Run Before Dawn
1819 Words
I left Silver Moon before the sun rose.
No farewell.
No tears.
No looking back.
Only one small bag on my shoulder, my mother’s pendant against my chest, and a secret growing inside me that could destroy what little remained of my life.
Kael Blackthorn’s child.
The thought made my knees weak every time it crossed my mind.
I moved through the forest behind the pack house, keeping to the narrow path servants used when they needed to avoid the main road. The trees were thick there, old pines standing close together like silent guards. Moonlight slipped between their branches, pale and broken.
Every sound made me flinch.
A twig snapping.
An owl calling.
The wind moving through leaves.
I kept expecting someone to shout my name.
Lyra.
Come back.
But no one came.
That hurt more than I wanted to admit.
Kael had rejected me in front of the entire pack, and still some foolish part of me had thought he might follow. Not to take me back. Not to apologize. Maybe just to make sure I was alive after the bond snapped between us.
He did not.
Of course he did not.
I pressed one hand to my stomach.
“You and me now,” I whispered.
The words vanished into the dark.
I did not know if the life inside me could hear. I did not even know how I knew it existed. But I felt it. Beneath the pain, beneath the broken bond, beneath the humiliation still burning through my skin, there was something small and warm.
A pulse.
A promise.
A reason to keep walking.
The edge of Silver Moon territory was less than three miles from the pack house. I had never crossed it alone before. Wolves did not leave their pack without permission. Rogues lived beyond borders, and rogues were hunted.
But I was not sure I belonged to Silver Moon anymore.
Maybe I never had.
By the time I reached the old stone marker near the northern boundary, my shoes were soaked with mud and my body trembled from exhaustion. The rejection pain had faded into a dull ache, but every few minutes it flared again, sharp enough to make me stop and breathe through my teeth.
The bond was gone.
Yet somehow, the wound remained.
I touched the stone marker.
A carved crescent moon stared back at me.
Silver Moon territory ended here.
Beyond it lay the human road, the abandoned gas station, and eventually the town of Fairlake. If I reached Fairlake before morning, I could take a bus west. I had no plan after that.
Only distance.
As much distance from Kael Blackthorn as possible.
I took one step past the boundary.
A cold shiver moved through me.
Not fear.
Something else.
My mother’s pendant warmed against my skin.
I stopped.
The silver moon pendant had always been cold before. I pulled it from beneath my shirt and stared at it. In the moonlight, the tiny stone in the center glowed faintly blue.
My mother’s letter came back to me.
Hide your blood.
Never let them take your child.
“What did you know?” I whispered.
A branch cracked behind me.
I spun around.
For one terrifying second, I saw nothing but trees.
Then a wolf stepped into the moonlight.
Large.
Black.
Golden-eyed.
My heart stopped.
Kael.
No. Not Kael.
This wolf was smaller, with a white scar across its muzzle. One of the border guards. Darius, maybe. I had seen him at training grounds before, laughing with the warriors who used to shove me aside when I carried laundry.
His lips curled back.
A low growl rolled from his throat.
I stepped back.
“I’m leaving,” I said, though I knew he could not understand me in wolf form. “I’m not causing trouble.”
The wolf moved closer.
My grip tightened around the strap of my bag.
I had no weapon. No wolf. No strength.
Just a secret.
And secrets did not protect you from teeth.
Darius sniffed the air.
His growl changed.
His eyes dropped to my stomach.
My blood turned cold.
Could he smell it?
Was that possible so soon?
The wolf took another step forward.
Then another howl rose from deeper in the forest.
Darius froze.
A command.
Not spoken, but felt.
Even I felt it pass through the air like thunder under my skin.
Alpha blood.
Kael.
The black wolf lowered his head, conflicted. For one second, I thought he would retreat.
Instead, he lunged.
I screamed and threw myself sideways.
His claws tore through the sleeve of my shirt instead of my arm. I hit the ground hard, mud splashing across my face. My bag fell open, clothes spilling out.
Darius turned again, fast.
Too fast.
I scrambled backward until my spine hit the stone marker.
The wolf crouched.
Something inside me snapped awake.
Not my wolf.
Something older.
Darker.
Hot silver rushed through my veins.
Darius froze mid-step.
His ears flattened.
I could hear my own heartbeat. No, not only mine. Another heartbeat echoed beneath it.
Small.
Fast.
Alive.
The pendant against my chest burned.
Darius whimpered.
The sound shocked me more than his attack.
He backed away from me, one step, then another, as if he had seen something impossible.
“What are you?” I breathed.
Or maybe I was asking myself.
A shout came from the forest.
“Darius!”
Kael’s voice.
My chest tightened so violently I almost doubled over.
No.
I grabbed my bag, shoved the fallen clothes back inside, and ran.
Behind me, paws thundered over the ground. Human footsteps followed. Men shouting. Wolves howling.
They were coming.
For me.
For the child.
I did not know which possibility frightened me more.
I burst through the trees and stumbled onto the human road just as the first pale line of dawn touched the horizon. The abandoned gas station stood ahead, its windows boarded, its old sign swinging in the wind.
There was supposed to be a bus stop there.
I prayed it still existed.
My lungs burned. My ankle twisted on loose gravel, and I nearly fell, but I forced myself forward.
A truck horn blared.
I froze as headlights swept over me.
An old blue pickup slowed beside the road. The window rolled down, revealing a man with gray hair, a wrinkled face, and eyes too sharp to belong to someone harmless.
“You Lyra Moonstone?” he asked.
I backed away.
No one outside Silver Moon should know my name.
The man sighed. “Your mother had your eyes.”
My breath caught.
“What?”
He leaned across the seat and pushed the passenger door open. “Get in if you want to live.”
Behind me, another howl split the air.
Closer now.
I looked back.
Dark shapes moved between the trees.
The man’s voice hardened. “Girl, I don’t have time to convince you.”
My mother.
He knew my mother.
Or he was lying.
Either way, Kael’s wolves were coming, and I had no better choice.
I climbed into the truck.
The man slammed his foot on the gas before I even shut the door. The pickup jerked forward, tires screaming against the road.
I twisted around in my seat.
Kael emerged from the trees.
He was in human form now, wearing the same black ceremonial clothes from the Luna announcement. His hair was messy, his face pale with rage.
For one moment, our eyes met through the rear window.
The broken place in my chest burned.
He stepped forward.
“Lyra!”
I could not hear him over the engine, but I saw my name on his lips.
My hand moved to my stomach.
Kael stopped.
His eyes dropped.
Even from a distance, I saw the exact moment he understood.
His face changed.
Not anger.
Not disgust.
Fear.
Then possession.
He took another step toward the road, and the air itself seemed to bend around him.
“Drive faster,” I whispered.
The old man glanced at the mirror.
His jaw tightened. “He knows.”
My blood went cold.
“You know too,” I said. “Who are you?”
“Name’s Rowan Vale.”
“That means nothing to me.”
“It meant something to your mother.”
My throat closed.
The truck sped down the empty road, Silver Moon territory disappearing behind us. But I could still feel Kael. The bond was broken, but some shadow of it remained, stretching between us like a wound that refused to close.
Rowan reached into his coat and tossed something into my lap.
A photograph.
My shaking fingers picked it up.
Three people stood in the faded picture. A younger Rowan. My mother, smiling softly. And a man I recognized from the photo hidden beneath my floorboard.
My father.
“You knew them,” I whispered.
“I owed them.”
“What did my mother mean?” I asked, pulling the letter from my bag. My voice broke. “She wrote that I should hide my blood. That I should never let anyone take my child. How could she know?”
Rowan’s eyes stayed on the road.
“Because your mother was not just any she-wolf.”
I waited.
He did not continue.
“Tell me,” I demanded.
He exhaled slowly. “Your mother came from the Moon Throne bloodline.”
I stared at him.
The words meant nothing.
And yet, my pendant pulsed once, as if it understood.
“The Moon Throne?” I repeated.
“A royal wolf line most packs believe died out twenty years ago.”
I laughed once, sharp and disbelieving. “Royal? I cleaned floors in Silver Moon.”
“Because your mother hid you well.”
“If that’s true, why didn’t my wolf awaken?”
Rowan finally looked at me.
His expression was grim.
“Because she was sealed.”
The truck fell silent except for the engine.
I touched my chest.
“My wolf?”
“Your blood. Your power. Your scent. Everything that could expose you.”
My mouth went dry.
“And the child?”
Rowan’s hands tightened on the wheel.
“A child born from Moon Throne blood and Alpha Blackthorn’s line would be more than an heir.”
Outside, the sunrise painted the sky red.
Like blood.
“What would it be?” I whispered.
Rowan did not answer immediately.
That frightened me more than any answer could have.
Then his phone buzzed.
Once.
Twice.
He glanced at the screen, and all color drained from his face.
“What is it?” I asked.
He handed me the phone.
One message glowed on the screen.
UNKNOWN NUMBER:
Bring the girl back before sunset.
Or we tell Kael Blackthorn what she carries.
My fingers went numb.
Then a second message appeared.
And we tell him what she truly is.
- Writer
