All Chapters of THE DORMANT LUNA Book 1: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

LIAMThe secret I had been drowning under for days was now lying on the packhouse floor like a body nobody could ignore.Jax delivered the full report in the living room while everyone gathered. His voice was military crisp. Efficient. The voice of a man who had learned to compartmentalize horror into digestible briefings.Marcus had control of Shadow Peak. The compound was locked down. Fifty-three wolves loyal to me were imprisoned in the underground cells. Two were already dead. Ryan, a twenty-two-year-old warrior whose mate was seven months pregnant. And Helen, the pack healer who delivered me when I was born. Sixty-four years old. Hands that had brought life into the world for three decades. Marcus killed her to prove a point.The room was full. Neah. Caleb. Theo. Shane. Miles. Diane. Alpha Marcus. Vanessa. Every face reflected a different shade of the same horror.Except Neah's face. Neah's face reflected nothing. And that scared me more than anything Marcus could do."The demand

NEAH  I couldn't sleep. My brain wouldn't shut off. Guard rotations and tunnel dimensions and fifty-one hostages and a mole in our ranks spinning through my head like a machine with no off switch. I gave up at 1:47 AM. Pulled on a sweatshirt and padded downstairs for water. The packhouse was dark. Warriors sleeping in every available space. Bodies on floors and couches. The air heavy with the restless energy of people preparing for war. The kitchen light was off. I filled a glass by feel. Drank half of it standing at the sink. The cold water hit my empty stomach and reminded me I hadn't eaten since morning. "There's leftover chicken in the fridge." I didn't jump. My body had already registered his presence before his voice confirmed it. That shift in the atmosphere. That pull. The way the air got heavier and warmer and charged with something that liv

LIAM  The plan was solid. I hated every inch of it. Not because it wouldn't work. Neah's tactical instincts were sharper than wolves who had been planning assaults for decades. The tunnel approach was the right call. The frontal distraction was the right call. The timing, the positioning, the extraction route. All right. The part where the woman my wolf had crossed three territories to find crawled alone through a collapsed drainage tunnel into enemy territory was the part that made Kain claw at the inside of my skull until my vision went red. I stood in the hallway after she walked away. Her scent lingered. Lavender and honey and sweat from the war room. My fingers still held the ghost of her skin. The trail down her forearm. Wrist to palm to fingertips. Each point of contact seared into my nerve endings like a brand. She said she'd try. Not a promi

LIAMDawn came cold and gray. Two convoys assembled in the Iron Valley driveway. Engines rumbling. Warriors checking weapons. The controlled chaos of soldiers preparing for war.Caleb led the Iron Valley contingent. Forty wolves. Battle-ready. He stood at the head of his convoy with Vanessa beside him. The young Alpha had grown into his authority faster than I expected. Maybe desperation was a good teacher. Maybe love was.Jax commanded the Shadow Peak forces. Twelve wolves who escaped with him plus reinforcements from allied packs. Seasoned fighters. Men who had bled for Shadow Peak before and would do it again.I rode in a separate vehicle. The tunnel team. Neah, Theo, Shane, and me. We would approach from the east while the main forces hit the compound gates. Precision over power. Surgery over assault.The drive was three hours. I spent them briefing the team on Shadow Peak's internal structure. Guard rotations that Marcus might have changed but probably hadn't because Marcus was a

NEAH The tunnel swallowed me whole. One second I was standing at the entrance with sunlight on my back and Liam's eyes burning into me like a brand. The next I was inside. Dark. Cold. The smell of rust and stagnant water and something organic that had been rotting down here for years. My flashlight cut a thin beam through the blackness. Twenty feet ahead. Maybe thirty. After that, nothing but shadows thick enough to have weight. I clicked the radio. "I'm in." Liam's voice crackled back immediately. "I'm right here. Talk to me." "I'm not going to narrate my way through a tunnel, Liam." "Just keep the line open." I almost argued. Almost told him I needed to focus and his voice was a distraction. But the truth was his voice in my ear made the darkness feel less absolute. Like I wasn't completely alone in