Luna Lost

Young Damien

Damien hit the ground hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs. He rolled before Cassius could land on top of him, sprang back to his feet, and launched himself over the fallen log. His paws hit the narrow beam perfectly.

One, two, three strides.

He cleared the gap between the trees and landed cleanly on the other side where Jace was already waiting. Damien ducked beneath the swing of his brother’s paw. “Too slow.”

Jace snarled playfully and lunged. Damien twisted away but they collided anyway. The two wolves tumbled through the leaves, snarling and snapping without enough force to cause real damage. Cassius watched from the side.

“Blood Moon is coming.”

Damien barely looked at him.

“I know.”

“Soon.”

“I know.”

Jace shoved Damien onto his back.

“Very soon.”

Damien kicked him away and stood.

“I heard you the first time.”

Cassius grinned.

“You’re nervous.”

“No.”

“Liar.”

Damien shook the leaves from his coat. The Blood Moon had been approaching faster every season. For most wolves, transformation came with age, for Damien, it was different.

He had been born what others only became.

A true-born shifter. A rarity. A creature whispered about in old stories and feared by people who knew enough to understand what he was. His first human form would come with the Blood Moon.

The Moon Goddess would open the door, and after that night, there would be no going back. Jace dropped beside them. “You think you’ll find your mate?”

Damien snorted. “I don’t know.”

Cassius nudged him. “You’re supposed to feel her.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“You’ve never felt anything?”

“No.”

The answer came too quickly. Both brothers noticed.

Damien turned away.

The truth was, he had spent his entire life avoiding the possibility. A mate meant attachment, attachment meant vulnerability, and vulnerability meant danger. His enemies had hunted him since he was a pup.

They wanted his blood. They wanted revenge. If they ever discovered he had a mate, she wouldn’t be a person to them. She would be a weakness. A target. Damien would rather spend his entire existence alone than put someone, much less his life partner, through that.

“So,” Jace said, “what do you think she’ll be like?”

Damien rolled his eyes. “Why don’t you ask the Moon Goddess?”

“I might.”

Cassius laughed.

“She’s not exactly taking questions.”

Jace looked toward the sky.

“Maybe mine will be beautiful.”

“Maybe yours will be terrifying,” Damien said.

“Even better.”

Cassius barked with laughter and Damien smiled despite himself. They started sparring again. Cassius came first.

Damien blocked, as Jace attacked from the side. Damien twisted, landing a heavy blow with this left paw on Cassius’ shoulder, knocking him into the dust.

For several minutes, there was nothing except movement. Muscle, Instinct, Brotherly competition. Then Cassius caught Damien off guard. His paw struck Damien hard across the side of the head and the world tilted.

For one heartbeat, everything disappeared and the forest vanished. He was small again.

Cold.

Hungry.

Alone.

And then—

Striking light grey eyes.

A tiny hand.

A frightened cry.

The scent of something so impossibly familiar that every instinct inside him had screamed—

Mine.

Damien froze, his eyes pooled black like ink pouring out of the night sky.

In that moment, something inside his chest tore open. A raw, unhinged power instantly surged through him, from an unknown, unlimited source. Not anger, not fear. Something older..

Something primal.

The air seemed to change, causing Cassius to back away, whimpering slightly, his ears lowered

Jace stopped breathing, his hackles rising.

Damien’s claws dug into the earth, lifting it and flinging bits of dirt in different directions from the impact. His vision flashed silver, and for one terrifying second, something enormous looked out through his eyes. Something neither brother had ever seen.

“Damien?”

His name sounded distant.

Then the sensation vanished. He stumbled. Cassius caught him. “What the hell was that?”

Damien stared at him.

His heart hammered. He could still smell her. No- Not smell.

Feel her.

A little girl.

A tiny hand.

The bite.

The moment everything inside him had recognized something his mind had been too young to understand.

His mate. The realization nearly broke him.

The Blood Moon hadn’t simply been coming for his human form, it had been coming for the truth. Jace dared step closer.

“Damien.”

He forced himself to breathe.

“I’m fine.”

“You weren’t.”

“I said I’m fine.”

Cassius studied him carefully.

“What did you see?”

Damien looked toward the moon.

For a moment, he wondered if she was watching. If the Moon Goddess had shown him that memory deliberately. If somewhere beneath that same moon, the little girl he’d left behind was still alive.

His chest tightened. He couldn’t tell them, not yet. If his brothers knew, the secret wouldn’t stay his.

And if anyone else learned?

She could become a target. So Damien forced a laugh. “Nothing.”

Jace frowned. “You nearly shifted.”

“Apparently getting hit in the head makes me dramatic.”

Cassius didn’t laugh. Neither did Jace.

Damien turned away before they could see the fear in his eyes. He had spent his entire life afraid of finally being caught, trapped like the cur he saw in nearby encampments, foaming at their mouths, locked behind cold steel bars.

But for the first time, something else frightened him more. The power he’d just felt, and the darkness sleeping inside him. And most of all the possibility that when the Blood Moon finally came, he might not be the one in control.

Because somewhere beneath the fear was something far more dangerous.

Hope.

And Damien had no idea what frightened him more— finding his mate, or losing her all over again.