Chapter 10 Chosen
Chapter 10 Chosen
Nyssa POV
By mid-afternoon, Moonfang was alive.
Trucks rolled across the dirt road in a steady stream, with engines humming like a heartbeat returning to a dying body. Wolves spilled from the packhouse in human form, with clean faces, shaking hands, and wide eyes, determined not to alarm the human workers with shifting fur and fangs.
No one had to be told twice.
My wolves moved with purpose. Some carried crates of meat into the newly installed walk-in freezers. Others stacked canned goods in the storage barracks. The children darted between legs handing out apples from the Amish crates, their faces sticky with juice and disbelief.
One little girl hugged a bag of flour like it was a stuffed toy. I swallowed hard. Ronan elbowed Rowan as he passed by hauling a bundle of lumber. “Bet you never thought you’d see Moonfang stocked like a damn Costco.”
Rowan snorted. “Bet you never thought you’d be working for an Alpha who uses spreadsheets.”
“I like a woman who delegates,” Ronan said with a wink.
I threw a wrench at his head. He caught it easily, laughing.
“Focus,” I snapped, but Vianna purred at the attention.
The human workers filed into the small town around the market, following the project list I’d already emailed them. New roofs. Repaired barracks. Reinforced fencing. Fresh wells. Upgraded electricity.
Moonfang would not just be rebuilt. It would be reborn. A black SUV rolled in, and dust spiraled behind it. Out stepped the elite construction wolves I’d hired years ago during my rise at LUNARIX. They were massive men and women in branded jackets that read WolfForge Engineering.
Fifty of them. All powerful. All trained. All sworn to secrecy.
My heart eased. “You're early.”
Their leader, a tall wolf named Jarek, dipped his head. “We came the moment you called, Alpha. Where do you want the hunting grounds?”
I extended my arm toward the expanse of Moonfang territory, thousands of untouched acres, rolling forest, cliffs, streams, and thick underbrush. Enough wilderness to lose or find yourself a hundred times.
“There,” I said. “And I need it fully structured for endurance, survival, and strategy.”
Jarek nodded. “As discussed. First aid caches every quarter mile. Food reserves. Clean water stations. Safehouses for emergencies. Tunnels. Camouflaged shelters. High-density tree cover for ambush strategies. Our witches have glamours ready.”
“And weapons?” I asked quietly.
“Wooden blades, nonlethal arrows, blunted spears. Enough to test them, not enough to kill them.”
Perfect.
Behind me, Rowan whistled low. “You planning a hunt or a military siege?”
Ronan grinned. “She’s planning to make the alphas cry.”
I ignored them both.
“Females will have one small pack each,” I said. “Enough to survive. Enough to strategize. Enough to show me who deserves leadership.”
Jarek’s eyes glowed. “Understood.”
“And for the males,” I continued softly, “I want the trials functional by next week.”
Both Rowan and Ronan stopped mid-step.
“The trials?” Rowan echoed slowly. “Like the ones from the Goddess’s vision?”
“Yes.”
Ronan leaned his shoulder against a tree, and cross his arms. “What exactly are we testing? Muscle? Cunning? Endurance?”
I met his gaze, cold and unwavering.
“Everything.”
Jarek waited silently and, respectfully.
“For the trial, there will be two phases,” I said. “A magical test, witches and mages will evaluate jealousy, rage, and intent. Any male who cannot control his temper or who seeks dominance rather than partnership will fail.”
Ronan blinked. “So half of the East Coast alphas will die on the spot?”
“Fail,” I corrected. “Not die.”
He shrugged. “Same thing.”
I continued, “The physical trial will be an obstacle course that tests strength, stamina, scent tracking, and the ability to protect rather than attack. If they cannot defend a target under stress...they are unworthy of the Hunt.”
Rowan raised a brow. “And you hired witches, mages, and a full construction team for this?”
“Yes.”
He nodded. “Just checking.”
Ronan chuckled. “Alpha’s not fuckin messing around.”
“I don’t mess,” I said. “I build.”
Vianna hummed with approval. Jarek motioned for his team. Wolves burst into action. Mages began carving runes into trunks. Witches tied spell-thread between branches. Builders laid the first stakes for the obstacle course. Wolves fanned out with shovels, axes, and packs of equipment.
Within minutes, the forest sang with the sound of rebirth.
Rowan exhaled in awe. “This… this is incredible.”
Ronan tossed him a smirk. “Welcome to Moonfang 2.0.”
Rowan shoved him. Ronan pretended to fall and then yanked Rowan into the dirt. They wrestled for a moment, wolves gathering to watch, laughing as the two grown idiots rolled down a small incline until I snapped:
“Children!”
They froze. Rowan’s hair was full of leaves. Ronan’s shirt had split open. I frowned. “You look like reject extras from a forest-themed porno.”
Ronan winked. “Could film one if you want.”
I threw another wrench. He dodged.
“Enough,” I groaned, rubbing my temples. “Go assist Jarek. And stop flirting with me while you’re covered in topsoil.”
“No promises,” Ronan called back.
Rowan sighed. “I miss when I was the only sane one here.”
“You were never the sane one,” Greta yelled from the packhouse steps. I laughed, genuinely, for the first time in years.
The sun climbed higher. Wolves worked everywhere. Builders measured beams. The WolfForge team poured concrete for new training grounds. Electricians installed floodlights around the barracks. The witches knelt in circles etched with moon symbols, chanting protection spells that shimmered between branches.
Moonfang, for the first time in a decade, felt… alive. I stood in the center of it all, with the wind brushing through my hair, and Vianna pressing warm and strong inside my chest.
“This is just the beginning,” she whispered.
“Soon the fifty Lunas will come.”
“Soon,” I agreed softly.
“And then,” she rumbled, “the real tests begin.”
Before I could respond, a horn blasted from the packhouse...one of the old alert signals. Rowan sprinted from the training field. “Alpha! You need to see this!”
Ronan materialized beside me in seconds. Greta hurried from the kitchen, her apron still on
Rowan was halfway to me when the earth shuddered.
Not violently, no, this was something deeper. Ancient. A pulse that rippled through the soil and straight into my bones. Wolves froze mid-step. Witches stopped chanting. Even the construction team lifted their heads like prey sensing a predator.
Ronan stepped beside me, and his eyes narrowed. “Alpha… something’s coming.”
The ground of the central courtyard cracked. Light, silver and blinding, burst upward in a thin line, widening, and widening, until a massive flat stone slab pushed itself out of the earth. Fifteen feet long, ten feet wide, as smooth as marble but veined with shimmering moonlight.
Gasps echoed through Moonfang.
“What is that?” Rowan breathed.
Vianna whispered inside me, reverently. “The Luna’s Ledger.”
Symbols ignited across the stone’s surface, glowing white-gold, curling into runes that formed three names, each followed by a pack, a city, and a state.
Three Lunas. Already marked and chosen. Now on their way to us.
KAELA FROSTWIND
Frostwind Hollow Pack
Kalispell, Montana
SERAPHINE VALE
Blackdawn Crescent Pack
Asheville, North Carolina
MIREYA SOLACE
Silver Mesa Pack
Santa Fe
New Mexico
\~~~~~
Kaela Frostwind POV
Frostwind Hollow Pack, Kalispell, Montana
The cold had never bothered me, but this… this seared straight through my bones.
I dropped the armful of firewood, and my breath fogges the air as pain, bright, silver, and divine, shot up the side of my neck. I slapped a hand to the burning skin. It pulsed.
Once. Twice. Then it lit beneath my fingers, glowing like carved moonstone.
A symbol. A sigil. A command. The world around me vanished. Snow gave way to a vast courtyard wreathed in ancient power. A woman stood at the center, her blonde hair whipping like wildfire, and her eyes glowing predator green. Power radiated from her, Alpha and Luna and something far older. Behind her rose mountains I’d never seen but instantly recognized.
Moonfang. Adirondacks. New York. Come.
The Moon Goddess’s voice wasn’t sound, it was instinct carved into fate. When the vision snapped away, I was on my knees in the snow, shaking.
Chosen. Me. A Luna in a pack with no future, now summoned across the country by the Goddess herself.
I stood and grabbed my bag, it was still half-packed from my last attempt to run, and headed straight for my truck. No goodbye to my mother. No explanation to the Alpha who never deserved me.
The pack watched from the windows as I tore down the road. Let them stare.
The Moon had called, and I was done ignoring her.
\~~~~~
Seraphine Vale POV
Blackdawn Crescent Pack, Asheville, North Carolina
I was in the middle of a meeting, bored out of my skull and pretending to take notes, when the air changed.
It thickened, charged, and hummed with power I hadn’t felt since I was a girl praying under eclipsed skies. Then the pain hit, sharp and spiraling, and it curled around the side of my throat like molten ink. I gasped, knocking my chair back, and every wolf in the room turned toward me.
But the mark wasn’t for them. It was for me. The Luna mark blazed across my skin, in threads of shimmering shadow and moonlight forming a sigil that vibrated with destiny.
Before I could breathe, the world dissolved.
I stood inside a grand stone keep rebuilt from ruin. Wolves surrounded a central figure, a woman with power coiled around her like a living storm. Nyssa Blackwell. Her presence stole my breath. Her gaze found mine across the distance between worlds.
Come to Moonfang. You are Chosen. Lead. Fight. Rise.
The Goddess’s decree slammed into my chest like a heartbeat. Mine. Hers. Ours. I jerked back into my body with a gasp.
My Alpha started toward me, demanding answers.
I ignored him.
I grabbed my bag from under the table, shoved my notebook inside, and walked straight out of the packhouse. Wolves whispered. Some stared in awe. Others stepped out of my way as if they knew better than to stop a storm mid-roll.
The road stretched long ahead of me.
And for once, I wasn’t running from fate.
I was running toward it.
\~~~~~
Mireya Solace POV
Silver Mesa Pack, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Magic had always clung to me like dust, quiet, irritating, and persistent, but this was different.
This was divine.
I was tending to the garden behind our packhouse when the earth shivered beneath my feet. The sun dimmed. The wind stilled.
Then heat flared across my neck, bright and agonizing, like someone carving symbols with fire. I cried out, dropping to my hands and knees in the dirt as glowing gold lines swirled into a tattoo I’d never seen but instantly understood.
Chosen. Claimed. Marked. My vision blurred, and suddenly the desert was gone.
I stood in the shadow of an immense stone castle rebuilt with fierce, deliberate care. Wolves bustled through the courtyard as if preparing for war. At the center was a Luna with eyes glowing like emerald wildfire, and strength coiled around her like armor.
Nyssa Blackwell. Even saying her name in thought felt like speaking prophecy.
Come. Luna of Silver Mesa, you are needed. Fifty will rise. Wolfkind will rise with you.
The Goddess’s voice wrapped around me like a warm hand on the spine, comforting but utterly unyielding.
When the vision snapped away, I found dirt beneath my nails, sweat on my brow, and a duffel bag already halfway packed on instinct.
My Alpha shouted my name from the porch.
I didn’t look back.
I slung the bag over my shoulder, walked past him, and let the bond between us wither like a dying ember. He wasn’t my future. Silver Mesa wasn’t my fate.
The Moon had carved a path in my skin.
And I would follow it all the way to New York.