1
The camp was too quiet.
When we arrived at the edge of the forest clearing, I knew something was wrong. Wolves who normally ran to greet us stayed in their tents. No fire crackled. No laughter or sparring filled the morning air. The banners of the Moon forged still waved but with the stillness of mourning.
I dismounted slowly.
Vessia sniffed the wind first.
"Smoke. But not from a campfire."
Cailen unsheathed his blade. "Stay close."
As we walked into the heart of our camp, silence followed us like a predator. And then I saw them
Three warriors bound to the central totem.
Bloodied.
Barely breathing.
And behind them, etched in claw marks across the altar stone:
"I never left. G"
My vision tunneled.
He had been here.
In my home.
2
We rushed to the prisoners.
One was already dead. The others Liam and Fenna wheezed through bruised lips, silver burns marking their arms. Silver laced with wolfsbane.
I fell to my knees beside them.
"Who did this?" I whispered.
Liam choked, blood at the edge of his mouth. "They came through… the west ridge. Disguised as traders. Killed the sentries."
Fenna's hand gripped my wrist, trembling.
"He left something," she rasped. "A gift."
She pointed toward the storage tent.
Vessia and Ronan sprinted ahead.
When they returned, they carried a blackened satchel. Inside—
A lock of red hair.
Not Lyra's.
Mine.
The hair had been braided the way I used to wear it when I was Garrick's.
Pinned through it was a note:
"You can change your name, your scent, your loyalties.
But I will always know the Luna beneath the lies.
Come home. Or I will bring home to you.
G."
3
I didn't realize I was shaking until Cailen gripped my arms.
"He's trying to break you."
"He already did once."
"Then remind him who you are now."
I stared at the note.
At the lock of hair.
At the blood on my hands.
And I didn't cry.
I didn't cry.
Instead, I burned the note in the firepit.
And threw the hair in after it.
"This isn't a message," I said through clenched teeth.
"This is a declaration of war."
4
The camp held a funeral that night.
Not just for the warrior who'd fallen.
But for the illusion of safety.
We lit black candles. Sang the Moon Dirge. The wind didn't howl it listened.
And when the final flame flickered out, I stood before them all.
"This was not our defeat," I said. "It was our warning."
Cailen stood beside me. So did Vessia. Ronan. Caelum. Even with the jagged history between us, we stood together now.
I turned to my pack.
"We are not the broken pieces of Garrick's legacy. We are the sharp edge of its end."
A howl rose behind me Vessia first. Then Fenna, despite her wounds. Then the others.
Until the whole camp sang in unison.
It wasn't sorrow.
It was rage.
5
Later, under the quiet of my tent, I finally let my walls crack.
I hadn't slept in two nights.
Lyra's survival. Caelum's offer. Garrick's threat.
I sat by the mirror, looking at the face he used to control.
Not anymore.
The scar on my collarbone from when he marked me without consent it still burned sometimes.
But it was mine now.
A story of survival not surrender.
Cailen entered without asking.
He knelt in front of me, brushing my hair back.
"You don't have to carry all of this alone."
I laughed bitterly. "I don't know how to carry it any other way."
His fingers paused.
"I do."
Then he kissed me.
Soft. Gentle. Unafraid.
And for the first time in a long time, I didn't flinch.
I kissed him back.
Because I wanted to.
Not because someone told me to.
6
At dawn, I stood at the edge of the strategy circle.
Vessia handed me the map Garrick's spies had carried.
Caelum joined me. He'd brought five warriors to stay behind. The rest would march under his second.
"We push north," I said. "But not with an army. With a whisper."
Cailen frowned. "You want to sneak in?"
"I want him to think I'm running."
"What about Lyra?" Vessia asked.
"She stays hidden. Protected."
I looked at each of them in turn.
"We take this war to the shadows now. Garrick plays in fear. But fear can't hold against wolves who have nothing left to lose."
Ronan stepped forward, finally speaking after a long silence.
"There's something else."
I turned. "What?"
"I found out where he's nesting. Not just his army. Him. He's hiding in the ruins beneath Blackwater Castle."
My stomach turned.
My former prison.
Of course he would go back.
Of course he'd want to taint the memory of my reign.
He was daring me to return.
"Well," I said, voice steady.
"Let's show him what happens when a Luna comes home."
7
That night, I left a letter on Lyra's bedside.
I couldn't wake her.
If I did, I might not leave.
But I couldn't risk her getting hurt again.
The note was simple:
"You saved me once. Now I save you.
Stay hidden. Stay strong.
I will end this.
A."
Then I walked into the darkness.
The pack was ready.
And so was I.
8
As we slipped beneath the moonlight toward the old Blackwater border, I whispered one promise to the wind:
"I am not your Luna anymore, Garrick."
"I am your reckoning."
And when I burn you out of the throne you stole, the world will know
The girl you broke did not just survive.
She returned.