Luna Lost

The Pack

The first howl came from the eastern ridge.

Then another answered.

Damien stepped from the trees in his wolf form, rain dripping from his dark fur as the pack fell silent.

For one heartbeat, no one moved. Then Cassius shouted, “You son of a b***h!” The clearing erupted. Jace was already running toward him, laughing as he grabbed Damien around the neck.

“You’re alive!”

Damien shoved him away with a growl.

“Barely,” Cassius said, grinning. “But apparently still an asshole.”

The pack crowded around him, relief spreading through the clearing. They had known he would survive- Damien was Octavius’s son. Their prince. Their warrior. But they had been waiting for him to come home.

His father finally stepped forward.

“Enough.”

The pack quieted.

Octavius looked at his son for a long moment before pulling him into an embrace.

“You’re home.”

Damien shifted, then. The transformation was different from their own.

Stronger.

Faster.

Something ancient moved beneath his skin, and when he straightened, the entire clearing went silent again.

His new human form was unlike anything any of them had seen.

Powerful. Scarred. Built for violence.

The Moon Goddess had given him something beyond the ordinary wolf blood that ran through their family.

Cassius stared.

“Well, that’s new.”

Jace slowly circled him.

“That’s not fair.”

Damien smirked.

“I don’t remember asking.”

A cheer erupted, the females of the pack suddenly very interested. Damien caught more than one lingering look as he walked toward the fire, and a few approached him throughout the evening, curious about the warrior who had disappeared and returned looking like he’d been carved from something considerably more dangerous than flesh.

He entertained none of it for long.

His mind was elsewhere.

Luna. Her name was a song inside his head, and the thought of her softened something inside him. Someday, he hoped he could bring her here. He wanted her to meet his father. Seraphina. Cassius. Jace. The entire pack. He wanted her to know the people who had shaped him, and that they were hers- they would never let any harm come to her.

Just not yet. Not until he knew exactly what waited for him beyond these walls.

Cassius dropped into the seat beside him, eyeing him suspiciously.

“So,” he said. “Where the hell have you been?”

“Traveling.”

Jace snorted. “Traveling?”

Damien gave him a look. “That’s what I said.”

Cassius leaned closer.

Then stopped, his expression changed. Jace noticed too. “Is that…” He sniffed the air deliberately. “A female?”

Damien went still.

He hadn’t even thought about it. He’d been too focused on getting home, on Luna, on keeping her safe. He hadn’t considered that her scent was still clinging to him from the minutes he’d spent pressed among her clothes.

Cassius grinned.

“Well, well, well.”

Jace’s eyes lit up. “Our missing brother wasn’t traveling. He found himself a woman.”

“Maybe he found himself several,” Cassius teased.

Damien’s eyes narrowed.

“Careful.”

Jace laughed, holding up his hands. “We’re only saying…whatever delicious little scent you’ve brought home with you, you could always share.”

Damien’s wolf growled beneath his skin.

His brothers immediately burst out laughing.

“Oh,” Cassius said. “Definitely a woman.”

Damien shook his head, fighting a smile.

“You two are insufferable.”

“Brothers,” Jace corrected.

And they left it there, For now.

Because beneath the teasing, both of them knew Damien well enough to recognize the difference.

And someday, when the time was right, he would bring her home.

Until then, his brothers could wonder.

Let them.

Damien smiled into the fire.

They had no idea what was coming.