Chapter 3
653 Words
"CHAPTER 3: THE WILD HUNTS ITS OWN
The stars vanished behind storm clouds.
Lyra’s skin prickled.
Something was wrong.
She rose silently from the moss-covered rock, senses flaring like a blade unsheathed. Rhion was gone from the fire. The air held too many scents—damp leaves, cold steel… and wolves that didn’t belong.
Rogues.
She crouched low, her fingers brushing the dagger strapped to her thigh. She didn’t wear Luna silks now. She wore her second skin—leather, laced tight across muscle honed by war. She was no longer the ornament beside a throne.
She was the weapon kingdoms forgot they forged.
And now, she would remind them.
A branch snapped.
She spun, blade ready—too late.
A heavy body slammed into her, teeth snapping near her throat. She hit the ground hard, rolled, and shoved her dagger into fur and flesh. The wolf yelped, tumbling back with a dark stain spreading across its flank.
Two more came.
Lyra danced through them, blades flashing silver beneath the moon. Blood flew in elegant arcs, her body moving in brutal poetry.
But it wasn’t enough.
A fourth rogue leapt from the ridge—massive, eyes glazed, fangs bared—and tackled her with full force.
Her back hit the dirt. Her dagger slipped from her fingers.
Claws tore at her shoulder. She gritted her teeth, her power flickering—
And then—
“LYRA!”
A blur of motion.
Snarling. Cracking bone. Heat.
Rhion shifted mid-leap, his wolf twice the size of the rogues. He hit the attacker with a roar that shook the trees. They tumbled in a violent mess, and when Rhion emerged, his muzzle dripped red.
He turned toward the last two rogues, and they ran.
“You okay?” he asked, shifting back, naked and bloodied, eyes wild.
Lyra sat up, shoulder bleeding, lips pale. “You’re late.”
“You’re bleeding.”
She snorted. “So are you.”
He was beside her in a blink, pressing his forehead to hers. “Don’t do that again.”
“Do what? Fight for my life while you take a scenic stroll through hell?”
“Get hurt, Lyra.”
His voice cracked.
“Not again. I already lost you once.”
She froze.
He pulled back, looking away. “You never asked why I was exiled.”
“I thought I knew.”
“You were told I disobeyed an Alpha’s order.”
“Yes.”
“I disobeyed Kael’s order.”
Her breath caught.
Rhion looked at her now, no mask. Just raw truth. “He told me to kill you. The Council feared what you could become. They thought your strength, your fire, was unnatural. Dangerous.”
“They feared a Luna who didn’t kneel.”
“I told them I’d rather be banished than bury you.”
Silence fell between them, heavy and searing.
Lyra’s voice was soft. “And you let me think you betrayed me.”
“You were safer hating me.”
“But I wasn’t safe,” she said bitterly. “I was caged. For him. For a lie.”
Rhion cupped her cheek. “Then let me fight with you now. Not for a crown. Not for vengeance. For you.”
Their eyes locked.
And the space between them shattered.
His lips found hers, brutal and soft all at once. A kiss that tasted like war and rain and everything they never said. Her fingers tangled in his hair. His hands roamed her back, gripping, desperate.
“Tell me this is real,” he whispered against her mouth.
She pressed her forehead to his.
“It always was.”
Far beyond the forest, a dark figure watched the stars shift.
The moon marked a prophecy stirring.
And in the cold halls of the High North, another Alpha rose… one who would stop at nothing to claim Lyra’s fire for himself."
- Writer
