Filed to story: When The Moon Hides Crown
But I didn’t slow. I pushed harder, darting between a pair ofisnarling wolves mid-lunge, their clash buying me precious seconds. My only goal was the finish line. Fight only when forced. Survive. That was all.
And then-an abrupt, sharp pain deep in my gut. Not instinct. A warning.
I glanced to my right, and there he was.
Dante.
His eyes found mine through the chaos of bodies and branches, dark and dangerous. His expression was unreadable, but the intent behind his gaze was unmistakable. A slow, knowing grin curved his lips.
“Seth Darven,” he murmured.
I clenched my fists. He’d made me his prey as well.”Fuck,” I cursed under my breath and dove toward the treeline.
The cursed forest swallowed me whole, a rush of mist and shifting shadows closing in around me. I’d heard of this place before. Legends spoke of bloodstained trees, of unseen predators, of the spirits of failed Alphas trapped forever between the gnarled roots. The forest itself was a curse.
Instantly, the air changed. Thick. Heavy. It clung to my skin, cold and wet, and the sounds of the hunt dulled to muted howls. The ancient trees curled their branches like claws overhead. The earth beneath my feet was soft, treacherous, as though it longed to drag me down into its depths.
But I didn’t stop.
I couldn’t.
I knew better than anyone what happened to those who hesitated here.
My lungs burned. The wound from my earlier fight tugged painfully with every stride. I zigzagged between trees, clinging to the dense undergrowth where the mist was thickest, the shadows deepest.
Wasting time hunting others was a fool’s game. The finish Line was the only thing that mattered. It was madness to be hunted-or worse, cornered-by not one, but two unhinged Alphas.
Suddenly, something moved to my left. A low growl. The snap of twigs.
Someone was there.
Phina, my wolf, snarled against my skin, desperate to fight.
“A wolf’s sensed us,” she warned.
I dropped low, tucking myself behind a fallen log as cover.
The Alpha barreled past, too focused on his own prey to notice me crouched in the shadows.
I waited for a beat. Then I moved again.
Every breath was a battle, every step a gamble.
I was faster than most of them in human form. If I shifted, I’d be quicker still-but it wasn’t worth the risk. Someone sharp enough might see the lie in my shape.
And right now, one mistake meant death.
I stopped for a moment, catching my breath as my eyes darted to a weathered map tacked to a gnarled tree trunk.
The finish line wasn’t marked, but I knew where it lay. Past the old creek, where the cursed forest thinned and the crumbling ruins of the Academy’s ancient watchtower stood like a skeletal hand against the sky. I fixed the image in my mind like a beacon.
But just as I turned to move forward, a massive wolf landed in front of me, snarling.I froze. Black eyes? It was not Ronan. Not Dante. Then who was he?
The wolf snarl, teeth bared at me.
Damn it. It challenged me to fight but there was no way! was shifting!
I dropped low, grabbing a thick branch and swinging it upward when he least expected it. It cracked across the Alpha’s face with a sharp crack. He reeled back, blood spraying. Before he could recover, I spun and sprinted deeper into the trees.
I didn’t look back while the mist thickened and the sound of howls of the wolves in the distance. Fighting.
Struggling.
But the path ahead of me was strangely clear. And when glanced back there was no one. Phina grew alert in my mind. How was it possible that no one was coming? But what was this feeling of being watched?
Branches whipped at my face. Thorns bit into my arms.
And then a very strange noise froze me.
What was it?
A wet, sickening crunch somewhere ahead.
For some reason my heart stuttered and every muscle tensed.It wasn’t a wolf’s snarl. Not a fight. It was something else.
Flesh meeting earth. Bone splitting.
My instincts screamed for me to turn back, to find another route but the path ahead was the short cut that led to the finish line. The terrain elsewhere was too thick, the mist too blinding. If I hesitated now, Kd lose my lead.
Swallowing hard, I crept forward, keeping low to the ground, my senses sharp, alert.
Then a stench hit me. Coppery. Metallic. Heavy with death.
Then the clearing opened before me.
Límbs. Scattered like broken dolls. An arm hanging limp from a branch, a booted foot severed mid-calf resting beside a jagged rock. The earth slick with blood, mud turning to crimson paste.
And there at the center of it all…
Dante.
Chewing the flesh.
Jordan’s.
My stomach lurched violently. Dante…he was eating his own friend. He was not even in his wolf form, he was human…
Jordan’s glassy, unseeing eyes stared at the misty canopy overhead, mouth forever parted in a silent scream.Watching Dante eat his own friend, my whole body grew cold. How could he do this? Eat a person.
The Alphas weren’t supposed to kill each other. It was a trial. A test of endurance, hunting, and survival.
But this…this was…I could not name this monstrous act.
Dante’s broad frame was dappled in blood, some of it his, most of it not. His dark hair hung damply over his forehead, a tail of blood ran down his mouth to throat.