Chapter 7 Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
BLOOD AND MOONLIGHT
ZARIAH NIGHTBORNE POV
The pack hunters came through the trees like death itself—silent, coordinated, lethal.
Eight of them. All shifted. All trained killers.
They thought they were hunting prey.
They were wrong.
"Positions," Veda whispered, and the rogue wolves scattered into the shadows, disappearing like smoke.
I stood in the center of the clearing, alone, exposed. Bait.
My heart hammered, but my hands were steady. The blade Veda had given me felt right in my grip—balanced, sharp, an extension of my arm.
The lead hunter emerged first, a massive grey wolf with scars covering his muzzle. His amber eyes locked onto me, and he growled, low and threatening.
The others followed, circling, cutting off any escape.
Smart.
But not smart enough.
The grey wolf shifted, bones cracking and reforming until a man stood before me—tall, muscular, naked except for the tactical vest he'd somehow kept through the transformation.
"Luna Zariah," he said, his voice gravelly. "The Alpha Don wants you back. Alive." His smile was cruel. "But he didn't say unharmed."
I tilted my head, studying him. "And if I refuse?"
"Then we make it hurt."
I smiled—cold, empty. "Good. I was hoping you'd say that."
His expression flickered with confusion.
Then Veda struck.
She dropped from the trees above, landing on one of the wolves, her claws tearing through fur and flesh. The wolf yelped, thrashing, but she was already moving, a blur of violence and precision.
The clearing exploded into chaos.
The rogue wolves attacked from all sides—fast, brutal, efficient. They'd done this before. Survived by being smarter, meaner, more desperate than the pack wolves who hunted them.
But the hunters were trained. Organized.
Two of them broke through the rogues and charged straight at me.
I didn't run.
I closed my eyes and reached for that power again—the ghost-shift. It came easier this time, like muscle memory I didn't know I had.
My body flickered.
The first wolf lunged, jaws snapping shut on nothing. I phased through him, feeling the strange sensation of his teeth passing harmlessly through my neck.
The second wolf skidded to a halt, confused, terrified.
I solidified behind him and drove the blade between his ribs.
He howled, collapsing, and I yanked the knife free, blood spraying across the grass.
The grey wolf—the leader—shifted back mid-leap, tackling me to the ground. His weight crushed me, his hands pinning my wrists.
"Clever trick," he snarled, his face inches from mine. "But you're still just a scared little girl playing dress-up."
I headbutted him.
His nose crunched, blood pouring down his face. He reeled back, and I twisted, throwing him off.
I scrambled to my feet, but he was already recovering, wiping blood from his mouth.
"You're going to regret that."
"Get in line," I shot back.
He charged.
But before he could reach me, something inside me snapped.
Not broke. Snapped open.
Like a door I didn't know existed suddenly slamming wide.
Daughter of the moon.
The voice wasn't mine. Wasn't Veda's. It came from somewhere deeper, older, echoing inside my skull like a memory that didn't belong to me.
Claim your birthright.
My vision blurred, and suddenly I wasn't in the clearing anymore.
I was standing in a throne room carved from white stone, moonlight pouring through open arches. Women stood around me—dozens of them, all dressed in silver and white, their eyes glowing with power.
Lunas. Past Lunas.
"You are not the first," one of them said, her voice layered with a thousand others. "And you will not be the last. But you are the only one who can end this."
"End what?" I whispered.
"The cycle. The slavery. The chains they've bound our bloodline with for centuries." She stepped closer, and I saw the scars on her wrists—silver burns, just like mine. "They fear us because we were meant to rule, not serve. The Luna Code isn't a leash, Zariah. It's a crown."
"I don't know how—"
"You do." Another Luna spoke, younger, fiercer. "You've always known. You just forgot."
The throne room dissolved, and I was back in the clearing, the grey wolf's claws inches from my throat.
But I wasn't afraid anymore.
I opened my mouth, and the sound that came out wasn't human.
It was a howl—pure, primal, commanding.
The grey wolf froze mid-strike, his body going rigid. His eyes widened in shock, then terror.
Every wolf in the clearing stopped. Hunters and rogues alike, all frozen, trembling, their eyes glazing over.
I could feel them. Feel their minds, their wills, bending toward me like trees in a storm.
The Luna Code.
"Kneel," I said, my voice layered with power I didn't fully understand.
And they did.
Every single one of them dropped to their knees, heads bowed, unable to resist.
Veda stared at me, blood splattered across her face, her expression somewhere between awe and fear.
"Holy shit," she whispered.
I turned to the grey wolf, who was shaking, fighting the compulsion with everything he had.
"Tell your Alpha Don," I said quietly, "that I'm done running. Tell him the Luna he tried to cage is coming for him. And tell him..." I leaned down, my voice dropping to a whisper. "Tell him I'm bringing war."
I released the compulsion, and he gasped, collapsing forward, his body drenched in sweat.
The other hunters scrambled to their feet and ran, disappearing into the forest without looking back.
I watched them go, my heart still racing, the power thrumming through my veins like electricity.
Veda approached slowly, cautiously. "That was the Luna Code. Full manifestation."
I nodded, not trusting my voice.
"How did you—most Lunas can't access it without mating. Without completing the bond."
"I don't know," I admitted. "It just... happened."
One of the other rogue wolves—the scarred one—spoke up. "You're not like the others. There's something else in your blood. Something older."
I turned to her. "What do you mean?"
"The ghost-shifting. The command voice without a mate bond. The way you flicker between states." She shook her head. "You're not just a Luna. You're something more."
"Or something cursed," another muttered.
Veda shot her a glare before turning back to me. "Doesn't matter what you are. What matters is what you do with it."
I looked around at the rogues—five women, all scarred, all broken in their own ways. All survivors.
"You said you've been waiting for me," I said. "Why?"
Veda crossed her arms. "Because every Luna before you either submitted or died. We've been hoping one would finally fight back."
"And now that I have?"
She smiled. "Now we follow you. Build an army. Take back what they stole from us."
"An army of rogues and outcasts?" I raised an eyebrow.
"The best kind," the scarred woman said. "We've got nothing to lose and everything to prove."
I considered this. Considered what it meant.
I'd spent my whole life building empires with money and power. Now I was building one with blood and fury.
"If you follow me," I said slowly, "there's no going back. This won't be a rebellion. It'll be a war. And people will die."
"People are already dying," Veda said flatly. "At least this way, we choose how."
I nodded. "Then spread the word. Find every rogue, every outcast, every wolf the packs threw away. Tell them the last blood Luna is rising. And tell them..." I paused, feeling the weight of what I was about to say. "Tell them we're taking back the moon."
The rogues grinned—feral, dangerous, free.
This was the beginning.
Not of my escape.
Of my revenge.
\---
THREE DAYS LATER
The safehouse Veda led me to was a compound deep in the mountains—abandoned, defensible, hidden.
Perfect.
Word spread faster than I expected. By the second day, rogues started arriving. By the third, we had twenty. All of them broken by the pack system. All of them hungry for justice.
Or vengeance. Sometimes they were the same thing.
I stood on the balcony overlooking the compound, watching them train, watching them transform from survivors into soldiers.
"You're building something dangerous," a voice said behind me.
I didn't turn. I knew that voice.
Damien.
"How did you find me?" I asked.
"I always know where you are." He stepped beside me, his expression unreadable. "It's my job."
"Your job was to cage me. I'm not caged anymore."
"No," he agreed. "You're not. And that terrifies them."
"Good."
Silence stretched between us.
"My brother's planning something," Damien said finally. "Something big. He knows you're building an army, and he's not going to wait for you to strike first."
"Let him come."
"Zariah—"
"I said, let him come." I turned to face him, and he flinched at what he saw in my eyes. "I'm done hiding. Done running. If Lucien wants war, I'll give him one he'll never forget."
Damien studied me for a long moment. "You've changed."
"I've awakened."
He reached out, his fingers brushing my arm. "Be careful. The more you use the Luna Code, the more it consumes you. The past queens... they all lost themselves to it eventually."
I pulled away. "Then I'll be the first who doesn't."
He looked like he wanted to argue, but footsteps interrupted us.
Veda appeared, her expression grim. "We've got a problem."
"What kind?"
"The kind with claws and a death wish." She jerked her thumb toward the gates. "There's a wolf at the perimeter. Says she has information. Says her name is Lena."
My blood turned to ice.
Lena.
The girl who sold me out. Who betrayed me.
"She's alone?" I asked, my voice deadly calm.
"Seems to be."
I turned to Damien. "Leave. Now."
"Zariah—"
"I said leave."
He hesitated, then nodded, disappearing into the shadows.
I descended the stairs, Veda at my side, my hand resting on the blade at my hip.
At the gate, bound and bleeding, was Lena.
Our eyes met, and I saw fear. Regret. Desperation.
"Zariah," she whispered. "Please. I need to tell you something. About your mother. About what they're planning."
I stared at her, feeling nothing.
Then I smiled.
"Talk fast," I said. "Before I change my mind about letting you live."