The pack stood frozen, caught between awe and terror. I felt their emotions swirling—pride that one of their own could be so powerful, fear of what that power meant, shame at their past rejection, and underneath it all, the primal need to protect the young.
"Choose," I repeated, harder this time. "Because your decision determines whether Luna and I stay to defend this pack or leave you to face the Order alone."
"You'd abandon us?" A young wolf, Sarah, stepped forward. "After what we just saw coming for your daughter?"
"You abandoned us first," I reminded her. "Called me defective. Stood silent while I was rejected in labor. Why should I protect wolves who—"
"Because I was wrong."
Marcus's voice cut through everything. He stood apart from the pack, shoulders bent with the weight of truth.
"I was wrong," he repeated, louder. "I let fear and pride poison me against my own mate. Let Garrett manipulate me into the greatest mistake of my life." His eyes found Luna, sleeping in my arms. "I rejected my daughter before she drew breath. There's no forgiveness for that."
The pack stirred, feeling their Alpha's raw honesty.
"But I'm asking anyway," he continued. "Not for me. For them." He gestured to the pack. "They'll follow your lead, Aria. They're terrified, yes. But they're also in awe. You could unite us or destroy us with a word."
"Pretty words," I said coldly. "Where were they three years ago?"
"I can't change the past. But I can offer you the future." He dropped to one knee—an Alpha kneeling before his rejected Luna. The pack gasped. "Return as Prime Luna. Not as my mate—I broke that beyond repair. But as the pack's true leader. Take your rightful place."
"And you?"
"I'll step down if you demand it. Or serve under your command. Whatever keeps our daughter safe."
Our daughter. The words he'd never said before.
Through my gift, I felt the pack's shock transforming into something else. Hope. If their Alpha could admit such failure, maybe they could face their own prejudices.
Elder Thorne cleared his throat. "The challenge still requires resolution. Ancient law demands—"
"Ancient law demands justice," I interrupted. "I name my terms."
The formal words rippled through the gathering. By rights, I could demand Marcus's life. His position. Everything.
"First, every wolf who participated in my persecution steps forward now."
Slowly, shamefully, nearly a dozen wolves moved. Including some I'd once called friends.
"You'll spend the next year working with the outcast packs. Learning what it means to be rejected. Maybe then you'll think twice before calling another wolf 'defective.'"
They nodded, accepting the lighter punishment than expected.
"Second, Garrett lives—but exiled. Let the Order's mark be his reminder of what ambition costs."
Garrett whimpered from where he lay, black veins still pulsing.
"Third..." I looked at Marcus. "You remain Alpha. But I serve as Prime Luna with equal authority. We rule together—not as mates, but as parents. For Luna's sake."
"You'd share power with me? After everything?"
"I'm not doing it for you." I shifted Luna in my arms. "She needs to see strength and unity, not more broken bonds. We failed as mates. We won't fail as leaders."
Marcus stood slowly. "I accept your terms. All of them."
But the formal acceptance was interrupted by laughter—cold, ancient, wrong.
Garrett was standing again, but his movements were puppet-smooth. The black veins had spread, covering half his face.
"Touching," he said in a voice not his own. "The broken family reunites. But you misunderstand something fundamental."
Other marked wolves throughout the clearing began to convulse. Not many—five, maybe six—but enough. The Order had planted more seeds than just Garrett.
"We don't need to take the child," Shadow-Garrett continued. "She'll come to us when she realizes what she is. What you've hidden from her, Mother."
"I've hidden nothing!"
"Haven't you?" He tilted his head unnaturally. "Tell me, Prime Luna—why do you think the Moon Goddess gave you a child who bridges shadow and light? What purpose does such power serve?"
I felt Luna stir in my arms, awakening to the threat.
"She's meant to destroy you," I snarled.
"Is she? Or is she meant to unite us?" Shadow-Garrett smiled with too many teeth. "The first True Empath in centuries, born to a rejected mother. Conceived in a corrupted bond. Carrying the power to bridge two natures that were never meant to be separate."
"Mama?" Luna's voice was small. "The shadow wolf is lying but also not-lying. How can that be?"
My blood ran cold. If Luna could feel truth in his words...
"We were one once," Shadow-Garrett continued, addressing the pack now. "Shadow and Wolf. Emotion and Form. Until the first Alphas decided some feelings were too dangerous. They split us apart. Banished the shadows. Created the very hunger that drives us now."
"Lies," Selene snarled, but I felt her uncertainty.
"Are they?" Multiple shadow-marked wolves spoke in unison now. "Why do you think empaths are so rare? Why does the gift drive most mad? Because you're feeling the severed half of your nature crying out for reunion."
Luna slipped from my arms, standing on unsteady legs. "You're hungry because you're half-empty. We're broken because we're half-full."
"Clever child." Shadow-Garrett knelt before her. "You could end the hunger. Bridge the gap. Make us whole again. It's what you were born for."
"Luna, don't listen—"
But my daughter was already extending her hand, power flowing twilight-bright.
"I know what I was born for," she said simply.
And touched the Shadow's face.