Aria stood before the map table in the war room, her eyes tracing the northern ridge where Blackspire sat like a festering wound on the land. The scent of burning sage filled the air—Myra's wards being drawn in layers around the compound. Everpine was no longer just protecting a territory. It was shielding a prophecy.
Riven placed his hand over the map. "Their scouts are already on our edge. They're testing us."
"Let them," Theron growled. "We've weathered worse."
"We've never faced this," Kael said. "Not this."
He pulled a scroll from his pack—parchment aged and sealed in Selene's runes. He unfurled it with care.
Aria stepped closer.
The symbols were old. Not language, but echoes. Magic that bled from soul to stone.
Wren translated quietly: "The Hollow Moon is not born. It is made. Forged from broken Lunas, corrupted bonds, and stolen rites. Every time one of Selene's daughters is betrayed, a crack forms in the Veil."
Aria's fingers brushed the scroll.
And it burned.
A flash—images in her mind:
A Sacred Luna drowned in a ritual meant to silence her voice.
Another sealed in a cave, her light used to power a kingdom.
A third, bound and burned beneath two moons—one silver, one black.
All betrayed.
All fed the Hollow.
She pulled her hand back, heart racing. "It's been building for centuries."
Kael nodded. "And you… you were supposed to be its vessel. Until you broke the chain."
Aria swallowed hard. "So now it wants me gone."
Wren's face was pale. "If the Hollow rises under a false Luna—one not chosen, but taken—everything Selene built will fall."
That night, under the full moon, Aria stood on the ridge overlooking her pack.
Hundreds of wolves. New. Old. Reclaimed from Hollow Fang. Even rogues who had no territory left.
All bowed before her—not as a queen.
As a force.
As a future.
She raised her voice.
"We will not let fear rule us. We are wolves. We are Luna's blood. We are not prey—we are the answer."
The howl that followed shook the mountains.
Far to the north, under a broken sky, Alpha Bastian watched from his tower as black mist curled around his territory.
And from the shadows behind him, a voice whispered—
"Invite her. Let her come. Then take her light… and give it to me."