The trial was over, but unease clung to the air like smoke after a wildfire thick, bitter, impossible to ignore.
Kael had been dragged to the Shadow Cells beneath the Alpha's Keep, a place where no light dared to reach and silence pressed in like a curse. It was where traitors went to rot forgotten, condemned. But even as the gates slammed shut behind him and the chains locked with a hiss of iron, I couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't the end. No. It was only the beginning.
Something darker had taken root.
I stood on the balcony of the Alpha's quarters, the moonlight washing the forest in silver fire. The trees swayed as if whispering secrets to each other secrets I could almost hear if I listened hard enough.
"Why aren't you resting?" Callum's voice was a low murmur behind me.
I didn't turn. "Because something's wrong. We won but it doesn't feel like a victory."
He stepped closer, wrapping his arms around my waist. His touch was warm, grounding. But even wrapped in his embrace, I could feel the tension radiating from him.
"We should feel safe," I whispered, watching shadows dance beyond the treetops. "But we don't."
"Because it's not over," he said simply. "Kael's betrayal was too clean. Too… perfect."
I turned in his arms to face him. "You think he was being controlled?"
Callum's jaw clenched, a flicker of pain crossing his features. "No. I think he chose this. But not without incentive. He was promised something. Something powerful enough to make him gamble his life."
From his pocket, he pulled out a small object. A ring. Dark, ancient-looking, its center gem pulsing faintly with a blood-red hue.
"Where did you get that?" I asked.
"It was found hidden in Kael's chamber." His voice was heavy. "It's embedded with dark rune stones. Not our kind of magic, Rhea. This is ancient blood-bound. Forbidden."
A chill shot through me. "Then someone else was involved. Someone worse."
Callum nodded grimly. "And now they know we're onto them."
---
The following days crawled by in tense quiet.
Callum reinstated me as Luna, standing beside me during council meetings. He made a public declaration of my innocence staring down anyone who dared question it. But behind every smile in the pack, behind every polite nod, I felt the undercurrent of suspicion. Of fear.
At night, we would walk through the gardens in silence, his hand in mine, as though pretending everything was as it once was. But we were both haunted. Me by what I knew. Him by what he couldn't remember.
Even in peace, cracks formed beneath the surface.
Patrols reported strange occurrences. Markings etched into bark that didn't match any known symbol. Wolves gone missing. And there were whispers rumors of a dark wolf, massive and silent, seen near the old mountain pass where sunlight rarely touched.
It was Elder Torren who finally voiced what the rest of us had been afraid to say.
"There are rumors," he said during one council session, his voice grave, "of a Shadow Alpha."
The air turned cold.
I shook my head. "That's just an old legend."
"No," Callum interrupted. "It's real. I remember stories from when I was a boy. About an Alpha who was stripped of his title for turning to dark magic. He didn't die. He vanished."
Torren nodded slowly. "He created a pack of his own wolves bound not by loyalty, but by blood curses. Exiled beasts with no true Alpha, just a master. And now he's returned."
"Why now?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
"To finish what Kael started," Callum said. "To claim the throne. To take everything I built."
I felt the ground shift beneath me. A fear I hadn't known since the ambush settled in my bones.
---
That night, I had the dream again.
I was running through a forest on fire. The trees screamed yes, screamed as their trunks split open and their limbs burned like torches. Ash rained from the sky like cursed snow.
In the center stood a man cloaked in shadows, his eyes glowing like coals red and endless.
"You will lead him to me, Rhea."
I woke with a gasp, my body drenched in sweat. My heart pounded, each beat louder than the last.
Callum stirred beside me, his brow furrowing in concern. "Rhea?"
"I… I had the dream again," I choked out.
"What did you see?"
But before I could answer, pain flared across my lower back sharp and searing. I cried out, scrambling out of bed. The pain intensified, heat radiating through my spine like fire licking through my veins.
"Rhea!" Callum turned on the lamp, rushing to me. "What's happening?"
I pulled up the hem of my shirt and froze.
The mark the crescent-shaped scar I'd hidden since the ambush was glowing.
Callum's eyes widened. "That… that wasn't there before."
"Yes, it was," I admitted. "I didn't know what it was. I thought maybe it was a wound that never healed properly. But now now it's burning."
He dropped to his knees, examining it. His fingers hovered just above the skin. "This isn't just a scar. It's a brand."
Fear clawed at my throat. "He marked me. The Shadow Alpha. He left a piece of his magic inside me."
Callum rose to his feet, fists clenched. "Then he's using you as a beacon. To track us."
I nodded, unable to stop the tremble in my voice. "That's why the ring reacted. It's part of the same magic. He's getting closer."
"Then we'll break the bond," Callum growled. "We'll find him and end this."
"No." I grabbed his arm, shaking my head. "If we go after him now, blind, we'll walk into a trap. He thinks he's winning. Let him think that. Let him come."
Callum's eyes burned with fury. "You want to bait him?"
"I want to end this," I whispered. "And he won't come if he doesn't think he has control. So we give him just enough to lure him out."
Silence fell between us. A deadly calm before the storm.
"Then we prepare," he said finally. "No one else gets marked. No one else dies."
I nodded, but deep down, I knew this was only the beginning.
Because I had remembered something too.
Something from the night of the ambush when everything went dark and Callum was nearly killed.
Just before I blacked out… I heard a voice.
The same one from my dream.
And it had whispered my name like a promise and a threat:
"Mine."