RISE, LUNA OF ASHES

EARS

e sky. It was thinner. Sharper

here was no ceremony, no stars bearing witness to prophecy, and no whispered prayers cl

soaked in the history of battles no one in Crescent Moon would ever speak of. Her boots bore dust from far

. Patient. Coiled like lightning waiting for the strike. She had not come back to plead for justice or cry over a broken bond. She had come to b

l of roasted meat and honeymead thickened the air. Banners of peace and prosperity draped the halls. a

ker. The name had grown roots in the years since her vanishing. A healer who walked through fire to cure the cursed. A warrior who survived the Seer's Labyrinth, something no Luna in recorded history had done. A whisper in the rogue territories. A shadow in bloodier lands. She'd become legend... and legends, conv

led barefoot in the dirt, their faces painted with ancestral glyphs. This was not the pack she left. This was not the home she wept over. It was a kingdom fat on comfort, blind with peac

e on that soon enough, she thought coldly. And then...She saw them. Rex. Jessica. Seated on the high platform, the so called Alpha King and his crowned queen. A woven silver crescent shone

ired. Haunted. A man with too much on his throne and too little in his heart. She wondered, for just a heartbeat, if he still felt it the bond. The one that never

NED IN A

locked on her. Time slowed,She did not flinch. She didn't bow. Didn't tremble. Her hood fell back. The lantern light caught her face. And for the first time in over a decade, Alpha King Rex saw his mate.The one he rejected, the one who van

the first thing to crack. "...Gina." Her name, from his lips, felt like both a memory and a betrayal. She didn't smile. Didn't blink. "Alpha Rex." Formal. Distant. The chill in her tone froze the

.. You v

fference." A silence bloomed. Heav

do you

s. The power. She leaned in. Letting him feel what he lost. What he threw away. "I want to watch,