Chapter 5
335 Words
Cracks in the Past
Nova had always believed the story.
Bloodmoon attacked without warning.
Their Alpha ordered the s*******r.
Ryder Blackwood would one day pay for it.
Simple. Clear. Clean.
Now it no longer felt clean.
For three days after the bond formed, she moved through the pack with quiet focus. She trained. She patrolled. She answered when spoken to.
But she also listened.
Older warriors talked more freely at night near the fire. They assumed she was one of them now. One of Bloodmoon.
That trust made her stomach twist.
She sat a short distance away as two senior wolves spoke in low voices.
“It was chaos back then,” one of them said. “The old Alpha had no patience.”
“He never did,” the other replied. “That treaty should have been handled differently.”
Nova kept her expression neutral.
“What treaty,” she asked casually.
The older wolf glanced at her. “You were not here then.”
“No.”
He sighed. “Fifteen years ago there was a meeting between Bloodmoon and the Silvercrest pack. Territory dispute.”
Silvercrest.
Her pack.
“They accused us of crossing their borders,” the second wolf continued. “We accused them of hiding rogues.”
Nova’s pulse quickened but her face stayed calm.
“So the attack was planned,” she said carefully.
“It was not supposed to be an attack,” the first wolf replied. “It was a negotiation.”
The second gave a dry laugh. “With the old Alpha, negotiations were always one insult away from blood.”
Nova stared into the fire.
“Ryder was barely twenty then,” the first wolf added. “Not Alpha yet. Just an heir.”
“Did he agree with the decision,” she asked.
Both wolves exchanged a look.
“He argued against it,” one of them said quietly. “I heard him myself. Said it would start a war.”
Nova’s chest tightened.
- Writer
