Chapter 7 The news
Caius wasn’t finished. “There will be no excuses,” he said, his tone sharp enough to cut through the murmurs rippling through the hall. “No refusals. They will come even those who avoid diplomacy, even those who distrust the south. I want every Alpha present.”
The declaration struck the room with the weight of a command carved into stone. Warriors shifted uneasily. Council members traded brief, worried looks. Even the lanternlight seemed to dim around his words.
Selene watched him closely, her expression tight, as if she sensed more than he was saying something buried beneath the urgency of politics. Elara felt her own instincts sharpen. This wasn’t a simple festival. This wasn’t about unity, or celebration, or the thin veil of peace they pretended still existed.
Caius wanted something deeper something heavier something he wasn’t ready to reveal. Her wolf whispered a warning from the back of her mind. He’s planning something. Something dangerous.
Later, after the hall began to empty and footsteps faded into the evening corridors, Caius slipped into the strategy chamber with three of his senior warriors Dorian, Maelis, and Calen. The air hummed with tension, thick enough to choke.
Elara hadn’t meant to overhear. She was only returning from the courtyard when a sliver of light cut through a crack in the door along with their voices. “You realize,” Dorian said grimly, “inviting every Alpha paints a target on us.” “It’s necessary,” Caius replied at once, his voice low but absolute.
“Why now?” Maelis pressed. “Evermoon just fell. Wolves are scared. It looks suspicious. Too convenient.” “Which is exactly why it must be done now,” Caius said quietly, each word clipped and deliberate.
A beat of silence stretched, heavy with dread. Calen’s voice came next, uncertain. “You think the same force that destroyed Evermoon… is coming south?” Elara froze. All the air vanished from her lungs.
“I don’t know,” Caius said. “But whoever is moving in the north whoever is testing borders and taking territories without warning they want chaos. Fragmentation. Distrust between packs. If we let fear divide us, the south will fall next.”
His words dropped like stones into a still pond, sending ripples of fear outward. Silence followed, thick and suffocating, before he added more softly, almost reluctantly. “And there is another reason.” Footsteps approached. Selene slipped inside, her presence a strange mix of gentleness and steel. “You should tell them,” she said.
Caius exhaled, the sound heavier than armor hitting the ground. “The pull has returned.” Elara’s wolf flinched so violently she had to grip the wall to keep from collapsing.
“The pull?” Dorian repeated sharply. “Are you certain?” “Yes,” Caius said. “The same phenomenon we felt nine years ago right before Ashborne fell.” Elara’s blood went cold. Nine years ago. The night her world burned. The night her family died. The night everything changed.
“It’s faint, but it’s there,” Caius continued. “The same ripple. The same… awakening.” Maelis whispered, horrified, “You think it’s connected to Evermoon?”
“I think something ancient is stirring,” Caius answered. “Something that has slept too long. And I will not let the south be caught unprepared.” Selene placed a hand on his arm, her voice steady. “So we gather the Alphas. We bring them here, where we can watch, where we can unite or defend.”
Caius nodded once. “Once they are under our roof… we will see who trembles, who hides, and who knows more than they admit.”
Elara backed away from the door, heart hammering. Her wolf whispered, you are not hidden anymore.
That night, sleep refused to come. Elara lay awake, staring at the ceiling as moonlight spilled across her room in pale ribbons. Outside, the wind shifted with strange scents foreign, restless, edged with magic that didn’t belong to the south. Her wolf pressed against her ribs, sensing the tremor running through the land.
Somewhere out there, Kaelan would feel it too. Somewhere farther still, something else moved something with the same silent precision that had destroyed Evermoon. Something that had once destroyed Ashborne.
Elara closed her eyes and felt it: a distant pressure, like a stare resting between her shoulder blades. Watching. Waiting. She opened her eyes sharply. Only moonlight filled her room. Only silence. Only the echo of Caius’ warning:
The pull she did not feel for a long time has returned. Her wolf growled low, a sound vibrating through her bones. Something is coming. And you cannot hide from it.
Far across the wilderness, Kaelan felt it too. The northern wind carried the taste of danger cold, metallic, unmistakable. His wolf paced beneath his skin, restless and agitated. Something old and merciless had stirred in the world again.
Kaelan knew the truth instinctively: whatever had destroyed Evermoon was not finished. In these times, an invitation was never just an invitation. It was a warning. A trap. A lure. Or all three.
Beside him, Rhylen shifted on his stallion. “Storm feels off this morning,” he muttered, stroking the restless horse. “Like the world knows something we don’t.” Kaelan didn’t take his eyes off the road. “Something is coming.”
“Still thinking about Caius’ gathering?” Kaelan’s silence was answer enough.
Evermoon had fallen without a single cry reaching the sky. A quiet massacre. No survivors. No scent. No tracks. Only emptiness.
The stories mirrored one thing Ashborne.
The night smoke swallowed the stars. The night fire devoured a future. The night he lost the girl he swore to protect. The girl he never found. Rhylen broke into his thoughts. “Same pattern as Ashborne?” “Same silence,” Kaelan said, voice hard. “Same precision.”
“You think whoever destroyed Ashborne is moving again?” Kaelan’s gaze locked on the forest shadows stretching ahead. “If they ever stopped.”
The forest thickened as they rode deeper into southern lands dark, ancient, humming with magic older than any pack. Birds fell silent. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
Then came the warning. Five riders emerged from the tree line, cloaked and faceles mercenaries, more shadow than men. Their leader approached and tossed Kaelan a scroll sealed in black wax. Kaelan caught it, his instincts already sharpening to a blade. When he broke the seal, the message inside chilled the air around him:
Your mate awaits the southern Alpha’s hall. But so do your enemies. Everything in Kaelan went cold and lethal. Mate. The world shifted in a single heartbeat. And something inside him, something he’d buried with Ashborne began to awaken.
