Chapter sixteen
776 Words
We buried Damon beneath the silver pines.
Kael didn’t speak during the ceremony. Neither did I.
There were no words strong enough to hold our grief.
The air was still, heavy with ash and silence. I stood beside Kael, clutching the hilt of the shattered obsidian blade we’d recovered from Theron. It was cold now—its magic broken, but its presence still a curse.
“He saved me,” I whispered, voice cracking. “He should’ve lived.”
Kael’s jaw clenched, his golden eyes rimmed red. “He gave his life for you. He wouldn’t regret it.”
“But I do.”
Kael reached for my hand. “We honor him by finishing what he died for.”
The fire in my chest hadn’t cooled since that night. It burned hotter now—grief and rage feeding it in equal measure.
“They’ll come again, won’t they?” I asked.
“Yes,” Kael said. “And next time… it won’t just be Theron. The Council will come themselves.”
That night, the moon bled red.
A blood moon.
The pack was restless. The sky thundered with a storm that never came, the clouds swirling like something ancient had awakened.
We gathered in the war hall. Warriors, scouts, healers. The entire fortress felt haunted.
Kael stood at the front.
“They killed our own,” he said, voice low and deadly. “They betrayed their bloodline. They want to erase us.”
I stepped beside him. “They want to kill me.”
Murmurs. Fear.
“And if they do,” I continued, “they win. They kill the future they fear. The bond they outlawed. The prophecy they tried to bury.”
Someone stood.
An old warrior named Corran. “You carry the fire of Amara.”
I nodded. “And I’m ready to burn down the Council.”
Cheers broke out. But Kael held up a hand.
“There’s more,” he said. “Last night, something came through the rift.”
He turned to a scout—young, eyes wide, trembling.
“Tell them.”
The boy stepped forward. “They weren’t wolves.”
Gasps.
“They looked like wolves, but they didn’t smell like us. Eyes black. Skin… cracking. Like their souls were rotting inside their bodies.”
“Council’s new weapons,” Kael muttered. “Made from cursed bloodlines. Shadows forced into fur.”
They were called the Hollowborn.
No hearts. No mercy. No fear.
Kael paced the war room. “They’re already on the move. If we don’t act first, they’ll destroy this stronghold.”
I stepped forward. “Then we act first.”
Later that night, I sat on the edge of Damon’s grave, tracing his name carved in the stone.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I wish I could’ve saved you.”
A breeze whispered through the trees.
And then I felt it—a pulse beneath the soil. Faint. Familiar.
A voice in my head.
Find the Moonstone.
I jolted upright.
The Moonstone.
Kael had mentioned it once—a sacred relic tied to the first Alpha Queen. Said to unlock the full strength of her descendant.
Me.
If we were going to survive the next battle, I’d need it.
We rode out before sunrise—Kael, me, and a scout named Arya. Toward the ruins of the Temple of Light, buried deep in the heart of the mountains. That’s where the Moonstone was said to rest.
But something followed us.
Halfway up the mountain, the winds changed.
Kael stopped, his wolf sniffing the air.
“Run,” he ordered.
Too late.
The Hollowborn attacked.
They didn’t howl. They didn’t growl. They just moved, a blur of black and bone and hunger.
Arya went down first—dragged into the trees with a scream.
Kael shifted, launching himself at the nearest beast. I turned, fire crackling in my hands, and burned one straight through.
But they kept coming.
Relentless. Soulless.
They circled me. I stood my ground, blood pounding.
Then something ancient moved beneath my skin.
My mother’s voice again:
Call the wolf beneath your blood.
I closed my eyes.
And let go.
My shift wasn’t like Kael’s. It didn’t tear through me—it unfolded.
Silver fur. Golden eyes. Fire dripping from my claws.
When I opened my mouth, my howl shattered the mountain silence.
And the Hollowborn scattered like leaves.
Kael turned, staring at me.
“Holy f—” He couldn’t even finish the curse.
I padded forward, larger than his wolf form, glowing with firelight and prophecy.
Not just Alpha.
Queen.
And this time, I was ready to lead.
- Writer
