Selene's POV
"The Gate is open."
The howls pierced through the forest like knives cutting through silk. Every sound that followed, snapping branches, the metallic clash of steel, the low thunder of paws, told me one truth. The Gate had awakened.
Lucian was already moving, his body a blur of instinct and command. "Stay close," he said, his voice sharp with Alpha authority, but there was something else beneath it, fear. Not for himself. For me.
I grabbed my cloak, my fingers trembling only for a heartbeat before magic steadied them. "I'm not hiding while your people fight," I replied.
Our eyes met, silver against storm. He didn't argue.
The moonlight flickered through the trees as we ran, the earth damp underfoot, shadows twisting along the path. My pulse drummed in my ears, echoing with the voice that had whispered in the graveyard moments ago.
The Gate is open.
When we broke through the treeline, the sight that met us froze my breath.
