MOONBOUND LIES

I hadn't set foot in Shadow Pack lands in months, but nothing about my return felt like coming home.

The forest was quieter than I remembered. The air heavier. The familiar howls and barks that once echoed between the trees had vanished, replaced by an unnatural silence that pressed down on my chest like a warning. Something had changed. And I could feel it in my bones.

Ren walked beside me, wrapped in a heavy cloak, hood up, his shoulders tight with tension. Ever since the vision, he'd barely spoken. His eyes were haunted, his hands trembling when he thought no one was looking. Whatever he’d seen Kael, the Hollow Order, the fire, the eyes, it had shaken him to his core.

Derek led the way ahead of us, silent as always. His back was straight, his gait steady, but the stiffness in his movements betrayed him. He’d heard the name too.

Kael.

Neither of us said it aloud again.

When the gates of the Shadow Pack came into view, I hesitated.

My last memory of this place wasn’t one I cherished. Chains on my wrists. Mud in my hair. Wolves I’d called family turning their backs on me, whispering words like poisoner and traitor.

And now I was walking in through the front gate beside the Alpha. No explanation. No apology.

Eyes snapped to us instantly.

I heard them before I saw them murmurs that swelled like waves crashing against stone. Curious. Apprehensive. Disbelieving.

“That’s her…”

“She’s supposed to be banished.”

“Is she back as Luna?”

“No, Derek would never…”

Their words didn’t sting as they once would’ve. Not after everything I’d endured. But they still made me grip the edges of my cloak tighter, like armor against the storm.

Derek ignored them. He always had a talent for blocking out what didn’t serve him.

I, on the other hand, saw everything. The way the pack moved. Their eyes, their silence. This wasn’t the same place I’d left. It felt colder, like the soul of it had withered in my absence.

Or maybe it had started dying long before.

We reached the Alpha house, and Derek pushed open the doors without a word. No one tried to stop us. No one greeted him, either. That, more than anything, told me how deep the rot had spread.

Inside, I broke away from the group and drifted toward the Luna wing. My old room.

The door was closed, the handle covered in a thin layer of dust. My hand hovered over it, heart hammering for reasons I couldn’t explain. I hadn’t expected to return here. Not ever. Yet part of me wanted to see if anything remained of who I used to be.

I pushed the door open.

The air inside was still, unmoved for weeks, maybe months. My bed was made, the sheets tucked in neatly. A vase with dried roses stood on the table, their petals brown and curled. But it wasn’t the untouched cleanliness that chilled me.

It was what lay on the pillow.

A single black feather.

I stared at it. Not daring to move.

“Erica?” Derek’s voice came from behind me.

I stepped back so he could see. His expression darkened the moment his gaze landed on the feather.

“The Hollow Order,” he muttered.

“So they’ve already been here,” I said, swallowing the knot rising in my throat.

“They’re not just watching,” Ren murmured from behind us. “They’re leaving messages.”

Messages, or warnings?

The following days were a blur of unease.

Derek met with a few trusted warriors in secret. The rest of the pack stayed distant, cautious. There were no casual conversations, no laughter in the training fields. Every movement was calculated. Controlled.

Someone had turned the pack against itself.

Ren didn’t stray far from me. I caught him staring at wolves as they passed examining their expressions, their gait, their scent. He was searching for something. Or someone.

On the third day, he gripped my arm as we stood near the armory.

“That’s him,” he whispered. “Kael.”

My gaze followed his, landing on a tall figure standing in the training circle.

He was talking to one of the lieutenants, but his posture was too casual. Too confident. His hair was dark, tied back in a loose knot. His clothing simple. But what struck me were his eyes.

Amber. Unnaturally bright.

They met mine across the distance. And he smiled.

Not warmly. Not kindly.

Like he knew something I didn’t.

“Who let him in?” I asked.

“Lyall,” Derek said grimly. “She vouched for him. Said he was a rogue who needed a place to heal.”

“Lyall vouched for a spy?” I hissed. “She must’ve known.”

“She did,” Derek said. “But he slipped through the cracks. Or maybe… the cracks were made for him to slip through.”

I glanced back toward Kael. But he was already walking away.

That night, I found myself in the forest beyond the borders again.

I couldn’t sleep. The silence inside the Alpha house was suffocating. Every creak of the floorboards made me flinch. I didn’t trust anyone inside those walls. Not even the ones Derek still called allies.

I sat by the stream I used to sneak off to as a child, listening to the gentle rush of water over stones.

Then I heard footsteps behind me.

I turned sharply.

Derek.

He stopped a few feet away, hands in his coat pockets. His eyes found mine, and for once, they weren’t guarded.

“You always came out here when you were angry,” he said.

“I’m not angry,” I replied.

He nodded slowly. “Then why are you trembling?”

I looked down at my hands. I hadn’t even noticed.

“Maybe I’m just tired.”

Silence stretched between us.

“I didn’t believe you back then,” he said suddenly. “I wanted to. But Lyall made it so easy not to.”

I didn’t respond. What was there to say?

“I failed you.”

“Yes,” I whispered.

The honesty in his eyes was painful. There was no pride left in him tonight. No Alpha posture. Just a man who’d made the wrong choice and realized it too late.

“I’m trying to fix it,” he said softly.

“Then do it,” I said. “Start by protecting the ones who can’t protect themselves. Like Ren.”

He nodded once.

We sat in silence for a long time.

And then..

A howl ripped through the night.

High. Piercing. Fearful.

Ren.

Derek was on his feet before I could stand. We ran through the trees, past the silent campfires, toward the eastern watchtower where Ren had gone to meditate earlier.

We found the cloak first. Shredded, bloodied, lying in the dirt like a warning.

Then the claw marks. Deep. Fresh. Leading toward the woods.

I knelt, heart pounding. The blood was still warm.

And carved into the nearest tree, a symbol I recognized from the old books.

A spiral wrapped in thorns.

The mark of the Hollow Order.

Derek’s voice was low. Cold. “They’ve taken him.”

I rose slowly, my hands shaking. The wind howled through the trees, echoing the fear blooming in my chest.

This wasn’t just about revenge anymore.

It was war.