The guards' rough hands on her arms felt distant as they dragged Freya back toward the manor. She didn't resist: couldn't resist. Her legs moved mechanically, one foot after the other, but her mind remained frozen on that moment of devastating recognition.
"Soraya is alive?"
Freya couldn't wrap her head around how the sister she'd mourned for ten agonizing years was walking around so full of life. As if she'd never left Freya to carry the weight of guilt and grief alone.
"Move!" One of the guards grunted, shoving her forward when her steps faltered.
Freya barely felt the push as she kept thinking of how the whole thing was possible.
The guards unceremoniously shoved her inside when they reached the room she had escaped from then locked the door shut. Freya stumbled toward the bed, her legs finally giving out as she sank onto the mattress.
"This doesn't make sense..." She whispered to the empty room.
She pressed her palms against her temples, trying to organize her chaotic thoughts. The logical part of her mind insisted that she must be mistaken. Twin or not, people could look similar. Maybe this Seraphina was just someone who happened to share her sister's features.
But logic crumbled in the face of certainty. That wasn't just a resemblance: that was Soraya. Every detail was exactly as Freya remembered.
"Seraphina?" Freya repeated the name, testing how it felt on her tongue. It felt wrong. Foreign. Like trying to call a rose by any other name.
Fresh tears stung the corners of her eyes but she forced them back. Crying wouldn't solve anything. She needed answers, and she wasn't going to get them locked in this room like a prisoner.
She stood abruptly, pacing to the window where broken glass still littered the floor from her earlier escape attempt. The guards had already boarded it up from the outside, apparently, Alpha Grimfang wasn't taking any chances of her pulling that stunt again.
"I need to get out of this room and be free to do my findings on that lady." She muttered, examining the makeshift barrier. Then she began to pace, her mind working frantically.
"Think, Freya... What would make him trust you? What would make him see you as valuable instead of dangerous?"
She knew she needed to prove her loyalty to the pack. She needed to demonstrate that she belonged there that she was worthy of the Luna title that fate had supposedly destined for her.
The answer came to her gradually. She needed to make herself indispensable. She needed to show Alpha Grimfang that rejecting her would be a mistake he couldn't afford to make.
But first, she needed freedom.
Freya had barely settled on this resolution when a sharp pain shot through her forehead, so sudden and intense that she cried out. The agony felt like someone driving a burning spike directly into her brain, and she stumbled backward, her hands flying to her head.
"What's happening?" She gasped, but the pain only intensified.
Her vision blurred, the room spinning wildly around her. She felt herself falling, her knees hitting the floor hard, but the physical impact was nothing compared to the fire consuming her skull.
Then, as suddenly as it had come, the pain vanished.
But consciousness went with it.
~~~~~~~~~~
When awareness returned, Freya found herself standing in a familiar ethereal place that defied description.
"Welcome back to my kingdom, child."
The voice came from everywhere and nowhere at once, resonating through Freya's very bones. She turned slowly, knowing what she would see but still feeling her breath catch when the figure materialized before her.
The Moon Goddess was exactly as she remembered from their previous encounter; tall, luminous, and radiating power that made the air itself tremble.
Despite herself, Freya managed to attempt something that might pass for a bow in greeting.
The goddess smiled, a expression that somehow managed to be both benevolent and terrifying.
"There's no need for such formality between us, my chosen one. You and I have much to discuss about your divine purpose."
Freya felt her mouth open to speak, to ask the thousand questions burning in her mind, but no sound emerged. She tried again, panic rising as she realized she had no voice in this place.
The Moon Goddess laughed, then explained;
"Do not be alarmed. In this sacred realm, your mortal voice cannot challenge divine will. But I can hear your thoughts clearly enough, child. Your confusion, your doubts, your... questions about matters that do not concern our purpose."
Freya's eyes blinked in relief then she decided to communicate with the goddess using her thoughts
'Why was I paired with Alpha Grimfang when he clearly doesn't want me? How am I supposed to fulfill this destiny when I'm locked in a room like a prisoner?'
"Ah..." The goddess said, her smile widening as she continued;
"I wondered when you would ask. The answer is quite simple, dear one. I paired you with the Alpha because your destinies are intertwined in ways you cannot yet comprehend. His rejection of you now is merely the influence of forces that work against me, lesser beings who think they can interfere with divine will."
She waved a dismissive hand, and Freya caught a glimpse of something cold and calculating beneath the goddess's serene facade.
"But do not concern yourself with their petty machinations. I will deal with them soon enough. For now, they believe they are winning, and it suits my purposes to let them think so."
"Then about my sister... The woman who looks exactly like..." Freya's mind raced with a new question.
"Focus, child, such distractions are beneath your notice. You have a sacred duty to fulfill, and I will not have you deterred by irrelevant matters." The Moon Goddess interrupted sharply, though her expression remained placid.
'Why won't you answer me about my sister?' Freya shouted in her mind, frustration and suspicion growing.
The goddess's smile never wavered, but something twitched in her eyes.
"Tonight, you will have the opportunity to prove your worth to the Alpha. A group of Lycans plans to attack his pack. They will strike when the moon reaches its zenith—in precisely fifteen minutes from when you wake." She said, smoothly changing the subject.
Freya's eyes widened.
'Lycans? Why?' She had heard about them from childhood. They were the powerful breeds and didn't live within the werewolves because they only shift into humans during the full moons.
"Because they are evil, child. Ancient, corrupted beings who seek only destruction and chaos. They have plagued this world for far too long, and it is your divine purpose to end their existence once and for all." The goddess said then began to pace.
"These particular Lycans have been watching the pack, learning its weaknesses. They know the armory's location and plan to destroy the weapons first, leaving the pack defenseless for slaughter."
"This attack will be an opportunity for you to make your mate see you worthy of the Luna title. And know this, you must remain in that pack to fulfill your divine purpose, you are not allowed to leave so you have to make good use of this opportunity."
Freya felt herself being pulled away from the ethereal realm then, the goddess's words replaying in her head;
"Remember, fifteen minutes. The armory first, then the main attack. Do not let me down, my chosen one."
~~~~~~~~~~
Freya jerked upright on the floor of the room, her head pounding and her heart racing.
"Fifteen minutes... Maybe less now." She thought frantically as she struggled to her feet. However, at moment, the door opened and Zeta Thor entered. Freya rushed to him.
"Thank the goddess you're here! I need to speak with Alpha Grimfang immediately. There's going to be..."
"Slow down." Thor raised his hand, cutting her short.
"The Alpha sent me to conduct your scheduled interrogation. He doesn't want to see you until I determine whether or not you're a threat to this pack."
"That's what I'm trying to tell you! There is a threat, but it's not me!" She said hurriedly. Thor's expression didn't look convinced.
"Then what's the threat?" He demanded, narrowing his eyes on her.
Freya was about to open her mouth again when the lights suddenly went out.
Every lamp, every torch, every source of illumination in the manor died simultaneously, bringing absolute darkness.
"What the hell?" Thor muttered, turning around to check what was wrong.
Freya's eyes widened in panic but before she could think of what was happening, the first explosion shook the building. Then another.
"It definitely isn't even fifteen minutes yet! What's going on?" She yelled with exasperation.