Chapter 75

Isla POV

It wasn’t just a stray. That howl carried something more — a warning, a promise, maybe even a goodbye.

I slipped out of bed and walked to the window, pushing aside the curtain. The moon hung full and heavy above the forest.

And for the briefest second, I saw them — two pairs of eyes glowing from the treeline. One gold. One red.

Then they vanished.

Kieran

The air burned in my lungs as I shifted back into human form, collapsing beside the stream. The pain of transformation still lingered, but it was nothing compared to the ache inside.

Ronan stood a few feet away, leaning against a tree, watching me with a small, knowing smile.

“You felt her, didn’t you?” he said.

I didn’t answer.

He chuckled. “Even from here, I could hear that howl shaking her walls. You really are pathetic, Kieran.”

I looked up at him, anger flaring. “If you came here to gloat, leave.”

“Relax,” he said, crouching beside me. “I told you, you’d be better off with us. The pack never deserved you. The rogues we take care of our own.”

I barked a bitter laugh. “You mean you take what’s left of them.”

He grinned. “Call it what you want. But soon, you’ll understand that the only real freedom is the kind that comes without chains.”

I wanted to argue, to say that I wasn’t like them. But deep down, I knew that whatever part of me had belonged to the pack had already been ripped away.

And maybe, just maybe, I was tired of fighting who I really was.

Ronan stood and extended a hand. “Come on, brother. Time to show the world what happens when they throw away one of their own.”

I looked at his hand for a long time before taking it.

Somewhere far behind me, the pack was sleeping. Isla was sleeping. And I was walking straight into the darkness that had been waiting for me all along.

As the forest swallowed me whole, I let my wolf rise again.

The night trembled with the sound of our howls  one gold, one red  echoing together like a promise that the world would soon remember our names.

The dawn came red.

Not the soft kind of red that warms the clouds and kisses the trees awake no. This one bled across the horizon like a wound that refused to close.

By the time I stepped outside, the air already carried the coppery tang of fear. Wolves whispered in corners, patrols doubled, and every guard along the border stood tense, noses lifted, waiting for something none of us could name.

Something had changed.

I felt it before anyone spoke it aloud. It sat beneath my skin, humming through the bond I’d tried to bury the one that still pulsed faintly whenever I thought of him.

Kieran.

Even now, even after everything, his name still made my heart ache in ways I didn’t want to understand.

The courtyard was nearly empty except for Tristan, who stood with the senior warriors, his eyes hard and sharp as obsidian. When he saw me approach, his shoulders stiffened slightly before he masked it with a practiced calm.

“Another sighting?” I asked, stopping beside him.

He didn’t answer right away. His jaw worked once, twice, before he said, “Two border scouts did not return last night.”

My breath caught. “You think it’s rogues?”

“I think it’s Kieran,” he said flatly.

The words landed like a slap. “You don’t know that.”

Tristan turned then, his expression unreadable. “I know his scent was at the northern line. And I know what happens when a wolf loses his tether.”

“That doesn’t mean”

“Isla.” His voice was low but edged. “You heard that howl. So did I. It wasn’t a warning. It was a challenge.”

I shook my head. “He wouldn’t. Not Kieran.”

Tristan’s eyes softened for a heartbeat, then hardened again. “You’re still trying to see the man he was, not the one he’s become.”

I wanted to argue gods, I wanted to scream but deep down, I wasn’t sure which version of Kieran still existed out there. The one who used to laugh in the training yard, who looked at me like I was the only thing keeping him tethered to this world? Or the one whose eyes had burned gold and wild before he vanished into the woods?

“I want every patrol doubled,” Tristan told the warriors. “No one goes alone. If you see him, if you see anything you report it. No engagement unless necessary.”

His words echoed against the stone walls, final and cold.

When the others dispersed, I stayed behind. The silence between us stretched tight until Tristan finally said, without looking at me, “I know you still feel him. I can sense it through the bond.”

My stomach knotted. “That bond is between us, Tristan.”

“Then why does it flicker every time his name is mentioned?” he asked quietly. “Why do you wake up at night like you’re listening for him?”

I had no answer. Just silence. Just guilt.

Tristan sighed, raking a hand through his hair. “I’m not asking you to stop caring, Isla. I’m asking you to protect what’s left.”

He turned and walked away before I could respond, leaving me standing there beneath that bleeding sunrise, feeling like the world had split me in two the Luna everyone saw, and the woman who still ached for a ghost.

The forest called to me again that night.

It always did when the world refused to make sense.

I slipped out of the compound under the weight of a restless moon, following the same path as before. The guards at the gate didn’t question me no one ever did. I was Luna, after all. The title opened doors that the woman beneath it could only dream of escaping through.

The air was colder this time, charged with the kind of stillness that warned of storms.

Every step forward brought his memory closer the brush of his fingertips, the sound of his laugh, the look in his eyes the night I told him goodbye.

“You chose him.”

The words haunted me still.

Maybe he was right. Maybe I’d chosen safety over truth.