Prologue

The night the twins were born, the moon bled for the first time in a hundred years.

The cries of wolves echoed in the distance, their howls trembling like warnings carried on the wind. Inside the Luna’s chamber, a storm of pain and prayer raged, and Luna Alara’s screams rose with the thunder.

"Push, my lady, the child is coming!” the midwife cried, her hands slick with blood and fear.

 “Not tonight!” Alara’s voice cracked, desperate. “Not under this cursed moon, do you hear me, Aelina? Not tonight!”

  The priestess beside her lifted her staff, gold eyes gleaming against the red light that bled through the window. “You cannot choose the hour of birth, Luna. The Goddess has spoken through your pain.”

 “I never asked for her to speak to me!” Alara’s breath came in sobs, her silver hair plastered to her sweat-soaked face. “She’s already taken my mate, my Alpha died in her name, must she take my first child too?”

 Another scream tore through her body. The midwife leaned forward, whispering broken prayers until, at last, a soft cry filled the room. A baby girl….small, beautiful, and wrinkled, gasped her first breath.

  “She’s here,” the midwife said, smiling weakly. “A girl. The heir to SilverMist, your light, my lady.”

For a moment, the air softened. Alara’s trembling hand reached out for her daughter, her eyes shining with exhausted hope.

  Then the room changed.

The air grew heavy, too still. The candles flickered, and the priestess’s chant stuttered into silence. Alara’s chest clenched as another wave of agony hit her deep, unnatural, burning through every nerve.

  “No… no, it’s done,” she gasped. “It’s done!”

  The midwife’s eyes widened. “Luna wait, there’s…..”

  Her words broke into a cry. Another surge of blood, another scream, and from that silence came a second child. No cry followed. No sound. Only the slow, unnatural turn of her crimson eyes toward the window, toward the bleeding moon itself.

  The midwife froze. “Goddess save us,” she whispered. “Another girl.”

  The priestess stumbled back, fear striking through her voice. “Twins under the Blood Moon… it’s forbidden. This cannot be.”

  Alara turned her head, horror and disbelief twisting her features. “Take her away. Take that thing away before the Goddess sees.”

“My lady, please….”

 “I said take her!” Her scream tore through the chamber. “She is death itself, I can feel it, she shouldn’t exist!”

The priestess slammed her staff to the floor, her voice rising in fury. “Silence, Luna Alara! You dare curse what the Goddess has allowed to live? Kill her, and your pack will know ruin beyond death.”

Alara’s tears streamed down her cheeks. “I don’t want this curse in my arms. My mate is gone, my people bleed in war… why must I raise my own doom?”

The priestess stepped closer, eyes burning with divine rage. “Because destiny has already chosen her. You may call her cursed but one day, you will beg for her forgiveness.”

  A sudden gust burst through the chamber, extinguishing every flame.

  Then came the light.

 It wasn’t fire, it was presence. The midwife fell to her knees immediately she sensed it, clutching both infants to her chest. The priestess bowed, her lips trembling.

 A voice echoed….. fierce as thunder.

  “Luna Alara of SilverMist.”

  The Goddess appeared. Tall, veiled in starlight, her eyes glowing with moons within them. “You name one child blessing and the other curse, yet both are bound to my will.”

 “Please goddess…” Alara wept. “Take her, take the second one. Spare my pack. Spare my firstborn.”

Goddess Selune’s gaze fell upon the two infants, one asleep, the other awake and silent.

 “You see only what the moon allows,” the Goddess said gently. “The first will bring light, the second will bring fire. Together, they will either save or destroy your world. It is not my curse Alara, it is your choice that will shape their fate.”

  Luna Alara sobbed harder. “What does that mean?”

Selune’s light began to fade, her final words slipping into the wind.

“When love is bound by envy, even the moon will weep.”

  The Goddess raised her hand over the silent child, her touch leaving a faint silver mark that pulsed once, like a heartbeat. “ I name them Seraphine and Selena,” she said and just like that, she was gone.

  The silence that followed felt endless. Only the faint breaths of the two infants remained. One steady, one fragile.

 The midwife’s voice trembled. “They are one soul, divided in two.”

  Alara didn't say anything, she couldn't stop crying and regretting why she gave birth to a curse.

 Outside, the Blood Moon watched…. red, sealing its own curse in silence.