THE WHITE WOLF HE REJECTED

Chapter 13: Moonlit Lessons

Lyra's POV

I returned to the Moon Shrine before dawn, unsure whether Astra would appear again or whether the last few nights had been some strange dream I'd have imagined, I didn't understand me or rather I was beginning to understand myself. The shrine sat silent beneath the fading stars, the altar was dark and the leaves were above it still, everywhere was calm as always and still, cooling down my body.

Then the moonlight gathered and Astra emerged calmer than she'd been the night before, her light settling more easily around her now, as though she was growing steadier and closer the more I accepted her.

I didn't waste the moment, the questions came out before I could stop them. I was curious, maybe that's why those questions came out of my mouth without thinking, I had lots of questions. What she was, what I was becoming, how long this had been building and what came next.

Astra lowered her head, patient.

“I cannot answer everything at once, knowledge given before its time becomes a burden, every question will be answered as time goes by”

I wanted to argue but something in her voice stopped me, instead she told me to close my eyes, to quiet the noise in my head the way I quieted a frightened animal, gently without force. I also needed to calm myself down.

I closed my eyes and slowly the forest opened around me, I felt it around me, as I felt it I began to feel calmer. I heard the soft, rapid heartbeat of a rabbit somewhere in the brush, the whisper of leaves shifting overhead. The stream was farther off than I'd expected, murmuring over its stones.

It didn't feel like power, it felt like listening to something that had always been spoken and I simply hadn't known how to hear it before.

By the time I left the shrine the forest had gathered around me in a way I couldn't just ignore. Birds perched on the branches above my path, watching without fear. Rabbits came out from their burrows along the trail, unbothered by my footsteps.

Farther off, at the tree line, a lone wolf stood watching me, not threatening, not curious in the way an animal usually is but still and calm.

It lowered its head almost like a bow before turning and disappearing into the trees.

I stood there long after it vanished, a chill settling over me that had nothing to do with the morning air.

---

At the Alpha Hall, Kael sat over a table covered in scouting reports, Damon beside him tracing a finger along the northern border on a worn map, staring at him for a while.

“You've read that same line three times,” Damon said.

Kael blinked, realizing he had, what Damon said was actually true, “I haven't slept well, not since the coronation”

Damon studied him a moment longer than necessary but let it go, the way he usually did, he didn't want to intrude. Kael returned to the reports or tried to until a familiar shape passed by the window outside and his wolf surged forward beneath his skin with an urgency he hadn't asked for.

He turned towards the window before he'd even decided to. Lyra crossed the courtyard again in a few seconds.

Kael caught himself and forced his eyes back to the map though the restlessness in his chest didn't go away as quickly as he wanted it to, it was still there, he still felt it but he just had to ignore.

Selena noticed, the way she notices everything, she was very observant, she said nothing about it that time, she waited until later that evening when she brought him tea and settled beside him with her usual easy warmth.

“Lyra has seemed… different lately” she said lightly, “I hope she's alright” she said with a little bit of worry on her face.

“That's how she is, she's always quiet,” Kael said, not looking up from his papers.

Selena smiled, gentle and looked unbothered on the surface, “Of course” She said nothing else but she'd already begun keeping a closer count than before every glance, every pause, every moment Kael's attention drifted somewhere she hadn't sent it, she was more observant now, she was noting everything down.

Later that evening, I slipped away again, drawn back to the shrine the way I always was now. Astra appeared almost the instant I arrived, her presence sharper tonight, more urgent and quick.

“You must not reveal what you've become” she said before I could even ask,

“Your scent is beginning to spread, wolves far stronger than any in Silver Crest will soon be able to sense you”

I became scared, “Who would come after me?”

Astra’s expression hardened, the softness from that morning gone entirely,

“Those who wish to protect you” she said, “And those who wish to use you”

I didn't ask which kind was more likely to find me first, I wasn't sure I wanted the answer.

---

Deep within rogue territory, a hooded scout knelt before the Dark Alpha's throne, delivering word of disturbances rippling through Silver Crest's forests, animals behaving strangely, patrols reporting a silence in the woods that shouldn't exist.

The Dark Alpha listened without moving, his crimson eyes fixed somewhere past the scouts bowed head, he scanned the room before he spoke.

“Send the trackers” he said finally, “Our finest”

The scout hesitated “And if she resists, my lord?”

The Dark Alpha's mouth curved, “Do not kill her”

The hunters left before the torches had finished burning out.

---

That night, I stood outside my room long after the village had gone quiet, unable to make myself go inside, I couldn't sleep. For the first time in my life, I heard a wolf howl not with my ears but somewhere deep inside my own chest as though the sound had been made specifically for me.

Astra’s voice followed a moment later, quiet as usual and calm.

“They've found our scent”