Luna's Last Chance

Under the full moon, the Silver Ridge Pack assembled; the night was astonishingly calm and the air charged. Usually a site of unity and strength, the clearing seemed cold and unfriendly. The tall trees seemed to push in about them, their black shadows like claws ready to rip away the fragile peace. Kael stood in the middle, his broad shoulders rigid and every muscle in his body nearly palpably tense. Tall and powerful with eyes that once emanate warmth now clouded with doubt and suffering, he was a beautiful guy. Alpha's title weighs down on him unlike anything else. Tonight he was a man almost certainly lost as well as a leader. Aria stood some feet away, her heart hammering in her chest. She was smart, strong, and somewhat near to the pack—everything a Luna should be. Desperate for a clue that this was not real, that this was not happening, her long dark hair dropped down her back and her keen, curious eyes studied Kael's face. Actually, the reality was clear-cut. The rumors had spread throughout the pack, much like wildfire did. Lyra's lies had blossomed from well placed seeds of dishonesty. They painted Aria as a traitor, a woman who had betrayed her husband with a secret lover even bearing a child in remorse. The rumors were a blade to her heart, twisted more by her mate, Alpha, the one person she should have been able to trust above all others. Lyra stood at the edge of the assembly, her mechanical face cold. She radiated controlled elegance; her features were sharp and her eyes gleamed with satisfaction. Kael's younger sister had been somewhat envious of Aria from birth. Even with her own talents, she could never escape the shadow the Luna's genius cast. Now that darkness was poised to disappear. When Kael finally started, the words he was about to say weighed down and taxed his voice. "Aria," he answered, each sentence sounding as a betrayal to his own heart, "you have been accused of the most terrible of sins against this pack and against me, your friend." Aria gasped, her eyes wide with astonishment and skepticism. She carried on, "Keal, please," but he cut her off with a rapid motion, his jaw tightened as he fought to keep his cool. "I have no choice," he murmured, the steely certainty in his voice almost hiding the inner battle. "As Alpha, I have to guard pack honor. You turned away as my companion and therefore denied your Luna status. That moment seemed to sign the end of the earth. Aria's legs shook and she felt the ground give way under her feet. Once her primary source of strength, their bond—the divine link—broke like a frayed rope. Her pain, a searing agony, tore across her chest immediately as she gasped for oxygen. The pack fixed in surprised silence, horror, pity, and worry mingling in their eyes. An Alpha linked sacred, practically unbreakable with his Luna. Having it severed in such a public and savage way was unthinkable. Lyra's lips curved into a satisfied smile, the thrill of victory heating her cold heart. She was finished with it. Aria vanished from the picture, and Lyra would make sure her influence over Kael, the pack, would only get more noticeable. Kael's father, Reginald, donned an unreadable mask from the sidelines. Above all, he had always loved power; in Aria he had seen a threat to the legacy he had laboriously constructed. Though it hurt as much as it did for Kael, the rejection was a necessary first step toward keeping their pack under control. Aria's anguish began to shift as the weight of Kael's words sank in—something colder, something deeper. She had always been a fighter, a survivor; even now she would not let herself be destroyed; her heart crushed and her bond with Kael torn would not allow her. One final sorrowful glimpse at Kael, Aria turned and ran into the night. She abandoned the life she knew and the forest welcomed her ominously, the darkness engulfing her whole. Though under it all a fresh resolution began to shape her, she felt the pain of the broken bond chew at her. Every step Kels watched her go felt like a blade spinning in his chest, his heart in pieces. He couldn't pursue her, though, nor let his emotions govern. He was the Alpha after he made his decision. Turning back was not conceivable now. But when the silence fell over the clearing, Kael began to experience intense anxiety. He had followed what his family had convinced him to be the only choice, what he thought to be necessary. Still, the hole inside him grew more pronounced, a nagging uneasiness resulting from his own biggest life mistake. Far from the Silver Ridge Pack, Aria wrenched her body with tears as she sank to her knees deep into the wilderness. The rejection had left her in ruins; yet, as the evening wore on the ruins began to smother under the flames of wrath and resolution. From her mate, her pack, her future, they had taken everything. But they had undervalued her. The reality would show and those who had offended her would pay. Aria's eyes hardened with will as she wiped her tears away, the first glimmer of morning peeking through the trees. She was no longer the broken Luna tossed away. She was now something else entirely—something more dangerous, something stronger. Kael had turned her down, but in doing so he had set off a fury not easily controlled. The Silver Ridge Pack never will be the same when Aria regains what was hers. She would figure a way to achieve this. Unknown to Kael, regret and sadness would soon occupy the emptiness Aria left behind. Selected by his family and dumped onto him that same evening, the new Luna would bring with her disorder and dishonesty rather than the peace and stability they so craved. Only just starting to disentangle were the shadows hiding in the pack's corners, the lies and manipulation resulting in this terrible night. When they did, Kael would find that the true enemy—not the one he had pushed aside—were those closest to him. Aria disappeared from the view of the pack in the coming months; her life was just a whispered myth. Still, the memories of that evening tortured Kael fiercely even as the gang moved forward. Once driven and proud, his heart today aches with a deep sense of loss and longing. Unlike Aria, the new Luna was chosen based on relationships and promise to boost pack strength. She paid minimal attention to the pack or its customs; she was not at all like Cold and merciless. Instead, she sought only to raise her own profile, therefore increasing her participation in the power disputes involving the Silver Ridge Pack. Trapped in a tangle of political wrangle and family expectations, Kael began to see the cracks in the foundation of all he had grown up to believe. Every day he felt his control dissolving; the pack was breaking apart. But there, far from the tumult of the Silver Ridge Pack, Aria was laying another road. Her hatred and loss had turned into a steely will. Rising from the wreckage of her past, she would be more powerful than anybody could have guessed. And when the time was right she would go back to get what was rightly hers. Luna, her mate, the pack, and her function. Aria had been booted from the Silver Ridge Pack, but they had not seen her last. And her fury would have shook the whole base of their planet when she returned. A lone wolf stood at the edge of a cliff, her dazzling eyes catching the light of the rising moon as the sun went below the horizon and plunged the woodland into huge shadows. Not quite done was the hunt. Actually, it had begun only recently.