MOON GODDESS CALLING

KAIA POV

The dream didn't feel like a dream.

I was standing in a field of silver light, and the woman made of starlight was in front of me, her face shifting like I was looking at her through water. Not threatening. Just ancient. Infinite.

"You've been running from yourself," she said, and her voice sounded like wind through a canyon. "The Moonfire was never a curse. It was a birthright. A calling."

"I don't understand," I said.

"You will." She reached out, and her hand was warm when it touched my cheek. "Tomorrow, he will teach you. And you will learn that power is not something to fear. It is something to become."

I woke gasping.

Damien was already awake, already pulling me close. "You felt it too," he said. Not a question.

"The dream?"

"The presence. Outside. She's waiting."

We didn't bother getting dressed. We just threw on our clothes and walked into the forest at dawn, and the silver woman was standing in the clearing like she'd been waiting for us all night.

Except she wasn't a dream this time.

She was real. Solid. Made of silver light that didn't cast a shadow. The Moon Goddess stood in front of us with her arms crossed, and she looked impatient.

"You're late," she said to me.

"We just—" I started.

"I don't have time for explanations," the Goddess interrupted. "Rafe is building an army. Darkness is gathering. And you need to understand what you are before that darkness comes for you."

She turned to Damien. "You. Teach her."

"I don't know how to—" he started.

"Yes, you do. It's in the bond. It's in the blood." The Goddess looked at me. "He carries the Alpha power. You carry the moon power. Together, you're balance. Separately, you're only half of what you could be."

Then she disappeared. Just vanished like she'd never been there at all.

"What the fuck was that?" I asked.

"Your future," Damien said. "Come on."

---

The training started immediately.

Damien walked me to the edge of the forest and told me to shift. I did, and my wolf emerged—bigger than she'd been before, stronger, her fur shot through with silver. When I looked at my paws, they glowed.

"The Moonfire is part of you now," Damien said, and he was in his wolf form too—massive black beast with gold eyes. "It's not separate. It's not something that happens *to* you. It's something you *are*."

He showed me how to channel it without losing control. How to make the silver flame follow my will instead of my fear. We spent hours in the forest, and it was intimate in a way that had nothing to do with sex. This was deeper. This was him teaching me magic that was supposed to be forbidden. This was him giving me permission to be exactly what I was.

By noon, I could make the silver light dance across my wolf-form without burning anything. By evening, I could pull it into human form and hold it in my palms like a second heartbeat.

When we finally stopped, we were both exhausted.

"You're a natural," Damien said as we walked back to the cabin.

"How do you know so much about this?" I asked. "You're not cursed. You don't have Moonfire."

"But I have Alpha blood. And Alpha blood is tied to the old magic—the earth magic, the pack magic. The Moon Goddess said it herself. We're balance." He pulled me close as we walked. "Teaching you this is like remembering something I always knew but forgot how to say."

---

For the next week, the training became routine.

We'd wake before dawn and slip into the forest. Damien would teach me, and I'd learn. But it wasn't just about the power. It was about us. Every time his hands touched my skin to adjust my stance, the bond between us flared. Every time he looked at me during training and saw the silver light responding to my will, something shifted in his expression. Pride. Possession. Love.

By day seven, I could hold the Moonfire steady enough to dance with it. I could make patterns in the air. I could—

"Kaia."

His voice made me stop mid-movement. The silver light dissipated.

We were standing in the clearing where the Moon Goddess had appeared, and the sun was just starting to set. Damien was looking at me like he couldn't quite believe I was real.

"What?" I asked.

"Come here."

I walked to him, and he pulled me close. His forehead touched mine, and I felt the bond between us vibrate like it was about to snap.

"I'm falling in love with you all over again," he whispered.

"We were already in love."

"No. Before, it was instinct. The bond pulling us together. But now?" He pulled back just enough to look at me. "Now I'm choosing it every second. I'm choosing you because of who you're becoming. Because of the way you refuse to break. Because of how brave you are."

He kissed me.

It wasn't gentle. It was desperate and claiming and tasted like need. My hands came up and gripped his shirt, and the Moonfire flared across my skin without me meaning it to. Silver light bloomed between us, and instead of pulling back, Damien pulled me closer.

"Don't," he said against my mouth. "Don't stop. I want to feel it."

So I let it burn. Let the silver fire dance across my skin and into his, and he didn't flinch. Didn't burn. Just held me while I was literally made of flame, and whispered, "Mine. You're mine."

We broke apart when we heard the sound.

A horse. Coming through the trees. More than one. And the jingle of armor.

Damien's entire body went rigid.

"Messenger," he said.

We didn't move. Just stood there in the clearing with the last rays of sunlight hitting our skin, and we watched as a warrior emerged from the trees on horseback. He looked exhausted. Like he'd been riding for days.

He stopped when he saw us, and his eyes went wide. Probably because we were both covered in sweat, my clothes were half-off, and there was literal silver fire still flickering across my skin.

"Damien Blackwood?" the warrior asked, dismounting.

"That's me."

The warrior pulled out a sealed letter. "I come from the Blackmoon Pack council. I have a message you need to hear."

Damien took it slowly, and I watched his face transform as he read. Watched the color drain from his skin. Watched something inside him break.

"What is it?" I asked, already knowing I didn't want to hear the answer.

He looked up at me, and his eyes were completely devoid of gold. Just human. Just broken.

"My father's dead," he said. "And Rafe's sent word. He's taking the pack. He wants to make sure we know that our execution orders stand."

The messenger cleared his throat. "There's also a second message. From the elders. They're asking you to come back. They're saying that Rafe is poisoning the pack from inside. They need the true Alpha."

I felt Damien's resolve crystallize. Felt the moment he made a choice that was going to change everything.

"We need to go back," he said quietly.

I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell him we could stay here, that we could build a life away from all of this, that running was better than fighting.

But I knew he was right.

And I knew that the girl I'd been—the one who rejected Rafe and thought she could escape the consequences—was gone.

Now I was something else. Something made of silver fire and purpose and the refusal to let darkness win.

"Okay," I said. "We go back."

The silver light flickered across my skin one more time, and it didn't look like a curse anymore.

It looked like a promise.