Serena’s POVI was standing at the rail of the Packhouse, the wrought iron railing the only thing between me and the blood red sky, my hands shaking. It was not just any moon — it was a warning, a surge of ancient power that reached into something held deep inside. My unborn child, safely nestled in my womb, appeared to feel it as well, it's heart beating. But the visions… they didn’t go away.Now they came in flashes, uninvited and cruel. A ring of rogues repeating themselves under a sky of blood, their voices growling and crooning to some evil spirit. In the middle, a stone altar, glowing with an eerie green light. And my little—my unborn baby—chained by shadows, as that power was drained from it for a spell that would bind it to Rhys’s will. I wouldn’t let that happen. Not to my baby. Not to the last thing I had that was truly mine.“Serena,” the voice said, softly and firmly, waking me from the dream. It was Elder Mara. Her quick eyes, as little as she was, were measuring me with
Derrick’s POVThe clearing smelled of off musk, a bitter tang that made the back of my throat itch with a warning. The altar’s obsidian surface gave off a pulse of radiance, somber light carved in the stone that hummed with an energy I couldn’t quite comprehend, but that sent a shiver down to the thick of my bones. Serena was beside me, eyes round, lunar mark dimly visible. My wolf snarled inside me, demanding I protect her, tear down anyone who threatened her or her child. But my blood ran cold at the sight of Sophia, stepping into the light. She was a ghost from Serena’s past, and a venomous one at that; one who had once torn her world apart. And now here she was, in my pack, a wicked grin on her lips that said nothing but trouble.Sophia’s eyes met my gaze with a long defiant stare. "Did you expect me, Alpha Derrick?" Her voice weaved, every word laced with a knowledge that sent me into tightening my fists. “I come in peace. For now.”“Peace?” I snarled, moving forward and protect
Serena’s POVThe note we had found pinned to the gnarled oak by a dagger yesterday was still seared into my mind.As Derrick marched forward his feet, his broad shoulders set towards the house, his alpha aura seemingly crackling in the moonlight. Elliot stood on my right, beside me. We had been in the car since the packhouse and the two men hadn't exchanged a word, the silence between them sharp enough to cut. I could feel it — their competition, their unspoken stakes in me, and the heaviness of truths neither would ever tell in full. My lunar mark pounded away under my sleeve, as though it knew what awaited us behind the altar.And here he was in the clearing: a black ring of old stones that glowed silver in the moonlight. In the middle, at the middle of the chamber, was an alter, a piece of obsidian carved with symbols that seemed to pulse with a soft glow. My breath caught. The carvings brought out the crescent-shaped mark on my shoulder — a mark I’d been born with, the one my moth
Derrick’s POVI felt my fists grip hard with my knuckles paining, the monster within me congraving with fury to be released. He remained there, his broad shoulders drooped, his blue eyes flashing with guilt as he was forced to confess to being the father of Serena’s baby. The words pierced me in a way no claw ever had, slashing into the fragile trust I had finally forged between us. My mate, Serena, the girl whose scent consumed my every breath was pregnant with another man’s baby. And that man was Elliot — the coward who’d refuse her, shame her, and now go around trespassing on my property, claiming he wanted to make shit right.I wanted to rip him apart, to let my wolf tear through his flesh until there was nothing left to kill but regret. But I couldn’t. Not yet. Not when Elise—my so called betrothed—had beeb whispering in Rhys’s ear, telling him all our strategies, our weak spots. I’d suspected it for weeks, but now I had proof—a intercepted message, written in her graceful hand,
Serena's POVI leaned against the tall window looking toward the sky in Derrick’s quarters, my fingers moving over the cold surface of the glass while the forest and all its colors and shadows outside melted together. The lunar mark on my shoulder — an etching that looked to most people like a crescent moon — scorched, a searing, stabbing heat that hadn’t let up since last night. It was as though the Moon Goddess herself was whispering secrets I wasn’t ready to know. My other hand was on my swollen belly, where the baby kicked, simultaneously a comfort and a burden. The pregnancy was doing something to me — dizzy spells, nausea, and an all consuming weariness that no amount of sleep could quell."Serena, you really shouldn't have to stand there all this time," Derrick’s voice broke the silence and low, with that particular protective edge that warmed and choked me at the same time. He was standing in the doorway, the wide stature of his cast over it, green eyes clouded with concern.‘
Derrick’s POVMy boots clicked on the marble floors as I paced through the corridors, angry. The scout’s message echoed in my head ‘Elliot’s here’.— On our territory. The coward who had broken Serena’s heart, leaving her to drown in her humiliation, he dared set foot on my land! I balled my fists tight, my nails deep in my palm enough to taste the tang of blood. He wasn’t just a ghost from her past — he was a menace, a living reminder of everything I’d vowed to keep her free from.Throwing the heavy oak doors to the war room open, I found my warriors already assembled, their faces wry under the flickering torches. Serena joined me by the map table, her green eyes wide with... something I could not catch—fear, maybe, or worse, recognition. Her fingers shook at the edge of the table and that curl of movement twisted something deep in my chest. I felt the desire to hold her, protect her from whatever the fuck the mere mention of this bastard would unearth but I couldn’t. Not yet.“Where