The Forgotten Luna

2 - Ashes and Honey

[Astrid P.O.V]

The scent of pine smoke lingered in the halls long after the fires were stoked. I moved quietly through the corridors of the Dark Moon packhouse, head down with careful steps. The silver tray in my hands trembled slightly, my knuckles white around its edges. I wasn’t allowed to be seen during summits, at least, not really seen, but the Elders always wanted warm tea at midmorning, and Luna Arielle had insisted I deliver it myself.

“Keep your eyes down,” Luna Arielle had warned, pinching my arm until I flinched. “You are not to speak unless spoken to. If any of them suspect you’re more than a servant, we’ll all suffer for it. Do you understand me, girl?”

I had nodded, just like I always did.

My wolf stirred restlessly beneath my skin.

Let me growl at her just once, Juno muttered. Or maybe shift and rip her outfit. I’d feel better.

And then what? They’d cage us or kill us. No, thank you.

You’re too soft.

I’m surviving, I replied to her bitterly. That’s not softness.

Still, the knot of fear in my chest hadn’t eased. Not since the previous night when I overheard the Luna whisper to Alpha Lucas about Alpha Kayn.

“He’ll arrive in three days,” Arielle had said. “We’ll finalize the arrangement before the summit ends.”

It had taken everything in me not to drop the folded linens that I had been carrying. I’d known about the talks, of course, and heard the name Kayn spoken like an offering, a weapon, a threat, but now it was happening. I was going to be handed off like livestock.

I knew about all the other girls. The girls who had died. Some died by accident, some from abuse, but it was all under Kayn’s control.

I swallowed bile and forced my hands to stop shaking. I paused at the Elder’s door, smoothing my apron, and knocked twice.

A gruff voice answered, and I stepped inside with my head lowered.

The Elders didn’t even look at me, and I liked it that way.

By afternoon, my duties shifted to the kitchens. It was hot, crowded, and loud. The sound of knives chopping, pots clanging, and Arielle barking orders from he doorway like she was commanding an army. I worked quietly alongside the others, peeling potatoes and slicing herbs until my fingers felt raw.

It was only when I slipped out of the back corridor did I let myself breathe. The cold air hit my skin, and even Juno sighed with relief.

This place stinks of lies and magic, Juno murmured. You feel it too, don’t you?

It has always been like this, Juno.

No, not like this. Something has changed.

I paused in the stone hallway, looking up towards the second-floor balcony. That’s when it happened. A snap, then a shock. I realized my pulse was hammering in my chest, and I dropped the cloth in my hands. The breath left my body.

Juno went silent for one beat. Then: Astrid.

I feel it. I feel it too.

The bond, the sacred mate bond. It wasn’t gentle or slow. It was immediate. A violent pull, a pull like gravity. It felt like I was being yanked inside out. I turned toward the stairwell as if drawn by an invisible string, and that’s when I saw him.

He was tall, broad-shouldered, and dressed in black. He was standing at the top of the stairs, eyes like storm clouds scanning the crowd and looking for something.

For me. He was looking for me.

I didn’t breathe. I didn’t move.

He was the most powerful presence I’d ever seen. His presence outshone even Alpha Lucas. Somehow, I knew. He was mine.

But he didn’t know it yet.

If anyone else found out… Lucas, Arielle, or the Elders. I would lose everything. So I turned… and fled.

Later that evening, when the halls had quieted down and the kitchen was cooling down from the heat of the dinner we had prepared.

I retreated to the hidden corner of the laundry cellar that was cloaked in shadows and smelled like soap. Rhea joined me only a little later, sitting down with me. “You saw him?” Rhea asked softly.

“I didn’t mean to,” I whispered, clutching my knees. “He was just… there, and then the bond snapped into place.”

Rhea’s dark eyes glittered with worry. Her long hair was wrapped in a braid down her back, and her hands were still dusted with flour from helping prep the summit feast. She’d only been with the Dark Moon Pack for a year, brought in by Luna Arielle under vague circumstances, “a healer from the western packs,” she’d said, but I had come to trust her more than anyone.

“Atlas,” Rhea said. “That’s his name. The Alpha of the Moon Stone Pack. His wolf is ancient and loud. I heard him growling in the guest wing.”

I nodded faintly. “Juno says the same.”

He’s looking for us, Juno muttered. I can feel it. He smells like cold rain, blood, and safety.

There is no such thing as safety, I thought bitterly.

Rhea laid a hand on my arm. “You have to tell him.”

“I can’t. If Lucas or Arielle find out…”

“They’ll give you to Kayn anyway,” Rhea said, her voice flat. “You know they will.”

I swallowed, my throat tight.”Maybe that’s better than dragging Atlas into this. If he tries to take me, it’ll be war.”

“He won’t care,” Rhea said. “You are his mate.”

I closed my eyes, letting myself imagine it for one small moment. I let myself imagine what it would be like to run, to be free, to shift and not be punished for it. To speak and be heard, or to love and not be used.

Juno whined softly.

We belong to no one but ourselves. Not Kayn, not Lucas, and not even Atlas.

But he didn’t feel like a cage, I told Juno. He felt like… a door.

The next morning, the estate was a buzz of activity. A snowstorm had rolled in overnight, and the corridors dripped with melted slush. The summit sessions continued, but I was kept in the east wing, tasked with organizing linens and preparing guest chambers.

I kept my head down, eyes downcast.

My heart kept drifting north, toward the scent that I couldn’t forget. To Atlas.

He hadn’t seen me clearly, but he hadn’t called out. He knew something had happened. She felt it in the strange static in the air. The tension was crawling down the back of her neck and spine.

He’s close again, Juno said that afternoon as they walked through the servants’ hall. Third floor. He is right above us, I can smell him.

We have to stay away. If we draw attention-

But Juno cut me off before I could finish the thought. You’ll be dragged to the altar with Kayn and left to die in a frozen bed. I’d rather be taken by Atlas in chains than sleep beside that monster.

The thought made me nauseous.

I paused outside the linen closet, clutching a folded towel to my chest.

What do I do, Juno? I can’t risk everything…

He’s your mate. Your true mate. Letting them keep you from him is worse than death.

I shook my head. One mistake. One glance too long, or one too strong scent. The whole illusion would shatter, and then I would be punished again. Only it would be worse this time.

I hadn’t forgotten the silver cuffs that they keep in the basement, or the way Luna Arielle smiled when she used them.

As I continued my duties later into the evening. It was while delivering clean sheets to the eastern chambers in the estate that I felt the bond ripple again.

Atlas was behind that door. Just ten feet away from me, and he knew.

I could hear his heartbeat. Juno could hear Bane growling through the bond between the walls.

I didn’t knock, and I almost didn’t even breathe. I just placed the linens on the bench and walked away. Faster than I should have.

Juno whined, but didn’t argue. We were too close to the edge now.

I returned to the laundry cellar after my duties, and I found that Rhea was already waiting, sitting cross-legged on a blanket with a lamp in front of her.

I took my place across from Rhea.

“I had a vision,” Rhea said softly, revealing something about her that I hadn’t known.

I gaped at her. “You’re a Seer?”

Rhea gave me a look. “Not officially, not anymore.” Something had happened in Rhea’s past that was too unpleasant to talk about, and I could sense that now wasn’t the time to ask.

“Tell me.”

“You’re standing at a crossroads,” Rhea said. “One path is fire, and one is frost. You take the fire, you burn, but you rise. You take the frost, and you live, but die on the inside.”

I didn’t answer.

“You know which one is Kayn.” I did. The frost was Kayn, but the part Rhea didn’t say is that dying on the inside would kill me on the outside as well.

“And the fire?” I asked after a moment.

“Atlas,” Rhea said. “The truth, the risk, and the bond.”

I stared into the lamp.

“I’m afraid.”

“Good,” Rhea said. “Only fools go into battle without fear.”

We parted shortly after, and sleep claimed me easily after an exhausting day of work. I dreamed of a forest, blanketed in snow.

I walked barefoot, my steps leaving bloody prints behind me.

Ahead, a wolf stood waiting, massive, black, and eyes like moonlight. This was not Juno. It was him.

I reached for him, but before I could touch him…

I woke up gasping, holding the blanket and sheet close to my chest.