Chapter 4 The Houndborn Moon

Lyrianna's POV

My wrists burned raw where iron scraped against skin, and still the guards dragged me forward through the bowels of Shadowclaw's fortress. Dawn's pale light had barely touched the sky when the bells began tolling, low and mournful, like the voice of doom itself.

The Great Hall doors loomed ahead, carved from black oak, towering so high they seemed to scrape the rafters. When they creaked open, the sound rolled like thunder.

Inside, silence fell.

Hundreds of eyes turned on me, wolves packed shoulder to shoulder, their breath fogging in the cold air. Disdain hung thick as smoke. They didn't see me as a girl, a mate, or even a prisoner. To them, I was a carrion dragged in chains.

And at the far end, seated on a throne carved of obsidian, he waited.

Malakai. The masked Alpha.

Even seated, his presence swallowed the room whole. Black steel covered the upper half of his face, gleaming faintly in torchlight. His shoulders were broad beneath dark furs, his hands resting with casual authority on the throne's arms, as though the weight of the hall was nothing to him.

His gaze pinned me, unseen behind the mask but heavy as iron all the same.

I forced my head up. If I was going to be humiliated, let it be with my spine unbroken.

Beside him stood another. Taller than most men, nearly Malakai's height, though broader through the chest. His hair was brown, curling faintly at the edges, his hazel eyes sharp and watchful. He wore no mask.

The Beta.

I knew it before anyone whispered the name. Orion. Ava's brother.

When our eyes met, something stuttered inside me. He studied me in a way no one else had, not with disgust, not even curiosity. His gaze lingered on my tangled hair, my dirt-streaked skin, the way the chains cut into my wrists. And then, lower, on the curve of my shoulders, the shape of my body beneath the torn shift I wore.

Heat flooded my face. I looked away first, shame twisting in my stomach.

But that heartbeat lingered between us, unspoken and dangerous.

Ava stood at the edge of the dais, her mouth curled into a predator's smile. She had seen it too, that flicker of something in her brother's eyes, and though she masked it quickly, her jaw clenched.

The air shifted. The Elders stepped forward in a line, their robes trailing over stone. Their voices rose together, chanting about the Houndborn Moon, a night of curse, judgment, fate. Their words throbbed against the walls, echoing, ancient and terrible.

"By moon's light," they intoned, "let the bond be weighed. Let the Goddess judge the wolfless one."

My knees threatened to give out, but I refused to fall.

Ava's voice sliced through the chant like a knife. "Why waste time? Sever the bond. This weakling is no mate for our Alpha. She has no wolf-she is nothing."

Her words landed like stones against my skin. Laughter rippled through the hall, cruel and eager.

I drew in a breath so sharp it hurt. "If I must be cursed, let the Goddess curse me," I said, my voice cracking yet steady. "But I will not crawl before you."

The silence that followed was dangerous. The guards' hands tightened on my arms as if bracing for Malakai's wrath.

Instead, his voice rolled across the hall, deep and merciless.

"Let the ritual decide."

The floor dropped from under me.

I was dragged to the center of the hall, into the open circle where moonlight streamed down through a carved hole in the roof. The stones there were etched with sigils, charred from countless rites past.

The guards stripped away my chains. Relief barely had time to register before they tore at my shift, ripping it from my body.

Gasps swelled, then silence.

Every gaze scorched me as bare skin met open air. I wanted to curl in on myself, to vanish into the stone, but I clenched my fists instead. If this was my ruin, let them watch me burn, not break.

Ava's smirk widened. Her eyes slid toward Malakai, as though waiting to see disgust on his face.

But he didn't move. He only watched, as if carved from the throne itself.

The Elders began to chant again. The circle ignited in sudden fire, encircling me in a ring of living flame. Heat licked at my skin, smoke clawed at my lungs.They lifted their hands, their voices swelling as one, harsh and rhythmic.

"Moon above, shadow below, flesh to fire, truth shall show. Blood to stone, breath to flame, Goddess judge the bond by name." The elders chant in unison.

The words pounded like a heartbeat in the walls of the hall, the fire responding to each syllable, flaring brighter as if the Goddess herself breathed through the chant.

Then the world ripped apart. Visions struck like lightning.

I saw my father's face, sneering, his mouth curling in the same contempt the guards spat at me. My brothers' hands slick with blood that wasn't theirs. Malakai's mask weeping black shadows, dripping like tar.

Red-eyed wolves surrounded me, snapping, lunging, tearing at my flesh. I ran. I drowned. I burned. My screams echoed against walls that weren't there.

And through it all, silence.

I called for her. My wolf. Aethonix! I screamed inside myself, my soul clawing raw.

Nothing.

Pain split through my head, a searing crack. Blood streamed from my nose, ringing filled my ears. My body convulsed, jerking, collapsing to the stone.

The chant did not stop, it grew louder, faster, until it was no longer voices but a storm, echoing inside my skull.

"Moon above, shadow below, flesh to fire, truth shall show. Blood to stone, breath to flame, Goddess judges the bond by name."

Each line struck like a lash across my soul. I fell, crawled, drowned, burned, yet the voices demanded more, demanded truth. My body convulsed against the stone as though my very bones were trying to obey the chant's cruel command.

From the edges of the fire, Ava's voice slid like silk. "She'll die like the rest."

The Elders' chant swelled, no longer voices but thunder pressed into words.

"Moon above, shadow below, flesh to fire, truth shall show. Blood to stone, breath to flame, Goddess judge the bond by name."

But the last line fractured, splitting apart in the air like glass shattering. The words warped, distorted, breaking against something greater stirring inside me. The chant was not ending, it was being drowned.

And through the ruin of their voices, another rose.

"You are not alone."

The voice whispered inside me, low, ancient, powerful.

My eyes flew open. But they weren't mine anymore.

Light, blinding white, consumed them. The fire around me shivered, bending toward me. The clouds beyond the hall roared black, lightning splitting the sky. Torches guttered out, plunging the hall into shadow lit only by my glowing eyes.

Pain tore through me, blood gushing from my ears, my nose, my lips. My body trembled violently, as if a thousand hands pulled me apart.

Gasps filled the hall. Wolves staggered back, some falling to their knees instinctively, as if before a god.

And in the center of it all, my hands tore at what remained of the shift, shredding cloth until nothing was left. Naked, trembling, I stood beneath the Goddess's light, my body exposed as if even flesh could not mask what stirred inside me.

Malakai's mask tilted. For the first time, his stillness faltered. His eyes, hidden, yet burning, pinned me, shock holding him silent.

Ava, who had been smirking, went pale. Her mouth fell open, rage and fear twisting her perfect features. Her hands twisting in her gown.

And then Orion moved.

Without hesitation, he tore off his robe and strode forward, wrapping it around me in a sweep of dark fabric. His hand brushed mine, brief but steady, before he stepped back.

The hall was still.

Ava's face collapsed, disbelief and fury breaking through her mask. She glared at her brother as though he had betrayed her, as though he had betrayed them all.

Malakai rose slowly from his throne, descending the steps. His mask caught the last flicker of firelight, unreadable. His shadow stretched long across the stone until it touched my trembling form.

His voice was thundering.

"The Goddess has spoken."

The strength fled from me. My knees buckled, the world spinning, blood hot against my skin. I collapsed, limp, into Orion's waiting arms.

Gasps surged. Whispers spiraled. Fear thickened the air until it was suffocating.

"She is your mate, Alpha," one Elder croaked, awe strangling his voice. "She does have a wolf.

She has been drugged, weakened, hidden. But the wolf is there. The bond is true. You must accept her, Alpha... though what you do with her remains yours to decide."

The last thing I saw before darkness claimed me was Malakai's shadow looming over us both, over me wrapped in his Beta's robe that smells of him and the terror etched on every face in the hall.