Forsaken Luna

Chapter 5 - The first taste of freedom.

Nyx

The forest stretched around us like a labyrinth, silent except for the whisper of wind through the pines. Hours had bled away since we fled the burning convoy, yet my lungs still heaved as though the rogues’ fangs were at my throat.

Kaelen led us deeper into the rival lands, his long strides tireless. I stumbled more than once over roots and rocks, the metal cuffs at my wrists still clinking faintly with every movement. He hadn’t removed them entirely. Only broken the chain between.

The reminder stung. I was freer than I had been, yes, but I was not free. Still, every step away from Orion’s world loosened a knot in my chest I hadn’t realized I’d carried. The air smelled sharper here, less familiar. Wild.

When Kaelen finally slowed, it was in a clearing ringed by thick oaks. Moonlight spilled like silver over the ground, catching the edges of his hair until it looked like storm light had settled there. He didn’t speak at first.

Just dropped his pack. One I hadn’t noticed him grab in the chaos, and began pulling out supplies. Flint. A blanket. A small pouch of dried meat. He moved with a quiet competence, never wasting motion. I stood awkwardly on the edge of the clearing, arms wrapped tight around myself.

My body screamed with exhaustion, but my mind whirred too fast to let me rest. I was untethered, adrift, and the silence pressed on me harder than any chain.

“Sit,” Kaelen said finally, his voice rough but even. He didn’t look at me as he struck the flint, coaxing sparks onto the dry kindling he had gathered. “You’ll need strength if you plan on surviving the night.” My lips parted with a retort.

“I’ve survived worse, I don’t need your orders.” I thought to myself, not daring to say it out loud, but the truth sat bitter on my tongue. I was half-broken, my body bruised and torn, my spirit dangling by a thread. And he was right.

So, I sat. Not close, not within arm’s reach. Across the fire pit from him, where I could watch every move that he made. The flames caught slowly, licking upward, spilling warmth into the night. I hadn’t realized how badly I was shaking until the firelight revealed it. My hands trembling, my shoulders taut with cold.

“Eat.” Kaelen slid the pouch of dried meat across the ground toward me.

“Why?” I stared at it for a long moment. That earned me his eyes, sharp as blades in the firelight.

“Because you’ll die if you don’t.” He smiled. My pride screamed to shove it back. But my stomach betrayed me, growling low and desperate. I tore into the food with shaking hands, each bite scraping down my raw throat.

It wasn’t kindness, I told myself. It was practicality. He needed me alive. For what, I didn’t know, but not because he cared. The silence stretched, punctuated only by the snap of firewood. My eyes wandered upward, past the smoke curling into the night.

The moon was full, bright, almost mocking. Once, I’d stood under that same light with my pack, waiting for my wolf to break through my skin. Once, I’d believed I belonged. The memory burned hotter than the fire.

“I’ll never belong to him,” I said suddenly, the words spilling like venom, low but sharp. My gaze stayed fixed on the flames. “Not to Orion. Not to anyone.” The forest seemed to lean in at the sound of his name.

Kaelen stilled, the blade he’d been cleaning glinting faintly in the firelight. When he finally spoke, his voice was softer than I expected.

“Then belong to yourself first.” His words struck like an arrow, lodging somewhere deep inside me. Belong to myself. It was laughable, wasn’t it? I’d been sold, chained, humiliated. My life was a bargaining chip between men who wore crowns of fur and teeth.

What was there left to belong to? And yet … something inside me shifted. A seed planted in scorched earth. I looked up at him. His gray eyes caught the firelight, unreadable, but steady. He didn’t say more. Didn’t lecture, didn’t press. Just left the words between us like an offering I hadn’t asked for.

I turned away, curling my arms around my knees. For the first time in years, no guard stood over me. No Alpha’s decree hung heavy on my shoulders. The night was mine. Fragile, temporary, stolen, but mine.

And as I stared at the fire, warmth creeping into my bones, a vow settled into me. “I’ll never be caged again. Not by Orion. Not by Kaelen. Not by anyone.” The hours stretched. The fire crackled low, wood crumbling into glowing embers.

Kaelen sharpened his blade with deliberate patience, steel against stone. The sound grated but was strangely grounding.

“Why?” I asked suddenly. The word felt dragged from me, raw and jagged.

“Why what?” Kaelen didn’t glance up.

“Why pull me out? Why not leave me chained?” My voice cracked. “You don’t even know me.” His hand stilled briefly. For a heartbeat, silence hung thick. Then he resumed the slow rasp of sharpening.

“Because I don’t sell people,” he said simply. It was such a bare answer, stripped of theatrics, that I didn’t know how to respond. I studied him through the flickering firelight, searching for cracks.

“You expect me to believe that?” I pressed. “You bought me. Do you honestly expect me to believe that the son of an Alpha has no stake in the trade?” Kaelen lifted his gaze finally, pinning me with it.

“Believe what you want. But you’re here, not in chains. That’s proof enough.” He tilted his head to one side. I hated that he was right. Half right anyway. I was in chains … Sort of. The fire popped, sending a spray of sparks upward. My eyes followed them into the night sky.

They disappeared quickly, swallowed by the vast dark. That’s how I felt too. One flicker away from vanishing.

“You would have died if we left you there,” Kaelen said, quieter now. His tone was low certainty, as if he were stating a truth written into the bones of the world. I bit my lip, heat crawling into my throat.

“Why should I trust another Alpha’s son?” I asked for the umpteenth time. Something flickered across his face. Not anger. Weariness, maybe. Bitterness.

“Because I’m the only one not selling you.” He sighed as if he was getting bored with the question, but his words cut deeper than I wanted them to. I turned away quickly, staring into the flames until my eyes stung. Trust was a luxury I couldn’t afford. But a part of me, a small, treacherous part, wanted to.

Sleep came reluctantly. My body sagged with exhaustion, but my mind circled the fire endlessly, refusing to rest. Eventually, I curled onto the thin blanket Kaelen had tossed my way, wrapping it tight, facing the trees, so I didn’t have to see him watching me.

The forest whispered around us, alive in ways I had forgotten. Owls called from the canopy. Crickets hummed low and steady. A breeze shifted, carrying the musky scent of deer far off. I drank it in like a starving creature. For the first time in years, no iron walls hemmed me in.

Freedom was quiet, but it was vast. A tremor passed through me. Not fear. Something sharper, sweeter. “This is mine,” I thought fiercely. “This night. This air. This breath. Mine.” My eyes slipped shut, the fire’s warmth wrapping me in its glow.

That’s when I heard it. A sound low and guttural, echoing not in the forest but inside my own mind. A growl. Ancient, primal, thrumming through my veins like a forgotten drumbeat. My wolf. I gasped awake, chest heaving, sweat dampening my hairline.

The fire had burned low, Kaelen was sitting silently against a tree on the far side of the clearing, eyes half-closed but not asleep. The growl still lingered, vibrating faintly in the marrow of my bones. For the first time, I didn’t feel alone.

The wolf’s growl still lingered in my veins when dawn broke. It hadn’t spoken, not yet, but its presence had settled inside me like a storm cloud heavy with rain. Every breath I took felt different, charged, like the forest itself recognized me for the first time.

But I didn’t tell Kaelen. He rose at first light, doused the fire, and shouldered his pack without a word. He didn’t ask how I slept, didn’t look at me too closely. Just motioned for me to follow. We walked in silence.

My body ached from the bruises left by chains and fists, but my mind whirled far faster than my limbs could keep up with. Last night had been the first time in years that I had felt … anything. Something raw and alive inside me, clawing to wake.

And now we were headed straight into another cage. The land began to change as we walked. The trees thinned, replaced by rugged stone outcroppings. A scent carried on the wind. Wolf, many of them, thick and sharp. My stomach tightened.

Kaelen’s territory. I slowed as the sound of rushing water reached my ears. Ahead, a river cut across the land, its surface flashing silver in the rising sun. Beyond it loomed walls. High, carved of stone, braced with iron gates that gleamed like fangs.

A fortress.