Chapter 5 Ch. 5

Far from the Emberfang packhouse, Oliver stood on a cliff's edge, her hair whipping around her face like wild silk in the wind. The rogue training grounds below buzzed with activity-men and women sparring, wolves shifting in mid-air, blades flying under the silver gleam of dusk.

She inhaled deeply.

Every breath of mountain air was a reminder-she wasn't broken. She wasn't defeated. She wasn't the Luna left behind.

She was reborn.

And they had no idea what was coming for them.

Kade appeared beside her. "You ready?"

Oliver's eyes gleamed like stormlight. "I was born ready."

Ronan joined them with a scroll in hand. "We got word. One of Astrid's spies intercepted a sacred moonstone shipment. The same one blessed by the Lunar Priestess."

Oliver's jaw tightened. "She's preparing for the Ascension ritual."

"Looks that way," Ronan confirmed. "She's going to try and become the official Luna. Seal the bond. Take your place."

Oliver's lip curled into a smile. "Then we strike first."

Back in the Emberfang estate, Astrid stepped into the ancestral chamber, her red cloak trailing behind her. She knelt before the moonstone altar, her hands bloody, her smile cruel.

"The bond is almost complete," she whispered to herself, lifting a chalice to her lips.

She didn't know the shadows were shifting.

Didn't feel the dagger of fate turning in her direction.

Didn't see the storm rising.

Because in that moment-while she thought herself victorious-Oliver Thorn was already preparing the first move.

Not as Luna.

Not as the scorned mate.

But as the predator coming for them all.

The moon hung low in the twilight sky, casting a soft silver glow over the rogue stronghold like a celestial warning. Oliver stood on the balcony of her stone chamber, overlooking the field where the others trained. The scent of sweat, pine, and steel mingled in the wind-familiar now. Comforting.

This place, buried deep in the Ridge Mountains, had once been a prison for those cast out by the high-ranking packs. Now, it was a fortress. A haven for the broken. A forge for the vengeful.

She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to contain the flickering energy humming beneath her skin. Her wolf had changed in the weeks since her exile. She no longer paced with sorrow or whimpered from loss. She growled. She waited. She planned.

A soft knock tapped at her chamber door.

She didn't look away. "Enter."

Kade stepped inside, his dark eyes scanning her face before he even spoke. "You didn't eat."

"I wasn't hungry."

"You've said that three nights in a row."

"I'll eat when we burn down a piece of the Emberfang legacy," she muttered, turning to face him fully. "Until then, I can survive on rage."

Kade didn't smile. Not tonight.

He stepped closer, arms crossed over his broad chest. "This isn't just about revenge anymore, is it?"

She tilted her head. "What are you talking about?"

"You're building something, Oliver. A pack. A purpose. You're giving them something no Alpha ever gave us-discipline, structure, a reason to fight. You're not just taking back your title. You're creating an empire."

She didn't answer right away.

Because he was right.

It had started as vengeance. As a need to make Jason and Astrid choke on the ashes of what they destroyed. But now, there was more. There were lives here depending on her. Rogues who had no home. Women cast out for being unmated. Warriors shunned for being too wild, too powerful, too different.

"I'm not trying to be a queen," she finally said. "I just want to prove that you don't have to be chosen by fate to be worthy."

"You already have," Kade said, his voice quiet but steady.

He stepped closer until they were only a breath apart.

And for a moment, she felt it-that dangerous warmth. That flicker of something deeper between them.

But she pulled back.

Not yet. Not now.

Her heart still wore Jason's scars.

Kade nodded, understanding in his gaze. "The eastern patrol returned an hour ago. Ronan's leading the meeting downstairs."

"I'll be there in five," she said.

He turned to leave, then paused at the door. "Oliver?"

"Yeah?"

"When the time comes, and you're standing face-to-face with him... with Jason-do you know what you'll do?"

Her fingers tightened around the balcony's edge.

"I'll remind him who made him king," she said coldly. "And then I'll watch him fall."

The war room buzzed with low voices and the scrape of steel over maps. Ronan stood at the head of the table, pointing to a section of the Emberfang border highlighted in red ink.

"Three guard rotations. One every four hours. Light patrols here and here," he said, tapping near the Moonfang river. "But this-" he jabbed toward the east ridge-"is our opening."

Oliver entered, and the room fell into silence.

She didn't speak immediately, just walked toward the table and studied the map. Her eyes traced every line, every weak point, every shift in defense that Jason hadn't yet realized someone else could read like scripture.

"What's the goal?" one of the rogues asked. His name was Mateo-once an elite Delta in the Obsidian Pack before they branded him a traitor. "Steal supplies? Sabotage the patrols?"

"No," Oliver said. "We send a message."

Everyone looked at her.

She pointed to the ritual site near the Crystal Hollow-the sacred ground where Astrid was planning to complete the Luna Ascension ceremony.

"We're going to destroy the moonstone altar."

A beat of silence followed. Shock. Awe. A little fear.

"You want to desecrate a sacred lunar site?" Ronan asked slowly. "That's... bold."

"She desecrated her title the moment she schemed her way into it," Oliver replied. "Let the Moon Goddess judge me, if she dares. I'm not afraid of divine wrath. Only of dying quiet."

The room shifted. Faces turned fierce. The silence thickened like thunderclouds waiting to break.

Kade stepped forward. "Then we go in two nights. Fast, silent, merciless. We leave our mark."

Oliver nodded. "Leave no bodies. No blood. Just the altar reduced to dust-and the Emberfang symbol burned into the ground."

Mateo grinned. "Alpha Emberfang won't know what hit him."

"No," Oliver said, her voice low and venomous. "But he'll feel it."

Back in the Emberfang estate, Jason stood before the shrine of past Alphas, a heavy glass of dark whiskey in his hand. He stared at the portrait of his father, a man revered by many, feared by most.

"Was I ever meant for this?" he asked aloud. "Or did I just inherit a throne built on mistakes?"

He wasn't sure anymore.

Everything had shifted since Oliver left. Astrid had filled the Luna seat, but the pack didn't respect her the same way. They obeyed her out of structure, not loyalty. Even the elders had grown quiet-some hesitant, some suspicious.

And Elias had pulled away, throwing himself into missions, avoiding the packhouse.

Jason swirled the whiskey, feeling the burn in his chest before he even drank.

He missed her.

Not just her presence-but her strength. Her mind. The way she challenged him without fear. The way she listened when he was too tired to speak. The way she understood his silence.

Astrid never asked why he woke up in the middle of the night, fists clenched and chest heaving.

Oliver used to hold him through those storms.

Now, he drowned alone.

"Jason," Astrid's voice cut through the chamber as she entered, her red dress whispering across the floor. "You'll want to hear this."

He turned slowly.

"There was an attack near the Crystal Hollow. The moonstone altar is gone. Burned to the ground. And someone left this behind."

She tossed a singed cloth onto the table.

His chest tightened.

The symbol was unmistakable. A phoenix rising in flames-its wings carved into the Emberfang crest.

His blood turned to ice.

"She's back," he whispered.

Astrid's lips curled. "Oh, she never really left. She just learned how to become the nightmare."

Far from the shattered altar, Oliver stood under a blood-red moon, eyes closed, head tilted toward the sky.

The wind howled her name.

The pack that left her behind would now learn what it meant to make a Luna into an enemy.

And this was just the beginning.