Shadows at the Gate
The Silver Moon stronghold never truly slept. Even at night, the stone corridors hummed with a low thrum of activity—Shadelings gliding through shadows, scouts returning with fragments of intelligence, wolves sharpening blades or repairing armor. It was a hive, half military, half something stranger, and at the center of it all sat Marco.
He leaned over the war table, maps and markers scattered across its surface. A crimson line stretched across the western borders of Luna Azul, where the vampires had pressed hardest. Another cluster of markers showed Starfire's position. Marco's fingers hovered above the pieces, but his mind was elsewhere.
Amber's letter lay folded in his breast pocket. Its weight pressed against him, heavier than iron. Her words had not left him since he'd read them—the love, the longing, the hint of suspicion.
Sometimes, when I look at you, I feel as though you are slipping away from me.
The phrase echoed like a curse. For a moment, Marco almost let himself believe she saw him—not Stefan, not the mask, but him. Part of him wanted her to see through the façade, to see his heart, to realign his being, his mind, his thoughts. Some days he wanted to be free.
He closed his eyes, exhaling sharply. No. He couldn't afford such thoughts. Not when the vampires were tightening their noose. Not when his plans demanded precision.
He moved to dive back into the battle plan, just as a harsh voice scraped across his soul.
"You fight who you are, who we are. The truth is known to you, yet you seek to create a second truth. You let lies rule both your heart and your soul. I have no domain over your heart, but your soul is mine. I am your soul, and it is me—and you can try to deny me, but your soul will never stop trembling until you embrace what lies within your core. The truth you desperately hide. The truth of what you want, and who you want to be."
Rage rose within Marco—not because Moas spoke, not because he was wrong, but because he was right, and because Marco knew he could not hold his psyche together much longer.
He also knew his new plan—his path of half-truths and secret strategies—would allow him to release pressure. He could hold on when the weight of everything no longer crushed him.
Marco returned to the maps, but his hand brushed unconsciously over the letter in his pocket. Moas's steady presence only fueled the tension in his soul.
And yet, as he placed markers across the vampire front, his thoughts betrayed him. He saw Amber's face—not in suspicion or doubt, but in love. Her strength. Her stubbornness. Her faith in him, even as she sensed him slipping away. Even as he saw her hating him forever when all was known.
Suddenly, his hand swept forward, and all the map markers tumbled to the floor in a destructive cascade. His vision went red, his breaths coming harsh and ragged.
As he calmed, the memory of the Sacred Wall flashed before his mind's eye. Alisa's voice, tinged with regret and bewilderment. Then nothing. She had turned her back on him. He no longer felt her gaze upon him in quiet moments. He no longer felt her pride when he succeeded. It was as if she had never been there, as if she had been nothing but a dream.
The memory twisted like a knife. Not only had she accepted the bond, choosing another for him, she already loved the children as if she were the one carrying them. She was so much better than him—and still he wanted someone to pay for her never taking a breath on this plane again.
His hand clenched into a fist. "Enough."
The map blurred before his eyes. He forced himself to breathe, to steady. The vampires were his enemy. Not Amber. Not Stefan's mask. Not even himself. The vampires.
Resolve hardened in his chest. Whatever storm raged inside, it would not stop him from leading Silver Moon. He would trap the leeches, bleed their lines dry, and prove once more that his pack could not be broken.
---
The next morning, Marco stood before the warriors of Silver Moon. The courtyard was filled with wolves in human and half-shifted form, their eyes gleaming with expectation. Tar stood at his right, confident and unwavering. Tiffany stood at his left, silent and steady, her presence grounding even as concern flickered across her eyes. Ariel lingered just behind, fully corporeal now, her gaze sharp as ever. Jess was beside her, eyes narrowed, vigilant for dissent within the ranks.
Marco let his voice carry, strong and unyielding. "The vampires believe they can encircle us. They believe they can end Luna Azul and break Starfire. But they forget—they are not the only predators in the night. We are Silver Moon. We are not prey."
A rumble of approval swept through the ranks.
He pointed to the maps unfurled beside him. "Our scouts report movement along the western ridge. That is where we strike first. We will lay traps, drive them into choke points, and remind them why they fear us. They think they hunt shadows. We will show them shadows have teeth. We will remind them of the old ways, when we were on more even footing. We will use ancient techniques and remind them that it is dangerous to forget the past."
The courtyard erupted in growls and cries of agreement.
Marco raised a hand, quieting them. "You will move in three squads. Tar will lead the first, Tiffany the second. Ariel will oversee the shadelings. I want precision. I want no wasted motion. And above all—" His eyes burned as they swept the crowd. "—I want silence until it's too late for them to scream."
The wolves roared their assent.
Tiffany's voice fluttered through his mind.
'This is the Alpha of Silver Moon. The second Alpha of Starfire. Your control is webbed with cracks, but your resolve is ever strong.'
He said nothing as Moas pressed from the other side. "Our little sister shores you up, but how do you maintain a building with a crumbling foundation? How do you keep walls from falling when a raging fire has consumed all?"
He scoffed. "Alpha"—the word spat out like something foul—"means nothing to the soulless."
---
That night, as the squads slipped into the forest, Ariel moved with her assigned group like a phantom. She would fulfill her orders. She would bleed the vampires. But she had not forgotten her commitments.
Two Shadelings had betrayed their purpose. And before dawn, Ariel would make certain their dissonance was silenced forever.