Chapter 2: The Return of the Silver Shadow

Five Years Later.

“Mommy, can I eat the bad man’s shadow yet?”

I paused, my scalpel hovering over a pulsating violet mass of infected wolf-flesh. I didn't look up, but a small smile tugged at my lips.

“No, Aries. We talked about this. You only consume shadows if they try to hurt us. For now, sit still and keep the barrier up. This procedure requires total silence.”

Behind me, my five-year-old son sighed. It was a heavy, dramatic sound that he had definitely inherited from his father—not that he would ever know that. Aries sat cross-legged on a stool in the corner of my high-tech medical lab, his golden eyes glowing with an intensity that shouldn't belong to a child. Around the room, a shimmering veil of silver energy pulsed, keeping the outside world out and my secrets in.

His twin sister, Lyra, was perched on the exam table next to me, her tiny fingers moving with surgical precision as she organized my vials. She was the calm to Aries’s storm, but her power was no less terrifying. She could hear heartbeats from three miles away.

She could hear the lie in a man's soul before he even spoke.

“Mommy,” Lyra whispered, her ears twitching. “The transport is here. They’re wearing the crest of the Crescent Moon. But there’s another scent on them. Something… cold.”

I felt a chill run down my spine. Cold. I finished the suture, the "Silver Rot" plague finally neutralized in the patient before me. I peeled off my surgical gloves and turned to the mirror. The woman staring back was a stranger to the girl who had been kicked into the mud five years ago.

My hair, once a dull brown, had turned into a shimmering cascade of moonlight silver—the true mark of the Lunar Bride. My eyes were no longer wide and pleading; they were sharp, calculating, and framed by a mask of black lace that I never took off in public.

In the medical world, I was The Silver Shadow. The only healer capable of stopping the plague that was currently wiping out the Alpha bloodlines of the Great North.

And today, the man who had destroyed me was coming to buy my soul.

“Aries, Lyra,” I said, my voice firm. “Go to the back room. Do not come out unless I call your secret names. And Aries… hide your scent. If a wolf with emerald eyes looks at you, you run. Do you understand?”

Aries tilted his head, his tiny claws extending slightly. “Is he the one who made you cry in your sleep, Mommy?”

My heart stuttered. Children of Alpha blood were too perceptive. “He is a ghost from a past life, Aries. Nothing more.”

I ushered them into the hidden living quarters just as the heavy steel doors of my clinic groaned open.

I didn't need to turn around to know who it was. The air in the room suddenly felt heavy, charged with a familiar, suffocating pressure. It was an Alpha’s Command—a raw display of power meant to make everyone in the room bow.

I didn't bow. I didn't even flinch. I simply picked up a glass of water and took a slow, deliberate sip.

“The Silver Shadow usually keeps her guests waiting,” a deep, gravelly voice vibrated through the room.

The glass in my hand nearly shattered. Liam.

His voice was deeper, more rugged, and laced with a weariness I hadn't expected. I turned slowly, keeping my face hidden behind the lace mask and the shadows of my hood.

Alpha King Liam Hamilton stood in the doorway. He was broader than I remembered, his suit-jacket straining against his shoulders. But his face… his face was haunted. Dark circles bruised the skin beneath his emerald eyes, and his scent—that cedarwood and lightning—was tinged with the bitter smell of desperation.

Beside him stood Isabella. She looked as beautiful as ever, draped in furs and diamonds, but her scent was foul. To my awakened Lunar senses, she smelled like rot and deception.

“We’ve traveled three days to see you, Healer,” Isabella snapped, her voice high and entitled. “You should be honored that the Alpha King of the Silver Moon is standing in this hovel.”

I let out a soft, cold laugh. “A King is just a man with a crown when his pack is dying, Lady Isabella. And from what I hear, your warriors are dropping like flies. Perhaps you should spend less time on your furs and more time on your hygiene. The Silver Rot loves the smell of vanity.”

Isabella’s face turned a violent shade of red. “How dare you—”

“Enough,” Liam growled. The sound was a physical blow, a low rumble that made the jars on my shelves rattle. He stepped forward, his eyes locked on mine. He was trying to use his Alpha Intimidation to see through my mask. “My Beta is dying. My children… my pack’s future is at stake. They say you have the cure.”

My children. The words hit me like a physical punch. He was talking about the children Isabella had likely faked or forced. He didn't know his real heirs were ten feet away behind a drywall.

“The cure isn't for sale, Alpha,” I said, walking toward him until we were only inches apart. I could feel the heat radiating off his body. My wolf, the traitorous beast, scratched at my mind, wanting to leap out and claim him. MATE, she howled. MINE.

I silenced her with a wall of mental ice.

“Then what do you want?” Liam asked, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. He leaned in, his nose catching the edge of my scent. I had spent years masking it with chemicals, but up close, the bond was a screaming siren.

He froze. His pupils dilated until his eyes were almost entirely black. He took a sharp, jagged breath.

“You…” he whispered, his hand reaching out as if to touch my mask. “That scent… it's impossible.”

“The price is simple, Alpha,” I interrupted, stepping back before he could touch me. “I will save your pack. But I will do it in your territory. I require a private wing in your palace, absolute immunity from your laws, and one more thing.”

“Anything,” Liam said, his eyes searching mine with a terrifying intensity.

“When I am done,” I said, my voice a jagged blade, “I want the Oracle who prophesied the ‘Cursed Omega’ five years ago. I want her brought to me in chains.”

Isabella gasped, her hand flying to her throat. Liam didn't even look at her. He was staring at me, his chest heaving as if he were fighting for air.

“Why do you care about a dead girl’s prophecy?” Liam asked, his voice shaking.

“Because,” I said, turning my back on him to gather my medical bag. “I don't like it when people lie to the Moon Goddess. It makes the medicine taste bitter.”

“Mommy?”

A small voice chirped from the back. My heart stopped.

Aries had cracked the door. He wasn't supposed to be there. He was supposed to be hidden.

Liam spun around, his Alpha reflexes blurring his movement. He saw the small boy—the golden eyes, the messy dark hair that was a perfect replica of his own, the defiant tilt of the chin.

Aries didn't look afraid. He bared his tiny milk-teeth in a snarl that was purely Alpha.

The silence in the room was deafening. I saw Liam’s heart hammering against his ribs. I saw the moment his wolf recognized the bloodline.

“Who is that child?” Liam demanded, his voice cracking with a mix of wonder and lethal possessiveness.

I stepped in front of Aries, my own silver aura exploding outward, pushing Liam back.

“He is my son, Alpha. And he is the only reason I haven't let your pack rot to the ground already. Do not look at him again, or the deal is off.”

Liam looked from me to the boy, his mind clearly spinning in a thousand directions. He thought I was dead. He thought his heirs were lost.

“We leave at dawn,” Liam said, his voice raw. “But don’t think you can hide from me forever, Shadow. I’ve spent five years living with ghosts. I know one when I see one.”

As they walked out, Isabella’s face was a mask of pure horror. She knew. She knew the True Bride had returned.

I picked up Aries and held him tight, feeling his little heart beating against mine.

“The game has started, my little Alpha,” I whispered into his hair. “And this time, we’re the ones with the claws.”