Chapter 56: Chapter Fifty-Six: The Pack Splits

The news moved faster than the dawn wind. By the time Faith and David stepped out of the healer’s den, whispers had already reached every corner of Rainfall.

A real Luna.

Not Omega.

Hidden blood.

Faces turned as they passed. Some eyes shone with awe, others with calculation, and a few with naked hostility. Faith kept her chin up, even though her stomach felt like it had been caught in a vice. Her wolf pressed at the edges of her control, ready to meet every stare with bared teeth.

They didn’t make it to the main hall before the first confrontation.

A knot of wolves stood in the pack square, voices raised in sharp bursts. A man Faith recognized as Marek a senior hunter, twice her age and built like a tree trunk was in the center, his voice booming.

“She was Omega yesterday!” Marek snarled to the gathered crowd. “Now we’re expected to bow to her as Luna? You think I’ll take orders from someone whose wolf used to shrink when I walked past?”

A younger wolf growled back, a wiry fighter named Alin. “You speak like a fool. The blood doesn’t lie, Marek. If the bond says she’s Luna, she’s Luna. That’s the law.”

“The law bends for those with power,” Marek spat. His eyes cut to Faith as she and David approached. “And now we see where her power comes from. A bed, and an Alpha willing to rewrite history.”

The growl ripped from David’s throat before Faith could speak. In three strides, he was in front of Marek, towering over him, the air thick with Alpha command.

“Watch your tongue,” David said, each word low and dangerous. “Or I’ll tear it out and hang it in the square as a warning.”

A ripple of unease went through the crowd. Some lowered their gazes in submission; others stood straighter, defiant.

Faith stepped forward, brushing her fingers against David’s arm a silent call for him to hold. “If you have questions, ask them to my face,” she said to Marek.

He looked her up and down, lips curling. “Fine. Where were you hiding this power while we bled for this pack? Why wait until now to play the Luna?”

“I didn’t wait,” Faith said, forcing steel into her voice. “I didn’t even know. But I’m here now, and I’m not leaving. The Blood Moon has risen, the Orell are moving against us, and the last thing this pack needs is a fight inside its own walls.”

“That’s easy to say when you’re standing beside him,” Marek shot back, nodding at David. “But the rest of us know what happens when a wolf changes rank overnight and it’s chaos. And chaos gets people killed.”

Murmurs swept through the crowd, half in agreement, half in challenge.

David’s patience snapped. His wolf surged forward, his command slamming into the square like a physical blow. Wolves dropped to their knees involuntarily, some gasping as the pressure hit.

“Enough,” he roared. “You will not tear this pack apart from the inside. You will not question your Luna’s place at my side. If you have a problem with it…”He stepped into Marek’s space, close enough their noses almost touched. “You take it up with me. Right here. Right now.”

Marek’s throat bobbed. For a long, taut moment, Faith thought he might actually accept the challenge. But then his eyes slid away. “I fight for Rainfall,” he muttered. “Not for politics.”

“Then you fight for us,” David said, his voice like gravel. “Or you don’t fight at all.”

He turned to the crowd, sweeping them with a gaze that dared defiance. “This war isn’t waiting for us to agree on titles. If you’re with us, stand ready. If you’re not…”His lips pulled back in a snarl. “Then get out of my sight before I make that choice for you.”

Silence fell. One by one, wolves stepped back, breaking the knot of tension. Marek lingered a moment longer, his eyes still hot with resentment, before he turned and stalked away.

Faith exhaled slowly, her heart pounding. “That could have gone worse,” she said under her breath.

David didn’t look at her. “It’s not over. Men like Marek don’t let go easily they bide their time. And right now, time is something we don’t have.”

She glanced at the crowd dispersing, catching the lingering glances some respectful, some suspicious. “Do you think they’ll follow me?”

David finally met her eyes. “The ones who matter will. The rest… we’ll deal with when we have to.”

But Faith wasn’t sure that was enough. If the pack split now, in the middle of the Orell threat, it could cost lives. And if Marek’s words took root, she wouldn’t just be fighting Divine  she’d be fighting her own people for the right to lead.

Nareen appeared from the edge of the square, her sharp gaze missing nothing. “Well,” she said, “at least we know where the cracks are before the enemy uses them.”

Faith frowned. “You’re saying this was good?”

“I’m saying,” Nareen replied, “that a pack that’s never tested will shatter at the first blow. Better to see the fault lines now and decide whether to mend them… or break them yourself.”

The weight of her words sank deep. Faith had thought becoming  a real Luna aside marrying an Alpha would mean unity. Now she saw it for what it was a battle all its own.

And she wasn’t sure yet which would be harder fighting the Orell, or holding her own pack together.