BREAKING THE SEAL

That night, a storm rolled over Crescent Vale.

Thunder rumbled like a beast awakening in the distance, and rain fell in slow sheets, drenching the earth. Inside the healer’s cottage, Mira worked in furious silence, scattering herbs, lighting black candles, and chanting in an old tongue Selene didn’t understand.

Selene sat in the corner by the hearth, her knees drawn to her chest, Mira’s wolfskin cloak wrapped tight around her. She hadn’t spoken since returning from the ruin. Her thoughts were static—thick and distorted, like trying to breathe underwater.

Something had been chained there.

And now it wasn’t.

Because of me.

Mira muttered a final phrase, then turned sharply. “This house is warded. No spirit or beast can cross the threshold now.”

Selene blinked at her. “Will that be enough?”

The older woman hesitated. “I don’t know.” Then, softer: “I hope.”

Selene swallowed hard. She’d never heard Mira unsure of anything before. It terrified her more than the storm outside.

---

Lightning flashed.

The wind screamed past the windows. It didn’t sound like wind anymore. It sounded like a howl.

Selene stared into the fire, forcing herself to stay still, even as her pulse thudded painfully in her neck. The longer she sat, the heavier her chest felt, as if something unseen coiled inside it—hot and restless.

She could feel it.

Moving closer.

---

The knock came just past midnight.

Three slow, heavy thuds on the door.

Selene’s breath stopped.

Mira froze in place. “Don’t move,” she whispered.

The knock came again. Harder. Louder.

The fire flared in the hearth, reacting to something unnatural in the air.

A low voice followed, dark velvet over iron.

“Selene.”

Her name rolled through the door like smoke.

Selene shook her head. “No—”

“You saw me. You came to me. You broke the seal.”

Mira stood and began chanting, her voice rising, rapid and firm. The candles flickered wildly, their flames leaning inward.

The door rattled on its hinges.

“You are mine, little light.”

Selene’s body burned at those words. Not from desire—but from something ancient, hungry, and deep.

She clutched her chest, gasping. Her skin felt too tight. Her blood too hot. The bond. It was stirring.

The voice dropped to a whisper she felt in her bones:

“Open the door.”

Selene shot to her feet. Mira cried out, lunging to hold her back.

But it was too late.

Selene moved as if in trance, her fingers curling around the latch before she even realized she’d crossed the room.

The wards on the door shimmered red-hot.

Selene blinked, reality flooding back. “I—I didn’t mean—”

Mira yanked her away with surprising strength and threw a handful of ash against the wood. A burst of silver light exploded outward.

A deep snarl came from the other side.

Then silence.

No footsteps. No retreating growl. Nothing.

Just a predator waiting.

---

Selene lay in bed the rest of the night, too shaken to speak, too wired to rest.

Mira sat awake by the fire, blade across her lap, eyes like slits of stone. “If it returns,” she’d said, “we don’t open anything. Not even for gods.”

---

By dawn, the storm had passed. Mist clung to the ground, swallowing the trees in ghostly white.

Selene sat on the porch, clutching a cup of bitter tea, too numb to taste it. She watched fog roll over the land like a slow tide.

Mira joined her, tired and silent.

Finally, Selene whispered, “I didn’t mean to break it. The seal.”

Mira nodded. “Intent doesn’t matter. Blood and magic remember touch.”

Selene’s throat tightened. “It was already weak.”

“Yes,” Mira said grimly. “But you were the final thread. The call of a mate is powerful. It pulled you. It pulled her.”

Selene turned sharply. “Her?”

Mira didn’t blink. “What you freed… wasn’t just a beast. She was once a woman. A Luna. The Alpha Queen of this forest—centuries ago.”

Selene’s heart stuttered. “A Luna?”

“The strongest the packs had ever seen,” Mira said softly. “Until the Moon Priests bound her. They said she’d gone mad. Blood-hungry. Possessed.”

Selene whispered, “Why?”

Mira’s eyes met hers. “Because she defied them. Took a human mate.”

Silence.

Selene’s hands trembled. “She’s not human now.”

“No,” Mira said. “They cursed her. Sealed her in wolf form. Took her mate. Broke her. She’s been chained ever since.”

Selene stared out at the mist. “She called me mate.”

“I know.”

Mira looked older than ever in that moment.

“She’s come back for you.”

---

Later that day, the council bell rang from the village square.

Selene stood hidden beneath her hood, watching wolves shift to human form and gather. She didn’t approach. She wasn’t one of them.

But she listened.

Someone had seen shadows in the woods.

Something massive, black, and feral. Pacing the edge of the territory.

Watching.

Waiting.

Rowan, Crescent Vale’s acting Alpha, gave orders to fortify the borders and increase patrols. His voice was firm, but his scent betrayed unease.

Mira pulled Selene away before she could hear more.

“You need to stay out of sight,” she warned. “She’ll come again. And next time, the wards might not hold.”

Selene looked back once, toward the sacred forest.

Where the fog thickened.

Where the air pulsed like a heartbeat.

Where something waited.

Something whose chains she had broken.

---

That night, beneath the full moon, Luna stood atop a cliff.

Her black fur gleamed silver. Blood caked her claws—fresh from the kill of a deer she hadn’t needed to eat, but shredded anyway.

She raised her nose to the wind.

And smiled.

Selene’s scent drifted to her—delicate and soft and maddening.

She closed her eyes.

The bond burned like wildfire through her mind. Her mate had touched the seal. Had freed her.

Her mate had chosen her.

And soon, she would claim her.