The Fallen Moon: Predestined Sin

Chapter 6:The Rift

Caine did not appear in the camp the afternoon I returned from the silver oaks.

I asked the old witch doctor, but she only shook her head, her bone bells chiming softly. Passing the watchtower, the young werewolf was polishing his sword—he was no longer assigned to escort me, but every time he saw me, he would still pause his work. He told me the Alpha was in the council chamber with Elder Cole, and the door was shut.

A closed door. In the Bloodspear Pack, a closed-door meeting between the Alpha and an elder meant only one thing: someone was challenging his authority.

At dusk, Marcus came to find me. He stood outside the stables for a moment, waiting for me to shovel the last cart of manure before speaking.

"The Alpha has instructed me to convey—you do not have to return to the silver cage tonight. There is an empty wooden cabin in the northwest corner of the camp, formerly used for injured patrol members. It is your new quarters."

I set down my shovel. "The catch?"

"There is no catch."

"A catch-free offer is always the most expensive. What does he want?"

The corner of Marcus's mouth twitched into a faint smile. "He wants you alive. For him, that is already an exception.

Do not ask for more."

He turned to leave. I stopped him.

"What did Cole say in the council chamber today?"

Marcus paused, though he did not turn around. "Elder Cole proposed... exchanging you for Victor Ashton. Your uncle is gathering the Ashton family's private forces at the Bloodspear border, demanding the release of their 'kidnapped heir.' Cole believes handing you over would avoid a war."

Victor. The man who had held my hand at my father’s funeral and said, “From now on, you are my daughter.” He was here.

"What did Caine say?"

"The Alpha said—" Marcus finally turned around, a rare spark flashing in his gray-blue eyes, "—‘Elder Cole, do you think I am short on favors?’"

He paused, and the spark vanished.

"Cole said other things during the meeting, concerning the Alpha's mother. He said she didn't commit suicide out of devotion. It was Caine's father who decided to send her back to her mother pack in exchange for their support in the war. She slit her wrists three days later."

Marcus swept out.

I stood alone by the stables, watching the setting sun paint the fence the color of rusted iron.

So Caine’s mother hadn't died out of pure devotion; she had been sent away. His father hadn’t fought the entire world for her—he had chosen the pack, chosen the war, chosen the "third path." And three days later, she slit her wrists. Just like the princess on the pyre three hundred years ago, she had died for the Alpha's "greater good."

And after her death, her son walked an hour along the mountain trail every night to ask a question under the silver oaks that would never be answered—not "would you make a different choice," but "if I hadn't agreed to let you go, would you still be alive?"

He had publicly declared me a curse. He had decreed that no one step within three paces of me. Beneath the silver oaks, he said he would not sacrifice the entire pack for a choice, nor would he sacrifice me.

Those weren’t the promises of an Alpha. Those were the vows of a boy kneeling before his mother’s grave.

I walked toward the northwest corner of the camp.

My new quarters was a small wooden cabin, barely three times the size of the silver cage, but it had a real bed and a window that let in the moonlight. On the table sat a clay jar. When I opened it, it was filled with salt—a full jar, enough to last a month.

I set the jar back on the table, sat on the edge of the bed, and stared at the moon outside the window.

Caine Bloodspear, your father took the third path, and the result was your mother's death and a lifetime of nightmares. Now, you are walking a third path of your own—neither killing me nor handing me over. But you cannot hide me forever. Cole will not stop. Victor will not retreat. Your pack is watching you through the lens of your father's tragic end, betting on whether you will make the same mistake.



And at the end of that path sits your mother's headstone.