~ Kael~
The moment she screamed, Kael felt it in his bones.
Standing beneath the ancient trees of Blackpine Forest, the alpha of the Blackridge Pack tilted his head skyward. The sound had pierced the night like lightning, raw and unfiltered, echoing across miles. It wasn't just a scream—it was a calling. Wild. Broken. Newborn.
She had shifted.
At last.
Kael's hands tightened into fists. Around him, the forest stirred. His wolves felt it too. A ripple in the bond. A new force awakening on their land. For months, the earth itself had been whispering of change. The moon had grown restless. Even the elders had begun to dream in forgotten tongues.
But he hadn't expected it to happen so soon.
Or so violently.
He moved through the woods in silence, each step a practiced blend of power and grace. The others dared not follow. He had given strict orders: No one touches the Luna. No one interferes.
Not yet.
Kael's amber eyes burned through the shadows as he tracked her scent—sharp, wild, unfamiliar. It laced the air with the chaos of a first shift: blood, sweat, fear… and beneath it all, something ancient.
Alpha blood.
He hadn't believed it at first.
The girl from the town clinic. The one with soft eyes and steady hands. He'd watched her from afar—at first, out of suspicion. She didn't belong to any known bloodline. Not from the clans of the north or the nomads from the southern wilds. She was human. Mundane. Or so he thought.
But the signs began to show.
The heightened senses. The way animals reacted to her. The way the moon seemed to lean closer each time she walked beneath it. Kael had sensed it. Faintly. Quietly. Like a seed buried too deep.
Until last night.
Now, there was no doubt.
Selene wasn't just one of them.
She was born of something older.
Something forgotten.
---
He found the clearing where her transformation had taken hold.
The earth was torn. Branches snapped. Blood soaked the leaves. A shallow crater marked where her body had collapsed—shaking, changing, becoming. He knelt, fingers brushing the dried grass.
"She fought it," he murmured.
That much was clear. Most first shifts came with agony, yes, but rarely with this much violence. She had resisted the wolf in her.
Not out of weakness. But out of fear.
Kael stood, exhaling slowly. He could still feel her presence in the air. Her essence had stained the forest.
And something else had been here, too.
He sniffed the wind—nostrils flaring.
A predator.
A rogue, perhaps. Or something worse.
Something had circled her during the shift.
Something had been waiting.
Kael's jaw clenched. The idea made his blood boil.
He didn't understand why he cared so much. Selene was unknown. Untamed. She wasn't part of his pack—hell, she didn't even know what she was. But the bond tugged at him. Not the bond of mates—not yet.
Something older.
Instinct.
She was meant to lead. Her aura was already tugging at the moon's favor. That made her dangerous. Valuable.
And vulnerable.
Which meant she was his to protect—whether she liked it or not.
---
By dawn, he had returned to the ridge overlooking San Ezra.
From here, he could see the town slowly waking. Lights flickering on. Cars sputtering to life. Birds daring to sing again. And in the center of it all—her apartment.
Kael's gaze narrowed.
She had made it back on her own. Impressive. Most first-timers would've collapsed or fled blindly into the wilds. But Selene had returned. That showed willpower. Discipline.
Survivor's instinct.
She would need it.
Because this awakening was only the beginning.
There would be others who'd feel it. Packs that would see her as a threat. Alphas who'd want to bind her to bloodlines not her own. Hunters who'd see her as an anomaly to destroy.
She didn't know it yet—but she was no longer human.
She was no longer safe.
Kael reached into the inside pocket of his coat and pulled out the note he had written hours earlier. Just six words, and his initial. It was all she needed for now. Answers would come in time. But first, she had to come to him by choice.
Wolves could be born or made.
But Lunas had to awaken.
And he would be there when she did.
---
Later that morning, Kael returned to the Pack House—a stone fortress buried deep in the woods. Only his most trusted warriors lived here, along with his Beta, Torin, and a few sentinels. The pack had grown restless lately. Talk of prophecy stirred in the dark.
He entered the war room and tossed his coat on the table.
Torin raised an eyebrow. "She made it back?"
Kael nodded. "Unharmed. But changed."
Torin paced. "You're sure she's the one? We've chased false signs before, Kael. We've lost blood for dreams."
Kael turned, voice like steel. "I saw her shift. I felt it. She carries the old blood."
Torin didn't argue. "Then others will come."
"They already are," Kael said grimly. "I caught a foreign scent in the clearing. Something hungry."
Torin cursed under his breath. "Another rogue?"
"Worse," Kael said. "It smelled… marked."
The room fell silent.
Marked wolves were rare. Bound by ancient pacts, enslaved to blood-witches or banished alphas. Dangerous. Unpredictable. And drawn to power.
Selene's blood would call to them like a beacon.
Kael stepped toward the window, staring into the trees.
"Send a watcher," he said. "Keep eyes on her building. No contact unless necessary."
Torin hesitated. "You really think she'll come to you?"
Kael didn't answer at first.
Then, quietly: "She doesn't have a choice. The hunger will grow. The bond will pull. When the sun sets, she'll feel it."
"And if she doesn't come?"
Kael's eyes gleamed like fire.
"She will."