His Moonfire Luna

My Wolf Refused to forget her

Chapter 3

Kael

The scent hit me before the report did. Faint. Familiar. Impossible.

I froze mid-step in the training yard, the morning air heavy with the smell of iron and dew, wolves panting after drills. My men circled the track, bodies filled with sweat, but my attention wasn’t on them. It was on that single, whispering trace of jasmine and rain that drifted in with the wind, gone as quickly as it came.

No. It couldn’t be. Lyra Hale was supposed to be dead.

I turned sharply toward the treeline, every muscle tightening under my shirt. The world had gone suddenly too still, too quiet like the forest itself was holding its breath. My wolf stirred under my skin, restless, snarling low.

Mate.

The word scraped through me like a curse. No. Not anymore.

“Alpha?” Rowan’s voice broke through the haze. My Beta had been watching me from across the yard, brows drawn. “You okay?”

I forced my fists to unclench. “The eastern patrol. Did they report anything?”

He frowned. “Not since last night. Why?”

I hesitated for a beat. “Get them back here. Now.”

He didn’t question it, just nodded and left, his boots crunching gravel. That’s what I liked about Rowan. He didn’t need to understand my instincts to trust them.

I stayed where I was, staring at the dark edge of the woods. My heart hadn’t beat this fast since the night I…

No. I refused to think about that. About the way her eyes had found mine, wide with something that looked too much like faith, right before I broke her.

It had to be my mind playing tricks. Ghost scent. Phantom bond. The remnants of something that should’ve been dead months ago. The rejection ritual had been clean. Permanent. I’d made damn sure of it but then why did I still feel her sometimes?

Not constantly. Just flashes…like echoes through fog. A jolt in my chest when the moon rose, a flicker of warmth in my mind when I least expected it. I’d tried to drink it away, train it away, bury it under obligation. Nothing worked.

My wolf refused to forget her.

“Alpha!”

Rowan jogged back into view, a grim look on his face. “Patrol just reported in. You might want to hear this.”

I didn’t wait. Within minutes, I was inside the east tower, the walls lined with maps and territory markers. My Gamma, Elias, stood by the table, his usual calm gone.

“Talk,” I ordered.

Elias nodded stiffly. “We found two dead rogues near the border. Both bearing the Shadowfang mark.”

That symbol again. The claw and crescent burned into their skin.

“They’re getting bolder,” Rowan muttered.

Elias continued, “There’s more. We found… traces of another scent nearby.”

I felt my stomach knot. “Who?”

Elias met my gaze, hesitating. “Lyra Hale.”

The silence that followed was heavy enough to crush air. My pulse thudded hard once, twice, before the words registered fully.

“Impossible,” I said, but my voice didn’t sound like mine.

Elias shook his head. “It was faint, but distinct. She was there, Kael. And not alone.”

A low growl rumbled from my chest before I could stop it. My wolf pressed closer to the surface, claws scraping at the edge of my control.

“Show me,” I said.

They led me to the eastern border. The forest was quiet now, birds scattered by the smell of death. Two bodies lay half-covered by leaves…rogues, their throats torn out, eyes wide in eternal shock.

She’d done this. I crouched beside them, ignoring the stench. The cuts were clean, lethal, inhumanly precise. Not the work of fear or desperation, but control. Power.

I inhaled once. There it was…her scent, faint but real. Jasmine and rain.

She was alive, every nerve in my body went electric.

“Could be someone masking their scent,” Rowan offered, but I barely heard him.

Alive. After everything.

“She’s with someone,” Elias added. “We found tracks. Male. Not one of ours.”

My head snapped up. “A rogue?”

“Hard to say. But he’s skilled. Masked his trail halfway to the river.”

I stood slowly, scanning the horizon. My chest was tight, heart pounding a rhythm I hated.

She was supposed to be gone. I had watched her fall, and heard the silence when the bond snapped. I’d buried that part of me with her name.

So why did it feel like she was tugging on it now?

“Get a search team ready,” I said finally. “Discreetly.”

Rowan looked hesitant. “You sure that’s smart? The pack thinks she’s…”

“Dead. I know,” I cut in. “And it stays that way.”

He exchanged a look with Elias but didn’t argue. They knew better.

When they left, I stayed behind, staring into the woods until the wind shifted again. The scent was gone, swallowed by rain and blood, but it didn’t matter. I could feel her now…not in the air, but beneath my skin.

My wolf stirred restlessly. Find her.

“No,” I muttered under my breath. “We end this.”

But the words sounded hollow even to me.

*************************

That night, I didn’t sleep.

I sat in my office, whiskey in hand, watching lightning crawl across the windows. My reflection stared back at me…a stranger with tired eyes and blood under his nails.

The fire cracked in the hearth, and for a moment, I thought I heard her voice again. Soft. Barely there.

Kael.

I shut my eyes. “You’re not real.”

She felt real. The faint pulse against my chest, the ghost of her heartbeat brushing mine.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself gripping the edge of the desk so hard the wood splintered beneath my fingers.

Rowan’s words came back to me. Whatever you think you broke…it’s still there.

Maybe he was right or maybe I was now losing my mind over someone I thought was dead.

Maybe the Moon Goddess was laughing at me, forcing me to feel the one person I swore to destroy.

I downed the rest of the whiskey and stood abruptly, shoving the glass aside. The sound of it shattering against the floor didn’t make me feel any better.

Somewhere out there, Lyra Hale was alive and whoever she was with…whoever dared to touch what once was mine was going to wish he’d stayed dead