Luna of Two Lifetimes

Chapter 5

Night arrived too soon.

As I lay on my slender cot, moonlight traced the outlines of the stone walls through the small window. My chest was constricted and tense. For days, sleep had eluded me, and it appeared that tonight would be no exception. Beneath the surface, my wolf stirred uneasily, feeling a weight in the air that I couldn't identify.

Then it happened a gentle, persistent tug at the periphery of my thoughts, like fingers on glass.

I shut my eyes.

I was somewhere else all of a sudden.

Red shadows in a woodland. The massive, red moon shone down on the twisted trees, illuminating them with sharp edges. The earth under me trembled with each heartbeat, and the air smelled of iron and smoke. Despite my inability to locate it, I knew this spot.

A sweet, familiar voice whispered. Selene...

My chest tightened as I froze, but no sounds came out of my mouth. I could smell someone I used to know in the wind, sweat, strong pine, something more sinister underneath. I felt panic. My wolf growled, strained, perplexed.

Then I caught sight of him.

Someone who should have been Kaelen, or Kaelen herself. Desperation and rage blazed in his storm-gray eyes. Blood glinted in the moonlight as he gripped a blade in one hand. In the other, he held the arm of a woman with gray hair, whose face was hidden by darkness. Her aura enveloped him, something sinister, purposeful, and euphoric.

"Aria..." I was immobile when the voice returned. My body resisted, paralyzed by terror.

There was a violent upheaval in the globe. I was blinded by the red moon's glare. I kept falling, my body trembling, my lungs hurting. Then pain. Theirs, not mine. The scream of the silver-haired woman twisted and broke into a thousand fragments of sound that rang in my head as it reverberated through the darkness.

It was just a fantasy.

It must have been.

But the recollections, transient and fragmentary, held on to me. Smoke and pine, eyes the color of storms, a tang of metal in the air. As though sensing a predator I had not yet seen, the wolf inside of me curled in agitation.

The dreams came back during the course of the following few evenings.

The sound of Kaelen's laughter warm, familiar, then twisting into mockery is always broken, never whole. Blood sticky between fingers I hadn't yet identified as mine, the feel of claws on stone. Betrayal whispers, spoken in tongues I could only partially understand. And the woman with the silver hair, constantly. observing. Awaiting. She seemed to know something I didn't, as evidenced by her small smile.

I started to sense a shift. My reflexes become more acute. Without thinking, I was able to pick up sounds, smells, and faint motions among the trees. Beneath the surface, my wolf was restless and aware of danger. And something else a brief flashback, like a shadow at the periphery of my consciousness. A moniker. Luna.

I made an effort to ignore it. It was only a dream, a sliver of my imagination, I assured myself. However, my wolf ignored me. I was aware.

The leader came up to me in the training yard one morning, his eyes unreadable.

He remarked, "You're shifting faster than most." "Stronger instincts, better reflexes." There's something about you that is unusual.

I took a deep breath. "I have no idea why.”

I felt his eyes sear me. Maybe you're recalling. Maybe you have a mark from a previous existence. But exercise caution. Not all people who approach you are your friends, and not all people who appear to be your enemies are what they seem.

The words made me wince. Not everything that tries to find me Dream echoes blazed in my head. The silver-haired woman, the shadowy Kaelen, the red moon, and the crimson woodland. I tried to ignore it by shaking my head, but it made me feel cold.

The dreams became more vivid that night. I discovered that I was moving along a small stone hallway. Fire and smoke filled the air, and I felt sick to my stomach as I heard voices chanting in an old tongue. Before my head fully comprehended the danger, my inner wolf thrashed.

Then I caught sight of him.

Older and more haunted is Kaelen. He extended his hand to me. His familiar, storm-gray eyes begged.

"Selene..."

I shrank back, heartbreaking in ways I couldn't comprehend. I muttered, "I... I'm Aria," even if saying it seemed betraying.

"Aria?" His voice broke. "No. You're not gone, are you? You won't be. But you have to keep it in mind. You have to fight.

The darkness changed. The woman with silver hair moved nearer, her palm grazing a dimly glowing symbol on her wrist. The way she grinned was nasty and alluring.

"What's coming cannot be stopped," she added quietly. "Not just yet. You'll see, though, soon. You will then have to decide or perish.

I woke up with a gasp. Sweat flooded the cot underneath me. My wolf scratched at the ground and cried, bewildered. Even though I hadn't bitten anything, I could still taste iron.

Never was it merely a dream. It was palpable in my bones. An old, ancient, hungry creature was on its way.

The feeling that I was being watched persisted until the following day. My senses were heightened even during training by the slightest movement of the trees and the sound of the leaves rustling. Under my skin, my wolf was restless and impatient.

Then I noticed it: a shadow-clad figure standing at the edge of the estate, observing me. My chest constricted as the electricity raced through the air surrounding him. My intuition begged for acknowledgment, but I couldn't figure out why.

I sprinted in his direction. Not careless, not thoughtless. My body moved like a wolf's instinct, aware of the danger and the terrain. The figure remained still. All he did was observe.

"Don't you sense it?" He spoke softly and calmly, yet with a steely edge. "The calling of the past." You can't name the bond. The life you abandoned.

I went cold. "Who are you?”

He c****d his head. "The person who has been waiting is me. Waiting for you to fully awaken, waiting for you to recall. However, time is of the essence.

I felt a chill go through me. "Do you recall? Do you recall?

"Everything," he responded, taking a step forward. Or nothing at all. And if you don't succeed... He pointed at the trees with his hand. In that place, shadows writhed, coiling, breathing, alive. "All that you were and all that you could become will be consumed by the shadow if you fail."

My wolf gave a deep growl. My heartbeat quickened. I couldn't see anything clearly, but something deep inside my memory, instinct, warning pulled at me.

He then uttered a single syllable.

"Luna."

The name suddenly tore through me like cold and fire. I felt my chest heave. I felt a tingle in my fingers. A hand gripped mine, a scream, fire, blood, a memory hung, just out of reach. Then it was gone.

I collapsed to my knees, gasping for oxygen and my heart pounding. My wolf hissed, restless, frantically tugging at its tether.

The eyes of the figure sparkled. "You'll remember soon. The past is going to catch up with you soon. However, till then... With a little ruthless grin, he turned. "Get yourself ready, Aria. Otherwise, you won't make it through the following moon.

Then he disappeared into the darkness.

I stayed on the chilly floor, shivering and heaving in my chest. Beneath my skin, my wolf walked restlessly and agitatedly. The fragments, the murmurs of Luna, the dreams all of them were waiting for. I was waiting for the time I couldn't ignore any longer.

I felt a chill that went beyond horror when the moonlight glinted off the insignia on

the far-off tree, the same mark I had seen in my dreams:

The game was on.

And the prize was me.