Chapter 6: Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6: The Traitor's Mark

I stared at her hand. Processed her words. Failed to make them mean anything.

"His mate?"

Luna's smile didn't waver. "Twenty-three years ago, I stood in this same forest and watched Alexander die. I've been waiting ever since for someone to find me." She lowered her hand. "The Council thinks I'm dead. Most of them do. It's kept me alive."

I pushed myself up. My ribs screamed. My right arm nearly gave out. "You expect me to believe that? You show up in an alley, watch me almost die, and now you're suddenly family?"

"I expect you to be smart enough to know when you're out of options." She glanced over her shoulder. "There are seven rogues tracking you. Two miles out. Closing fast. Marcus bought you time, not safety."

Pain flared across my chest. The mark. It pulsed like a second heartbeat.

*She's telling the truth.*

Alexander's voice. Calm. Certain.

*I sealed her memories the night I died. She doesn't remember the location of the Blood Moon ceremony. The Council tortured her for three days trying to break the seal. They couldn't.*

I looked at Luna with new eyes. The way she stood. Weight on her back foot. Hands loose at her sides. Ready to move.

"You've been waiting twenty-three years," I said. "Why not find me sooner?"

"Because you weren't ready." She stepped closer. "The bloodline only awakens at twenty-one. Before that, you were just a boy with blackouts. If the Council found you early, they'd have killed you. Marcus knew. I knew. We both stayed away to keep you alive."

The name hit like a punch. "You knew Marcus?"

"He was my brother."

The forest went silent. No wind. No insects. Just the sound of my blood roaring in my ears.

"Your brother," I repeated.

"Marcus Silvermoon. Alpha of the Northern Pack. My older brother by two years." Her voice cracked on the last word. "He gave his life to get you to me. The least you can do is stop asking questions and start moving."

A howl ripped through the darkness. Close. Too close.

Luna grabbed my arm. "Run."

---

We ran.

Not toward anything. Just away. Branches whipped my face. Roots grabbed my feet. Luna moved ahead of me like she was born in this forest—which, apparently, she was.

"The temple," I gasped. "Where is it?"

"An hour north. If we don't die first."

Another howl. Closer now. Multiple voices joining in a chorus of hunger.

"They're herding us," Luna said. She veered left, dragging me through a thicket of thorns. They tore at my skin. I didn't feel it. Adrenaline had burned through pain receptors ten minutes ago.

"Who's leading them?"

"Does it matter?"

"It matters if I'm going to kill him."

Luna glanced back. Something flickered in her eyes. Respect, maybe. Or recognition. "Victor Blackwood. Alpha of the Shadowfang Pack. He wants your blood to power his blood moon ritual. If he consumes the Wolf King's essence before the ceremony, he becomes immortal."

"Consumes?"

"He has to eat your heart while you're still alive."

I stopped running.

Luna pulled up, turned. "What are you doing?"

"I'm not running from someone who wants to eat my heart." The words came from somewhere deep. Alexander's voice. My voice. Both. "I'm the Wolf King. I don't run."

"You're an untrained pup who's been a werewolf for six hours."

"Then teach me."

She stared at me. The howls grew louder. Closer. Three hundred yards. Maybe less.

"You want to learn to shift here? Now?"

"I want to learn to fight."

Luna's jaw tightened. Then she nodded. "Fine. Close your eyes."

I did.

"Feel the wolf. It's not separate from you. It's you. Everything you've ever suppressed—every moment of rage, every flash of violence you locked away—that's the wolf trying to get out."

The howls hit two hundred yards.

"I don't feel anything," I said.

"Yes you do. That heat in your chest. That pressure behind your ribs. Stop fighting it."

I stopped.

The wolf surged forward. Claws burst from my fingertips. My jaw cracked, shifted, teeth lengthening into fangs. Pain. Beautiful, familiar pain.

"Good," Luna said. "Now pull it back."

"What?"

"Pull it back. Control isn't about letting go. It's about holding the line. Shift to the edge and stay there."

I tried. The wolf fought me. Alexander fought me. Two ancient wills pressing against my own.

*Let me out,* Alexander growled. *I can kill them all.*

*No.*

*You're going to get us killed.*

*I said no.*

I opened my eyes. My vision had changed—colors sharper, darkness meaningless. I could see Luna's heartbeat through her chest. Could smell the fear on the rogues approaching. Could taste the silver in the air.

"Half-shift," Luna said. "That's more than most alphas learn in a year."

The first rogue broke through the trees.

He was massive. Seven feet tall in his hybrid form, fur matted with blood, eyes burning red. He saw me and smiled.

"The pup," he said. "Victor will be pleased."

Three more rogues emerged behind him. Flanking. Surrounding.

I looked at Luna. "How many can you take?"

"All of them if you buy me thirty seconds."

"Done."

She blurred. Gone. A silver streak tearing through the darkness.

The first rogue lunged.

I didn't think. Didn't plan. My body moved before my brain caught up. I caught his arm mid-swing, twisted, felt bones break. He screamed. I drove my claws through his chest.

Blood hot on my hand.

His heart stopped against my palm.

I pulled back. Stared at the body crumpling at my feet. I'd killed someone. A person. A monster. A—

*First kill,* Alexander said. *Always the hardest. Gets easier.*

"I don't want it to get easier."

*Then you'll die.*

A second rogue hit me from the side. We rolled through brambles, snapping branches, tearing at each other. He was stronger. Older. More experienced. His claws found my shoulder, my ribs, my thigh.

I found his throat.

Teeth. I used teeth. Ripped. Tasted copper.

He gurgled. Went still.

I stood, shaking. Two down. Two more.

Luna had one pinned against a tree, her claws buried in his skull. The fourth stood frozen, watching his packmates fall.

"Run," I said. "Tell Victor I'm coming for him."

The rogue ran.

Luna dropped the body. Wiped her hands. "That was stupid. Now he knows where we are."

"He already knew. They've been tracking me since the apartment." I looked at my hands. Still partially shifted. Claws retracted but knuckles still furred. "I can't get all the way back."

"Give it time. The first shift is always violent." She walked over, examined my wounds. "You'll heal. Wolf King bloodline regenerates fast."

"How fast?"

"Broken bones in hours. Deep cuts in minutes." She pressed a hand to my cheek. "You have his eyes."

I pulled away. "Don't."

"Liam—"

"You waited twenty-three years. You could have warned Marcus. Could have warned me. Instead you let me grow up thinking I was crazy."

"To keep you alive."

"To keep yourself hidden."

Her face went cold. "You don't know what the Council does to survivors. You don't know what I've seen. What I've lost." She turned, started walking north. "The temple is forty-five minutes. Keep up or die."

I followed.

Not because I trusted her. Because Alexander did. Because the wolf recognized something in her that my human mind couldn't process.

Because she smelled like home.

---

The temple rose from the forest like a bone breaking through skin.

White stone. Moon-carved sigils. A dome that caught silver light and scattered it across the clearing. It was ancient. Older than the trees. Older than the packs.

"Your father built this," Luna said. "For your mother."

"She's dead."

"Yes. The Council killed her when you were six months old. She was human. They couldn't allow the Wolf King to have a half-blood heir."

"I'm half-human?"

"Quarter. Your mother was half herself. The bloodline weakened with each generation. That's why the Council thought they could control Alexander. Why they thought they could kill him."

We approached the entrance. A massive stone door carved with the same crescent moon and wolf's head that marked my chest.

"Place your hand on the seal," Luna said.

I touched the door.

Light exploded. Not painful—warm. Like sunlight through winter clouds. The symbol on my chest burned, then cooled, then settled into something that felt like home.

The door opened.

Inside, the temple was empty. A single room. A stone altar. Moonlight streaming through a hole in the ceiling.

"Sit," Luna said. "We have six days until the Blood Moon. You need to learn everything. The history. The power. The cost."

"The cost?"

She looked at me. Really looked. And for the first time, I saw fear in her eyes.

"The Wolf King's power doesn't just give you strength," she said. "It gives you the memories of every king who came before. Every death. Every betrayal. Every failure. When you fully awaken, you'll remember being Alexander. You'll remember being his father. His father's father. All the way back to the first."

"Six thousand years," I whispered.

"Six thousand years of war. Six thousand years of loss." She stepped closer. "I've been alone for twenty-three years because I couldn't watch another Wolf King die. But you're here. And you're alive. And I'll be damned if I let Victor take that from me."

A sound. Outside. Footsteps. Many.

Luna's head snapped toward the door.

"That rogue you let live," she said. "He brought friends."

The temple walls began to shake.

And in my chest, the mark burned hotter than ever.