All Chapters of Three Fates, One Luna: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

The door opened almost immediately.Darian stepped inside.For a heartbeat, I barely recognized him.His hair was a mess, his breathing uneven, and somehow I'd never found him more distracting. His shirt clung to him from the mist rolling in off the ocean, outlining the broad lines of his shoulders and chest. Tiny flecks of sand still clung to his trousers.But it wasn't any of that that stole my breath.It was his eyes.Gold.Not entirely.Just around the edges.Like his wolf hadn't fully let go.He closed the door behind him.Then stopped.His gaze found mine.Everything else seemed to disappear.Every muscle in his body went still.Not relaxed.Focused.The kind of stillness that belonged to a predator who had finally found exactly what he'd been searching for.My pulse stumbled.He crossed the room without taking his eyes off me.One slow step.Then another.There was nothing hurried about him.Nothing uncertain.Every instinct in him seemed drawn toward me.Toward his mate.Heat

The first thing I noticed was the heat.Not warmth.Heat.It pressed against my skin in heavy waves, thick with the scent of smoke, iron, and burning coal.I opened my eyes.Stone walls surrounded me.Dark.Severe.The only light came from a forge blazing at the center of the room.Kael stood beside it.His back was to me, bare this time—shirtless, his skin slick with sweat that caught the firelight and turned it molten. Every line of him was lean muscle, carved and defined, strength honed rather than bulky. Hard strands of dark hair had fallen loose into his face, damp from the heat, clinging to his forehead. Power radiated from him in quiet, controlled waves, and everything about him—his stance, his stillness, the way he held himself—screamed dangerous.My gaze dragged over the planes of his back, the flex of muscle beneath skin, the slow rise and fall of his breath.A strange, sudden urge hit me—sharp and completely uninvited.I wanted to step closer.To brush my fingertips across

The knock came just after sunrise.I opened the door to find Darian balancing three fishing poles over one shoulder and a wooden tackle box in the other.He smiled."Ready?"I blinked. "For... what?""Fishing."I looked at him hesitantly, "I've never been fishing.""Perfect." His grin widened. "I get to teach you."A voice behind him sighed dramatically. Talia stepped into view carrying a woven basket over one arm."If he says 'it's easy,' don't believe him."Darian looked offended. "I know how to fish.""You know how to chase fish.""Same thing.""It really isn't."The walk to the beach was short. A small wooden fishing boat waited where the tide lapped gently against the dock.Moments later, Darian pushed us away from shore.The village grew smaller with every stroke of the oars until Moonshadow became little more than a scattering of rooftops against the trees.I looked over the side.The water seemed impossibly deep.I swallowed.Darian looked over. “Nervous?” I stared at the wat

I heard the rope snap before I saw her.The crack split through the storm like a whip.I looked toward the docks.Lyra was running."No!"The word tore from my throat before I realized I'd shouted it.She never heard me.Rain hammered the dock, turning the weathered boards slick beneath her boots.She caught the loose rope.Good.Tie it.Come back.Another gust slammed across the shoreline.The boat surged.The dock lurched beneath her.Her feet disappeared.For one impossible heartbeat she seemed suspended in the air.Then she was gone.The ocean swallowed her without a sound.Everything inside me stopped.Then everything moved at once."Talia!"She looked up immediately."Get everyone off the docks!"I was already running."Rope!" I shouted."Now!"Someone threw one toward me.I caught it without breaking stride."Darian—""Move!"They did.No one questioned me.No one hesitated.The mate bond slammed through me like a blade.Not pain.Absence.A terrifying emptiness where she shoul

My lungs still ached every time I laughed.The healer insisted it would pass.Darian insisted I stay in bed."I'm fine," I argued for what had to be the tenth time that morning.He crossed his arms."You nearly drowned.""I survived.""Barely.""I don't feel like lying in bed all day.""You don't have to."Hope flickered."I don't?""No."I smiled. "Thank you.""You can sit in a chair instead."I stared at him. "...You're impossible.""So I've been told."I sighed dramatically.Then I smiled."What if I promised not to leave Moonshadow House?"His expression softened just enough for me to know I was making progress."What did you have in mind?""The archives."He blinked."The archives?""I'll be sitting down.""You'll be reading.""I'll be resting."A reluctant smile tugged at the corner of his mouth."I'll walk you there."The Moonshadow Archives looked nothing like I expected.Instead of dark shelves coated in dust, sunlight poured through tall windows carved with wolves running ben