Chapter 153
Chapter 153
The New Luna?
Frayer now wants to take full control.
Gone was the frightened young woman who once fled the pack under shame. The woman who now strode confidently through the main gates wore power like a second skin. Her long black hair whipped behind her in the night wind, and her gown shimmered like moonlit, elegant, assertive and dangerous.
The wolves who used to mock her lowered their heads as she passed. Some bowed. Some stared, wide-eyed, trying to understand where this change came from, and how they had failed to see it before.
Elder Grath walked proudly around the pack, chin lifted high. He had been waiting for this moment. Plotting. Working. Whispering poison into ears for too long. And now every desperation, every fear in this pack was ripe for harvest.
“The elegant future Luna,” he said loudly enough for nearby wolves to hear.
Gasps rippled through the crowd. No one corrected him.
Not even the Beta.
Inside the council hall, Marcus’s voice thundered at the elders in growing frustration.
“I have told you — Camila is safe!” He slammed his fist on the stone conference table. “She will be at my side soon enough.”
“Soon enough?” one elder snorted. “We are out of time, Alpha. The Blessing Ritual has already passed. The wolves look to you for an heir. How long will hope be enough?”
“And how long will lies be tolerated?” Grath said smoothly as he finally entered the council chamber.
Marcus’s entire body stiffened. He didn’t need to turn to know who it was.
“And I see you have returned,” Marcus growled through clenched teeth.
“Indeed,” Grath replied, stepping fully into view… with Frayer following closely behind.
The sight of her made Marcus’s heart jolt. Not with affection. But shock… and a deep, instinctive dread.
Frayer met his eyes once again without flinching. The last time they were in the same room, she was meek — a candidate turned away, a woman Marcus failed to choose.
But now her piercing silver eyes held a calculated confidence.
“Alpha Marcus,” she greeted, voice silky. “It has been too long.”
“What are you doing here?” Marcus demanded.
Elder Grath spread his hands wide in mock innocence. “You should be thanking us. My daughter has returned to serve the pack in its darkest hour. A true Luna never abandons her people.”
The indirect accusation slammed into Marcus like a blade.
Frayer looked around the room, her expression perfectly timed — compassionate, concerned, and sorrowfully disappointed.
“This pack deserves leadership that remains present,” she said, placing a hand over her chest. “A Luna who does not disappear when her pack is bleeding.”
Marcus’s vision reddened. “Watch your words.”
But Frayer only lifted her chin higher. “I speak only what every wolf already wonders.”
He looked around the hall. The elders’ faces… told him the painful truth.
They agreed with her.
And that realization hit harder than any punch.
News spread like wildfire — The Lost Luna Candidate had finally returned to TAKE OVER and she was radiating goddess-touched potential. Rumors multiplied faster than panic itself.
“Frayer will give us an heir!” unlike other, who couldn't.
“She is strong — look how she carries herself!”
“Maybe she’s the one the Moon Goddess truly wanted.”
And then came the whispers Marcus feared most:
“We need a new Luna, now.”
By afternoon, a crowd gathered in the pack square. Grath stood before them like a victorious general returning from war.
“The Moon Goddess has shown us mercy!” he declared. “She has returned to us a daughter who will restore our strength, our legacy, and our bloodline!”
The wolves cried out in frenzy, their fear fueling fanatic devotion.
Marcus watched, fingers curling into fists until claws nearly broke through skin. He could feel the pack slipping — inch by inch — away from his authority.
He had stood through famine, rogue attacks, political storms. But this? His pack turning against Camila?
That was the wound that truly threatened to break him.
While the Silver Pack grew drunk on new hope, two wolves stood in the shadows — Alpha Marcus and his loyal Beta, Lame.
“They want her,” Lame murmured, fearing Marcus’s silence more than his anger. “They believe she can give them what they crave.”
Marcus’s lips closed. “Camila is my mate.”
“And they think she abandoned them, they think she is barren. And wolves… do not forgive weakness.”
Marcus slammed his palm to the wall. “She is not weak.”
“No,” Lame agreed. “But they will never know the truth unless she stands beside you.”
A truth Marcus could not yet reveal — the pregnancy, the greatest miracle their goddess had granted.
But it was too soon. Too dangerous. One whisper and traitors like Grath would hunt Camila like prey.
He sighed, pain fighting for dominance. “We must protect her, Lame. No matter the cost.”
His Beta nodded. “We stand with our Luna. Always.”
Night fell, chilling the ground with frost. But the pack’s blood ran hot with excitement and speculation.
Marcus returned to his chambers, ready for a moment of solitude. But the scent hit him before he reached his door. Frayer.
He slammed the door behind him and snarled, “You are not welcome here.”
Frayer stood near his fireplace, her lips curling into a smile.
“I came to remind you of your duty,” she said. “To your pack. To your bloodline. To destiny.”
“My destiny is bound to Camila,” he snapped.
She stepped closer, lowering her eyes in a performance of submission… but the hunger in her goddamn face betrayed the act.
“You think she can give you what you need?” she whispered. “The entire pack knows she is barren. Why cling to a lost cause?”
Marcus’s wolf lunged so hard that he physically staggered, his skin rippling, eyes burning.
“Do not speak of my mate again,” he warned, voice layered with the growl of an Alpha close to shifting.
Frayer smiled… unfazed. Unafraid. And that was the most unsettling part.
“She already abandoned you once, Marcus, why wait for her to do it again?”
Before he could react, she left — hips swaying arrogantly, as if she knew she had left a splinter in his heart.
Under the moon, Elder Grath watched from afar as his daughter exited Marcus’s room. His lips twitched with dark satisfaction.
“Yes… let him feel the weight of doubt,” he murmured. “Soon he will bend. The pack will force his hand. And when he rejects Camila publicly, the goddess herself will favor Frayer.”
He closed his fingers into a triumphant fist.
“This time, no one will stop us.”
At the same moment…
Far away in the Moonlight Pack, Camila sat happy, cradling her belly — the new life growing inside her pulsing with destiny.
Mark stood beside her, the night wind lifting his dark curls. His eyes glowed — the light of a blessed Alpha, the son who carried the future.
“Everything is already changing in the Silver Pack,” he told her.
“And when it is time…” Camila murmured, brushing her hand over the forming bump, “I will return.”
Mark’s eyes hardened with determination.
“And when you do… the pack will kneel before their true Luna and her heir.”
But back in the Silver Pack…
The pack howled Frayer’s name under the moon.
Marcus listened from a distance — heart heavy, wolf raging — as they chanted:
“Frayer!
Frayer!
Our new Luna!”
Marcus closed his eyes in agony.
A storm was coming.
And Camila’s absence was now a weapon in their enemies’ hands.
Time… was running out.