.

Too many broken bonds.

But he was still connected to all of them.

He closed his eyes.

“I’m looking for them,” he said.

“Through the bond?” Luna asked.

“Yes.”

“I’m coming with you.”

“No.”

“Was that an order?”

“A request.”

“Denied.”

“Stay close,” he said.

“Always,” she answered.

She pressed her mark to his.

The world shattered.

Fear. Pain. Hundreds of minds collapsing into one another.

A father hiding children under floorboards. A healer trapped in a burning room. A young wolf begging her own body to stop changing.

Darius held Luna steady through it.

Stay with me, he told her.

Lucian stood at the center of it all, crowned in shadow.

Your Alpha abandoned you, the voice echoed through every mind.

Rage spread like wildfire.

Not at Lucian.

At Darius.

“He’s twisting them,” Luna said through clenched teeth.

“They believe him,” Darius replied.

“Some still hear you.”

Lucian turned toward Luna.

You gave them choice.

“No,” she said. “It was always there.”

Did they choose you?

Doubt struck Darius like a physical blow.

Lucian pressed harder.

They inherited you. Not chose you.

Darius wavered.

“Ask them,” Luna said suddenly.

“What?” he asked.

“If they choose you now.”

Lucian laughed, cold and certain.

And if they don’t?

Fear rose in Darius’s chest.

Luna took his hand.

“Then let them go.”

Pain followed immediately, sharp and unbearable.

“That’s what makes it real,” she said.

Lucian snapped.

He can’t.

Darius looked at Luna.

Something old inside him cracked.

“You were Darius before Alpha,” she said softly.

“And you still are.”

The roots of the bond trembled.

“I’m still here,” she added.

Lucian raged.

She takes everything from you.

“No,” Darius said.

“She gives me a life I choose.”

He turned toward the pack.

“I won’t command you.”

Blood ran from his wrist as the bond strained.

“If you stay, fight him.”

“If you don’t, I release you.”

The bonds opened.

Lucian screamed.

You belong to him!

“No,” Darius said.

“They belong to themselves.”

Jonas returned first.

Then others followed.

Silver light spread through the bond like dawn breaking.

Lucian’s control collapsed.

Wolves fell free.

The estate went silent.

Lucian’s image burned at the edge of their minds.

You weakened your kingdom, it hissed.

“Then it was never strong,” Darius said.

Luna woke on the road, breath uneven.

Darius knelt beside her, blood on his hands, exhaustion carved into his face.

Silence had finally returned to the estate.

Mason approached and hugged him awkwardly. “You could’ve just asked.”

Evelyn joined them, arms crossed. “This is uncomfortable.”

“You’re emotional,” Mason added.

“I am not,” Darius replied automatically.

Luna laughed through tears.

Darius turned to her.

“I couldn’t release you,” he said.

“But?” she asked.

“I didn’t want to.”

Her breath caught.

“I asked the bond one thing,” he said.

“What?” she whispered.

“If you stayed by choice.”

“And?” she asked.

“You are.”

Luna kissed him.

Not fate.

Not compulsion.

Choice.

When they broke apart, she said softly, “I choose you.”

“Again,” he replied.

“I choose you.”

He kissed her once more.

The Book fell open beside them.

Names shifted.

Then one appeared:

SERENA HALE.

Luna froze.

“She’s not Blackwood,” she said.

BOND STATUS: CHOSEN.

A scream echoed from the tower.

Serena stood at the window, pale and still.

Lucian behind her.

The Book wrote one final line:

THE SHADOW KING HAS CHOSEN HIS QUEEN.