Rejected Luna: The Moonborn Returns

Chapter 4: Alive

KAEL

They found her blood on the rocks by the third day.

Not her body. Just blood. A dark stain on the stones below the willow, already washed thin by the river.

I stood over it for a long time.

"It's a lot, Alpha," Torren said quietly behind me.

"Nobody walks away from losing that much."

"Then where is she?"

Torren didn't answer.

He had been my Beta for ten years, and he knew when a question wasn't really a question.

Behind us, the search party kept wading through the shallows.

Forty warriors. Three days. Nothing. No shoes. No scrap of dress. Not even a strand of black hair on a branch.

It was as if the river had swallowed Elara Quinn whole.

And my wolf was losing his mind.

He hadn't been quiet since the ceremony.

He paced behind my ribs, clawing at the inside of my skull, howling the same thing over and over until I thought my head would split.

Mate. Mate. Mate. Find her.

She's gone, I told him. You heard what I said.

You felt it break.

He didn't care.

He snarled so hard my vision flashed gold, and I had to grip a tree to stay upright.

"Kael." Torren caught my arm.

"You haven't slept in two days."

"I'm fine."

"You're bleeding."

I wiped my nose. My fingers came away red.

"Alpha." A young warrior ran up, out of breath.

"The lower bank is clear. The Dowager Luna says to stop. She wants us back before dark."

"The Dowager Luna isn't the Alpha."

The warrior swallowed.

"No, Alpha."

He left. Torren watched him go, then watched me.

"Your mother is worried about you."

"My mother is relieved." It came out harsher than I meant.

Torren frowned. "Kael…"

"Forget it."

I knelt and pressed my palm against the rocks where her blood had dried.

Under my hand, the stone felt strange.

Warm. Like something had burned here.

A smell clung to it. Faint and sweet, like moonlight. Like rain on silver.

My wolf went completely silent.

Then, in my head, as clear as a spoken word, he whispered one thing.

Alive.

I stopped breathing.

"What?" Torren said. "What is it?"

"Nothing."

I stood up too fast. The ground tilted. "We're not stopping."

"Kael, it's been…"

"I said we're not stopping."

Torren's green eyes narrowed. He didn't push.

That was why he was still my Beta.

I wanted to tell him I hadn't meant a single word I said at that stone.

But what good was the truth now?

That night, I dreamed of water.

I was sinking in a black river, and above me, someone was glowing violet.

She reached for me. I reached back.

Right before our fingers touched, I woke up on the floor of my office with my claws out and blood on my lips.

I had bitten through my own tongue.

Later, I walked to the servants' quarters above the kitchen and pushed open the door to a room barely bigger than a closet.

A narrow bed. A cracked mirror. A shelf with three books.

That was her whole life.

Three books and a mirror.

On the pillow lay a small drawing, a rough sketch of the Moon Stone with a tiny figure standing beside it.

Under it, in careful handwriting: Maybe this year.

My knees nearly gave out.

"You can stop pretending to be sad now."

Lyra stood in the doorway, arms folded, eyes red.

"Lyra."

"I'm not here to yell." Her voice cracked anyway.

"She brought me soup when I had the flu last winter. Do you know that? Nobody asked her to. She just did."

"I know."

"You don't know. You never looked at her."

Every word was true. I took it.

"Whatever Mom told you," my sister said, shaking, "it wasn't worth that."

I looked up sharply.

"What did you say?"

Lyra blinked, as if she hadn't meant to say it out loud.

Then she turned and left.

ELARA

By evening, I could stand.

By dark, I could walk to the cave mouth without Darian catching my elbow.

My body had stopped hurting, which scared me more than the pain had.

"Why isn't it getting worse?" I asked.

"Shouldn't I feel weak?"

"You will," Darian said.

"Power like yours has a price. You've been healing for days. Your body needs to catch up."

"What does the power do?"

"That's not the question I'd be asking."

"Fine. What else do you know about my family?"

He didn't answer right away. He was staring at the fire.

"Darian."

"Your parents didn't die in a rogue attack."

The air left the room.

I had been told the story my whole life.

Two wolves, killed on the border when I was a baby.

Rogues. Bad luck. The pack had raised me out of pity and never let me forget it.

"You knew them?"

"Not as well as I should have. But I knew them." His voice was low.

"They were hiding you, Elara. For a very long time."

"From who?"

"That's a longer story."

"Then tell me!"

"Tomorrow." He finally looked at me. "You've had enough for one night."

I wanted to scream. Instead, I turned away and sat by the cave entrance, pulling his coat around me.

The night was clear.

A thin moon hung over the pines.

I watched it and tried not to cry.

I was so tired of crying over a man who called me nothing.

And then it happened.

A tug in my chest. Gentle at first. Then hard, like a hook caught under my ribs.

I pressed a hand to my heart.

"That's not supposed to be there," I whispered. "The bond's gone. He broke it."

"Normal bonds break," Darian said softly behind me. "Yours might not."

Before I could answer, I heard a voice.

Not through my ears.

Inside my head, ragged and low, as if it was crawling toward me from very far away.

Elara.

I stopped breathing.

I know you're alive.