Moon Goddess, Name Him
Description
When schoolteacher Cassidy Whitaker inherits a decaying cottage in Moon Hollow, the quiet life she planned unravels. Her long-dormant wolf stirs as a moon-mark flickers beneath her skin, drawing her toward two estranged brothers-sun-warm Theo Muray and his dangerous, exiled sibling Xander. A reclusive Seer, Ruth Berry warns that an old prophecy is waking: a Luna marked for dual mates, a choice that could unite a pack or shatter it. With the brothers locked in a sixty-day Alpha trial and rival forces circling Greywood, Cassidy must sort magic's nudge from real feeling-before the mark's call becomes impossible to ignore.
Chapter 1
Sep 26, 2025
POV Cassidy
You left and didn't even leave me your car. You fucking selfish bitch. This is the end.
The text arrives just as I'm passing the welcome sign for Moon Hollow.
"Charming," I mutter, tossing my phone onto the passenger seat where it lands next to the manila envelope containing my cottage deed and teaching contract. "Says the guy who cheated with his yoga instructor."
I won’t reply. I made the last payment last week; the title with my name is folded in the glovebox. He totaled his car in May and “borrowed” mine every day since. I’m not leaving my life on his curb again.
Rain pounds the windshield harder now, wipers struggling against the downpour. I should pull over, but I'm thirty minutes from the cottage that might finally hold answers about my father's past. Maybe even something about my mother, though Dad had been as forthcoming about her as a locked vault.
Three months since his funeral. Two weeks since Derek's betrayal. Two days since losing my teaching job to budget cuts. The math of my life has become brutally simple—subtract everything stable, carry the emotional wreckage, and drive toward the unknown.
Thunder cracks overhead, close enough to make my teeth ache. The headlights carve weak circles through sheets of rain, barely illuminating the narrow mountain road. Trees press close on both sides, their branches scraping against each other in the wind like skeletal fingers.
That's when something explodes from the tree line.
"What the hell—"
It's massive, moving with grace across the asphalt. Too big for a dog, too fluid for a deer. For one impossible second, our eyes meet through the storm—amber, intelligent, wild. Then instinct kicks in and I slam the brakes.
The car lurches, fishtails, and slides sideways into the muddy ditch with a sickening crunch of metal against stone. The engine coughs once and dies. Headlights flicker out, leaving me in complete darkness.
I sit there, heart hammering, hands still gripped to the wheel. "A wolf," I whisper to the silence. "I swear that was a wolf."
Gravel crunches behind me. Headlights sweep across my rear window, and a pickup truck slides to a stop. A door slams, and through the rain I see a man running toward me—broad shoulders, steady gait, moving like someone who knows these roads.
He raps his knuckles against my window. "Hey—are you hurt?"
I lower it an inch, suddenly aware that I'm alone on a dark road with a complete stranger. But his voice is steady, concerned, and when I look up into his eyes, something shifts in my chest. They're the warmest brown I've ever seen, flecked with gold, and looking into them feels like coming home to a place I've never been.
"Cassidy," I say, and immediately feel stupid for offering my name instead of answering his question.
His smile cuts through the storm like sunlight. "Theo."
"I'm fine," I manage, then gesture helplessly at the dashboard. "My car, not so much."
"Let me take a look."
He disappears around the front of the car, and I watch him examine the damage with quiet competence. When he returns, his rain-dark shirt clings to him, outlining clean lines and country-bred strength.
"She's not driving tonight," he says, water dripping from his hair. "Front wheel's got a nasty wobble, and that bumper's not doing you any favors. But I can pull you out, get you somewhere warm. Food, dry clothes. I'll come back to your car tomorrow."
I should be more cautious. I should call AAA, wait in my car, maintain appropriate stranger danger protocols. Instead, I find myself nodding. "Okay. Thank you."
I grab my envelope and phone, then let him help me into his pickup. The cab smells like pine and leather, warm and solid after my cramped sedan.
"So what brings you to Moon Hollow in weather like this?" he asks, pulling back onto the road.
"Moving here, actually. I just inherited a cottage from my father which I have never been to. And I'm starting as a teacher at the local school too." I pause, then add, "Right before I crashed, something ran across the road. Something big."
His hands tighten slightly on the steering wheel. "Big coyotes out here," he says, but his tone is too careful, like he's testing the words. "Moon Hollow loves a good scary story."
"It looked like a wolf."
"Could be," he says lightly. "Stranger things have happened."
The rest of the drive passes in silence, until we pull up to a large farmhouse with a wraparound porch glowing amber against the rain. Under the eaves, we dash through puddles, and he ushers me into a wide, wood-paneled hallway that smells like pine and something herbal I can't identify.
"Mom, Dad," Theo calls. "Found someone in the ditch."
A woman appears from what looks like a sitting room, followed by a man whose steel-gray eyes take my measure instantly. They're both maybe fifty, her with kind eyes and efficient movements, him with the bearing of someone who's used to being in charge.
"Cassidy, these are my parents—Stella and Elias Muray,” Theo says to me, then to them: “Her car’s not happy with that front wheel. I’ll tow it after the storm passes."
"We're so glad you're safe," Stella says, genuine warmth in her voice. "These mountain storms catch folks on that road all the time."
I tuck wet hair behind my ear, acutely aware of the puddle spreading under my boots. "I'm Cassidy Whitaker. Thank you for taking me in."
The temperature in the hallway drops ten degrees. Stella and Elias exchange a look so sharp and loaded I can practically hear it ring like struck metal. Elias's gaze returns to me with laser focus, as if he's listening for something only he can hear.
"Whitaker?" Stella asks, her voice suddenly careful.
"Yes," I say slowly. "Why? Do you know the name?"
Before anyone can answer, a howl cuts through the rain—long, haunting, and close enough to make the window glass vibrate. The hallway lamp flickers once, twice.
Elias's jaw tightens to granite. "Theo," he says, all warmth gone from his voice, "lock the north door. Now."
Moon Goddess, Name Him
30 Chapters
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