Seattle

The city rose out of the morning fog like a dream.

I'd been to Seattle before, as Damien's Luna, attending formal pack functions in sterile conference rooms while he handled real business. I'd never truly seen it. Never walked its streets as myself, not as someone's mate or someone's Luna or someone's problem to manage.

Today felt different.

Marcus drove us in a pack SUV, navigating the city traffic with practiced ease. He'd done exactly what he promised, creating a legitimate paper trail: hotel bookings, registrations for a real Luna leadership conference happening downtown this weekend.

Cover stories within cover stories.

"You're quiet," he said, glancing at me.

"Just thinking."

"About Damien?"

"About everything." I watched the city slide past the window. Glass buildings catching the morning light, humans hurrying to work, ordinary lives unfolding beneath a sky that didn't know or care about pack politics and ancient bloodlines and murdered Lunas.

Must be nice.

"For what it's worth," Marcus said quietly, "you were magnificent yesterday. At lunch."

"I was reckless."

"Maybe. But you were honest. And watching Damien squirm was..." He paused. "It was a long time coming."

I turned to look at him. "How long have you known? About Vivian?"

Marcus was quiet for a moment. "Six months. Maybe seven."

The admission hit me like cold water. Six months. He'd known for six months and said nothing, done nothing, while his Alpha betrayed his Luna.

He saw my expression and gripped the steering wheel tighter. "I know what you're thinking. I should have told you. I should have confronted him. I kept telling myself it would pass, that he'd choose the bond, that he'd do the right thing."

"But he didn't."

"No. He didn't." Marcus's jaw tightened. "And I let my loyalty to him override my duty to you. I'm sorry, Sera. Genuinely."

I looked at him for a long moment. In my past life, Marcus had stood at the rejection ceremony with pain written all over his face. He'd been the only one who looked like he wanted to intervene but couldn't bring himself to break ranks.

Now I understand why. He'd been drowning in guilt long before that night.

"I forgive you," I said. "But Marcus, if you ever know something that puts me in danger again, I need you to tell me."

"You have my word."

We drove the rest of the way in comfortable silence.

The hotel was a sleek high-rise downtown, the kind of place that whispered money without shouting it. Marcus checked us in while I studied the lobby, noting exits and sight lines out of habit.

Habits I'd developed since dying.

Our rooms were on the fourteenth floor, across the hall from each other. Marcus had barely set down his bag when I knocked on his door.

"I need four hours," I said when he opened it.

"For the conference?"

"For my other reasons," I met his eyes. "I'm going alone. If Damien checks in, tell him I'm at a workshop."

Marcus studied me. "Is this safe?"

"Probably not. But it's necessary."

He hesitated, then nodded. "Four hours. If you're not back by two o'clock, I'm coming to find you."

"Fair enough."

Wolfe Enterprises occupied the top twenty floors of a glass tower three blocks from our hotel. From the outside, it looked like any other corporate headquarters. But I could feel the supernatural energy radiating from it the moment I stepped onto the block.

Wards. Strong ones. The kind that would repel anyone without an invitation.

I straightened my spine and walked toward the entrance anyway.

The lobby was all marble and steel, staffed by humans who clearly had no idea what kind of business really happened in the floors above them. I approached the reception desk.

"I'm here to see Katherine Wolfe."

The receptionist smiled professionally. "Do you have an appointment?"

"No. But tell her that Elena Nightshade's daughter is here. She'll see me."

The receptionist's smile flickered. She picked up her phone and murmured something I couldn't hear. A pause. Another murmur.

Then her eyes widened slightly.

"Ms. Wolfe will see you. Forty-second floor. Someone will escort you."

The elevator opened directly into a reception area unlike anything below. The human facade ended here. The walls were lined with ancient texts, the furniture was carved from wood that hummed with embedded spells, and the woman waiting for me was unmistakably supernatural.

She was in her sixties, with silver hair worn loose past her shoulders, eyes the color of storm clouds, and the kind of contained power that made the air around her feel thick.

She looked at me the way someone looks at a ghost.

"You're alive," she whispered.

I stopped. "You knew I was supposed to die?"

"I felt it. Three months ago, I felt a Daughter's death." She pressed a hand to her chest. "Your mother's bloodline. I grieved for a week." Her eyes searched my face. "How are you standing here?"

"The Moon Goddess gave me a second chance."

Katherine Wolfe stared at me for a long moment. Then she did something unexpected.

She smiled. Fierce and brilliant and full of teeth.

"Oh, they're going to regret that," she said. "Come in. We have a great deal to talk about."

Her office looked like a library had fallen in love with a laboratory. Books everywhere, artifacts on shelves, a window overlooking the entire city.

She poured tea without asking if I wanted any and sat across from me like we were old friends catching up.

"Your mother was one of the bravest women I ever knew," she said. "She came to me when you were just a baby. She was terrified the Council would sense your bloodline's potential."

"She never told me any of this."

"She was protecting you. Keeping you ignorant kept you safe, she thought." Katherine's expression was sad. "I disagreed. But it wasn't my choice to make."

"Aldric Thorne," I said. "He visited our pack last week. He knew my mother."

Something dark crossed Katherine's face. "He'd been hunting Selene's Daughters for thirty years. Every time one of us comes into our power, he finds a way to eliminate the threat."

"How many of us are there?"

"Currently? Three. Myself, Elena Vasquez in Arizona, and now you." She studied me. "You're the seventh generation, Sera. The one we've all been waiting for. The one Aldric fears most."

"What exactly can I do?"

Katherine leaned forward. "At full power? You can break any supernatural bond ever created. Forge new ones. Command wolves regardless of pack affiliation. Heal wounds that should be fatal." She paused. "And you can challenge the Council's authority in ways no Alpha ever could."

The weight of it settled over me.

"When will my powers manifest?"

"They've already started. Small things, moments where you're stronger or faster than you should be. Am I right?"

I thought of my training sessions with Marcus, the way I'd dodged moves that should have been impossible for me to read. "Yes."

"Full manifestation comes with emotional extremity. Great love, great rage, great fear." She tilted her head. "Or great loss. For you, I suspect it will be the rejection."

My blood ran cold. "You know about the rejection?"

"I know what's coming. I have my own gifts." Her storm-cloud eyes are gentle now. "I know he's going to choose her. I know what they planned to do afterward."

"Then you know I came back to stop it."

"I know you came back to survive. Stopping it is another matter entirely." She set down her teacup. "The timeline shifting has already caused ripples, Sera said. Aldric's early visit to your pack, that wasn't on his original schedule. Your changes are being felt."

"Is that bad?"

"It's both. It means you're disrupting their plans. But it also means they're watching more closely." She reached across and took my hands. "You need to be ready before they make their move. Really ready. Not just physically, but spiritually."

"How?"

"Come to me. Every month if you can manage it. I'll train you in ways Lucas never could." Her grip tightened. "And Sera, there's something else you need to know."

"What?"

"Adrian Wolfe is my son."

The world tilted.

"Your son," I repeated.

"My son. And he doesn't know about Selene's daughters, not fully. But he's been searching for answers about his own heritage, his hybrid nature." Her eyes were intense. "When you meet him at the summit, and you will, don't tell him everything at once. But don't lie to him either. Adrian can smell deception better than any wolf I've ever known."

"He's your son," I said again, still processing. "Which means Katherine Wolfe on the East Coast, the contact my mother left me..."

"Was always meant to lead you to him, yes." She smiled softly. "Your mother was cleverer than she even knew. She set up breadcrumbs for you to follow, not just to me, but to the one person powerful enough to stand beside a seventh-generation daughter."

"She wanted me to find Adrian?"

"She wanted you to find your true mate." Katherine released my hands and sat back. "The bond with Damien was never real, Sera. It was manufactured. Aldric had a witch create it when you were eighteen to keep you controllable, keep you small."

The room seemed to spin.

Everything I'd believed about my relationship with Damien, every moment I'd treasured, every ounce of pain I'd carried from the rejection... it had been built on a lie.

"Then why does it hurt so much?"

"Because even artificial bonds carry real emotions. Your heart made it real even when it wasn't." Katherine's voice was kind. "But breaking it won't destroy you, Sera. It will free you."

I sat quietly for a long moment, absorbing everything.

Outside, Seattle hummed with ordinary life. Inside, my entire world was reorganizing itself around new truths.

"What do I do now?" I finally asked.

"Go back to your pack. Continue your training. Keep disrupting their plans carefully." She walked me to the elevator. "And when the summit comes, when Adrian Wolfe walks into that room, trust what you feel."

"How will I know what's real?"

Katherine smiled, and it reminded me, suddenly and achingly, of my mother.

"You'll know," she said. "Selene's Daughters always do."

I returned to the hotel with seven minutes to spare before Marcus's two-hour deadline.

He opened his door before I could knock, eyes scanning me quickly.

"You're okay."

"I'm okay."

"Did you find what you needed?"

I thought of Katherine's storm-cloud eyes. Of everything she'd told me. Of the son she'd raised, who didn't know his destiny was tangled with mine.

"Yes," I said. "And more."

Marcus studied me. "Good more or bad more?"

I almost smiled. "Both."

He nodded, accepting that. "Conference starts in an hour. Dinner after?"

"Dinner after," I agreed.

I went to my room and sat on the edge of the bed, staring at the Seattle skyline.

The artificial bond. Adrian is Katherine's son. My powers are building beneath the surface. Aldric was watching, waiting, accelerating his timeline because mine was shifting.

Six months had seemed like enough time when I woke up screaming in Damien's bed.

Now it felt like barely a breath.

You are Selene's daughter. You bow to no one.

I repeated it like armor.

Like a weapon.

Like a promise I intended to keep.

TO BE CONTINUED...