TW for blood/violence and character death(s). If you can't read it, don't worry- once the M ratings are gone, there will be a short recap!

I had been told to stay out of the fighting. Alyx had given me a very clear order, only weeks after Tsuki disappeared. He’d insisted I was too emotional, too likely to react on deadly instinct- too likely to lose my mind, and the last thing he needed was two feral children of the stars on his hands.

And I couldn’t argue with him on that. I could feel it, like a constant nagging itch at the back of my mind. Hunger, anger, the desire to rip Neo’s throat out for taking Tsuki away from me. Every night I woke up panting and shaking from nightmares of the memory of Neo tearing into Tsuki’s throat was another night closer to going on a rampage through Ipomoea. Even I sometimes wondered how I managed to preserve my sanity.

Especially when Ipomoea brought the fight onto our territory. I could smell the blood, even from the other side of town far from the forest edge; the restless energy of my wolf was agonizing, my animal mind starving and desperate to throw us into the fray. Kibba and Thrane watched me with pale, nervous faces; Zeke’s dark eyes narrowed, biceps bulging as he crossed his arms over his chest, a silent threat. They were my guards- to put it nicely- set on me to keep me from running off.

Grinding my teeth, I closed my eyes and tried not to focus on the agonized howls of my packmates ringing through the trees and echoing across our silent, empty town. My heart pounded, my hands clenched into fists so tightly I could smell copper as my nails cut into my palms. It was difficult, but I managed to keep my cool.

Until I felt things shift in my mind, in that delicate and intimate part of my wolf’s instincts which connected me to my pack. As a child of the stars, my connection to Alyx was stronger, because it had been a deeper and more meaningful submission when I bowed my head to him as a leader. The moon bound us tightly, so I was the first to feel it when the connection faltered.

Bolting up out of my seat, my own growl was muffled in my ringing ears. The shift took me before I made a conscious choice; Thrane and Kibba backed out of their seats, wide-eyed and unable to understand the sudden frantic tension. Zeke started to step forward, a snarl on his lips, only to freeze in place. It must have reached him, the feeling of a corded rope slowly losing threads, growing closer to snapping by the moment. Our connection with the leader of our pack was disintegrating, and it could only mean one thing.

Neo. The cursed name was like a shock through my mind. He’d disappeared for a couple of weeks, and I had hoped that his pack had killed him in their madness- or that perhaps the Moon Guard had finally landed a hit on him, despite Allen’s assurance they’d been able to get nowhere near him.

But he must have surfaced again, because there was nobody else who would ever come close to defeating Alyx, who already had the death of one child of the stars on his record. And it seemed like this time, finally, I had an excuse to put an end to Neo’s miserable existence.

Alyx’s thinning grasp on the pack snapped more threads, and for the first time nobody tried to stop me from forging into the forest in the direction of the agonized howls. Zeke was right on my trail, the full moon shining brilliantly as we raced through the trees. I heard the rush of the river before I smelled it- Cean’s scent came first, the human who was tainted with traces of his mate.

Panic lashed through me as I realized Cean must have felt the same loss I did and gone after his mate. A human had no chance of surviving this fight, if even Alyx couldn’t manage it. Even as the mate of a child of the stars… I dreaded the chilling suspicion that we were about to lose two members of our pack.

The scent of blood overwhelmed me for a moment as I burst out of the trees and into the clearing surrounding the river. I lost time as my wolf roared with anger and hunger; I was across the clearing before I realized I had moved at all. I saw red, but it hardly made a difference with the carnage before me. And it didn’t matter- all that mattered was the scene in front of me, which made my angry wolf go into a frenzy.

Alyx was slumped to the ground at the river’s edge, the rocks around him soaked with his blood. There were torn, jagged wounds around his neck showing muscle and bone. The fact that he was still alive, consciousness flickering and keeping a single thread of our connection in place, was a miracle which might not last for much longer. Cean crouched in front of him, mouth curled in a snarl and a silver dagger in his hands. He looked feral, blood smeared across his face and arms as he faced Neo fearlessly.

For his part, the intruding child of the stars at least showed the wear of battle. Blood darkened his rich red coat in several places, and he limped on one front paw which seemed only a few sinews away from being severed completely. I assumed it was Cean’s work as his silver dagger dripped sizzling blood. Neo snarled, the wolf seeming huge compared to Cean and his mate, towering over them with snarling fangs dripping Alyx’s blood.

For a moment, they had seemed to be at a standstill, as if measuring each other for weaknesses and openings. Then Cean moved, reaching for the gun loaded with silver bullets which he had kept buckled to his belt since the war started, and the dangerous silence snapped into chaos. Cean tried, tapping into his mate’s faltering power, but he was no longer a match for the feral child of the stars who had stolen most of his power.

He didn’t have time to raise the lethal weapon before Neo lunged, paws hitting his chest and bowling him over Alyx’s prone form. I heard a grunt and a desperate gasp for air, as Neo’s weight bored Cean into the forest floor and claws tore into his flesh. Cean’s cry of pain, ending in a choking gurgle as Neo’s claws ripped into his chest, drove me into action.

I bolted, desperate to get between them, but some part of me knew I would be too late. And I watched, with helpless fury, as Neo drove his bloodied muzzle into the gasping human’s chest and tore his heart out.