*FERAL: claimed by my rival*

*the first hunt*

*CHAPTER 6: THE FIRST HUNT*

The stairs breathed.

That’s the only way to describe it.

Cold air came up from the dark like the earth was exhaling.

And that voice. Old. Female. Like stone grinding on stone.

_“The Moon requires payment for a new pack.

One life.

Or the Bond breaks and both die.”_

The courtyard was dead silent.

200 wolves. Two Alphas. One ghost.

And us.

Kael’s hand was still in mine.

The triple mark burned. Red, red, gold.

“Don’t,” Kael said. Not to me. To the stairs.

“Who are you?”

_“I am the Moon’s Mouth,”_ the voice answered. _“I speak when blood must be weighed.”_

My father stepped forward. “This is heresy. The Moon doesn’t demand lives.”

_“The old Moon does,”_ the voice said. _“The Moon you buried with Rikka.”_

Rikka.

He was in the trees, watching. Not helping.

_“Lesson three,”_ his voice whispered only to us. _“Sacrifice.

Choose who pays, pups. Or I will choose for you.”_

I looked at Kael.

He looked at me.

27 days. Enemies in one bed. Allies in one war.

And now this.

“We’re not sacrificing each other,” I said.

_“Then sacrifice one of them,”_ the Moon’s Mouth said. _“An Alpha.

Or the Bond takes you both at moonrise.”_

Moonrise was in 8 hours.

*THE FIRST HUNT*

Kael let go of my hand.

“I’m going down.”

“No.”

“Elsa.”

“No.” I grabbed his wrist. “We do this together or not at all.”

The Bond pulsed agreement.

Thorne stepped between us and the stairs. “This is madness. You’re children.”

“Then don’t let us go alone,” Kael said.

Thorne looked at the two Alphas. At the army. At Rikka.

He swore. “Fine. I’m coming too. Someone has to pull your bodies out.”

So it was decided.

Me. Kael. Thorne.

Into the dark.

Before we went, Alpha Varn grabbed Kael’s arm.

“Son. If this is the end—”

“Don’t,” Kael cut him off. “If this is the end, I choose how it ends.”

My father didn’t touch me.

He just said, “Don’t come back as a monster.”

“I’ll try not to,” I said.

The stairs were old. Wet. Carved from the same stone as the Mirror Chamber.

Torches lit themselves as we walked down.

The air got colder. The voice got louder.

_“Deeper. The payment waits at the heart.”_

We walked for 10 minutes.

Then 20.

Then the stairs ended.

A cave.

Huge.

In the center was a pool. Black water. Still.

Above it, hanging from chains, was a cage.

And inside the cage was a wolf.

Not Rikka.

Smaller. White.

Eyes closed. Breathing.

_“The First Luna,”_ the voice said. _“The one who started the war.

She has slept here for 200 years.

She is the payment.”_

Kael frowned. “You want us to kill her?”

_“No,”_ the voice said. _“I want you to wake her.

And she will decide who dies.”_

Thorne swore again. “This is a trial by combat. Old law.”

He looked at us. “You wake her, she picks one of you to fight. Winner lives. Loser dies. Pack is sealed.”

“That’s not a choice,” I said.

“That’s the only choice the Moon gives,” Thorne said.

Rikka’s voice in my head: _“Hunt her, pups. Or be hunted.”_

*WAKING THE MONSTER*

Kael went to the pool first.

He cut his palm. Blood dripped into the black water.

Ripples.

The wolf in the cage opened her eyes.

Ice blue.

Ancient.

She stood. Stretched. Like she’d only been sleeping for a night.

_“Who wakes me?”_ her voice was in our heads. Not spoken.

_“Enemies,”_ Kael said. “Bound by the Moon.”

The wolf tilted her head. Looked at our wrists.

_“Ah. The third.”_

She looked past us. Up.

_“Rikka. You’re still alive. How disappointing.”_

Rikka’s laugh echoed down. _“Hello, sister.”_

Sister?

The First Luna jumped from the cage. Landed in the pool without a splash.

Water didn’t touch her.

She walked to us. Circled us.

Sniffed Kael. Then me.

_“You smell like my brothers,”_ she said. _“One Varn. One Rowan.

And you smell like me.”_

She stopped in front of me. _“You have my eyes.”_

My blood went cold.

“What?”

_“I was Rowan before I was Luna,”_ she said. _“Before your great-great-grandfather stole my name.”_

Family.

She was family.

_“Here are the rules of the First Hunt,”_ she said. _“One of you fights me.

If you win, the Bond is sealed and the new pack lives.

If you lose, the Bond breaks and you both die.

If you refuse, the Bond breaks and you both die.”_

She smiled. Teeth like knives. _“Choose who hunts.”_

Kael stepped forward. “Me.”

“No,” I said. “Me.”

“Both,” Thorne said. “The law says ‘one of you.’ It doesn’t say only one.”

The First Luna laughed. _“Clever old man. Fine. Both.”_

The pool drained.

The floor turned to dirt.

The walls pushed back.

We were in an arena now.

_“Begin,”_ she said.

And she moved.

*HUNTED*

She was fast. Too fast.

Kael threw himself at her. She sidestepped and clipped him with her tail.

He went flying. Hit the wall.

I felt it in my ribs.

“Kael!”

“I’m fine!” he yelled, already up.

We had to work together.

The Bond made it possible.

I knew when he was going to lunge. He knew when I was going to feint.

But she was 200 years old.

She’d invented the moves we were using.

She caught me by the throat. Lifted me off the ground.

_“You fight well, child. But you fight like a Rowan.”_

She looked at Kael. _“And you fight like a Varn.

You will never win together if you fight like your fathers.”_

She threw me.

Pain. Everywhere.

Kael was over me in a second. “Elsa?”

“Don’t stop,” I gasped. “We have to—”

The Bond flared.

Not red.

Gold.

And suddenly I could see it.

Not her moves.

Her memory.

200 years ago.

Two brothers fighting.

Her in the middle. Trying to stop them.

Being called weak. Being called traitor.

Being buried.

She didn’t want the war.

She wanted it to end.

Just like us.

“Kael,” I whispered. “Stop fighting her.”

“What?”

“Stop. Fighting.”

He hesitated. Then he lowered his sword.

The First Luna stopped too.

_“What are you doing?”_

“We’re not fighting you,” I said. “We’re asking you.”

“Asking what?”

“To join us. Instead of killing us.”

Silence.

_“You would ask a monster to join you?”_

“You’re not a monster,” Kael said. “You’re the only one who tried to stop it.”

The First Luna stared at us.

For a long time.

Then she shifted.

From wolf to woman.

Old. White hair. Scars. Eyes still ice blue.

_“No one has asked me that in 200 years,”_ she said.

She walked to us. Touched both our marks.

The gold line brightened.

_“Very well,”_ she said. _“I accept.”_

The arena dissolved.

We were back in the cave.

_“The payment is made,”_ the Moon’s Mouth said. _“The Bond is sealed.”_

Relief hit me so hard I almost fell.

Kael caught me.

The First Luna — she told us to call her Lyra — looked at Thorne.

“Take me to the surface. I have words for my grandsons.”

We started back up the stairs.

Victory.

We did it.

Until the ground shook.

*THE TRAP*

Not from below.

From above.

Boom.

Boom.

The sound of stone collapsing.

Thorne’s face went pale. “They sealed the exit.”

“Who?” Kael asked.

“Both of them,” Thorne said. “Your fathers.

They don’t want a new pack. They want us buried.”

Lyra snarled. _“Of course they do.”_

We ran.

But the stairs were gone.

Collapsed.

We were trapped 200 feet underground.

With one old woman, two teenagers, and a headmaster.

And the Moon’s Mouth was laughing.

_“The payment was not blood. The payment is time.

You have until the air runs out.”_

Panic.

Real panic.

I could feel it in Kael too.

“We have to dig,” I said.

“With what?” Kael said. “Our hands?”

Lyra put her hand on the wall. Closed her eyes.

_“There is another way out.

The old tunnels.

Rikka knows them.”_

She opened her eyes. _“But he won’t help unless you give him what he wants.”_

“One parent,” I whispered.

Kael punched the wall. “I’m not—”

“You don’t have to,” Lyra said. _“There’s a third option.

Always is.”_

She looked at me. Then Kael.

_“The Bond can be broken.

Voluntarily.

One of you gives up the Bond. The other lives.

The sacrifice is made. The door opens.”_

The cave went quiet.

Kael stared at me.

I stared at him.

27 days.

Everything we’d been through.

“Don’t you dare,” I said.

“Don’t you dare either,” he said.

Lyra sighed. _“Then you die together.

Unless...”_

She paused. _“Unless you find the third key.”_

“What third key?” I asked.

_“The one Rikka has.

He’s been holding it for 200 years.

It opens any door. Even this one.”_

From above, we heard voices.

Digging.

But not to save us.

To make sure we stayed buried.

And from the dark behind us, new footsteps.

Not ours.

Not Lyra’s.

Not Thorne’s.

Slow. Deliberate.

Coming closer.

Kael drew his dagger.

I drew mine.

The torchlight flickered.

And in the dark, two gold eyes opened.

Not Rikka’s.

Smaller.

Younger.

A pup.

Maybe 12.

Black fur. Gold eyes.

Wearing a collar with our new mark on it.

The pup spoke. In a voice that was not a pup’s.

_“Rikka sent me.

He says: If you want the key, come and take it.

But you’ll have to hunt for it first.”_

The pup turned and ran into the dark tunnel.

Lyra looked at us. _“The First Hunt isn’t over.

It’s just starting.”_

Kael looked at me.

I looked at him.

Trapped. Out of time. Out of options.

“Then let’s hunt,” I said.

We ran after the pup.

Into the dark.

Behind us, the ceiling groaned.

Above us, our fathers dug.

And in front of us, the only way out.

*TO BE CONTINUED...*