CHAPTER 6
The forest did not sleep that night.
It breathed slow. Heavy. Like it was waiting.
Luna's mother stood at the edge of the trees, wrapped in a dark shawl, listening to the wind move through branches older than memory as she tries to recall her time with marcus, her beloved husband whom she prays she sees again before dying. She had lived near this forest long enough to know its moods. Tonight was wrong. No insects. No birds. Even the leaves felt tense.
She placed a hand on her chest. That tight feeling again. The one she had tried to ignore all evening.
"Just nerves," she whispered.
She took a step back toward the path home.
Then she smelled it.
Blood. Cold. Not fresh. Not wolf alone. Something mixed. Something that did not belong.
She turned.
The shadows shifted.
Not fast. Not wild. Careful.
Whoever it was wanted her to see.
She did not only ran but ran in a wolf form
Her feet hit roots and stones, breath tearing from her chest. She shifted halfway without thinking, bones aching, claws scraping the earth. She was strong. She had survived worse. She almost reached the clearing where the pack patrol passed every night.
Almost.
A force hit her from the side. Hard. Knocking her into a tree. Pain exploded through her ribs. She snarled and fought back in her human form wearing nothing, claws cutting air, teeth snapping. She landed blows. She hurt them. That mattered.
But there was more than one.
They didn't rush. They waited. Let her bleed. Let her tire.
One voice spoke. Calm. Cold.
"Leave her where they will find her."
A final strike. Controlled. Ending.
ELENA groans like she's recovering from a year comma, such is life, a young werewolf would have tried making it out of there but being a old elder wolf she took her last breathe as she pee in her body....
The forest shook.
Luna woke with a scream trapped in her throat.
The diary burned against her side. Not warm. Hot. Like fire through leather.
She sat up, heart racing. The room felt too small. Too quiet. Then it came. A howl. Long. Broken. Filled with pain.
Her blood went cold.
"That's… the pack," she whispered.
She didn't wait. She ran as fast as she could breathing heavily in the wolf form. Branches tearing at her arms. Her lungs burned but she didn't slow. She knew. Somewhere deep inside, she already knew.
The clearing was filled when she arrived.
Wolves stood frozen. Some shifted. Some couldn't. The air was thick with grief.
And in the center, on blood darkened leaves, lay her mother covered with wolf hairs material made as cloth.
Placed carefully. Arms folded. Eyes closed.
Like a message.
Luna dropped to her knees transforming back as she was naked, Maya ran to her aid to cover her with a cloth also, so hard the breath left her body. Sound came out of her mouth but it wasn't a word. It wasn't even a scream. It was something older.
The diary flew from her bag. Pages flipped wild. Words glowing. Burning.
Aiden was there in seconds, grabbing her before she collapsed fully. His face was pale. His eyes empty.
"This wasn't hunting," he said low. "This was a statement."
Luna shook in his arms. Her fingers dug into her mother's clothes. Warm still. Too warm.
"No," she whispered. "She was just here. She promised"
Her voice broke.
The forest answered.
Every wolf howled. Not one by one. Together. A sound so loud it shook the trees. A sound of loss. Of rage.
Something inside Luna snapped.
Power surged through her body, raw and wild. The ground cracked under her hands. Wolves stepped back, startled. Aiden felt it and held tighter.
"Easy," he whispered. "Easy. Stay with me."
Her eyes weren't fully human when she looked up.
"They killed her," she said. Flat. Certain. "On purpose."
By morning, the news had spread.
Wolves gathered from every edge of the territory. Elders. Fighters. Mothers with cubs. The forest felt crowded, tense.
Tracks were found. Strange ones. Deliberate ones. Blood marks that led toward vampire lands.
Too clean.
Too obvious.
"This is bait," one elder said.
But grief is louder than reason.
Among the vampires, the alarm rang before sunrise.
Marcus stood before the council, jaw tight. Reports scattered across the stone table. Wolves gathering. Borders shaking.
"This does not match our methods," one elder said. "Someone wants blame."
Marcus knew it. But knowing didn't stop panic.
Dorian stood at the edge of the room, silent. He had felt it too. That pull. That wrongness. When the news came, his chest tightened in a way he didn't understand.
A woman he didn't know was dead.
But it felt like the beginning of something terrible.
"You will investigate," Marcus told him. "Quietly. Watch the wolves. Watch the prisoner."
Dorian nodded. "And if this was not us?"
Marcus's eyes darkened. "Then someone wants war."
Deep beneath the stronghold, chains rattled.
Luna's father dropped to his knees as pain tore through him. Not physical. Something deeper. A bond snapping. His breath left him in a broken sound.
"No," he whispered.
The guards stepped back as power surged from him. The air warped. Stone cracked.
"She's dead," he said softly. Not asking.
No one answered.
Fear filled the room.
Even chained, even caged, he was dangerous.
And now he was awake.
Back in the forest, Luna sat beside her mother until the sun climbed high.
She didn't cry anymore. Her tears had burned out. Something colder had taken their place.
Aiden knelt beside her. "We'll find who did this."
She nodded once. "I already know it wasn't random."
The diary lay open beside her. Words had written themselves.
Blood calls blood. Grief opens gates. The first loss begins the fall.
She closed it slowly.
"They wanted me to feel this," she said. "They wanted us to feel it."
Above them, unseen, shadows moved.
Malvex watched from far away, lips curved in something like a smile.
The forest had screamed.
And the world had answered.