Chapter Eight

The Choice

The forest swallowed me whole as Lucien led me deeper into the night. The pack house lights faded behind us until only the silver glow of the moon lit our path. Each step felt heavier than the last, not from fear, but from the weight of everything I was leaving behind.

Mona’s venom still rang in my ears, her words like barbed hooks meant to drag me back into her shadow. Defective. Weak. Always less. But instead of tearing me down, they sparked something else — defiance.

I would prove her wrong.

Lucien walked a few paces ahead, his silver hair catching stray moonlight. He moved with a predator’s ease, silent and assured, as though the forest bent around him. His presence was unsettling, yet oddly grounding. Every instinct screamed not to trust him, but every instinct also told me I had no choice.

Finally, he stopped in a small clearing where moonlight pooled like liquid silver. He turned, eyes glinting as they raked over me. “So,” he said, voice low and smooth. “Will you run back to your cage, or step into the dark with me?”

My chest tightened. “If I go with you, what happens?”

His smile was a dangerous curve. “You stop being prey.”

I swallowed. “And if I stay?”

He shrugged, though the gesture carried weight. “Then Alpha Derrick claims you in three days. You’ll become his property. A slave. Your sister will watch, your stepmother will laugh, and your father—” He paused, his expression sharp. “Your father will die trying to protect you.”

The air seemed to freeze. “Die?” I whispered.

Lucien’s gaze softened just a fraction. “Do you think Derrick will tolerate a Beta who defies him? Your father’s love for you has already marked him. The only way to save him is to leave.”

A tremor ran through me. Father had begged me to run, to survive. And now Lucien, a stranger cloaked in danger, was echoing the same plea.

I looked down at my hands, still marked from where my nails had drawn blood during my fight with Mona. They shook — not with weakness, but with something that felt dangerously close to hunger.

“What will it cost me?” I asked quietly.

Lucien’s eyes gleamed. “Everything you were.”

The answer should have scared me. But instead, it steadied me. Kimberly Moonstone — the overlooked daughter, the broken wolf, the rejected mate — she had died the moment Derrick slapped me, the moment Mona smiled in triumph. What was left could either crumble… or rise.

I lifted my chin. “Then I choose you.”

A slow smile spread across his face, equal parts satisfaction and something unreadable. “Good.”

The air around us shifted. Lucien lifted a hand, and shadows responded, curling around his fingers like living smoke. My wolf bristled inside me, not in fear but recognition. The energy pulsed, dark and intoxicating.

“This is what you are,” he said softly, stepping closer. “Not broken. Not defective. Buried. Waiting. The Lunar Bloodline does not die so easily.”

I froze. “You know about that?”

“Of course.” His eyes burned brighter now, like embers in the dark. “It’s why Derrick wanted your family in the first place. Why Catherine groomed Mona to be his prize. But she was wrong. He was wrong. You are the true heir. And once you embrace it, no Alpha alive will ever chain you again.”

My heart thundered. Lunar Bloodline. The words hummed in my veins like a song I hadn’t known I remembered. I thought of my mother, gone too soon, whispers of her beauty, her strength. Was this what she had left me?

Lucien extended his hand. “Take it, and I will teach you how to burn them all.”

For a moment, I hesitated. Behind me lay the ashes of the life I had clung to — family fractured, a sister turned traitor, a father bound by duty. Ahead of me stretched a path carved in shadows, paved with power and vengeance.

My wolf stirred, her voice whispering for the first time in years. Choose, Kimberly. Choose us.

I reached forward and placed my hand in Lucien’s.

A surge of energy tore through me, dark and electric, burning yet exhilarating. My knees buckled, and a cry escaped my throat as visions flooded my mind — wolves kneeling in shadows, blood spilled under a red moon, my own face crowned in silver fire.

Lucien’s grip anchored me. “Breathe,” he commanded, his voice cutting through the storm. “Do not fight it. Claim it.”

I gasped, drawing in the night air like it was the first breath I had ever taken. The shadows that had swirled around him now curled around me, clinging, shaping, obeying.

When the visions faded, I collapsed to my knees, trembling. My heart raced, my body burned, but for the first time in years, I felt whole.

Lucien crouched before me, his sharp features softened by the faintest smile. “There she is. Not a broken wolf. Not a discarded mate. But a storm. The Rejected Blood Moon.”

The title rang through me, fierce and true.

I looked up, meeting his coal-dark eyes. “Teach me,” I whispered.

His grin sharpened, satisfied. “And so it begins.”

The moon shone down on us, full and merciless, as I rose to my feet. I was no longer the Kimberly who had walked into this clearing. That girl was gone.

In her place stood something new. Something dangerous.

And for the first time, I wasn’t afraid.