Chapter 2 THE EXILED LUNA
"I'm not sorry for what has happened. Life doesn't always go the way we plan. I needed an heir, and you are not being fruitful." Kael stated.
"So you choose yourself and your selfish desires. We are mates remember? We share the same bond." Aria cried out.
"Aria, don't try to make this complicated. Out of respect for the mate bond, I'm willing to still keep you, but under a condition; You're going to accept Selene as my mate also cause I've already marked her and also accept her baby as the next heir." Kael declared. "If you don't accept this condition, you will be made a rogue and sent out of the pack."
Aria stared at Kael in disbelief.
"Did you accept or not?" Kael asked again.
Silence reigned for a while, but then Aria rise up. Anger, pain and betrayal was clearly shown on her face.
"Over my dead body." Aria said angrily, while gritting her teeth.
"Alright then, Don't blame me for what would happen then." Kael said and straightened himself.
"I, Alpha Kael Blackwood of the silverfang pack, denounce Aria as my Luna and I reject her as my mate." Kael declared.
Aria's world turned upside down. 'How dare he do this?', her wolf asked inside her. Aria stared at Kael in shock and disbelief.
"I hereby banish Aria from the pack and make her a rogue." He added and turned to Aria. “You are no longer Luna of this pack. You are nothing to me now.”
A numbing pain curled in the pit of Aria's stomach from the rejection and separation from her pack.
Aria rose slowly, the wind swirling around her like a storm is about to break.
Her eyes shimmered with silver light. The wolf within her no longer cried, it promised revenge.
That night, under the witness of the Moon, Luna Aria Blackwood swore her vengeance.
I would make them all pay for what they did to me. Each and every member of the pack that watched and did nothing.
The bond may have died, but her fire had just been born.
The forest was a graveyard of silence.
Each step Aria took echoed against the damp earth. Her gown that was once silver and soft, was torn and muddied and her hair plastered to her face.
Banished.
The word burned deeper than the wound on her shoulder. She’d heard it fall from Kael’s lips only an hour ago, his voice cold as winter.
> “You are no longer Luna of this pack. You are nothing to me now.”
Those words had cut deeper than any blade.
Now, she walked alone through the woods that had once been her home, her mark is erased and her wolf is silent.
Lyra, her inner wolf, had been howling since they left the borders, begging to turn back and fight. But every time Aria tried to shift, pain would rip through her, as her connection to the pack severed.
Torches flickered behind her.
She didn’t need to look back to know they were following her.
Kael isn't satisfied with exiling her. He had sent his warriors, men she’d once trusted, to make sure she “never returned.”
A twig snapped.
Aria froze.
“It's Alpha’s order,” a rough voice muttered from the shadows. “End it quickly.”
Her breath hitched. She turned, her silver eyes meeting the glint of blades. Three warriors emerged from the darkness, they were wolves she’d once healed, once dined with. Now their expressions were blank and their loyalty blind.
“Please, don't kill me” she whispered with her voice trembling but proud. “You served me. You called me Luna.”
One of the men —Garrick, Kael’s right hand, looked away, guilt flickering across his face. “We don’t want to do this, Aria. But the Alpha commanded it.”
Her chest tightened. “Then you are no better than the monster you serve.”
One of them suddenly lunged at her. Aria ducked, but the blade grazed her arm. She stumbled back, with her heart pounding. Her wolf clawed inside her chest, desperate to fight, but the broken bond has made her weak.
She moved on instinct, dodging another strike, her bare feet slick with blood and rain.
When Garrick swung again, she caught the blade with her palm and the steel bite into her flesh. “If you kill me,” she hissed, her eyes burning silver, “the Moon will curse you all, Cause today is the blood moon festival.”
But they came anyway.
Aria fought like fire but three wolves against one broken Luna was a battle she could not win.
A blade cut her side.
Another slashed her back.
She fell to her knees, gasping.
Garrick stood over her, trembling as he raised his sword. “Forgive us.”
Her lips curved into a bitter smile. “I already have. But the Moon won’t.”
The last thing she saw before darkness swallowed her was the moon — bleeding red through the trees.
When Aria woke, she wasn’t dead.
Not yet.
The scent of herbs and smoke filled her nose. She was lying on a bed of furs, her wounds bandaged with silver-threaded cloth.
A low, crackling fire burned nearby.
“You’re awake,” came a voice. It sound rough, old, and knowing.
Aria tried to sit up, but pain shot through her body. “Who are you?”
The woman who stepped into the light looked like a shadow given flesh. Her hair are as black as pitch and her eyes the color of molten gold. She wore bones around her neck and carried a staff carved with ancient runes.
“Maeve,” she said simply. “Witch of the Hollow. And you, Luna of Silverfang, have the Moon’s blood in your veins.”
Aria blinked, she felt dizzy. “I'm not Luna,” she whispered. “Not anymore.”
Maeve smiled, showing the faintest glint of fang. “You think losing a man’s mark takes away your title? Foolish girl. You were born Luna. The bond didn’t make you Luna, the Moon did.”
Aria’s throat ached. “ How did the moon choose me? The alpha has betrayed me.”
Maeve’s gaze softened. “Then let that betrayal forge you, not break you.”
She dipped a cloth into a bowl of glowing liquid and pressed it on Aria’s wound. It burned like fire and ice. Aria cried out, clutching the furs.
“Pain is the beginning of rebirth,” Maeve murmured. “Your wolf is asleep, but she’s still there. Hidden beneath grief.”
Aria’s voice cracked. “Why save me?”
Maeve sat back, studying her. “Because I saw your death in the flames last night. And the Moon whispered your name. She called you Luna of Shadows — the one who will bring balance to the cursed bloodlines.”
