The Banished Shy Luna Chapter 154

Talon kept a steady arm around me as we walked down the tunnel, helping me toward the far back chambers. Someone had carved Alpha Quarters into the stone, rough but legible, and the moment we stepped inside, I felt… safe.

It was dim, quiet, the air still carrying the scent of fresh earth and dust—but the bed was large, warm, and the blankets looked clean enough. Talon eased me down with a tenderness that didn’t match his usual growly edge.

“Do you need water? Clothes? Another blanket?” he asked for the fifth time.

I exhaled. “Talon. I’m fine.”

He didn’t believe me, of course. He fussed—tucking the blanket around me, smoothing my hair back, touching my forehead to check for fever like I hadn’t literally evolved earlier that day.

Finally, when he was satisfied I wasn’t about to collapse again, he sat beside me, hand on my arm, staring like he could will me into healing faster.

“Talon,” I said softly, touching his fingers, “rest.”

His shoulders dropped. “Just for a minute.”

He nodded, still unconvinced — but exhaustion dragged him down. Once I closed my eyes, he finally settled beside me, one arm over his stomach, muscles loosening, breath falling into that slow cadence he never reached unless he felt safe.

But sleep didn’t come for me.

Instead, I reached for the mate bond — that glowing thread tied to each Alpha. The mate bond pulsed—three threads of gold, white, and red humming inside my chest. I closed my eyes and followed Toren’s first. Immediately I felt the forest through Toren: damp leaves, heavy clouds overhead, the metallic scent of rain about to break.

He was walking through the woods.

Talking.

A voice crackled faintly through the bond, distant but clear enough for me to hear the grinding exhaustion in it.

Alpha Renn.

“Tell me exactly what happened,” Toren demanded, voice sharp with command.

There was a long pause. Then Renn exhaled shakily.

“They came at dawn,” he said, voice strained. “Council enforcers. All five Elders. They didn’t bother masking their scents — they wanted us to feel them coming.”

Toren’s steps slowed. “Any survivors?”

“Half.” Renn swallowed. “If that counts as surviving.”

Cold slid through my chest.

Toren’s jaw locked. His fury poured through the mate bond, thick enough to choke on.

“And they were looking for her?” Toren asked.

“Looking?” Renn huffed bitterly. “They were screaming for her. ‘The Ancient One is ours.’ ‘Bring us the Luna.’ They tore apart every house. Every room.”

Rage pulsed so violently through Toren I felt it in my spine, a roaring heat.

Tyson wasn’t far from him — the mate bond glowing with restless electricity. He was circling the perimeter, hyperaware, checking scents, scanning shadows like something might leap out of the darkness at any second.

I shifted my focus to Tyson.

Through his senses, I saw the forest dim under storm clouds, moss bright against black bark. The air was tight with tension — that suffocating stillness before something goes terribly, terribly wrong.

Then Tyson stopped.

A shape stood between two trees.

Tyson stiffened instantly, shoulders square, instincts sharpening like claws.

“Talon?” he barked.

The figure didn’t respond.

Just stepped forward.

Too smooth.

Too slow.

Too… wrong.

Tyson’s wolf bristled under his skin. “Talon, answer me.”

Nothing.

But Tyson didn’t know.

I did.

Because Talon shifted beside me in the bed, rolling onto his stomach with a sleepy groan, his hair sticking up in about six different directions.

My blood went ice cold.

No.

No no no.

That thing out there—

That wasn’t him.

Panic stabbed through me. I shot upright so fast the blankets tangled around my legs.

“Talon,” I whispered just to be sure.

He didn’t move except to snore lightly into the pillow.

Terror surged through me.

I shoved the mate-bond open and screamed through it:

“TYSON — RUN! That’s not Talon! Grab Toren and RUN!”

Tyson jolted visibly.

“Kira—? What? What the hell do you mean—”

“Talon is HERE!” I shouted. “Asleep! That thing with you—it’s not him!”

Talon jerked awake at my scream, half-shifting immediately, eyes glowing, claws out. “Kira—what’s happening?! Who’s here?!”

But I couldn’t answer him — my entire mind was locked onto the bond.

Toren stopped walking mid-call.

“Tyson? What is—”

The fake Talon lunged.

The sound that ripped through the woods was not wolf, not human — something wet, warped, wrong. A shapeshifter — but not one acting on its own will. Something corrupted.

Tyson’s panic slammed into me like a blow.

He grabbed Toren by the shirt.

Shoved him backwards.

“MOVE!” he roared. “RUN!”

Toren stumbled, caught himself, and bolted with him.

Through the bond, I felt branches tearing at Tyson’s arms, felt the shock of his boots hitting mud, the adrenaline flooding his veins.

The fake Talon laughed — a sick, warped sound that made every hair on my arms rise.

Toren’s voice burst through the bond—

“MOVE! MOVE!”

Tyson snarled, breath harsh and burning.

“It’s the shapeshifter from before—something’s wrong with it—RUN!”

Behind them, something massive crashed through the trees, snapping branches like brittle bone.

Static ripped across the mate bond.

My vision blurred.

“Toren!” I gasped. “Tyson!”

No answer.

Talon grabbed my shoulders, shaking. “Kira—look at me—what did you see?!”

I could barely breathe.

“They’re in trouble,” I whispered. “Something found them. Something pretending to be you.”

Talon’s face drained of color. “The shapeshifter—how did it find them so fast—”

Before I could answer, a roar erupted through the bond.

Branches split.

A heavy thud.

A grunt of pain.

Then—

Silence.

Not distance-silence.

Not muffled-silence.

Dead silence.

Like the forest itself held its breath.

My heart hammered, my chest tightening.

“Toren? Tyson?”

Nothing.

Talon sank to his knees beside the bed, eyes glowing too bright. “Kira… what did you see? Tell me.”

I swallowed hard, throat tight with terror.

And then —

The bond pulsed once more.

Weak.

Fading.

Like a dying breath.

Toren’s voice whispered through the bond like a cracked ember:

“… Starlight… run…”

Then everything went black.