The Truth Revealed

Three months had passed since Ryker's visit. My stomach had grown round, and my power had increased tenfold. Every day, I discovered new abilities, healing without touch, sensing illness from a distance, even purifying poisoned water.

Zane had been distant but protective, always watching but never crossing the line I'd drawn. The pack had accepted me completely after I'd saved several pups from a deadly virus.

Everything was perfect. Which should have been my first warning.

The attack came at dawn.

I woke to screaming, the smell of smoke, and Maya howling warnings. The fortress was on fire, but this wasn't normal fire, it was laced with magic, burning even stone.

I ran from my room to find chaos. Wolves fought everywhere, but these weren't rogues. They moved with military precision, and they were winning.

"Aria!" Zane appeared in wolf form, blood matting his black fur. He shifted, grabbing me. "You need to run. Now."

"I can help"

"This isn't random. They're here for you." He pushed me toward the secret passage he'd shown me weeks ago. "Go to the Council. Tell them"

An arrow pierced his shoulder, silver-tipped, poisoned. He roared, shifting back to wolf form to fight the attackers swarming us.

"Zane!"

"GO!"

But I couldn't leave him. Golden power erupted from me, healing him even as I fought. But there were too many.

Then I saw her.

Selene stood at the fortress gates, but different. Her blue eyes glowed red, and dark power crackled around her.

"Surprised, sister?" She laughed. "You're not the only one with secrets."

"What are you?"

"What am I? I'm what you should have been. A Dark Healer. We're rare, just like you Moon Healers. Except we take instead of give."

She raised her hand, and I felt my power being pulled from me. My knees buckled.

"You see, when I learned what you really were, I knew my little poison wasn't enough. So I found new friends. Powerful friends who hate Moon Healers as much as I hate you."

Figures in black robes emerged from the smoke—warlocks, I realized with horror. Dark magic users who'd been banished centuries ago.

"Impossible," Zane snarled, still fighting. "The warlocks are gone"

"Gone? No. Hiding. Waiting." Selene's smile was vicious. "Waiting for someone like me to help them return. And all they wanted in exchange was one little Moon Healer."

"You sold me to warlocks?"

"Sold? No. Traded. They'll drain your power, transfer it to me. I'll become the first wolf with both Dark and Moon healing. Imagine the power!"

One of the warlocks spoke, his voice like grinding stone. "Enough talk. Take her."

They advanced, and I tried to summon my power, but Selene was still draining it. Zane fought viciously, but even he couldn't fight magic.

"Stop!" A new voice commanded.

Everyone froze. An elderly woman walked through the carnage like it was nothing, her white hair shining, her presence immense.

"Elder Morgana," the warlock hissed. "The Council"

"Knows everything," Elder Morgana said calmly. "Did you really think you could attack a Moon Healer without us noticing?"

"The Council has no power here," Selene snarled. "This is pack territory"

"Wrong." Elder Morgana raised her hand, and Selene screamed, her dark power shattering. "A Moon Healer's safety supersedes all territorial laws. And you, child, have made a grave mistake."

More figures appeared, Council enforcers, ancient and powerful wolves who served justice above all else.

The warlocks fled, or tried to. The enforcers moved faster than sight, capturing them in silver nets that burned with holy fire.

Selene tried to run, but I was faster. My power, freed from her drain, surged back. I caught her with bands of golden light.

"Please," she begged. "We're sisters"

"We were never sisters," I said quietly. "Sisters don't poison each other. They don't sell each other to warlocks."

Elder Morgana approached me, and to my shock, she bowed. "Moon Healer Aria. I am sorry we didn't find you sooner."

"Find me?"

"We've been searching since your power first manifested. But the wolfsbane hid you from our sight." She looked at Selene with disgust. "This one will face Council justice. Death is the only sentence for attempting to harm a Moon Healer."

"No!" Ryker burst through the gates, looking haggard. "Don't kill her! She's my mate!"

"Your mate tried to sell your true mate to warlocks," Elder Morgana said coldly. "She poisoned a Moon Healer for years. She consorted with dark magic. Pick better, Alpha."

"Aria, please," Ryker begged. "Show mercy."

I looked at Selene, who was crying now. But I remembered every cup of tea, every lie, every moment of weakness she'd caused.

"Mercy?" I laughed bitterly. "Like the mercy you showed me? Either of you?"

"The children," Ryker tried. "Think of them. Don't let them grow up knowing their mother had their father's mate executed"

"Their mother," Zane interrupted, stepping beside me despite his wounds, "will teach them that actions have consequences. That justice exists."

"You don't get a say in this, Savage"

"Actually, he does," Elder Morgana said, studying Zane with interest. "The mate of a Moon Healer has equal say in matters of justice."

"We're not mates," I said quickly.

"Aren't you?" She smiled knowingly. "Your souls say otherwise. Not a fated bond, but something rarer—a chosen bond. It's already forming, whether you acknowledge it or not."

I looked at Zane, who seemed as surprised as me.

"That's impossible," Ryker snarled. "The law says if she takes another mate while pregnant"

"The law says if she takes another mate, yes. But chosen bonds are different. They supersede all other laws because they're blessed by the Moon Goddess herself when two souls choose each other freely, without fate's interference." Elder Morgana's eyes were ancient, knowing. "Your claim is void, Alpha Ryker. It was void the moment you rejected her."

"I'll fight—"

"You'll die," Zane said simply. "Challenge me, and I'll kill you. Slowly."

"Enough," I said. I was tired, so deeply tired. "Selene will face Council justice. Ryker, you'll leave and never return. That's my decision."

"You can't"

My power flared, and everyone, even Elder Morgana, stepped back. "I am a Moon Healer, carrying the first Moon Healer children in three centuries. I can do whatever I want."

Selene was dragged away, screaming curses. Ryker followed, but not before looking at me one last time.

"I loved you," he said quietly. "I was just too blind to see it."

"No," I replied. "You loved the idea of a weak, grateful mate. You never loved me."

He left, and I collapsed. Zane caught me, as he always did.

"The chosen bond," I whispered. "Is it real?"

"I've been choosing you since the moment you healed me," he admitted. "But I won't push. Your children—"

"Will need a father. A real one."

He pulled back to look at me. "Aria"

"I choose you too," I said simply. "Not because of fate or bonds or magic. Because you saw me when no one else did."

Elder Morgana smiled. "Then it's settled. The ceremony will be"

"After my children are born," I said firmly. "I want them to see it."

"Of course." She bowed again. "The Council will provide protection until then. No one will threaten you again."

As they left, Zane held me close. "Are you sure?"

"I've never been more sure of anything."

My children kicked, and I gasped. Zane's hand covered mine on my stomach, and I felt it—the chosen bond, warm and golden, nothing like the forced mate bond with Ryker.

This was choice. This was freedom.

This was love.