MARKED BY THE MOON : BOUND TO THE LYCAN

The moon was high over the Pack Forest when Lucian Valerius stepped into the clearing. He'd done this a thousand times. He would leave his clothes at the tree line and let the shift come naturally, his bones changing, his breathing deepening as his wolf took over. This was usually the easiest part. But tonight nothing rose. Lucian waited. The cold air moved across his skin. Leaves shifted somewhere behind him. Still nothing. His eyes opened. A future Alpha who couldn't shift had no right to the title. Without his wolf, he was no different from a prey. He tried again, knelt in the dirt, pushing past the first layer of resistance pressing his palms against the cold ground and reaching deeper for his wolf, expecting that familiar pull in his chest. Nothing answered. His wolf had been with him for as long as he could remember. It was there when he learned to shift, there when he first entered the training grounds, there every time his instincts warned him of danger. It had never simply gone quiet. If the pack discovered this, they wouldn't see an heir who was having a problem. They would see weakness. And weakness had no place in the bloodline that ruled the Royal Pack. Lucian looked down at his hands. They were still human. He flexed his fingers and tried again. Sweat gathered at his temples despite the cold. He tried again, pushing deeper this time, searching for the wolf that had always been there, waiting for him. “Come on.” Nothing. Just absence. A low breath left him. Lucian pressed his fingers into the soil and drew a slow breath, reaching for his wolf one final time. "Where are you?" The forest answered with nothing but wind. Deep inside him, where his wolf had always been, there was only silence. And he had no idea if it would ever answer him again.