Luna Stardust's Arc

Chapter 7 of 8

First light came gray and slow. Luna walked to the tree line with the alpha at her side and Lyra a step behind. The torn earth was still there. But something new sat in the middle of it — a wide ring of woven twigs and pale feathers, tucked low against a root. Luna knelt. The nest was warm. Soft tufts of pink and blue and white fur clung to the inside. Not a struggle. A birth. The younger wolf had not been dragged away. She had been guarding something. The alpha pressed her nose to the nest and made a low sound Luna had never heard from her before. Lyra touched Luna's arm and pointed past the pines. A small pond lay beyond the trees, its surface still as glass. In the mirrored sky, Luna saw what the snow had hidden — three sets of tiny paw prints leading out, and many larger ones following. Not their pack. A rival had tracked the mother and the newborns away from this place. The alpha's hackles lifted. Luna gathered a feather from the nest and closed it in her palm. "They're alive," she said. "And someone wants the pups." The alpha turned to her, gold eyes steady, and waited. For the first time, she was waiting for Luna to lead. Luna stood. "Then we go now. Together." The alpha stepped onto the trail beside her, shoulder to knee, and did not look back.