Chapter 6: Learning To Burn.

"Again."

Tamara's hands shook as she raised them toward the target—a tree stump twenty feet away. Silver light flickered at her fingertips like dying candle flames.

"I can't," she panted. "It's been three hours."

"Your father won't care if you're tired when he comes," Kai said. He stood behind her, close enough that she could feel his body heat. "Again."

The morning sun beat down on the training field behind the pack house. Wolves in human form practiced fighting nearby, but they all kept stealing glances at Tamara. Some looked curious. Others looked scared.

She couldn't blame them. She was scared of herself too.

"Stop thinking so hard," Kai said, his voice softer. His hands settled on her shoulders, warm and steady. "Your light isn't something you force. It's something you release."

"That doesn't make sense."

"Your mother said the same thing when I tried to teach her to fight." His thumbs pressed into the tight muscles of her neck. "She thought too much. Like you."

Tamara tried to ignore how good his hands felt. Tried to ignore the weird pull in her chest that got stronger every time he touched her. The mate bond, Rosa had called it. Even though Tamara wasn't a wolf, she could feel it—like an invisible string between them.

"Tell me about her," Tamara said. "When she was young."

Kai's hands stilled. "She was fearless. Walked into a pack of wolves at seventeen and demanded we help her save a group of human kids from vampires."

"Vampires are real too?"

"Everything's real, Tamara. That's the first lesson." His hands dropped away, and she immediately missed them. "The world is bigger and darker than humans know. Wolves, vampires, witches, fae, demons—we all exist. We all have our own laws. Our own territories."

"And my father?"

"Your father exists outside all of it. Above it." Kai moved to stand beside her. "That's why everyone's afraid. The Moon King doesn't follow anyone's laws."

Tamara raised her hands again. This time, instead of forcing the light out, she thought about her mother. About the woman in those photos, laughing and free. The light came easier, flowing like water instead of spurting like blood.

The tree stump exploded.

"Better," Kai said, but he was smiling. "Much better."

"I did it!" Tamara turned to him, grinning.

Their eyes met. The mate bond pulled tight, and suddenly he was closer. Or maybe she was. His hand came up to cup her cheek, thumb brushing over her cheekbone.

"Tamara," he said, voice rough.

"We should keep training," she whispered, but didn't move away.

"We should," he agreed, but his head lowered toward hers.

"Alpha!"

They jumped apart. Marcus ran toward them, his face tight with worry.

"What is it?" Kai's voice went from soft to sharp in a heartbeat.

"The High Council. They're here."

Tamara saw Kai go pale. "Already?"

"Who's the High Council?" Tamara asked.

"The governing body of all North American packs," Rosa said, appearing from nowhere like she always did. "And they don't make house calls unless something's very wrong."

Three black SUVs sat in front of the pack house. Men and women in expensive suits stood beside them, all wearing the same cold expression. But the woman in front was different. She wore all white, her silver hair braided like a crown, and her eyes were older than her face.

"Alpha Kai," she said, her voice carrying across the yard. "I am Councilor Selene. We need to discuss the girl."

"Her name is Tamara," Kai said.

"I know what she is called." Selene's eyes found Tamara, and something flickered in them. Fear? Hunger? "I also know what she is. The Moon Blessed hasn't walked this earth in three hundred years."

"How did you—"

"The test you performed sent out a pulse of power every supernatural felt," Selene said. "You might as well have sent up a flare telling everyone exactly where to find her."

Tamara's stomach dropped. "Everyone?"

"Vampires, witches, fae courts—they're all talking about you," Selene said. "Some want to worship you. Others want to kill you. And some..." She paused. "Some want to use you."

"She's under my protection," Kai said.

"Your protection?" Selene laughed, but it wasn't funny. "You're one Alpha of one pack. What happens when the vampire lords come? Or the witch covens? Or worse—what happens when her father arrives?"

"We'll handle it."

"No. You won't." Selene pulled out a rolled paper. "This is a Council decree. The girl comes with us. For everyone's safety."

"Like hell," Kai growled.

"It's not a request." The other Council members spread out, forming a circle. "Either she comes willingly, or we take her."

Tamara felt her light stirring, responding to her fear. Silver began to leak from her skin like mist.

"Careful, girl," Selene warned. "You don't want to start something you can't finish."

"Neither do you," a new voice said.

Everyone turned. Lilith stood at the edge of the forest, but she wasn't alone. Behind her were others—men and women with the same silver eyes, the same otherworldly beauty.

Moon Children. At least a dozen of them.

"The Council has no authority over our kind," Lilith said, walking forward. "Tamara is Moon Blessed. She belongs with us."

"She belongs with her mate," Kai snarled.

"Her mate?" Selene's eyebrows rose. "You claimed a Moon Child as mate? Are you insane?"

"The heart wants what it wants," Lilith said with a sharp smile. "Isn't that right, Kai? Just like three years ago?"

Kai's entire body went rigid.

"Oh, you didn't tell her?" Lilith's smile widened. "How you claimed me as your mate, then let me die when the Hunters came?"

"You didn't die. You ran."

"Because you chose your pack over me." Lilith's silver eyes found Tamara. "He'll do the same to you. When it comes down to choosing between love and duty, Kai always chooses duty."

"That's not—"

A sound cut through the argument. Music. But not normal music—this was older, wilder, like wind through bones.

Everyone looked up.

The crack in the moon was glowing. And something was pushing through. Not her father—not yet—but something else. A message.

Words wrote themselves across the sky in silver fire:

*Seven days until the door opens wide.

The Bridge must choose her side.

Crown of silver, heart of night,

Save the world or end the light.*

The words hung there for three heartbeats, then exploded into a thousand silver butterflies that rained down on them like snow.

One landed on Tamara's hand. It was cold as ice and when it melted, it left a mark—a crescent moon that burned silver against her skin.

"He marked her," Selene breathed. "The Moon King marked his daughter."

Every supernatural being there took a step back from Tamara. Even Kai looked shaken.

"What does it mean?" Tamara asked, staring at the mark.

"It means you're his," Lilith said quietly. "And in seven days, nothing—not your mate, not the Council, not all the wolves in the world—will be able to keep him from claiming you."

The mark pulsed once, and Tamara heard her father's voice in her head, clear as day:

*Soon, my little moon. Soon you'll understand everything. Soon you'll come home.*

And the worst part?

Part of her wanted to.