MOONBOUND LIES

I used to believe the worst pain was heartbreak.

But pain has levels.

And banishment? That cuts deeper.

The wind howled as I stumbled through the forest, cold needles of rain piercing my skin. My once beautiful dress was now soaked and ripped, clinging to my body like a second skin. My shoes were long gone. My feet bled, torn open by sharp stones and roots.

The guards hadn’t looked back when they dragged me to the border.

Their final words echoed in my head:

"You step past this line, you're no longer part of the Shadow Pack. You’re nothing. No one will protect you."

And Alpha Derek?

He hadn’t even come to watch me fall.

I kept walking.

Not because I had strength.

But because I didn’t want to die right there on the same soil that had once called me Luna.

I didn’t know where I was heading. The trees blurred together in the downpour. My body shook with exhaustion. Hunger gnawed at my stomach. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast—my last meal as Luna.

Everything about that morning had felt normal. I smiled at the maids. Kissed Derek’s cheek even though he flinched away. Tried to act like the bond between us wasn’t broken glass.

By nightfall, I was on my knees, vomiting bile into the wet leaves.

I found a cave. Small, damp, and reeking of something dead.

I didn’t care.

I crawled inside and collapsed.

For the first time in days, I let myself cry.

Not the quiet tears I’d mastered over the years. Not the soft weeping I hid in my pillow.

No.

This was ugly, body-shaking grief.

“I didn’t do it,” I whispered, over and over. “I didn’t kill them.”

But no one was there to hear me.

Not Derek.

Not my wolf.

Not even the Goddess.

Just the echo of my guilt. And the gnawing thought that maybe I had deserved it all for being so... weak.

The next morning, I woke up cold. A different kind. It crawled into my bones and whispered: You won’t survive the week.

I believed it.

My fingers were stiff. My skinpale. My lips cracked and were bleeding. I tried to stand and nearly collapsed. My body no longer obeyed me.

I remembered the stories the elders used to tell of wolves banished for crimes they didn’t commit, eaten by rogues or driven mad by isolation.

I never thought I’d become one of those stories.

I laughed. It came out like a cough.

“Perfect Luna,” I said to the empty cave. “Can’t even die with dignity.”

Something rustled outside. My breath caught.

I pressed myself against the wall, too weak to shift, too weak to run.

But nothing came in.

Just the wind.

I was alone again.

Days passed or maybe it was only one. Time blurred when you were starving.

I wandered during the day and collapsed at night.

I ate berries I wasn’t sure were safe. Drank from a muddy stream. Slept curled beneath bushes and low trees, always listening for growls or the snap of a twig.

Every night, I dreamed of Derek.

Of his eyes filled with disgust.

Of his voice as he said, "You disgust me, Erica. You’re not worthy of the title Luna."

I dreamed of his parents, choking, screaming, their bodies jerking as wolfsbane poisoned their blood.

I saw myself in those dreams standing there with a tray, smiling as they died.

I’d wake up gasping, my hands trembling.

“No,” I whispered. “That wasn’t me.”

But a small voice inside me said, Then why did no one believe you?

My wolf was silent.

She had always been silent.

Even after I turned eighteen. Even after the mating bond had clicked in place with Derek.

No voice. No shift. Just a hollow presence inside me, like an empty shell.

People whispered.

They said I was defective.

Derek never said it out loud, but I saw it in his eyes. Disappointment. Shame.

I was the weak mate. Luna without a wolf.

But now… in the quiet of this cursed wilderness… something was stirring.

It started small. A flicker behind my ribs. A whisper just at the edge of hearing.

The first time I felt it, I dropped to my knees, clutching my chest.

It didn’t speak. It didn’t form words.

But it was there.

Watching.

Waiting.

Hungry.

On the sixth night, I found a lake.

Still. Glassy. Surrounded by black rocks and dead trees.

I knelt by the edge and stared at my reflection.

What I saw frightened me.

My bright blue,were now dull, rimmed with purple shadows. My cheeks are hollow. My lips chapped. My long blonde hair hung in clumps, tangled with dirt and leaves.

I looked like a ghost.

I cupped water in my hands and drank.

It was cold and clean.

And as I leaned down again, I saw something behind me in the reflection.

A shadow. Tall. Still.

I spun around but no one was there.

Just trees.

And silence.

Still… I felt it.

Eyes.

Watching me from the dark.

I didn’t sleep that night.

I began talking to myself.

Not out of madness at least, that’s what I told myself.

I just needed to hear a voice.

Even if it was my own.

“They’ll never come looking for you,” I said aloud one morning as I chewed a bitter root. “He probably burned everything that reminded him of you. The sheets. The necklace. Your name.”

It should’ve hurt.

It did hurt.

But I was becoming numb to it.

Maybe numbness was better than pain.

The weather turned colder.

A storm rolled in.

The wind screamed through the trees. Thunder cracked overhead.

I huddled beneath a fallen tree, pulling a blanket of leaves over me like armor.

I thought of my best friend, Lyall.

She hadn’t even shown up at my trial.

We’d grown up together. Shared secrets. Laughed in the garden behind the training field.

I had trusted her with everything.

Even my fears about Derek.

And she’d vanished when I needed her most.

Maybe… she believed I was guilty too.

That thought was worse than any wound.

I didn’t hear the footsteps.

I only felt the breath.

Hot. Wet. Behind my ear.

I froze.

And then… a growl.

Low. Deep.

A rogue.

I didn’t turn.

Didn’t scream.

I simply closed my eyes.

Let it end. Please.

But something moved inside me.

A surge of heat.

Fury.

No.

It wasn’t my thought.

It was hers.

My wolf.

And this time… she wasn’t silent.

The growl came from my throat.

The rogue snarled in reply, circling.

I felt my hands twitch, my muscles tense. My eyes burned.

And then

A scream tore through the forest.

Not mine.

His.

The rogue yelped, then fled, crashing through the undergrowth.

I collapsed, gasping.

My fingers burned.

My body trembled.

And for the first time in my life…

I felt her.

Not just her presence.

But her soul.

Wild.

Angry.

Awake.

I didn’t know how long I lay there afterward.

When I finally sat up, the moon had risen fat and golden above the treetops.

The silence around me felt different now.

Not empty.

Just… waiting.

I stared at my hands, half-expecting claws or fur.

But they were still mine.

Shaking. Dirty. Human.

Still, something had changed.

I wasn’t alone inside anymore.

I wandered again the next day, my legs steadier now, my hunger pushed aside by adrenaline.

I didn’t know what I was searching for.

But I found it.

A scent.

Faint… but familiar.

Not Derek.

Not Lyall.

This one was strange. Musky. Bitter.

And blood.

Fresh blood.

It trailed through the trees, splattered across leaves and rocks.

Something, or someone was wounded.

And I couldn’t explain why…

But I followed it.

Deeper into the woods.

Until I heard the breathing.

Shallow. Ragged.

I crept forward and saw him.

A boy.

Not older than ten.