Star's POV
The news of the twins spread through the Moonlit Pack like wildfire. It wasn’t just a miracle, it was a symbol of hope, a new future, a new legacy for the pack. The warriors, normally stoic and reserved, became more protective, more attentive, and for the first time, I felt their warmth. The pack was genuinely happy for me, and that was something I had never truly known until now.For so long, I had felt like an outsider, like I didn’t belong. But now, with the pack celebrating the life growing inside me, I felt an overwhelming sense of belonging. I could feel their pride, their joy, their love, and it was almost too much to bear. They were cheering for me, not just as the Luna of the Moonlit Pack, but as the woman carrying their future, their heirs. Twins.The celebration wasn’t just quiet whispers behind closed doors. It was loud, boisterous, and filled with laughter. Even Helios, though still carrying tStar's POVThe Moonlit Pack was buzzing with activity as usual. Despite my heavy pregnancy, I still felt the tension of the upcoming meeting with our allies. Helios had been absorbed in preparations, the weight of leadership bearing down on him, and I could sense the unease within him as well. The pack was alive with energy, warriors rushing to finalize details, the pack's business moving like clockwork, but something felt different. I couldn't quite place it.I had been trying to ignore the creeping sense of foreboding that had gnawed at me for days. The shadows seemed to grow longer, the air heavier. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen. Even now, as I sat in my chambers, resting from the activity of the day, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. My eyelid twitched again, and I could feel the anxiety building in my chest.It was then that t
Helios' POVThe night felt suffocating. The moon, usually a guiding light for wolves like me, seemed lost behind a veil of thick clouds, as if it, too, mourned the loss of Star. My heart hammered in my chest with every breath I took. The pack was on high alert, warriors scouring every inch of our lands, sniffing the air, chasing every potential lead. But deep down, I knew it, my mate, my Luna, had vanished.I stood at the edge of the Moonlit Pack's territory, my fists clenched at my sides, staring into the vastness of the forest that surrounded us. The wind whispered, but there was no trace of her scent. No sign of her. It was as if the earth had swallowed her whole.The tracker I had sent to the eastern woods returned with nothing. His eyes were filled with defeat as he reported, "Alpha, we’ve checked every corner of the land. There’s no sign of her. It’s like she just disappeared."
Author's POV Helios stood at the head of his gathered warriors, muscles taut and jaws clenched. His heart was a maelstrom of fury, fear, and helplessness. The very air seemed to burn around him, charged with the raw energy of vengeance. Star, his mate, his Luna, the mother of his unborn children, was gone. And he was ready to tear the world apart to find her.Just as he raised his hand to give the signal to move out, a firm hand landed on his shoulder. “Son,” Killian said, voice calm but firm. “Don’t.”Helios turned, eyes blazing with a barely contained storm. “She’s out there, Dad. They took her. The Crescent Fangs, who else could’ve gotten past our defenses?”Killian didn’t flinch. “Think, Helios. That’s exactly the problem. You’re not thinking—just reacting. And that's dangerous.” A low growl rumbled from Helios’ throat, but he didn’t move.Killian continu
Star's POV I woke to darkness. Not the soft, comforting darkness of our chamber at Moonlit Pack… this one was suffocating. Damp. Cold. The kind of dark that presses against your skin, like it's trying to seep inside.My wrists ached. Chains. Silver. The bite of them burned against my skin, and the scent of rusted metal clung to the air like a second skin. My babies kicked gently in my womb, small fluttering reminders that I wasn’t alone, not really. My heart swelled and broke all at once.Where was Helios? Had he collapsed when he found me gone? I could almost hear his howl, broken, guttural, a sound no mate should ever have to make. And Celeste… sweet Moon, she had just started smiling again. And Killian. I’d begged him to protect my babies. I hoped he still would.I didn’t need to guess who was behind this. There was only one she-wolf twisted enough to pull this off. Ravena.
Star's POV I woke to the sound of boots creaking on old floorboards. The attic door opened with a drawn-out groan, and there she was. Ravena.Her hair was perfect, her expression smug, like she hadn’t just dragged a pregnant Luna to the edge of death. Her scent was a strange mix of lavender and ash, unnatural, unsettling.She stepped inside and shut the door with an infuriating softness, like this was her home and I was the guest overstaying my welcome. "Feeling better?" she asked, a mockery of kindness.I didn’t respond. My lips were cracked. My fever still clung to me like cobwebs, but I was lucid enough to see her for what she was, insane, dangerous, and deeply wounded.She walked to the side of the mattress and crouched. Her eyes studied me, those mismatched irises flickering with something twisted and gleeful."I was beginnin
Star’s POVMy wolf was silent. Not gone, but curled somewhere deep within me, so still it frightened me. I called to her often in my mind, but the response was always the same: a fading echo, a flicker of pain, then nothing. Like she was sleeping… or dying.I knew why. Wolfsbane. Hidden in the food Ravena brought me, masked beneath herbs and honeyed poison. Subtle enough to not kill me instantly, but steady and cruel, like watching something you love wither leaf by leaf.That was her game. Slow degradation. Quiet torture. She didn’t chain me anymore. There was no need. My wolf was too weak to shift, too tired to roar. My strength waned daily, but my resolve? That only grew stronger.I moved stiffly through the house, barefoot and swollen, every step dragging like iron. The bungalow was old, chipped paint, warped floors, windows too cloudy to see clearly. But I found one that creaked open
Star's POVThe day dragged on, the silence oppressive as ever, filled with the weight of my isolation. Ravena hadn't come down to check on me yet, and it was almost as though she was giving me time to wallow in my weakness, to surrender to the poison she’d been feeding me.I was so close to the edge, my wolf barely a whisper in my mind, and my body growing weaker with each passing hour. But I had something now, plan, a glimmer of hope in the form of the Lunaris Blossom.I kept my movements slow, deliberate, as I took the fruit from its hidden place beneath my gown, crushing it carefully in my hands. The warmth of the fruit’s power filled me immediately as its juice soaked into my palms, and I could feel the faintest stir of life from my wolf.It wasn't much, but it was enough to give me the strength to play the game Ravena was expecting. I had to keep up the act, let her believe that I wa
Star's POVI spent the next few days pretending to be exactly what Ravena wanted me to be, a frail, sickly shell of myself. Every moment was a balancing act, a careful dance of deception as I allowed the poison to take its toll on my body. I didn’t eat much of the food she gave me, but the Lunaris Blossom kept me from falling completely under the spell of her poison.My wolf had begun to stir once more, though she was still weak, still trapped in a haze of wolfsbane’s effects. But I could feel the faint pulse of her presence, and that gave me strength. Every day, I gathered more energy, forcing my body to stay still and quiet while the seeds of rebellion took root inside me.Ravena didn’t seem to suspect a thing. She visited only once or twice a day, smug in her belief that I was slipping closer to death. Each time she came in, she would examine me with a sickening smile, delighting in my misery, all while pretending
Star’s POVThe gardens had changed so much. Once, they were a tangle of wild vines and neglected fountains. Now, they bloomed in every color the mind could conjure, a testament to years of peace, nurtured by steady hands and hopeful hearts.I sat beneath the silverleaf tree, a thick book resting in my lap, though I hadn’t turned a page in some time. Instead, I watched. Two figures stood at the edge of the training grounds, bathed in the golden haze of late afternoon.Lyra moved like liquid light, a blade in each hand, her strikes swift and sure. Kaelen countered, laughing, parrying her every move with effortless grace. Their magic pulsed between them, visible now,mwoven into every step, every breath.I smiled. They were no longer children clinging to my skirts. They were warriors. Leaders. Legends in the making. "You look proud," Helios said, dropping down onto the bench beside me. His hair was dusted with gray at the temples now, and fine lines fanned from the corners of his golden ey
Star’s POVThe great plaza of Solis Magna had never held so many. From every corner of the realm, from snow-dusted northern steppes to the emerald coasts of the south, they came.Nobles in gleaming armor. Magi in embroidered robes. Merchants in bright silks. Hunters, warriors, healers, even wandering bards. The city was a living river of humanity, all converging for one reason: To witness the birth of a new era.I stood at the center of it all, the twins at my side, Helios at my back. Today wasn’t just about us. It was about what we symbolized: Survival. Unity. A future carved from the ashes of fear.The royal dais had been draped in banners of silver and indigo, the colors of hope and rebirth. At its heart sat the Twin Thrones, two smaller seats forged from moonstone and steel, twined together by veins of shimmering crystal.An artisan's masterpiece. A promise made manifest. The twins shifted beside me, sensing the importance of the moment even at their tender age. Little Elira clut
Star’s POVThe battlefield was silent. Not with the unnatural silence of fear, but with the heavy, reverent hush of mourning.The crows had come to feast, circling high above the smoldering ruins, but even they seemed hesitant to land.It felt as if the very earth was holding its breath.I stood at the edge of the palace gardens, what remained of them, cradling the twins in my arms. The price of our victory lay all around us. Not in broken stones. Not in burned fields.But in the faces missing from the crowd.Sir Caldus, the grizzled commander who had once sworn never to serve under a "mere omega," had fallen protecting the southern gate, his body found draped over a trio of young squires he had shielded from the cult's last brutal strike.Lady Meriva, my oldest advisor and secret mentor in court politics, had refused to leave the war room even as the ceiling collapsed around her. Her sharp tongue and sharper mind, silenced.And Lord Riven, Helios’ second-in-command, a warrior as fier
Star’s POVThe dawn rose blood-red over the battlefield. I staggered through the wreckage, every breath burning in my lungs, every muscle aching. Helios’ hand never left my back, steadying me, grounding me. But it wasn’t over. Not yet.Above the palace, the twin beams of light pulsed stronger, not fading, not weakening but building. Growing. Drawing every soul’s attention like a lodestar. The survivors turned, warriors, mages, servants, all of them lifting their heads, faces bathed in the radiant glow.Even the enemy’s corpses, corrupted and twisted, seemed to dissolve into dust under its touch. The world itself was changing. I knew I had to get to them. Ignoring the protests of my battered body, I ran, up the crumbling stone steps, through the shattered gates, until I burst into the palace.The halls were filled with light. And at the heart of it all, in the throne room, the twins stood. No longer fragile infants. Not quite children either. They hovered inches above the ground, tiny
Star’s POVThe night before the battle, the sky wept black rain. It fell in thick sheets against the palace windows, painting the world in shadows.The twins slept fitfully in their cribs, tiny fists clenching, soft whimpers escaping their lips. Even they could feel it, the tension tightening the air, the storm gathering beyond the horizon.I stood at the highest tower, my armor a second skin, my sword strapped to my back, celestial magic humming at my fingertips. Below me, the army gathered. Wolf warriors clad in dark steel. Mages with their staffs glowing faintly. Archers stringing arrows tipped with silver and starfire.Helios was already at the front, speaking to the troops. I could feel him through the bond, calm, steady, a blazing force holding the line. I closed my eyes and let my power rise. Tonight wasn’t just another skirmish. It was the first true war cry of an ancient enemy. And we would answer it.The cult came with the storm. They poured out of the forests like oil slick
Star’s POVThe first sign was so small, so easily missed, that it almost slipped through my fingers. A scout failed to report back on time, nothing unusual, given the chaos at our borders.But then another disappeared. And then a patrol found strange footprints at the edge of the northern woods: bootprints, human, but alongside them, the scorched marks of something... other.I tightened the palace defenses that night, weaving additional layers of celestial magic into the gates, the walls, even the air itself. I didn’t sleep. I didn’t dare. Because deep in my bones, the truth was already stirring: There was a traitor among us.Three days later, it struck. The twins were asleep in their nursery, the palace humming with low, wary energy. I was reviewing troop movements with Helios when the alarms screamed through the halls, a keening, unnatural sound that made every hair on my body rise.I sprinted, Helios at my heels, instincts howling. Bursting into the nursery, I found chaos. The head
Star’s POVThe morning after the council’s cowardice was laid bare, the sun rose blood-red over the horizon.I stood alone on the highest tower, the cold wind snapping at my hair and cloak, my heart burning with a fire no frost could quench. Below me, the courtyard buzzed with nervous energy, soldiers drilling harder, blacksmiths hammering faster, scouts galloping through the gates.We had little time. The vision the twins had shared in flashes, beasts without faces, storms that bled black rain, fires that howled like grieving mothers, haunted me.The darkness wasn’t waiting politely at our borders. It was coming.And this time, it was not a squabble over thrones or a petty rebellion. It was annihilation. Helios joined me silently, his presence steady at my side. His arm brushed mine in a silent vow: Whatever comes, we stand together.I turned to him. “It’s not enough,” I said simply.The preparations, the drills, the polished armor, it wasn’t enough to face an ancient enemy that wiel
Star’s POVThe first sign came with the breaking of a mirror. It wasn’t just any mirror, it was the ancient obsidian looking glass that had hung in the royal antechamber for generations, unmarred by time or war. That morning, I found it split down the center, a crack as fine as a spider’s web radiating outward like a warning whispered from the bones of the earth. The second sign was harder to ignore.Reports flooded in, whispered by trembling envoys. Reports of black storms rolling across the distant borders, swallowing rivers, rotting crops in minutes, and waking beasts from ancient slumber. Villages that had stood for centuries vanished beneath the storms’ writhing clouds.And every time I reached out with my magic, trying to sense the twins through our invisible thread, I felt a hum of urgency. A pulsing hurry that prickled against my skin. The threat was coming. Not in months. Not even in weeks. Days.I gathered my court in the war room, a vaulted chamber carved of stone, with a
Star’s POVThe summons came at dawn. A formal decree, pressed into my palm by a pale-faced courier who refused to meet my eyes. The parchment crackled in my grip, the words stamped in wax as if the Council thought their authority alone could cage me.Helios stood beside me on the palace steps, reading over my shoulder. His growl rumbled low and dangerous. “They dare summon you like a criminal?” I smoothed the parchment with steady fingers, though inside, a storm brewed.“They fear what they don't understand," I said. "And they never imagined the power they tried to bury could rise stronger than them." He squeezed my hand, silent but burning with unspoken support.The Council had demanded not only my presence, but that of my father, King Hesperion, as if dragging him into their theater of fear would lend their accusations more weight. They were wrong. So wrong.The Grand Hall of the High Council was colder than I remembered. Ancient pillars loomed overhead, carved with the symbols of e