LOGIN~~Isolde~~The word did not arrive as sound. It bloomed inside her ribs, soft and certain as a second heartbeat.Mama.Isolde froze in the eastern tower pool, one hand cradling her swollen belly, the other gripping the marble edge.In just two days, her stomach had grown to the size of a six-month pregnancy. Selene had called it hybrid acceleration, the result of the wolf blood and shadow magic developing together. There had been flutters, kicks, and a faint hum of life connected to her own magic.But this was different.This was language.Someone was calling her.Mama.The tiny voice brushed against her mind, shy but unmistakably clear. Isolde, who had faced war councils, deadly wolves, and the loss of her own identity, suddenly broke down.A sob escaped her throat as she bent forward, tears spilling into the moonlit water."Oh," she whispered.Then she laughed through her tears, pressing both hands against her belly."Oh, pup. I'm here. Mama's here."She had never imagined becoming
~~Isolde~~The howl did not break through the night so much as rewrite it.Every wolf across the seven territories felt it at once, deep in their bones. They dropped to their knees without command, foreheads touching the earth, eyes silvered with awe. Somewhere beyond the veil, an unborn king had announced his existence.Inside the tower, Isolde clutched her abdomen and wept. The howl had come from within her own body.Riven was already beside her, his usual alpha dominance replaced by something raw and reverent. He pressed his forehead against her stomach, listening.Selene entered with trembling hands. A single drop of blood rested on her palm, pulsing like a second moon.She examined it before delivering her revelation."Nine days," she whispered. "One has already passed."Isolde stared at her. "Nine days until the birth?"Selene nodded. "Your child is not growing as human children do. He is unfolding like a moon, swift and inevitable."Isolde looked down at her abdomen. Thin silve
~~Isolde~~The possession broke like a fever.Riven collapsed onto the cold stone floor of the Moon Tower, gasping as the last tendrils of Moros withdrew from his veins. His hands clenched against the ground, and his breathing came in ragged bursts.Above his brow, the tri-color crown glowed—black for death, silver for the moon, and gold for the king. Its power hummed through him, no longer borrowed but rightfully his.Then he heard it.Not with his ears, but through his blood.A howl. Small, furious, and ancient.Riven's head snapped up. The sound had come from Isolde's womb, a psychic cry only an Alpha heir could release before taking his first breath.Isolde stood beside the altar, one hand pressed against her stomach. Her silver eyes widened as she felt it too."You heard him?" she whispered.Riven crossed the room and dropped to his knees before her. He pressed his forehead against her belly, his crown casting silver and gold reflections across her skin."I heard our son."Before
~~Isolde~~Isolde's eyes were no longer silver.They burned black and gold. When she spoke, two voices emerged together—hers and his."Our baby will be King of Both Worlds," she whispered, pressing a hand against her still-flat belly. Her fingers curled into claws. "Flesh and shadow. Moon and Void. Finally, a worthy heir."Riven could barely breathe.The obsidian crown on his head cracked as his wolf recoiled with a terrified howl.His mate stood only three feet away, possessed by his own father. Every instinct screamed at him to tear the intruder from her body, but he knew one wrong move could destroy her.Selene seized his arm, her eyes bleeding silver."Don't! If you strike her, you strike them both. The possession is complete.""Isolde?" Riven whispered, dropping to his knees. "Fight him. Come back to me."The creature wearing her face smiled with Aldric Moros's cruel, sorrowful expression."She cannot hear you, son. She invited me when she bled upon Lunaria's altar to save your l
~~Isolde~~The voice that came from Isolde's throat was not her own.It was ancient and layered, like a chorus of dead queens speaking through one mouth."Finally," Lunaria hissed, her silver eyes swallowed by endless darkness. "A vessel worthy of a king."Riven stumbled backward from the obsidian altar as his moon-mark flared with unbearable pain."Isolde?"Inside her mind, Isolde was falling.Not through the air, but through the depths of herself.The Temple of Whispers disappeared. In its place stretched a black ocean of memories. At the bottom stood a figure waiting for her.Moros.He no longer resembled the shadow beast from her nightmares. He looked like a broken man wearing a cracked crown, his face hollow with centuries of suffering."You cannot hold me, little orchard girl," he said. His voice was the same one speaking through her lips. "You were made to be hollow."Isolde clenched her fists.She remembered Selene's words during her training.A possessed mind is not a prison.
~~Isolde~~The crown had barely settled upon Isolde’s brow when the temple doors shuddered.Incense curled above the coronation altar, and golden light spilled across the marble floor. Through the stained-glass windows, the Blood Moon cast a crimson glow over the temple.Then a figure appeared in the doorway, cloaked in silver furs.Alive.Isolde turned, and her world stopped.Her heart recognized the woman before her eyes could believe what they were seeing.Lunaria.Her grandmother. The woman whose lullabies had haunted her childhood dreams.Isolde dropped the scepter. It struck the marble with a sharp clatter as she ran forward.“Grandmother?” she whispered, her voice trembling.Lunaria opened her arms, and Isolde collapsed against her.The familiar scent of pine smoke, snow, and ancient magic surrounded her. It was exactly as Isolde remembered from childhood, when she had curled in her grandmother’s lap while war drums thundered beyond the castle walls.“You’re alive,” Isolde sobb







