First Lesson

We started training at sunrise.

No time to waste. Not after the Moonstone’s warning and that vision of darkness. Not after Aria threw a 400-year-old Magister across a room like he weighed nothing.

The training grounds were a mess from the battle, so we used the inner courtyard. Stone walls on all sides, healers on standby, and Roric watching from a cot because he refused to miss this even with a broken spine.

Aria was in the center, sitting on a blanket with her tiny hands on her knees. She was 3 weeks old now, but she looked bigger somehow. Stronger. Her gold eyes tracked everything with that unsettling focus that made my skin crawl.

Elias stood to her left as the shield. Kade stood to her right as the “what not to do” example. Darius and I stood in front of her.

“We’re not teaching her to fight,” I said firmly, looking at all of them. “We’re teaching her to control. Moonblood reacts to emotion. So step one is learning to feel without losing control.”

Darius nodded and knelt in front of Aria. “Hey, little moon. Can you hear me?”

She blinked at him. Once. Slow.

“Good,” he said softly. “We’re going to do something simple. I’m going to make you feel happy. Really happy. And you’re going to hold that feeling without letting it explode out of you, okay?”

Aria tilted her head.

Kade snorted. “She’s three weeks old, Darius. She doesn’t understand words.”

“Then we’ll use something she does understand,” I said.

I shifted into my Lycan form right there in front of her.

Aria’s eyes lit up.

Lycan cubs bond with their parents’ wolf forms instinctively. It’s smell and sound and warmth all at once. And for Moonblood, that bond runs deeper.

I let happiness and love and pride flood through our bond. No barriers. Just pure, overwhelming joy at seeing my daughter, my son, my mate, all safe and together.

The air around Aria shimmered.

Her silver hair started to float like it was underwater.

The temperature dropped.

“Easy,” I said quickly, keeping the feeling steady but not letting it spike. “Easy, Aria. Just feel it. Hold it.”

Her eyes met mine. Gold and ancient and way too aware.

For a second I thought we’d lost her. That the power was going to burst out like it did with Thorne.

Then she smiled.

A real, baby smile. Gummy and perfect and full of my joy.

The shimmer stopped. The temperature normalized. The floating hair settled.

She’d held it.

She’d controlled it.

The courtyard was silent for a beat.

Then Elias whooped and threw his arms around both of us. “She did it! She controlled it!”

Darius let out a breath he’d been holding and pulled us all into a hug. “Our girl’s a genius.”

Kade just stared, stunned. “Three weeks old and she has better control than most adult Lycans…”

“It’s Moonblood,” I said, shifting back to human and taking Aria from Darius. “It’s not just power. It’s purpose.”

Aria yawned against my chest, exhausted from using that much control at once.

“We’ll go slow,” I told everyone. “One emotion at a time. One lesson a day. She’s a baby. She’s not a weapon yet.”

The Moonstone pulsed once in the distance, like it was listening.

And for the first time since the battle, I felt something like hope.

We had a chance.

If we were careful. If we were patient. If we taught her right.

The darkness was coming.

But we wouldn’t face it unprepared.