All Chapters of The Last Moon of Eldervale: Chapter 41
- Chapter 50
54 chapters
Chapter 40 : The Weight of What Remains
Alden’s POVThomas’ fingers pressed hard against the gash on my forehead and white heat exploded behind my eyes making me cry out.“Hold still,” Thomas muttered, not unkindly. His hands were steady despite the blood soaking his sleeves. “You’ll live.”Rowan and Fudge emerged from the trees moments later, dragging what little we had managed to salvage from the wreck of the ambush. A torn satchel, cracked lantern,half a coil of rope and supplies that looked small in Rowan’s grip.“We must reach the castle before dark,” Rowan said flatly, dropping the bundle at Thomas’ feet. “We won’t survive another night out here.”My ears rang.“What about Hoseman?” I demanded. “What about Percy?”Rowan didn’t look at me.“What about them?” he asked coldly. “They are gone.”“They dragged Hoseman away screaming,” I said. My throat burned. “He’s not dead yet.”Rowan’s eyes snapped to mine.“He will be by now,” he said sharply. “They are not taking him for some merry dance.”Fudge stepped forward, restin
Chapter 41 : Into the Wolf’s Den
Alden’s POV“Hoseman!”My voice tore from my throat and vanished into the trees.For a moment there was nothing, only the steady rush of the river sliding past stone.Then I began walking toward the cave.Each step felt like stepping across a threshold I could not uncross.The entrance yawned wide and low, its mouth carved naturally into the hillside where the river bent. Water streamed from within, thin rivulets threading over rock and pooling into the current below. The air spilling from it was damp and cold, carrying the faint scent of iron.I tightened my grip on Hoseman’s hammer.The weight dragged at my shoulder, but I welcomed it like a piece of him in my hands.Inside, the light dimmed quickly.Water dripped from the ceiling in slow, patient beats.The cavern opened wider than I expected. A low fire smoldered near the center, little more than embers now, casting a dull red glow that barely reached the walls.And there they lay,wolves in human form and half-turned shapes lay sc
Chapter 42 : Shelter
Alden’s POV“This changes nothing,” Rowan said flatly. “We must go on without him.”For a moment, I didn’t understand.Then I did.“No,” I said immediately.Rowan’s gaze shifted to Hoseman, who was barely standing even with Thomas supporting him.“He’s wounded,” Rowan continued. “Slow,weak and he is in no state to fight.”“You can’t leave him behind,” I shot back.Rowan stepped toward me, frustration burning through whatever restraint he had left.“Use your fucking head, Alden,” he snapped. “He is dying. And all you have done is prolong his suffering and burden the rest of us.”The words hit harder than any blade.Hoseman groaned against Thomas’ grip.“Well,” he rasped, voice rough but edged with bitter humor, “thank you very fucking much, Rowan.”Even in pain, he refused to be pitied.“We won’t survive another night out here,” he said. “The wolves will come to finish what they started. And we have no shelter against the Supermoon and we are exposed,vulnerable. We are all gonna die.”
Chapter 43 : Preparations for the Supermoon
Alden’s POV“Dawn may not bring what you think.”The woman’s words lingered in the air like smoke long after she returned to tending Hoseman’s wounds.Rowan then stood near the center of the small stone house, the firelight carving sharp lines into his face. Outside, the sky had begun to darken into that strange shade between dusk and night, when the world seems to hold its breath.He turned to the woman tending Hoseman.“You will inform every villager,” he said, tone precise and commanding. “No one leaves their house tonight. No matter what they hear or who calls for them.”Her hands paused only slightly before she nodded.“They must not come into contact with the moonlight,” Rowan continued. “Seal your doors,Seal your windows and block every crack.”Thomas adjusted Hoseman’s position carefully while listening.“And set traps,” Rowan added. “Spikes. Thorns. Poisoned wood if you have it. Anything that slows what comes.”A murmur of unease rippled from outside the door, where a few vil
Chapter 44 : The First to Fall
Where are they?” the man shouted again into the moonlit square. “Where are your monsters?”His voice echoed between shuttered houses, bounced off stone walls, and died without answer.Inside the reinforced house, Rowan did not move. Thomas stood rigid near the door, jaw tight. Alden’s grip tightened around the hammer in his hand, but no one stepped outside.The proud man spat once more at the ground.“This,” he muttered to himself, loud enough for the silence to carry it, “is how real men fight.”He staggered toward his own home at the edge of the square, boots scraping against the stone. He did not hurry. If anything, he made sure his steps were deliberate so anyone watching from behind cracks in their shutters would see him walk unafraid beneath the rising Supermoon.At his door, he paused only long enough to fumble with the latch before shoving it open and stepping inside.He slammed it shut behind him.The interior of his house was modest,a single main room with a hearth, a rough
Chapter 45 : Murdered
Alden’s POV The howl from the square lingered in the air long after it faded. Cody, the drunk who’d mocked us all night, was gone. What stood in his place was bigger, broader, with shoulders that would have brushed the lintel of Elara’s door if he stood upright. Moonlight poured over him like liquid silver, turning his new fur to gleaming blades. Inside, the room had gone deathly still. The fire in the hearth had burned down to embers; only faint red pulses lit our faces. Hoseman lay unconscious on the table, chest rising in shallow, ragged pulls. Finn, Elara’s boy pressed himself against his mother’s leg, eyes wide and glassy. Elara herself stood frozen near the door, one hand still outstretched toward the bar as though she could will it back into place. Her other hand clutched the empty dart-thrower like a talisman.Rowan hadn’t moved. His sword was half-drawn, knuckles white. Thomas stood to his left, breathing through his mouth like he was trying not to smell the blood already
Chapter 46 : The Tree Falls
Alden’s POV Eleanor's body lay just beyond the door like a discarded rag doll. The sack she had wrapped herself in was shredded, half hanging off one shoulder, the rest soaked dark and clinging to the cobblestones. Moonlight had found the tear in the fabric the instant Cody's claws ripped into her.But she never finished changing. Cody had torn her open too fast, too deep. Blood had sprayed in a wide arc across the threshold, some of it still dripping slowly under the bottom edge of the door in thick, searching fingers.Inside the house, Elara had collapsed to her knees right there on the flagstones. Her palms pressed flat against the wood of the door as if she could reach through and pull the girl back. Her son wrapped both arms around her waist from behind and pressed his face into the small of her back. He wasn't crying yet. He was just shaking, the way a leaf shakes before the wind rips it free.Rowan still had one hand on Elara's shoulder not gentle, but steady, like he was ancho
Chapter 47 : Cornered
We barely had time to breathe when the first two wolves to scramble over the fallen tree stepped straight into the bear traps we'd hidden just inside the yard perimeter. The iron jaws snapped shut with sickening cracks. Bone and sinew gave way and the animals howled in unison, thrashing wildly with blood spraying in dark arcs. One rolled onto its side, claws gouging furrows in the dirt. The other reared up, trying to shake free, only driving the spikes deeper.But the pack didn't stop. More poured over the trunk, leaping the thrashing bodies like they were nothing more than obstacles.Claws scraped against the outer door slowly at first, then faster and frantic. The wood groaned under the pressure and the nails we'd hammered in earlier began to squeal as they pulled free, millimeter by millimeter.Elara backed away from the door, sword still raised in both hands. Her face was pale and streaked with dust and dried tears, but her eyes burned. Finn clung to her skirt, knuckles white, sta
Chapter 48 : The Hidden Room
Alden’s POV The door was collapsing as each slam sent fresh cracks racing across the wood like veins bursting under skin.One beam grazed my forearm where the cloak had slipped; I yanked it back with a hiss, heart hammering so hard I thought the wolves outside could hear it.Rowan was already moving, sword still drawn, voice low and urgent over the chaos. “Finn. Come here, lad.”The boy peeked out from under the table, eyes huge and wet. Elara tried to pull him back, but Rowan knelt right there in the dust in eye-level with the child. His face usually carved from stone softened in a way I’d never seen before. Not kindness exactly but something older like a man who knew exactly how this night was going to end and was trying to give the boy one clean memory before it did.“You’ve been strong tonight,” Rowan said, voice steady even as another slam shook the rafters. “Stronger than most men I’ve fought beside. But these things… they’re coming through. Nothing’s going to hold them off fo
Chapter 49: The Only Way
Alden’s POV The house was a tomb now with wolves gutted and twitching and knights bleeding from too many places to count, the air thick with the copper stink of slaughter and the sharp bite of lamp oil. Elara knelt beside the wolf she’d killed with the axe, chest heaving, her dress torn open across the shoulder where claws had raked deep with blood dripping. Finn crouched behind her, knife still clutched in both hands, eyes wide and unblinking.Rowan stood in the center of the wreckage, sword dripping black, breathing hard through his mouth. His cloak was shredded; a long gash ran across his ribs, but he didn’t seem to feel it. “The house can’t hold them,” he said, voice rough. “They’ll keep coming until there’s nothing left to come for. If we stay any longer, we’re all dead meat.”Thomas leaned against the overturned table, one hand pressed to the deep cut on his thigh. Blood seeped between his fingers. “What’s the plan, then?”Rowan’s gaze swept the broken door, the fallen roof