Luna in Chains

07.

The steady clatter of hooves echoed through Lyra’s dreams, haunting her even in her sleep. For a moment, she thought it was Kade on a horse galloping beside her as he had so many times in the past. His laughter would keep pace with her own as they dashed through the woods by Silver Lake.

She couldn’t be exactly certain when she fell asleep or how long she’d been out. When her eyes fluttered open, still swollen and painful from crying while the wagon took her away from her home, the reality was far harsher. She wasn’t in the forests around Midnight Crest, and Kade was nowhere to be found.

Instead, she was lying on rough boards in the back of a wagon. Her cheek pressed against splinters that scraped her skin each time the wheels jolted over the uneven path. Lyra’s body ached from being thrown around and dragged, her wrists still raw from where Darius’ Beta grabbed her too tightly as she fought him. The stench of sweat, damp hay, and iron surrounded her. It was both suffocating and foreign. Her old life suddenly seemed like a fairy tale.

The wagon creaked as it rattled over the frozen ground, and Lyra’s stomach twisted with each jolt. She forced herself up onto her elbows, blinking against the glare of the weak sunlight reflecting through the canvas covering of the wagon. As she peeked out of the back of the wagon, the world around her was alien. Jagged peaks rose like broken teeth from the ground, with black stone cliffs and stretches of barren land. Even the air felt different there, sharp with minerals and smoke, nothing like the clean, pine-scented breezes of home.

Lyra swallowed hard, hugging her arms around herself for warmth. Her cloak, once soft and embroidered by her mother’s hand, was now torn and filthy. Her attempted escape and capture did it no favors. Kade hadn’t questioned when she arrived wearing one of her most sentimental items, but now she was regretting it. She shivered, though not entirely from the cold.

Riders flanked the wagon on both sides. She recognized the Alpha who was to be her husband, large, imposing, and astride a massive black stallion. He hadn’t spoken to her since leaving Midnight Crest. He didn’t need to. The crass things he said to Kade had replayed through her mind and in her dreams.

“You’ll find her in my bed… Seven years go by quickly…”

The thought made her nauseous. She couldn’t imagine a life in this man’s bed. She was far too young to consider such things. Lyra snuck a peek at Darius again. His expression was unreadable, carved from stone, but his presence radiated a command that weighed down everyone around him. His Beta rode just behind him, casting Darius in his own personal shade as the hulking Beta blotted out the morning sun behind his Alpha.

Lyra’s gaze lingered on her new Alpha, both in fear and a little bit of defiance. This was the man she had been promised to, without her permission. He was the Alpha who had reduced her to a pawn in an alliance her father deemed more necessary than protecting his daughter. She wondered if he had children’s laughter in his memories, if he had ever held a promise close to his heart the way she held Kade’s. Something within her doubted it. He carried himself as if he’d appeared full-formed, cocky, arrogant, and brooding.

The wagon lurched to a halt. Lyra braced herself as the horses stamped and snorted in the cold air. Then she saw it, the Iron Claw fortress rising before them.

Her breath caught in her throat.

It wasn’t like the open, sprawling grounds of Midnight Crest with its warm timbered halls and moss-covered ruins. No, this was a monolith of power and cruelty. A fortress of gray stone was built into the cliffs, its walls jagged and high, bristling with watch towers and iron gates. Smoke coiled from chimneys, staining the sky with soot. The scent of iron was stronger here, mingled with blood and sweat that no winter storm could wash away.

Wolves lined the walls, watching her arrival with cold, narrowed eyes. They were nothing like the warriors of her home. These men and women bore scars openly, their armor dented and stained, their stance aggressive. Every one of them radiated a readiness for violence, and no one seemed to welcome her arrival.

The canvas opening was pushed to the side, and a warrior reached in, gripping her arm tightly. “Out,” he barked.

Lyra tried to pull away, but his grip tightened even more. She knew it would bruise later. She stumbled from the wagon, her boots slipping on ice before she caught herself. Straightening, she lifted her chin. If they expected her to cower, they would be disappointed.

She’d been so focused on the fortress and the people that she hadn’t even noticed they’d crossed into the central courtyard. The silence around her was deafening, so quiet she could hear her own heart pounding in her chest. Boots crunched in the snow as the Alpha dismounted his horse and walked toward her. She knew when her wolf came, the cold wouldn’t bother her. For now, her small body shook against her will as she stared up at Darius defiantly. Lyra’s pulse raced, but she refused to look away from him. When he stopped before her, towering and broad, she felt the weight of his presence like a storm pressing down.

For the first time since they left Midnight Crest, Darius spoke to his child bride.

“You’re smaller than I expected.” His voice was deep, controlled, carrying the sharpness of a blade. Lyra flinched inwardly but didn’t let it show. Since her mother’s death, she had gotten much better at not broadcasting her internal feelings.

“Children are small. That’s all that I am. A child,” she replied quietly, though her voice trembled at the edges.

A flicker, perhaps amusement or maybe annoyance, crossed his eyes. Then it was gone. “You will learn your place,” he said, turning to gesture toward the looming fortress. “Bring her.”

Warriors flanked her again, guiding, no corralling, her through the front door of the fortress. Iron bars clanged shut behind them, the sound final, like the snapping of a chain. She was inside Iron Claw’s fortress, and she had never felt more trapped.

Inside, the fortress was no warmer. A great hall stretched wide, lit by torches that cast long shadows over stone walls. Animal pelts hung from the rafters, trophies of hunts and battles. A massive table dominated the center, surrounded by benches worn from years of use. Warriors sat around, sharpening blades of various weapons, tearing at meat, or loudly arguing about who was stronger. Their conversations halted as Lyra was escorted into the enormous room.

At the far end of the hall stood a dais with two chairs carved from a dark wood. Darius climbed the steps and sat, his Beta joining his side. He studied Lyra for a long moment, as if weighing her worth to him now that he saw her within Iron Claw.

“This,” he announced to the gathered warriors, “Is Lyra Callahan. Daughter of Alpha Rowan Callahan. She comes not as a prisoner, but as a symbol of the growing strength of Iron Claw. Midnight Crest was so desperate to remain unconquered, they gave us the only daughter of their Alpha!” The warriors laughed as Lyra’s cheeks reddened in anger. Darius waited for the noise to die down. “As she is my chosen mate, you will treat her with respect due to her station. Her original pack may be weak, but she is now Iron Claw.”

There was no cheer, no welcome. The silence that followed was both heavy and distrustful as eyes all over the room locked onto the young girl who was to be their Luna.

Darius leaned forward, his eyes locking onto hers, “Respect does not mean freedom. You are here to serve a purpose. Fail in that, and you will not last the winter.”

She drew in a deep breath, “You will not break me.”

Murmurs ran through the hall in a low hum. Some warriors smirked, others glared. Darius’s gaze lingered before he finally leaned back.

“We will see,” he said dismissively as if he didn’t care if she lived or died.

The inhabitants of the hall dispersed as Darius fixed them all with a gaze that clearly said they needed to find somewhere else to be. A woman approached Lyra, middle-aged with a gaunt face and eyes dulled by years of service. She bowed stiffly to Darius before turning to Lyra.

“This is Mara,” Darius said. “She will be your attendant. Learn from her. She knows what happens to those who disobey.”

Mara gave Lyra a tight smile that held no warmth, “Come, girl. I’ll show you your quarters.”

Lyra followed her out of the hall and down a set of stairs deep into the ground. The corridors twisted like veins through the mountain fortress, narrow and cold. Finally, they reached a small chamber lit by a single torch. A small bed, a chest, and no windows. That was all. Her belongings had already been piled in a pitiful mess on top of the chest.

“This will be yours,” Mara said, her tone flat. “Do not expect comfort. The Alpha does not have guests, only tools for his use. You have become one now yourself.”

Lyra clenched her fists. She was tired of everyone treating her like an object already, “I am not his tool!”

Mara’s gaze lingered on her, almost pitying. “We all resisted our place, once. You will learn.” The resignation in her tone clawed at Lyra.

As Mara turned away from Lyra toward the door, the young girl gasped. Mara’s hair shifted as she walked, and Lyra could see that the older woman was missing an ear. She wondered if that was the price of failing in your place in Iron Claw. Darius threatened that she wouldn’t last the winter if Lyra resisted her role. She had been defiant before, but seeing Mara now, Lyra’s stomach was in knots. What would it feel like to lose an ear?

When Mara left, Lyra sank onto her bed as the door snapped shut behind the woman. The straw-stuffed mattress pricked her skin, and the cold wind whipped through the fortress, even in her place below it. She drew her knees up to her chest, staring at the torch on the wall, which gave the room its only light.

Her heart ached for Midnight Crest. For the scent of pine, for her father’s rare smile. For Kade.

Kade’s amber eyes filled her mind. She closed her eyes, whispering his name to herself. She didn’t know what, but something stirred in her chest. A tug, faint but real. Even if she was trapped in Iron Claw for the rest of her life, doomed to endure this misery, she wouldn’t let him fade from her heart.