Hidden Truths and Desires.

Selene’s POV

I just realized we weren’t heading to the pack’s infirmary, we were going deeper—off the main paths, beyond the patrol routes, into the wilder part of the Silver Fang territory.

Kaelen didn’t utter a word; he just tightened his jaw every time Aeris whimpered in his arms. The forest grew large around us, branches scraping at my skin, but I barely noticed it.

I didn’t question where we were going. I trusted him—even after three years when I shouldn’t. Finally, we reached a land surrounded by thick, twisting trees, moss hanging like curtains from their branches.

It was a small cottage, almost hidden. It looked more like a forgotten part of the earth than a healer’s home. Kaelen barely knocked before the door creaked open.

“You’re late,” a sharp, ageless voice growled. An old woman stood at the front door, her silver hair braided down her back like a moonlit river. Her eyes were pure white—but not blind. They pierced through me like she could read every secret I never even spoke about.

“She’s burning up,” Kaelen said, his voice strained. “She needs….”

“I know what she needs,” the woman snapped. “Bring her inside. And you, girl, follow close.”

We obeyed without question and stepped inside. It smelled of smoke and herbs. A fire blazed in the fireplace, and bundles of dried roots and flowers hung from the roof, the walls whispering secrets as we passed.

Kaelen laid Aeris gently on a mat at the center of the room. My baby whimpered in pain, her skin damp with sweat. “She’s dying..”, I choked out, my voice barely audible. 

“Please….do something.”

The woman pressed her hands over Aeris’s chest. Her lips moved in a language I didn’t know, ancient and rhythmic. She muttered some words, frowned, then pulled away with a hiss.

“She’s too far gone for herbs. Her wolf blood is rejecting this form. It’s not her time….but the fever will break her if we don’t awaken the part of her that sleeps.”

I blinked. “What… what does that mean?”

The woman turned to me slowly, her eyes shining with a strange light. “It means you have to wake her up, through the Moonstone Ritual.” Kaelen stiffened beside me. “That ritual is forbidden without council approval…”

“Council be damned!” she spat, her voice crackling like the fire. “Do you want the girl to live or not? You know what’s in her veins.”

I stepped forward, wiping the sweat off my face. “How do I do the ritual?” The old woman studied me for a while. “You’ll drink from the Moonstone. You’ll let it show you what’s buried inside your soul. “

“What was buried before you were even born. And if your blood carries what I suspect, the ritual will force her wolf enough to fight through the sickness.

I looked down at Aeris… She was so still. Too still. Her lips trembled, but her eyes didn’t open. “I’ll do it,” I whispered.

Kaelen grabbed my arm before I could finish. “It’s dangerous. That ritual can change everything for you. You don’t know what you’re agreeing to.”

I looked up at him. “Then tell me. What are you so afraid of?” His throat worked as he tried to find words, but he said nothing.

The healer didn’t wait. She placed a carved stone bowl in my hands, turning with glowing liquid as the color of a pale starlight. “Drink it,” she commanded.

I turned, my eyes flickering between Kaelen and her. “What does it do?” The healer’s eyes met mine. “It unlocks the truth buried in your soul, in your bones. It will reveal who you truly are….and in doing so, awaken what lies dormant in your daughter.”

“She’s dying,” I whispered. “If this helps her…..if it saves her….then I’ll do it.” Kaelen stiffened behind me. 

“Selene, this isn’t something you can take back. Once the ritual starts, everything changes.” I met his gaze. “Everything already has.”

The healer nodded once, satisfied. “Then let the moon decide your fate.” I stood in the center of a shallow pool. The water was cool, rising to my thighs. There was a symbol above, a silver eye watching me closely.

Kaelen stood at the edge of the room, his arms crossed tightly. The healer began chanting, her voice in different tones that I couldn’t understand. She began painting symbols across my chest and collarbone with ash and blood, but I didn’t flinch.

“Breathe,” she said. “Open your heart to the past that shaped you.” I closed my eyes. Suddenly the air stopped, and the water ripped outward like something unseen had just stepped in with me.

I gasped as a sharp hand grabbed me from within my chest..like my spirit was being stretched wide open, visions beginning to rush in. A woman stood on a cliff—my face, but not mine. 

She wore a crown made of bone and moonlight. She screamed as flames began to swallow the forest behind her, a name tearing through her throat like a curse.

Rael.

I stumbled, falling to my knees in the water, gasping. My hands were glowing. “She sees,” the healer whispered.

“—I don’t understand,” I said, breathless.

“You are not an omega,” she said. “You are the bloodline of the Crimson Moon Pack. The last of the royal line. Your family was destroyed.”

“Slaughtered by Real’s ancestors for power. They erased your name from history.” My knees gave up, but Kaelen stepped forward to hold me, his hands clenched into fists.

“You are the rightful Luna,” the healer said softly. “And the child you birthed carries the strongest blood the werewolf clan has ever seen.”

I turned slowly to look at Kaelen. His face was unreadable. But his wolf—I could feel it. Pressing against the edge of his skin like it was clawing to get to me.

“Your child will be fine. You can go now.” The healer spoke, turning to walk into another room. The ritual was over, but something inside me had shifted.  I could feel Kaelen’s eyes on me.

I could feel his wolf in the way the air sparked around us. Everything in me begged for him to touch me…to claim me. My body was already responding, too aware of him, too hungry for something I couldn’t name.

But he didn’t move.

“You shouldn’t have done this ritual,” he said, his voice hoarse.

“I know,” I whispered.

“You’ve made things worse.”

“I didn’t care.”

His lips parted, but no words came out of them. He just stared at me like I was the beginning and end of something he never asked for.

But then he looked away. “I can’t…” he said tightly. “Not while my fucking cousin has already…”

“He never made me his Luna,” I said, stepping forward, my voice low. “Not truly. And you know it.”

Kaelen’s breath stopped, his wolf surging again, and I could see the way his eyes were reading every word that came out of my lips, the way his throat bobbed like he was barely holding the same thing I was.

Still, he staggered back.

“I won’t touch you, Selene, until you ask me to,” he said, almost like a vow.

 “Until you’re mine because you want to be, not because our wolves decide it for us.”