Chapter 6

Derek’s POV

The candles died the instant Keira spoke.

One moment the elders’ chamber glowed with silver light, and the next it was swallowed by a darkness that felt deliberate. It was like some living spirit or essence had stepped into the room, but the elder kept his eyes on her for a second before he looked down at his feet, making my eyes widen in surprise. 

He never lowered his head. Not to betas. Not to elders. Not even to my father. But for her he did.

The silent omega I had ignored for years. The girl I had ordered around without thinking. The girl who had just shifted into a massive silver-white Lunar Shadow Wolf and undone everything I believed about power.

My heart raced against my ribcage and I froze as I looked at her, processing the moment before looking away as I knew that my wolf knew one thing.

Mine.

No, she is not. I snapped at him. Not after everything that happened.

A small sound came from Keira, and Lena whispering her name, soft and frightened. I took a step forward before I could stop myself, and my father let out a low growl. “Derek,” He said, stopping me.

I stopped because the bond tightened around my chest like iron. Invisible claws dug into my ribs, reminding me that every movement, every thought, every choice now had consequences. The Holy Wolf bond. Elder Selene had called us guardians.

Guardians.

The word tasted like mockery. What kind of guardian watched his mate get humiliated in hallways and said nothing? What kind of guardian stood and humiliated her himself?

The light found Keira in the center of the room, her torn hoodie slipping from one shoulder, long dark hair framing a face that was both small and terrible. Her silver-gray eyes glowed faintly. She looked fragile enough to break and ancient enough to ruin us all.

My father stood at the head of the chamber, carved features unreadable. “Relight the rest,” he ordered. “You will give your answers before the elders.”

For the first time in my life I felt the shift beneath his authority. His command still carried weight, but it no longer owned the room. The Omega who was once shunned was.

He turned on Elder Selene. “How long have you suspected?”

Selene’s face went pale. “Alpha…”

“How long?” he demanded.

Selene lowered her gaze. “There were signs when she was younger. Her silence was unusual. Her eyes reacted to moonlight. The protective runes near the archives sometimes shifted when she passed.”

My stomach tightened. “So, you knew?” I asked, voice rougher than I meant.

Guilt shadowed Selene’s gray eyes. “I suspected fragments, nothing more.”

Keira laughed then, a sound with no humor. It pulled my gaze back to her. “You suspected,” she said, “and still left me there. You didn’t even try to protect me?”

A memory slammed into me, Keira younger, tray in her hands, someone bumping her shoulder, food spilling across the floor. I had been there with Brad and Isaiah. She had looked at me for half a second, but I looked away. 

My father’s voice cut through. “Enough. We are not here to revisit schoolyard incidents.”

Selene’s voice was careful. “Alpha, choose your words. The bond will not allow dismissal of what harmed her. She is chosen, and she an oracle. We need to value her presence.”

His gaze hardened. “The bond does not rule this pack.”

Keira’s silver eyes brightened. “No,” she said softly. “But maybe it sees what this pack refused to. And it reacts to it according to what is thrown in its face.”

My father turned to her. “You will answer my questions. What do you remember of your parents?”

Keira’s fingers tightened around Lena’s. “Nothing,” she said. “I don’t remember them.”

“So, it was their doing?” He asked, and Keira frowned as she tried to understand him.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

My father’s voice cooled. “It means your parents died, and this pack took you in… that is when this happened.”

“Took me in?” she whispered. The air shifted. Silver flames leaned toward her. “You mean placed me in the omega quarters,” she said. “Made me clean after wolves who hated me. Let them call me weak. Let them hurt me. Is that your meaning of the pack took me in, Alpha Harlan?”

“I didn’t know,” I said, and the excuse tasted hollow the moment it left my mouth. 

Her lips parted. “You didn’t care. You knew what I should have been to you, you felt it… and yet, you still chose to shun me the way you did.”

The words landed like a blade, and my father slammed his palm on the table. The command rolled through the chamber. 

My father’s eyes snapped to me. For the first time I realized the command had touched me but the bond had caught it. It wrapped around my wolf and forced a choice, my father or Keira. And my wolf moved toward her instead of him.

“Derek.” My father’s voice was deadly quiet.

I swallowed. “Don’t command her like that. You are going to respect her just like everyone else.”

Brad’s eyes widened. Isaiah looked almost impressed. Keira stared at me as if she did not know whether to believe what she had heard.

“You forget yourself,” my father said. “And you are forgetting who the man in front of you is.”

“No,” I said. “I believe that I know very well who you are… but you don’t get to command her like that.”

Selene moved to the shelves and pulled out an old book wrapped in black cloth, as if knowledge could steady the room. She placed it on the table and unwrapped it. The cover bore a faded silver crescent split by three lines. Keira stared. The symbol glowed. Selene’s voice dropped. “The Oracle Record.”

The pages turned on their own until they stopped on a bloodline chart. At the top a name in old moon-script caught the light: Aurelia Vale.

Keira’s face drained. “Who is that?” I asked. No one answered, and the silence spoke louder than anyone else would have.

Then the chamber doors burst open. A border guard stumbled in, blood dark on his uniform. “Alpha,” he gasped. “Bloodfang wolves crossed the eastern border.”

“How many?” my father demanded.

The guard pointed, trembling, at Keira. “They said they came for the Oracle.”

Keira went utterly still. The guard’s voice broke. “They called her by her real name.”

A chill ran through the bond. I stepped in front of Keira without thinking. “What name?” I demanded.

The guard looked at her with a fear that made his voice small. “Princess Aurelia.”