8 - The Weight of a Name
1249 Words
[Atlas P.O.V.]
The scent of early morning rain still clung to the trees when I stepped out onto the stone balcony outside my office. Below, the pack estate stretched out wide and alive, wolves training in the yard, staff preparing for guests, and a sense of something ancient stirring beneath the surface. The wind carried an anticipation of change. Anticipation of the ceremony. Anticipation of claiming… of her.
Astrid.
Her name filled every thought I had now, lingering like smoke even when I tried to turn my mind elsewhere. She moved through the halls with quiet grace and the wary steps of someone who’d never been allowed to walk freely. Each glance she gave me, so unsure, yet so fierce in her vulnerability, tightened something in my chest. It wasn’t just the bond. It was her. The girl who had survived unspeakable cruelty, who still stood tall even with the weight of an entire world pressing down on her shoulders.
She was meant to be mine.
And in three days, she would be named Luna.
I can’t believe you’re this calm about it, Bane muttered inside me, his rough voice filled with something close to awe. She’s still scared. She doesn’t know her power. They kept her caged for years.
I know, I answered back silently, watching the training below me. But she’s not caged anymore.
And if they try to take her again?
They won’t.
I felt his low growl echoing across my mind. I was barely able to contain Bane these days, our shared need to protect Astrid more natural than anything we’d ever known. It was more than just instinct, it was our purpose.
Still, I could admit that part of me was afraid. Not of losing her, for that was unthinkable. But of hurting her in some way. Pushing her too hard. Demanding too much before she was ready.
Because she wasn’t just joining me as my mate, she was stepping into the role of Luna before she’d had a moment to breathe.
“Atlas?”
I turned to find Michael leaning against the doorway, his brow raised in a silent, unasked question. “Everyone’s waiting in the war room. Ceremony prep.”
Right… ceremony prep.
With one last glance at my pack and our forest, I followed him back inside, where half the pack leadership had gathered. The long table was covered in scrolls, sealed envelopes, and a digital screen displaying the pack territories and security routes. It was a mix of the old and new that I loved.
“They’ll come,” said Commander Harlan, tapping the map. “The moment she’s named Luna, the Ice Howlers will see it as a provocation. If Alpha Kayn didn’t plan war before, he will now.”
“He doesn’t have the right,” I snapped out of rage with Bane just below the surface. “Astrid was never his mate.”
“He thinks she was,” Michael said. “Or would be.”
“She never accepted.”
“That won’t matter to him.”
I stared at the map, veins tightening. “Then we will be ready. Are the outer patrols doubled?”
“Yes. And I’ve got scouts watching the border from North Carolina all the way up to Ontario,” Harlan confirmed. “He won’t sneak past us.”
Good. He wouldn’t get anywhere near her.
Still, the thought of Astrid standing before our pack, fragile, brave, claiming a name and role she had never been allowed to imagine. It made me want to set the whole forest on fire just to keep her safe.
“Send another squad to sweep the road from Dark Moon territory,” I ordered. “Just in case he tries to intercept anyone.”
Michael met my gaze then nodded approvingly. He understood better than anyone. This wasn’t just about the ceremony. This was about war.
And still, in the middle of it all, she was trying to adjust to being loved.
That afternoon, I found her in the garden. It was where I had found her before over the last couple of days.
She wore soft jeans and a cable-knit sweater someone had given her, probably one of my sisters, and her fingers were buried in the soil around a rose bush that had been dying for months.
Now, it has bloomed.
Astrid didn’t see me at first, too focused on coaxing life into something fragile. It wasn’t just her magic, it was her presence. The air around her shimmered. It was lighter, brighter lingering with the remnants of her magic.
She was the opposite of everything I’d been taught to fear in witches. And yet, she was one. Half-witch, half-wolf. An Eclipse Wolf.
“Hey,” I said softly, alerting her to my presence.
Her head turned, a smudge of dirt streaking across her cheek. “You always sneak up on me.”
“I’m not sneaking. You just forget to listen when you’re busy saving flowers.”
She smiled. It was small, but it made everything feel right.
“I didn’t mean to,” She said, sitting back on her heels and looking up at me in a way that made the blood rush to my groin. “It just looked like it needed help.”
“You’ve helped a lot more than that.”
Astrid looked away then, brushing the soil off her palms. “I don’t know what I’m doing, Atlas. Your pack… they expect someone who’s strong. Someone who knows how to lead.”
“You are strong.”
“No, I’m just…”
“Astrid.” I knelt in front of her, taking her hands in mine. “You’re stronger than any Luna I’ve ever known. You didn’t grow up pampering. You weren’t raised for this. And still, you chose to stand beside me.”
She hesitated. Then, so quietly I almost missed it, she whispered. “Do you ever regret finding me?”
“Never.” I said with a finality.
“I’m not… whole.” She said, still so quiet I struggled to hear her even with werewolf hearing. “Not yet. And you’re already ready to give me everything.”
“Because I’ve seen what you are, and I will never let you be less than that again.”
She looked at me then, really looked. Something shifted between us, the bond humming louder and an invisible string urged me to lean in.
So I did. She didn’t pull away, and when I kissed her, it was like the bond was rejoicing inside of me.
Bane howled in triumph.
We pulled apart, slowly. Her eyes shone with something new.
“I want Rhea there,” She said, changing the topic to her Luna ceremony. “For the ceremony.”
“Of course. She’s family, isn’t she?”
Astrid nodded. “She kept me sane. She was the only one who didn’t treat me like I was broken.”
“She’s welcome here… always.”
The garden encounter had left us closer than it had before. We displayed more affection in public despite that the next two days were a blur of preparation.
Every corridor of the estate buzzed with activity. Gowns were brought in for Astrid to choose from, silks and velvets. Elders arrived early, some bringing blessings, and others brought thinly veiled doubts.
“She’s too young.”
“She’s too unknown.”
“She’s too dangerous.”
I ignored them all.
- Writer
