His Moonfire Luna

The Moon Goddess Temple

Chapter 4

Lyra

The forest felt alive tonight.

Not in the gentle, whispering way it used to be when I was a girl sneaking through the woods behind our cottage, but in a darker, watchful way. Every branch seemed to bend closer, every gust of wind carried something heavy…like the forest was breathing with me, or worse, for me.

Darius walked ahead, silent as a shadow, the torchlight carving his sharp profile out of the dark. I followed a few steps behind, clutching my jacket tighter around me, though the chill that crawled up my spine had nothing to do with the cold.

We’d been walking for hours, deeper into rogue territory, where the trees grew thick and the ground shook with magic older than the packs themselves. My legs ached, but I didn’t dare complain.

Not with him.

“Where exactly are we going?” I finally asked, the question tumbling out more awkwardly than I meant it to. “Because unless we’re headed for a scenic graveyard tour, I’d like to know why I’m freezing to death in the middle of nowhere.”

Darius didn’t turn, but I saw his shoulders tense slightly. “You’ll see soon enough.”

“Right,” I muttered under my breath. “Mysterious and vague. Of course.”

He shot me a look over his shoulder…half smirk, half warning. “Careful, Hale. You’re getting brave again.”

“Brave? No. Just cold and mildly irritated.”

He chuckled softly. “Good. You’ll need both.”

I rolled my eyes, though I couldn’t help the small flicker of curiosity that burned beneath my sarcasm. Every hour I spent near him, the air seemed to shift like he carried secrets that wanted to be known, but not yet.

We finally stopped before an ancient stone ruin, swallowed by vines and moss. The walls stood crooked but proud, the remains of what must’ve once been a temple. Symbols were carved deep into the stone, wolves beneath a blood-red moon.

I swallowed hard. “What is this place?”

“The beginning,” Darius said quietly. “And the end.”

Cryptic. Again.

When he stepped forward and pressed his palm against one of the carvings, the entire wall shuddered. Light rippled through the stone like veins waking up. I stumbled back, heart thundering as the old door groaned open, releasing a wave of stale air that smelled like earth and forgotten prayers.

Inside, torches flickered to life one by one, illuminating murals that stretched across the walls…wolves kneeling beneath a blazing red moon, and in the center of them, a woman was covered in light.

My breath caught. “The Moon Goddess…”

Darius nodded. “This was one of her first shrines…built long before the packs divided. Before Alpha blood and laws. Before power corrupted the gift.”

…My fingers brushed the nearest painting. The goddess’s eyes were painted gold, her hands outstretched as though cradling the moon itself. “Why bring me here?”

He turned to me then, his gaze steady. “Because you carry what she left behind.”

I blinked. “You mean…”

“The Moonfire,” he interrupted. “You’ve felt it, haven’t you? The heat in your chest when you’re angry. The way your senses sharpen when you’re afraid.”

I hesitated. “I thought that was just… adrenaline.”

He shook his head. “No. It’s power. Old power. Your father died protecting it.”

My stomach twisted. “My father was executed for treason.”

“Is that what Kael told you?” Darius’s tone was gentle, but it sliced clean through me. “Or what you needed to believe to survive?”

I stared at him, unable to answer.

He took a step closer, the firelight catching the faint scar that cut across his jaw. “Your father wasn’t a traitor. He was a guardian. The last of them. The night he died, he wasn’t betraying the pack…he was saving it.”

“Saving it from what?”

Darius’s expression darkened. “From Draven blood.”

The words hit like a physical blow. “From Kael’s family?”

He nodded slowly. “Kael’s father…Alpha Alaric Draven stole something from the goddess herself. The Moonfire was meant to be passed to a chosen lineage, yours but Alaric found a way to bind it to his bloodline. He thought it would make him invincible.”

My pulse roared in my ears. “You’re saying Kael’s father cursed us?”

“Not just you,” Darius said quietly. “Everyone connected to that bond. That’s why the Moonfire burned differently in you. Why Kael couldn’t reject you without consequence. He wasn’t just rejecting a mate…he was breaking the goddess’s balance.”

The air seemed to crackle around me, the torches flickering. I took a shaky step back. “That’s why it hurts,” I whispered. “Why i still feel him sometimes?”

“Exactly.” Darius’s gaze softened. “You’re linked through more than the bond. You’re connected through the curse.”

For a moment, the world tilted. I could barely breathe. All this time, I’d thought the ache in my chest was just heartbreak…just my body mourning something it lost. But it wasn’t. It was magic. It was a punishment.

I pressed a trembling hand to my chest. “He doesn’t know, does he?”

“No,” Darius said. “And he can’t. Not yet.”

I met his eyes, anger simmering beneath the confusion.

“You’re using me, aren’t you? You want the Moonfire for yourself.”

He didn’t deny it right away, which told me enough. “I want to destroy the curse,” he said finally. “To do that, I need you alive.”

“And Kael?”

He hesitated, then said, “He’ll have to die.”

Something in me snapped. “No.”

Darius blinked, surprised. “No?”

“I said no.” My voice came out steadier than I felt. “You don’t get to decide who lives or dies in this story, Darius. Not when it was Kael who…” I trailed off, swallowing hard. “Not when I still feel him.”

He studied me in silence, then took a step back. “You’re stronger than you think, Hale. That will be your undoing.”

“Or my salvation,” I shot back.

He smirked faintly. “We’ll see.”

Before I could say anything else, a sharp wind tore through the temple, snuffing out half the torches. The ground trembled underfoot. Darius stiffened. “He’s close.”

“Who?” I breathed.

“The Alpha,” he said grimly. “Kael’s coming.”

The world seemed to lurch. I could feel it then…the pull, sharp and undeniable. His presence brushed against the edge of my mind, raw and furious, a storm I could taste in my bones.

Kael Draven was tracking me.

My wolf stirred restlessly inside me, and this time, I didn’t fight it. I met Darius’s gaze, something fierce and reckless burning in my chest.

“Then let him find me