The Hunt
Luna pressed her back against the cold bark of the pine tree, her breath forming small clouds in the freezing night air. Three years. Three years of running, hiding, and slowly dying. The cursed collar around her neck burned against her skin, a constant reminder that she was living on borrowed time.
The howls echoed closer now. They'd found her scent again.
She forced her aching legs to move, stumbling through the underbrush. Without her wolf, she was just a human playing prey in a predator's world. The collar didn't just suppress her wolf—it was draining her life force, day by day, designed to be a slow execution for the crime she didn't commit.
Her foot caught on a root, sending her sprawling into the mud. Pain shot through her already bruised ribs. Get up, she commanded herself. Get up or die here.
That's when she smelled it—a border marking. Pack territory. Her blood ran cold. Rogues caught on pack land faced immediate execution, no questions asked. But the hunters were closing in behind her. Death behind, death ahead.
Luna chose ahead.
She crossed the border, her skin prickling with the magical ward that announced her trespass. Within seconds, she heard new howls—territorial warnings from the pack that owned these lands. The Shadowmoon Pack. Even humans whispered about their Alpha, how he'd taken control at nineteen after killing his own father in challenge. How he showed no mercy to rogues.
Luna ran harder, her lungs burning. The collar pulsed, sending waves of agony through her body. She stumbled again, this time falling to her knees. Black spots danced in her vision.
Heavy paws thundered around her. Wolves emerged from the shadows—massive, deadly, circling her with practiced precision. She tried to stand but collapsed, her body finally giving out.
The largest wolf shifted, bones cracking and reforming until a man stood before her. Even through her blurred vision, she could see him clearly—tall, powerful, with eyes that gleamed silver in the moonlight. Alpha Kai Blackwood.
"Rogue," he said, his voice deep and commanding. "You've made a fatal mistake."
Luna tried to speak, to explain, but the collar tightened, choking her words. She clawed at it desperately, drawing blood from her own neck.
Kai stepped closer, then suddenly stopped. His nostrils flared, and something flickered in those silver eyes—confusion, then recognition of something she didn't understand.
"What is that?" He pointed at her collar, his voice changing from cold authority to sharp interest.
"Please," Luna gasped out. "Not... rogue... by choice..."
The hunters' howls sounded at the border. They wouldn't cross, but they were waiting. Kai's wolves tensed, ready to fight.
"Alpha," a female wolf mind-linked loud enough for Luna to hear the edges of it. "She's marked for execution. The Riverdale Pack has a bounty on her."
Riverdale. Her former pack. The name sent pain through her worse than the collar.
Kai knelt beside her, his presence overwhelming. This close, his scent hit her—pine, storm, and something wild that made her broken wolf try desperately to surface despite the collar's suppression. His eyes widened slightly.
"Impossible," he muttered. Then louder, to his pack: "Take her."
"Alpha?" The female wolf sounded shocked.
"She comes with us. Anyone who challenges my decision can face me directly." His tone left no room for argument.
Strong arms lifted Luna. Through her fading consciousness, she heard Kai's voice close to her ear: "That collar is killing you. Who did you anger enough to warrant such a slow death?"
Luna's lips moved, barely forming words: "I was... framed... for killing... my mate."
The last thing she saw before darkness claimed her was Kai's silver eyes flashing with something that looked dangerously like rage, but not at her.
When she woke, if she woke, she'd be prisoner to the most feared Alpha in the territory. But as consciousness slipped away, her wolf, buried deep beneath the collar's suppression, whispered something that made no sense: Safe. Mate. Home.
The collar burned hotter, as if trying to silence even that small voice of hope.
