Chapter Five

Father’s Warning

The corridors of the MoonStone pack house seemed to echo louder than usual as my father pulled me into his study. His grip on my arm wasn’t gentle, but it wasn’t cruel either — it was desperate. For the first time in my life, I saw fear in Alpha Darwin Moonstone’s eyes.

He locked the door behind us, his broad shoulders rigid, as if he were bracing against an invisible storm. “Kimberly,” he said, voice taut. “We don’t have much time.”

I blinked at him, still reeling from Derrick’s slap, Mona’s triumph, and the venom that had spilled from Catherine’s lips. My heart felt like broken glass inside my chest. “Time for what?”

“To save your life.”

The words sliced through my daze like a blade.

He moved to his desk, opened a drawer I had never seen him touch, and withdrew a thick envelope. He pressed it into my trembling hands. Inside, I felt the weight of money, papers, and something sharper — hope.

“Leave Perth tonight,” he whispered urgently. “Before Derrick binds you as his slave.”

My stomach twisted. The word slave had always been a distant horror, the kind of fate that belonged to whispered cautionary tales of she-wolves who had failed their Alphas. Now it pressed down on me with suffocating weight.

“But Father, if I run—”

“If you stay, you are lost,” he cut in sharply. His voice trembled at the edges, but his eyes burned with certainty. “I’ve heard the way Catherine whispers to Mona. I’ve seen the way Derrick looks at her. This union isn’t about alliance, or even power. It’s about blood. Your blood.”

I staggered back. “What are you saying?”

His jaw tightened. “Your wolf woke tonight, didn’t she?”

I froze, my throat dry. “Yes. But—”

“That’s what Derrick sensed. That’s why he cast you aside so violently. He thought you were broken, but you are not. You carry something rare in your veins, Kimberly. Something your mother left behind.”

At the mention of my mother — the real one, not Catherine — a dull ache bloomed in my chest. I knew so little about her. Only fragments, half-buried memories. A smile I could no longer picture clearly.

“What does Mona have to do with this?” I asked, though a part of me already knew.

“She was groomed to be the perfect Luna,” he said bitterly. “But it was always you. Catherine has blinded me, blinded us all. You are the one Derrick should have chosen. The true heir of the Lunar Bloodline.”

The phrase sent a shiver down my spine, as though the very air recognized it. “Lunar Bloodline?”

He shook his head. “I can’t explain it all. Not now. Just know this — Derrick will never stop hunting you once he realizes the truth. That’s why you must go. Tonight.”

Silence stretched between us, filled with the ticking of the old clock on the mantle. For years I had fought for a place in this family, in this pack, in this world. And now, my father — the man who had once seemed so distant — was begging me to abandon it all.

My throat tightened. “And what about you? What about Mona?”

“I will manage Mona,” he said, though his eyes flickered with doubt. “As for me… my duty is here. But you, Kimberly—your duty is survival.”

Before I could answer, a sharp knock rattled the door. Catherine’s voice slithered through like smoke. “Darwin, Alpha Derrick requests your presence. Now.”

My father’s gaze snapped to mine. “Hide the envelope. Do not let her see it.”

I shoved it into the folds of my dress just as the door creaked open. Catherine stood framed in the light, her smile tight, her eyes calculating.

“What are you two whispering about?” she asked sweetly. Too sweetly.

“Family business,” Father replied curtly, his Alpha tone returning like a mask. “Tell Derrick I’ll join him shortly.”

She tilted her head, suspicion flickering, then slithered away down the hall.

Father turned back to me, urgency etched into every line of his face. “Run, Kimberly. Run, and do not look back.”

His words echoed in my chest long after I slipped from the study.

---

I didn’t return to my chambers. My room was no longer mine. The pack house — once my home — had become a cage. I moved quickly, my steps light, heart hammering. Every shadow seemed to hold eyes, every creak of the floorboards a warning.

Outside, the night was cool and sharp, the moon fat and heavy above. I clutched the envelope against my chest as I slipped toward the trees at the edge of the compound.

For a moment, I allowed myself to glance back. The grand house loomed behind me, glowing with torches, filled with laughter and clinking glasses. My sister was in there — my betrayer, my replacement.

Bitterness clawed at my throat, but beneath it, something hotter stirred. Rage.

A voice slipped through the darkness. Smooth. Velvet. “Running away already?”

My blood chilled. I spun to find the stranger from earlier — Lucien. His silver hair gleamed like moonlight, his coal-colored eyes glinting with something dangerous. He lounged against a tree as if he had been waiting for me all along.

“You,” I hissed, clutching the envelope tighter. “What do you want from me?”

He pushed off the trunk with lazy grace. “Nothing you aren’t already willing to give.”

My heart pounded. “And what’s that?”

His smile cut sharp and dark. “Everything.”

I should have run. Should have screamed. But instead, I stood rooted as his words curled around me like smoke, feeding something deep within.

Because hadn’t my father just told me the same? That staying meant death, but leaving — leaving meant possibility?

Lucien stepped closer, the night folding around him like a cloak. “Come with me, Kimberly Moonstone. Let me show you what you truly are.”

And in that moment, with the envelo

pe of my father’s desperate love pressed against my chest, I realized I had already chosen.