Chapter 1: The Luna Returns*
574 Words
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*Chapter 1: The Luna Returns*
The gates of Blackthorn Pack opened at midnight. Five years ago, I left through them with nothing but the shirt on my back and blood on my hands.
Tonight, I came back through them with an army at my back and his name on my lips.
“State your business,” the guard growled, spear raised. He didn’t recognize me. Good.
I pulled back my hood. Silver hair fell over my shoulders, and moonlight caught the scar on my throat—the one Keal gave me.
“Tell Alpha Keal,” I said, voice low and steady. “Lyra Voss is home.”
His face went pale. The spear dropped an inch.
“You’re dead,” he whispered.
I smiled. It wasn’t kind.
“Not dead enough.”
It took ten minutes for the word to spread. Ten minutes for the Pack to remember the girl who was rejected at the mating ceremony, beaten in front of everyone, and exiled for a crime she didn’t commit. Ten minutes for fear to turn into whispers.
*The Rejected Mate Is Back.*
I walked through the gates alone. My wolves stayed hidden in the forest. This first meeting was mine. The courtyard was the same—the stone fountain, the training field, the balcony where Keal used to watch me. He was there now, taller, colder, jaw tight as he looked down at me.
Five years, and he hadn’t aged a day. Werewolves didn’t.
His eyes met mine, and for half a second, I saw it—shock, rage, something he’d never admit.
“Lyra,” he said. One word, like it burned his tongue.
“Alpha,” I replied.
I stopped ten feet from him. Close enough to smell him—cedar and storm, the scent that used to make me ache.
“Miss me?” I asked.
“Leave now, and I will let you live,” he said.
I tilted my head.
“I’m not here to live, Keal.”
I took a step forward.
“I’m here to make you pay.”
Behind me, the forest shifted. My wolves were close. They’d been waiting five years for this moment too.
The pack was watching now—from shadows, from balconies. Whispers spread like wildfire:
“She’s back.”
“The rejected mate.”
“She’s alive.”
Keal’s hands clenched at his sides.
“You have no right to come here.”
“I have every right,” I said.
“You took away my home. You took away my name. Tonight, I take it back.”
I turned, letting my gaze sweep over the pack.
“Hear me. I am Lyra Voss, and I’m the girl you broke.”
The night was quiet, except for my heartbeat and the sounds of the wolves gathering in the trees. Their eyes gleamed between the trunks like pale moons, watching, waiting. For five years I’d heard them in my dreams, calling me home, calling me to rise. Now they were real, and they stood with me.
I could feel their loyalty binding to mine, stronger than the bond Keal had shattered. The air tasted of rain and old betrayal. My claws itched beneath my skin, but I kept them hidden. This wasn’t for blood yet.
Let them see me first. Let them remember what they threw away. When I was done speaking, the pack would have to choose.
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- Writer
