The forest floor was her bed, the canopy her ceiling. Selene lay curled near the remnants of their fire, watching embers wink like dying stars. Exhaustion dragged at her bones, but every time she closed her eyes, the words Darius had spoken replayed in her mind.
The Moon's fire. Blood like yours. More powerful than your father.
She didn't want to believe him. Couldn't. And yet… her wolf pulsed beneath her skin like a restless heartbeat, making denial impossible.
When at last sleep claimed her, it came not as a gentle drift but a violent plunge. The ground seemed to vanish, and she fell into endless black.
A silver light pierced the dark.
Selene blinked, and the void melted into an unfamiliar landscape. She stood barefoot on obsidian stone, a vast temple unfurling around her. Towering pillars rose toward a sky filled not with stars, but with a great, pale moon—so close she swore she could reach out and touch it. The air was thick with incense and whispers, voices too distant to understand.
Her breath fogged in the chill, but no warmth came when she rubbed her arms. This was not a dream. It was something deeper, something that made the hairs along her neck rise.
"You have finally come."
The voice was everywhere at once—above, behind, inside her head. Selene whirled, searching for its source.
From the shadows between the pillars, a figure emerged. A woman cloaked in flowing midnight, her hair long and silver as moonlight. Her skin shimmered faintly, as though dusted with stars. But it was her eyes that rooted Selene in place—pale, luminous, holding galaxies in their depths.
Selene's knees weakened. She knew who this was, though she had never seen her. Every wolf pup had been told the stories, the prayers whispered to the sky on full moons.
"Nyx," Selene whispered, the name catching on her tongue. "The Moon Goddess."
The goddess smiled faintly, her expression unreadable. "At last, you call me by my true name."
Selene's lips parted. "This… this can't be real."
Nyx stepped closer, her presence pressing down like gravity itself. "And yet, here you stand."
The goddess circled her slowly, her gaze appraising, like a predator studying prey—or perhaps like a queen considering whether a subject was worthy.
"You burn with my fire, child," Nyx said softly, her voice laced with both tenderness and danger. "It sings in your blood. Even now, your wolf trembles at its weight."
Selene swallowed hard. Her wolf was trembling, its growl low and uneasy. "I don't understand. Why me? I didn't ask for this."
"No one asks," Nyx replied, halting before her. "The fire chooses. And when it does, the world shifts."
Her hand lifted, fingers brushing the air just above Selene's chest. Heat bloomed beneath Selene's skin, a wild, searing pulse that made her gasp. It was as if her very soul had been touched.
"You will be hunted," Nyx continued, her tone grave. "Betrayal already festers around you. Those who once called you daughter, sister, mate—they will see you as threat, not kin."
The words carved deep. Selene saw flashes: Lucian's cold rejection, Seraphina's mocking smile, her father's unyielding silence. Pain twisted her insides, but Nyx's voice was relentless.
"You will be tested by blade and by bond. Wolves will kneel or bleed, and you must decide who is worth your mercy."
Selene's breath quickened. She wanted to scream that she wasn't ready, that she wasn't strong enough, but her voice refused to rise.
Nyx leaned closer, her luminous eyes burning brighter. "The fire is not a gift. It is a burden. If you fail to master it, it will consume you, as it has consumed others before you."
"Others?" Selene managed to whisper. "There were… more like me?"
A flicker of sorrow crossed the goddess's face, swift and sharp. "Once. Long ago. Their names are lost to history, their bones dust beneath the earth. Their flames burned too fast, too fierce."
Selene's knees buckled, and she fell onto the cold obsidian. Her palms pressed the stone, trembling. "Then why give this to me? Why curse me with it?"
Nyx's expression softened, though her gaze remained unyielding. She reached out, lifting Selene's chin with a finger colder than ice.
"Because the world tilts toward ruin," she said. "Because the packs rot from within. And because even a rejected heir can become the flame that remakes the night."
The words struck deep, sparking something beneath Selene's fear—something fragile but undeniable. Hope.
Still, she shook her head, tears stinging her eyes. "I'm not strong enough. I couldn't even hold my mate. I couldn't make my father love me."
Nyx's voice dropped, fierce and commanding. "Strength is not given, Selene. It is forged."
The goddess's hand pressed against Selene's chest. Fire roared through her veins, white-hot, searing, but instead of pain, it filled her with raw power. Her wolf howled inside, not in fear, but in exultation.
Selene gasped, arching as silver flames licked across her skin—beautiful, terrifying, divine. For an instant, she saw herself not as the broken, rejected daughter, but as something greater: a warrior cloaked in moonlight, eyes glowing, a crown of silver fire upon her head.
The vision vanished as quickly as it came. She collapsed forward, chest heaving, the flames gone but their echo still thrumming in her blood.
Nyx's voice was softer now, almost mournful. "Do not mistake this fire for salvation. It will demand sacrifice. Those you love may fall. You may fall. But if you endure… the night itself will bend to you."
Selene lifted her gaze, tears streaking her cheeks. "And if I don't endure?"
Nyx's eyes glimmered like twin moons. "Then your story will end as ash, and the world will fall into shadow without its flamebearer."
A chill ran through Selene, colder than any winter.
The temple began to dissolve, the pillars crumbling into smoke, the moon fading into a dim glow. Nyx's form blurred, though her eyes lingered, burning into Selene's soul.
"Awaken, child," the goddess whispered. "Awaken and rise."
Selene jolted awake, her body slick with sweat despite the cold night air. Her heart pounded wildly, every beat echoing with the goddess's words.
The fire beside her was long dead, its ashes grey. Darius was nowhere in sight, though she sensed he hadn't gone far.
She pressed a trembling hand against her chest, half-expecting to feel the burn of those silver flames. Instead, she found only her rapid heartbeat.
But her wolf stirred, restless, almost eager. And when she looked up at the pale moon through the canopy, she no longer saw it as a distant light. She saw it as a reminder.
Nyx had chosen her.
Whether she wanted it or not, Selene was no longer just a rejected heir. She was something far more dangerous.
Something the world would soon learn to fear.