Prologue

“Serene! Why won’t you help your own blood?!”

My roar split the night in two, tearing from my throat like something feral and wounded. The sound echoed across the clearing, flung back at me by the indifferent sky. I glared up at the swollen moon until my vision swam, my fists clenched so tight my nails bit into my palms. “I shouldn’t have to suffer for a curse you let happen! I shouldn’t be the one punished for *your* mistakes!”

The heavens remained silent… but silence was its own confession.

Because deep in the marrow of my bones—deeper than blood, deeper than rage—I knew the truth. The Moon Goddess, the serene, sacred deity adored by wolves across every realm… was my lineage. My great, great, great grandmother. My legacy. My burden.

And thanks to her and Heka’s twisted interference, I was living a nightmare no wolf, no man, no creature with a beating heart should ever have to endure:

**sharing my destined mate with my own brother.**

A curse carved into our bloodline long before my first breath

“Dominic…”

The voice drifted behind me like a soft breeze—melodic, gentle, and so wrong it scraped down my spine.

I spun, breath stopping in my chest.

There she was.

Serene.

The Moon Goddess. My ancestor. Pale, luminous, ethereal—like the moon had peeled itself from the sky and shaped itself into a woman just to torment me. Light shimmered around her like a halo, but the glow only made the anger boiling inside me burn hotter.

“I can’t…” My voice cracked. The words tangled. “I can’t do this anymore.”

She opened her mouth, but the dam inside me burst before she could utter a single divine syllable.

“I’m losing my damn mind, Serene.” My chest heaved as the confession ripped free. “Alaric and Liza keep insisting we can ‘figure it out,’ that we can make this fucked-up fate work, but I don’t want to share my mate! I won’t! Elizabeth doesn’t even look at me—doesn’t *see* me. She’s still caught up in Alaric like she doesn’t have a choice, like I don’t even exist beside him.”

My voice shook, my vision blurring. “She tried to kill his son just to win him back. That’s how far this curse is twisting everything.”

Hot tears streaked down my face—anger, heartbreak, humiliation all tangled together. My knees buckled and I hit the earth hard, the weight of destiny dragging me down until I could barely breathe.

If this was all the Goddess planned for me…

If this was the life carved in stars and blood…

Why keep fighting at all?

Serene stepped closer, moonlight pooling around her feet. Her expression softened, but not enough to soothe the storm inside me.

“Fret not, my child,” she whispered, her voice like fog rolling over grave soil—soft, cold, impossible to grasp. “I heard your cry. But I cannot grant what you seek.”

A hollow, bitter laugh ripped from my throat. “Oh, that is just fan-fuckin’-tastic, isn’t it? You show up just to tell me you can’t do a damn thing?”

Her glow dimmed, shadows pooling under her eyes. “Only the witch who cast the curse can unbind it. Her bloodline alone holds that power. Seek the lineage of Rosalynn. They possess the key to what you desire.”

Rosalynn.

The name struck me like a fist to the sternum. Familiar. Uncomfortable. Coiled somewhere deep in memory. My mind scrambled, clawing through what I knew—what I’d ignored.

And then it clicked.

Liza.

And her mother… Morgana.

The realization detonated in my chest.

They weren’t just involved.

They were the *only* ones who could save me.

My last chance. My final hope.

My path forward—dangerous, twisted, and inevitable.

And if Rosalynn’s bloodline was my salvation…

Then I was already in deeper than I ever imagined.