Chapter 175: Possessed Luna

Maddie Pov

The yellow light was gone when I opened my eyes but the room still felt wrong. I sat up on the edge of the mattress and looked down at my bare palms. My skin felt very tight and a strange heavy power was sitting right in the middle of my chest, but everything inside my mind felt completely hollow.

"Maddie, do not jump up too fast," Calix muttered and he walked over from the wash basin with a wet piece of linen cloth. His jaw had a dark purple mark where my fist had landed the night before, and he moved his left arm like his ribs were still very stiff. "Your skin is not hot anymore but the yellow color took two hours to fade out of your hair."

"I feel strong," I replied and I stood up on the floorboards without my knees shaking at all. It was the first time in three weeks that my legs did not feel thin from the lack of meat, but the strength did not feel like it belonged to me. It felt like an extra weight sitting behind my ribs.

"The elders are waiting in the long hall," Thomas stated from the open doorway. He had three old leather books tucked under his arm and his face looked pale under the morning sun. "The hunters brought two thin deer from the lower creek but the meat is not enough for seventeen wolves. People are talking about the light they saw through the window last night."

"We will tell them it was a backfire from the iron stove," Calix declared and he threw his heavy coat over his shoulders. "Nobody talks about the high peak contract outside this room."

I followed them down the wooden corridor and into the main room. The remaining wolves of WolfTrail were sitting in a loose circle on the benches, and Rex was standing near the center post with his hunting spear. Mara was sitting on the front box and her dark eyes fixed on my face the second my boots hit the pine floorboards.

"The creek is dry, Alpha," Rex reported and he set the iron tip of his spear against the wood. "The North Peaks scouts have three lines of logs across the water and the fish are not coming down to our pools. If we do not cross the boundary line tomorrow we will have nothing but dried roots for the pups."

"We are not crossing the line yet, Rex," Calix responded and he placed both palms flat on the long table. "The treaty allows us three months to get our strength back. If we put a boot on their logs today, Kai will bring forty spears down the ridge before dark."

A sudden cold wind seemed to run straight up my spine and my tongue went completely stiff. I tried to lift my right hand to touch Calix’s sleeve but my fingers locked into a rigid shape. My jaw snapped open by itself and a deep, smooth sound pushed out through my teeth, knocking my own thoughts right to the back of my skull.

"The treaty is finished," I announced. The tone was deep and heavy, and my eyes flared with a bright yellow light that hit the log walls. My body turned toward the benches and my chin lifted up high without my permission. "The valley wolves will not cross the creek because the creek belongs to the high hall now."

"Maddie, stop," Calix pleaded and he lunged across the floor to grab my shoulders.

My right arm swung out fast and slapped his hands away from my coat. The strength in my muscles was immense and Calix stumbled back two steps until his spine hit the center post. Inside my own head, I was screaming at my arms to drop down, but the muscles did not listen to my brain at all.

"Do not touch the Luna, young Alpha," I commanded with that double voice. My boots moved forward slow and steady, stepping right into the middle of the circle. "The old laws of WolfTrail are done. From this hour, every hunter will bring three shares of meat to the main hall, and anyone who hides a scrap of fat in the brush will have their fingers broken at the gate."

"She is not speaking, Calix," Rex yelled and he raised his spear up to his chest. "The mountain spirit has the whole anchor line."

"Keep the iron down, Rex," Calix ordered and he held his ribs with one hand while he looked into my yellow eyes. His face was full of a sharp agony and his mouth trembled as he stared at my lips. "Maddie, fight him. Look at me."

I tried to turn my head toward him but Kai’s hold was like a thick iron band around my neck. I could feel my own soul pounding against the back of my forehead, screaming for help in the dark, but my mouth just kept moving, spitting out words that made the old wolves on the benches shrink back in terror.

"He cannot hear you, valley boy," I jeered and my left hand pointed directly at Calix’s chest. "Look at your leader, wolves. He cannot even hold his own female from the mountain contract. He stands there with a broken rib and tells you to eat roots while the high hall takes the fish."

"You are a monster, Kai," Thomas shouted and he dropped his leather books onto the dirt floor.

"I am the owner of this blood," I declared and my head tilted sideways with a dry smile. "The white fur line belongs to the peaks. Your Alpha is weak and his mate bond is nothing but a shadow in the grass."

Calix dropped his head down and his shoulders went completely loose. A single drop of sweat ran down his cheek and he did not even try to wipe it away as I walked closer to his side. The whole pack watched in absolute silence and nobody stepped forward to help him because the yellow light around my fingers was too bright.

I leaned my head close to his ear until my silver hair brushed his cheek. My lips moved soft and low, and the tone turned into a smooth, teasing whisper that felt like a knife cutting right through my own mind.

"She still loves you," I whispered. "But soon she will forget you ever existed."