The Old Prophecy Revealed

Darius didn’t sleep that night.

Neither did I.

After Roric left with orders to guard the chambers, we stayed up reading the recovered Council records by firelight. Aria slept between us in the bassinet. Elias had fallen asleep against my side, clutching her blanket like it was armor.

The records were old. Older than the Citadel. Parchment brittle with age, ink faded to brown. Written in High Lycan, the language only the royal bloodline could read without pain.

“The last Moonblood Queen was named Lyra,” Darius translated, voice low so he wouldn’t wake Aria. “300 years ago. She was born during a blood moon. Like Aria.”

My blood ran cold. Aria was born during the blood moon of her coronation.

Lyra’s records were brutal. Short. Angry.

_“The female child born of full Moonblood is not a blessing. She is a weapon. She can bind packs with a word or shatter them with a thought. The Council fears her because she does not fear us.”_

I swallowed hard. “That’s why they erased her. They couldn’t control her.”

Darius nodded, turning the page carefully. “It gets worse. Listen to this.”

_“The Prophecy of the Moon’s Teeth:

When the Moon’s true daughter walks again,

She shall bear two children of silver light.

The first shall be shield, the second shall be blade.

Together they shall rend the old world or remake it.

Beware the blade, for it cuts both ways.

Beware the shield, for it shall stand alone.”_

Elias shifted in his sleep and mumbled something about wolves.

Darius closed the book slowly. “The first child is Elias. The shield. The second is Aria. The blade.”

“So I have a 2-week-old daughter who’s prophesied to either save the Lycans or destroy them,” I said flatly. “Great.”

“It’s not that simple,” Darius said. “Prophecies aren’t destiny, Elara. They’re possibilities. The Council made them into chains. We won’t.”

I looked at Aria, sleeping so peacefully with silver hair and tiny fists clenched like she was already fighting something. “They were so afraid of her they killed her mother. And they would have killed us too if we hadn’t stopped them.”

The door opened softly. Roric stepped in, bowing. “My King, my Queen. We found more in the archives. Something Kade sent over an hour ago.”

He held out a scroll sealed with Kade’s Alpha mark.

Darius took it, and we both read it together.

_“To the Lycan Queen and King,

I know what the Council hid. I know what Moonblood means.

I rejected you because I was told you were wolfless. I was lied to.

The Council feared you because they knew what you are.

I am coming to the Citadel at dawn. Alone.

We need to talk about Aria.

-Kade”_

I felt like the floor had dropped out from under me. “He knows. He knows about the prophecy.”

Darius’s jaw tightened. “The Council told him. Before we killed them. That’s why he came with an army. That’s why he challenged you for mate rights. He wasn’t just trying to claim you - he was trying to control Aria.”

Elias stirred and sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Kade’s coming here? At dawn?”

I pulled him close. “Yes, baby. But you and Aria are safe. We won’t let anyone hurt you.”

Dawn was 3 hours away.

Darius stood and went to the weapons rack, strapping on his silver Lycan blade. “I don’t trust him. Not after everything.”

“Neither do I,” I said, getting up and wrapping Aria in a blanket. “But if he knows something about Moonblood that we don’t, we have to hear it. For her.”

Elias grabbed his small training dagger from the nightstand. “I’m coming too.”

Darius opened his mouth to argue, but I stopped him. “He’s part of this now. He’s the shield. He needs to know what he’s protecting.”

The three of us stood in the firelight with Aria in my arms, waiting for dawn.

Outside, the Citadel was quiet. Too quiet.

The old prophecy was waking up.

And Kade was bringing the answers the council died to keep.