MARKED BY THE MOON

chasing ghost

Luna POV

Sable survives the night, but barely. The pack healer works over her for three hours while Kian and I stand outside the door doing nothing but listening to muffled instructions and the occasional sound of Sable's ragged breathing.

"This is my fault," Kian says quietly, staring at the closed door. "I should have had guards on her the second Cassia's plot came apart."

"You had a burning building and a captured traitor to deal with," I say. "You can't be everywhere."

"I'm the Alpha. I'm supposed to protect this pack."

"You are protecting this pack," I say, and something in my voice surprises even me, the steady, certain voice of someone who's spent five years learning to fight for things instead of running from them. "You're doing it right now, standing outside this door instead of locking yourself away in guilt."

He looks at me, something raw and grateful passing behind his eyes, and for a moment the weight of everything: the fire, Declan's betrayal, the impossible truth about my mother, the ache of five wasted years pressing down on both of us at once.

"I looked for you," he says suddenly, like the words have been building pressure inside him all night and just broke free. "After the rejection. I know I told you that already, but I don't think I said how hard. I petitioned three neighboring packs. I bribed a tracker from the eastern territories. I spent almost two years chasing rumors of a silver-eyed omega working border patrols, and every single lead went cold."

"I made sure they went cold," I admit. "Maren helped me disappear. We scrubbed every trail on purpose."

"Why?"

"Because if you'd found me," I say, my voice cracking despite every effort to keep it steady, "I would have gone back to you. And I couldn't let myself be someone who goes back to a person who threw her away in front of an entire pack."

Kian flinches like I've struck him, and maybe I have, but it's the truth, and he deserves the truth after tonight.

"I'm not asking you to forget what I did," he says. "I don't think I'll ever stop atoning for it, honestly. But I'm asking you to let me try. Properly. Not because the moon chose us. Because I choose you, every single day going forward, whether the bond demands it or not."

Before I can answer, before I can even process the way my chest tightens at his words, the healer's door opens.

Sable is stable, pale but breathing steady, her wound stitched and wrapped. She's awake enough to talk, though barely, and when we step inside, her eyes find mine immediately.

"There's more," she whispers. "Declan said something else before he left. Something about Ashwood."

My stomach drops.

"What about Ashwood?" I ask, moving closer.

"He said the attacks weren't just to frame you." Her voice shakes, fading in and out with exhaustion. "He said whoever's really behind this wants both packs weakened. Wants a war between Ashwood and Blackthorn so bloody that neither pack survives strong enough to stop what comes after."

"What comes after?" Kian demands.

Sable's eyes close, sleep pulling her under despite her fight to stay conscious, and her last words come out as barely a breath.

"He said the name Voss like it was a curse. And then he

said... the true Alpha is coming home."