Chapter 3

And then a  sound from outside drew all their attention back to the window. Aria moved forward cautiously and looked out across the empty meadow. For a moment, she saw nothing, just moonlight on grass and the distant line of trees marking the forest boundary. Then movement caught her eye, a figure standing at the very edge of the woods, too far away to make out details but close enough that she could feel his presence like pressure against her skin.

"The Alpha", The man from her window. Watching and  waiting, patient in the way that predators are patient when they know their prey has nowhere left to run.

Aria pressed her marked hand against the glass again, feeling the symbol pulse warmth into her palm. And despite her fear, despite her anger and resistance and determination to fight against this unwanted destiny, she felt something else stir within her. Recognition, yes, but also something deeper and more disturbing. A rightness to his presence, as though some part of her had been incomplete until this moment and was only now remembering what wholeness felt like.

"What is his name?" Aria asked without taking her eyes off the distant figure. "The Alpha who came for me tonight. Who is he?"

Her mother moved to stand beside her, following her gaze toward the forest edge. "Kieran Blackclaw," she said quietly. "Alpha of the Northern Territories, master of the shadow packs, and bearer of a bloodline as old as the Oath itself. He is powerful, Aria. More powerful than most Alphas, and far more dangerous because his power is matched by intelligence and ruthless determination. If he has claimed you as his Luna, then the game being played is larger and more complex than simple mate bonds or pack politics."

Aria felt cold settle into her bones despite the lingering warmth in her chest. "What game? What are you talking about?"

"The shards," her mother replied, her voice dropping to barely above a whisper. "Fragments of the broken oath, scattered across the realms when the original promise shattered. They grant power to those who can claim them, but at a terrible cost. Lunas are drawn to the shards, can wield them in ways that Alphas cannot. And when the shards begin to awaken, when they call to those with the blood to answer, the game begins anew. The game of power and prophecy, of broken promises and ancient betrayals. The game that has claimed so many of our family across the generations."

She turned to look at Aria directly, her expression grave. "Kieran Blackclaw seeks the shards, as all Alphas of ambition eventually do. He has marked you as his Luna because he believes you can help him claim what he desires. Whether that makes you his partner or his prisoner depends entirely on choices you have not yet made and battles you have not yet fought.”

Aria desperately wanted to argue... She wanted to insist that she would make her own choices regardless of what ancient oaths or ambitious Alphas desired. But even as she formed the words, the mark on her hand pulsed with sudden violence, flaring so bright she gasped with the pain of it. And in that pulse of light, she felt him… “Kieran Blackclaw”, Alpha of the Northern Territories, standing at the forest edge and reaching across the distance between them with will and power that made her marked hand burn like fire.

The message was wordless but perfectly clear. He had found her, claimed her, marked her as his through bonds that transcended simple choice or consent. And whether she accepted it or fought against it with every fiber of her being, the truth remained unchanged.

She belonged to him now, in ways that went deeper than ownership or possession. She was his Luna, chosen by the Oath and confirmed by the mark, and nothing in heaven or earth could sever that connection once it had been established.

Aria looked down at her glowing palm, at the symbol that branded her as something more and less than human, and felt tears of frustration and fear begin to fall. But beneath the fear, beneath the anger and resistance, something else stirred. Something wild and old and utterly unafraid. Something that recognized Kieran Blackclaw not as a threat or a captor but as the other half of a destiny that had been waiting for her since the moment of her birth.

The mark pulsed once more, then faded back to invisibility, leaving only the memory of fire and the certain knowledge that everything had changed. The girl who had stood at this window an hour ago no longer existed. In her place stood something new, something the world had a name for but that Aria was only beginning to understand.

Luna... Chosen and Marked.

And whether she wanted it or not, bound to an Alpha whose intentions remained as mysterious as the ancient oath that had brought them together across distance and time and the yawning gulf of all the things she did not yet know.

Outside, at the forest edge, Kieran Blackclaw raised one hand in acknowledgment or perhaps farewell. Then he turned and vanished into the shadows, leaving Aria alone with her fear and her questions and the burning certainty that when he returned, as she knew with absolute conviction that he would, nothing would ever be the same again.