The Moonlit Mate: Part Two Episode three
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Chapter Seven – Blood Oaths and Broken Bonds
The next night, Selene vanished.
By the time Lyra gave the order to quietly place her under watch, her quarters were already cold. Her scent ended at the river’s edge. No tracks. No trail.
“She’s too skilled,” Kaida muttered, pacing. “She was trained as a shadow-hunter before she ever joined my family. If she doesn’t want to be found—she won’t be.”
“But she wants something,” Lyra said. “She wouldn’t run unless she had a reason.”
And she was right.
That reason came by dawn.
A howled warning—followed by fire.
The southern forest, sacred ground to the Crescent Valley wolves, was burning.
By the time Lyra and Kaida arrived, the flames were already licking the treetops, blue and unnatural. Frostfire. Magic-born. No ordinary blaze.
And standing at its center—Selene.
Cloaked in white. Unbothered by the cold. Her golden eyes gleaming with something ancient.
Kaida stepped forward first.
“Selene!” she shouted. “This is madness!”
Selene smiled faintly, her fingers dancing with frost. “No, cousin. This is cleansing. I’m doing what the queen commanded. What fate requires.”
“You betrayed your own blood.”
“No,” Selene said softly. “You did. When you chose her.”
She pointed at Lyra.
“The child will unmake us. The old blood will rise. You don’t understand yet—but you will.”
Lyra stepped forward, her alpha aura crackling. “Then tell me. What does the queen want?”
“She wants balance,” Selene whispered. “And that means stopping the bond before it blooms.”
Her hand lifted.
Frost flared toward Lyra like a spear.
Kaida moved faster.
She shoved Lyra aside, the blast grazing her shoulder, searing her coat. She rolled and came up in a snarl, eyes golden, body shifting halfway into wolf.
“You’ll touch her over my dead body.”
Selene blinked once. Then vanished into the smoke, her magic trailing behind like ice on the wind.
That night, Kaida’s wound festered—frostbite laced with enchantment. Lyra tended to it herself, her hands trembling as she brushed the burned skin.
“She’s willing to kill to stop this,” she whispered.
Kaida met her eyes. “Then we can’t run. Not anymore. We have to fight.”
Lyra nodded, fire building in her chest.
“She wants war? Then she’ll learn—this bond was forged in more than prophecy.”
“It was forged in choice,” Kaida said.
Outside, the moon blazed full and red.
The first real battle had begun.
Chapter Eight – Return to Bloodfang
The snow hadn’t touched the Bloodfang mountains.
They rose sharp and dark, crowned in ice, but untouched by the unnatural frost that plagued Crescent Valley. It was as if the queen herself kept them clear—her allies shielded, her enemies choked in winter.
Kaida hadn’t set foot here in years.
And every stone remembered her.
“Still smells like blood and power,” she muttered as she and Lyra crouched above the ridgeline, surveying the path below.
Lyra didn’t flinch. “Are you sure they’ll listen?”
Kaida gave a grim smile. “No. But they’ll hear me.”
They entered under darkness.
Not stealth, not quite—Kaida walked like she belonged. And in a way, she did.
The sentries paused but didn’t raise alarm. They recognized her gait, her stare, the fire braided into her aura. Even stripped of her title, Kaida Bloodfang still carried weight.
They were led into the great hall.
The walls had not changed—wolf skulls still hung from the beams, old blood still stained the floor, and on the throne sat Alpha Ronin, Kaida’s uncle.
He looked up slowly. “The traitor returns.”
Kaida bowed her head but didn’t kneel. “I come for truth.”
Ronin scoffed. “You left truth behind when you ran to that soft pack in the valley.”
Lyra stepped forward, chin high. “We didn’t come to beg.”
The room stirred. Whispers rose—That’s her. The Crescent Alpha. The moon-marked one.
Kaida ignored them.
“I know Selene was here,” she said. “I know she carries the queen’s frost. And I know some of your wolves are helping her.”
The temperature dropped.
“Careful,” Ronin growled. “You speak of kin.”
“No,” Kaida said, louder. “I speak of a traitor. She attacked our sacred forest. Burned it. Nearly killed your own blood. Me.”
Murmurs turned. Some in the crowd shifted. One or two stepped closer to Kaida’s side.
Ronin’s eyes narrowed. “And what do you want, pup?”
“Help us stop her,” Kaida said. “Help us stop the queen. Before she turns all of us into ashes and ice.”
Silence.
Then—
“She was seen,” someone murmured. “North pass. Alone.”
Kaida turned sharply. “Who?”
“Selene.”
That night, Kaida sat alone by the fire pit behind the old barracks. Lyra found her there, staring into the flames.
“I hate this place,” Kaida murmured. “And yet… it raised me.”
Lyra sat beside her. “You don’t owe them anything.”
Kaida’s hand brushed hers. “Maybe not. But I owe you. And if going through this place is what it takes to keep you safe… I’ll burn it to the ground.”
Lyra smiled faintly. “Let’s not burn it. Yet.”
They stayed like that until the fire burned low, their bond wordless—but undeniable.
Chapter Nine – The Hollow Wind
The north pass was silent.
Too silent.
Even the birds had fled.
Lyra, Kaida, and a small scouting party from Bloodfang moved through the narrow path between towering stone cliffs dusted with frost. Wind howled through the gap like it had a voice—cold, ancient, and listening.
Kaida gripped the hilt of her blade. “She’s close. I can feel her.”
Lyra moved beside her, eyes scanning every shadow. “She wants us to follow.”
“She wants us to find something.”
They did.
A clearing.
In the center: a circle of standing stones, each one carved with symbols older than Crescent or Bloodfang—older even than the Frostborn.
And in the middle of it all stood Selene.
Unarmed.
Waiting.
Kaida stepped forward, furious. “Why run? Why burn our land if you wanted to talk?”
Selene turned, her golden eyes glowing faintly in the moonlight. “Because words only matter when blood has already been spilled.”
Lyra snarled. “Speak before I finish what the forest started.”
Selene didn’t flinch. “You want to stop the queen. But you can’t. Not unless you understand what she really is.”
Kaida hesitated. “What do you mean?”
Selene raised a hand, palm glowing faintly blue. “She isn’t just Frostborn. She is the seal. She was created by the Ancients to hold back what sleeps beneath the northern ice.”
Lyra froze. “What sleeps?”
Selene’s voice softened. “The First Wolf. The god of teeth and winter. The Devourer. She has bound him for a thousand years… and your child will set him free.”
Silence.
Not even the wind dared speak.
“No,” Kaida said flatly. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not,” Selene said gently. “You’ve seen the omens. Red moons. Dying trees. The bond was foretold—not as a blessing, but as a doorway.”
Lyra took a slow, shaking breath. “The queen wants to kill us to stop what she was made to contain.”
“Yes,” Selene whispered. “She’s not trying to rule. She’s trying to prevent the end of the world.”
The stones around them began to hum. Faint pulses of magic stirred the snow.
“She’s calling me back,” Selene said, eyes distant. “You shouldn’t have come.”
Kaida growled. “You brought us here.”
“I brought you to the truth.” She turned, already vanishing into shadow. “Now you’ll have to choose whether you believe it.”
That night, Lyra stood at the edge of camp, staring into the dark, her breath fogging before her.
Kaida came to her side, silent.
“If she’s right,” Lyra said, “we’re not just carrying a bond or a prophecy. We’re carrying a weapon. A godkiller. Or a worldbreaker.”
Kaida slipped her hand into Lyra’s. “Then we don’t let anyone else decide how that story ends.”
Lyra turned to her.
Eyes fierce. Steady.
“Then we rewrite it.”
- Writer
