Lyra had always thought her last test to fully become a Luna would end with happy celebration, not the taste of blood and the feeling of failure. She was the first to volunteer when the leaders asked for people to guard Rivendale's food storage building overnight. It wasn't just her courage; she felt she had to prove she was more than just Sebastian's almost-Luna.
The night had begun without incident. It was too quiet, and she now realized that.
She walked around the storage building as a wolf, her paws not making a single sound on the frozen ground; her breath appeared in the cold air. The moon was low in the sky, pale and watchful. She tried to calm the energy inside of her, but something didn't feel quite right. A strange feeling grew inside her.
Then she smelled them.
They were Rogues, three, no, four, coming closer from the edge of the woods.
Lyra sprang into action immediately. She growled loudly as the first wolf emerged out of the darkness. The wolf's claws raked down her side, but she spun and grasped the Rogue by its neck. Still another wolf lunged at her, and she spun quickly, clamping her teeth deep into the fur and skin of this newest opponent. She fought as hard as she could, refusing to give up.
But then she noticed him.
The biggest wolf, black as night and twice as swift, walked forward calmly. He made her afraid. He was an Alpha, but not hers, and she didn't know who he was. His eyes shone gold in the darkness.
He shouldn't have been there at all.
She got ready and attacked first, hitting him with all her strength left. They rolled on the frozen ground, biting and crashing into each other; her heart was beating fast. She had thought she was getting ahead until everything changed. He held her down easily, like she was weak.
Then, instead of killing her, he bit her.
It wasn't a wound or a warning.
It was a mark.
His teeth cut into the soft skin of her neck, and the feeling was strangely hot, not just painful. Lyra fought against it, but her body felt heavy and her thoughts unclear. She could feel something flowing into her, wrapping around her wolf and connecting to her soul.
No, this can't be happening.
He let her go, and her vision blurred. She stepped back, changed back without meaning to, and fell to her knees as a human. Her breaths came fast and unbalanced. The Rogue Alpha's form flickered, and she heard bones break as he turned into a man.
He was tall with wide shoulders, and on him, there was blood. His messy hair kept her from reading his thoughts.
He took a step closer.
Then he said her name.
"Lyra."
His voice was soft, like a memory or a promise; the sort of thing he should have told her a hundred times already.
Her heart was racing; she was frozen on the spot, unable even to breathe.
The other Rogues appeared behind him, before she was able to utter a word or ask who he was or how he knew her.
He glanced at her a last time; sadness and uncertainty showed on his face before he disappeared into the forest with everyone else.
Everything went black.
---
Lyra woke up two days later.
She sat up quickly in bed, breathing fast. She knew her room well: soft lighting, light-colored curtains, and the smell of lavender from her mother in the air. Her mother hurried to her, quite relieved, while her father stood behind her, his face tight with worry.
But she mainly looked at Sebastian's face, cold, sharp, and full of something she did not recognize.
Disappointment.
"You weren't careful," he said before she could speak. "You put yourself and the group in danger."
"I was attacked," she said, her voice rough.
"You should have asked for help," he said. "Instead, you changed as soon as trouble came. That isn't leadership, Lyra. That's doing things without thinking."
His words hurt, but the doubt in his eyes actually hurt even more.
Her parents looked at each other, concerned, with questions unspoken about the fight, why she had passed out, and that weird feeling when they found her-the questions she couldn't answer.
The moment they were gone, she ran to the bathroom and shut the door. Her hands were shaking as she moved her hair aside and saw her reflection, pale and empty.
There it was.
A clear mark upon her neck.
Not a bite. Not a bruise.
A sign of ownership.
New. Clear.
She felt sick to her stomach.
Whose mark was this? Why did she remember his gold eyes and the sound of her name whispered like a promise?
One name came to her mind, strange but with an uneasy certainty.
Zack.
"Who is Zack?" she whispered.
She clung to the sink, willing her racing heart to slow. Everything she had worked toward, every test she had passed, now felt so uncertain. A future Luna shouldn't wake up with a mysterious mark on her neck courtesy of a rogue Alpha. Marks meant connection and ownership. None of that was her choice.
Her wolf was uneasy under her skin, not scared, but knowing that something in that bite she couldn't explain. It recognizes something, and she tries to ignore it.
"I don't know him," she said softly. "I don't."
Yet she remembered his voice, smooth and steady as he said her name. She remembered his eyes, worried, not mean or happy. Rogues were not supposed to look like that. Rogues didn't say names as if they mattered.
The mark shone in the mirror, faint yet clear.
If the others in the group saw it, there would be questions and accusations. Sebastian would think she had betrayed him. The Elders would want answers she didn't have, and she couldn't share the truth when she barely understood it herself.
Outside, the group was uneasy and shaken by the attack. They expected her to be ready to lead.
Instead, she felt everything was falling apart.
Zack. The name came again, unwanted and strange, yet sticking in her mind. Lyra raised her head up. No matter what this link was-if the bad luck, mistake, or something even worse-she had to get some information. And she intended to find him.