LOGIN“No,” I breathed. “No, not yet. Not like this. I am not ready!”But ready or not, darkness was coming. It pulled me down. Away from everything I had fought to protect. The last thing I heard was Kael screaming my name. The last thing I felt was Helena’s magic trying to hold me together. The last thing I thought was: I am sorry. I am so sorry. I tried. Then nothing. Darkness. Not the absence of light. Something deeper. The void between heartbeats. The silence before creation. I was floating. Am I dead? The thought came without panic. Only curiosity. Then pain slammed back into me. Not physical pain. Something worse. The sensation of being torn in three directions at once. Silver
The next attack caught my shoulder. Pain exploded. Blood ran down my arm. “How long can you last?” Moira circled slowly. “Minutes? Seconds? How long before your body gives out?” I did not answer. I saved my breath for fighting. She attacked again. I blocked. The impact jarred through my arms. My blade nearly flew from my grip. “Where is the divine power now?” Moira taunted. “Where is the Luna who destroyed Vesper? Did pregnancy weaken you? Or were you always helpless without your mate?” I ignored her. Surviving was already difficult enough. My legs shook. My vision blurred. The three power sources inside me began to destabilize again. I felt them turning against each other. The stress o
“But do you understand what it means?” The Vessel leaned closer. “The Goddess is diminished. Weakened. Vulnerable. With the right ritual, the Moon’s Tear absorbed into a vessel, royal blood in an infant, and the willing sacrifice of a Luna who has tasted divine power, we can reverse her sacrifice.”Cold horror moved through me.“Reverse it how?”“We take back what she gave. Unmake the gift. Return wolves to what they were before: mindless beasts without free will or power. And in the process we claim her remaining divinity. We become gods.”“That is insane.”“That is inevitable. Seraphine saw it. She planned for two thousand years. Her death changes nothing. Three of us now carry pieces of her knowledge. Three vessels. Three chances.”“Three,” I said.“Myself. My sister Moira. And the First Vessel, the one Seraphin
That night Kael found me in our quarters staring at the maps.“You’re supposed to be resting.”“I’m sitting. That counts.”“You’re strategizing. That’s the opposite.”He moved behind me and pressed his hands to my shoulders, working the tension out.“Talk to me.”“About what?”“About why you’re looking at those maps like they betrayed you.”I exhaled.“I’m trying to guess where they’ll hit. The high priestesses. If I wanted to take a pregnant Luna, when would I strike?”“During labor. When she’s weakest.”“Exactly. So they come during the birth or right after.” I traced possible routes. “Do they storm the medical wing directly or force us to evacuate and hit us on the road?”“Both. Hit the facility first. If that fails, block every escape.”“Then we defend both.”“Already happening.” He pulled me away from the table and turned me to face him. “Marcus and I reinforced the medical building. Three separate evacuation routes, each with its team. A bunker as a last resort.”“You kept that
Three months of relative peace that felt more like the calm before a hurricane.My hand rested on my belly—no longer flat, but rounded with obvious pregnancy.The baby was active, kicking regularly, reminding me every moment that I was carrying not just my child, but the cult's ultimate target.“You're brooding again,” Kael's voice came from behind me.“I'm thinking strategically.”“You're worrying obsessively. There's a difference.” He wrapped his arms around me from behind, his hands covering mine on my stomach. “The baby's fine. You're fine. We're all fine.”“For now.”“For now is all we ever have.”He was right, as usual.But that didn't make the waiting easier.Three months of peace.It was wrong. All wrong.Enemies didn't just disappear.They planned.They prepared. They wai
“You delegate. You let other people fight sometimes.” She gestured around.“You have hundreds of capable warriors. Use them.”“She's right,” a new voice said.I turned to see Marcus standing in the tent entrance.“The controlled wolves?” I asked.“All recovered. All free of Vesper's magic. Some of them are asking to see you. Want to apologize for attacking under compulsion.”“They don't need to apologize. They were victims.”“Try telling them that.” Marcus moved closer.“Luna, you saved them. All of them. They're alive and free because you wouldn't give the order to kill them.”“We lost people, though, didn't we?” I asked.Twelve dead. Thirty-eight were injured. But considering we were facing three hundred controlled warriors,” he shook his head.“Could've been much worse.”&n
I turned my attention to the rune magic. The wild, crackling energy that I'd been fighting against.Don't fight it, Kael said—or maybe it was his wolf's voice. They seemed to blend. Show it to your wolf. Let her see it's not an enemy.Slowly, carefully, I guided my wolf's attention to the rune ma
The next morning, I woke before dawn.Kael was already up, dressed in simple training clothes—dark pants and a fitted shirt that showed off his muscular build.He was strapping on leather bracers."Where are you going?" I asked, rubbing sleep from my eyes."Train
"Centuries?"I pulled back slightly from Kael's embrace, looking up at his face.The afternoon sun made his silver-blue eyes almost glow."What do you mean, centuries?" I asked again.Kael's expression turned serious.He glanced at Erica, who was still playing with the other children across the gard
Dinner that evening was a loud, cheerful affair.The Black River pack house dining hall was nothing like the formal banquets at Silver Moon. Here, everyone ate together, alphas and omegas, warriors and children.Long wooden tables were packed with wolves passing plates and sharing stories.Erica sat







