Chapter 22 · Under Moonwell

Moonwell isn't a place. It's a hole in the ground with a name that sounds prettier than it is.

I'm standing at the edge of it now, dirt crumbling under my boots, and the bond is screaming so loud I can taste blood in the back of my throat. Cain's blood. Or mine. Hard to tell anymore.

The hunter said moonrise. The sky's already going orange at the edges.

I should turn around. Walk away. Let the pack handle their own Alpha. He threw me past the border himself three years ago, didn't even look back. But the bond doesn't care about grudges. It just pulls.

And it's pulling me down.

The entrance is a crack in the hillside, half-hidden by dead brush. No guards. No wards I can smell. That's the first wrong thing. Silas doesn't leave doors open unless he wants someone walking through them.

I go in anyway.

The tunnel drops fast. Stone walls, slick with something that isn't water. The air smells like rust and old smoke. My wolf is pacing under my skin, wanting out, but I shove her down. Can't shift yet. Not until I know what I'm walking into.

The bond pulls left.