Elara's POV
Pain exploded through Elara's skull the moment she opened her eyes.
She gasped and shot upright in bed, clutching her head as memories crashed through her mind like breaking glass. Dante's cold rejection. Kieran choosing Selena. The rogues tearing into her chest. And then—light. Burning silver light that had erupted from inside her body like a volcano.
"Easy. You're safe."
Elara's head snapped toward the voice. A man sat in a chair beside the bed—tall, with silver hair that caught the sunlight streaming through massive windows, and storm-gray eyes that watched her with careful concern. He was devastatingly handsome in a dangerous way, like a sword wrapped in expensive silk.
"Who are you?" Elara's voice came out rough and broken. "Where am I?"
"My name is Caelan Nightshade. You're in my home in the Northern Territories." He stood slowly, hands visible and non-threatening. "You've been unconscious for three days. How do you feel?"
"Like I was ripped apart and put back together wrong." Elara looked down at her hands and froze. Her skin seemed to glow faintly, like moonlight lived under her flesh. "What happened to me?"
"You died." Caelan's voice was gentle but honest. "The rogues killed you. But something inside you refused to let go. Your dormant bloodline awakened to save your life."
"My bloodline?" Elara laughed bitterly. "I'm nobody. Just a weak human who married a wolf and couldn't even keep him interested."
"That's what you were told to believe." Caelan moved closer, and Elara noticed he walked like a predator—all controlled power and deadly grace. "But it's a lie. You're not human, Elara. You never were."
Her heart hammered against her ribs. "That's impossible. I've never shifted. Never felt a wolf inside me. My parents were human—"
"Were they?" Caelan interrupted quietly. "Or is that just what you remember? Strong magic can hide memories, Elara. Strong magic can suppress bloodlines so completely that the person never knows what they truly are."
Elara's hands trembled. She thought about the years of weakness, the difficult pregnancy that nearly killed her, the way she'd always felt wrong in her own skin. Like something vital was missing.
"I don't understand," she whispered. "What are you saying I am?"
Caelan pulled something from his pocket—a small mirror with an ornate silver frame. "See for yourself."
He held it up, and Elara looked at her reflection.
The scream caught in her throat.
The woman in the mirror looked like her—same delicate features, same honey-blonde hair. But silver streaks now ran through the blonde like threads of starlight. And her eyes, her ordinary amber eyes, now glowed with inner silver light that pulsed with each heartbeat.
"No." Elara touched her face with shaking fingers. "No, this isn't real. This is a dream. A nightmare—"
"It's real." Caelan set the mirror down gently. "You're Silvermoon, Elara. The last of the original wolf bloodline. The royal family that created the sacred mate bond three thousand years ago."
The words didn't make sense. Couldn't make sense. "That's a fairy tale. A legend. The Silvermoon bloodline died out centuries ago—"
"They were murdered," Caelan corrected, his voice hard with old anger. "Hunted down and killed because their power threatened other Alphas. The ability to create bonds, to purify them, to sever them permanently—that kind of power makes you either a savior or a weapon. And weapons must be controlled or destroyed."
Elara's mind spun. "If this is true, why didn't I know? Why didn't my parents tell me?"
"Because someone wanted your power hidden." Caelan pulled out a small vial filled with dark liquid. "My doctor found this in your bloodstream. Wolfsbane mixed with suppression magic. Someone's been poisoning you for years, keeping your bloodline dormant."
The vial slipped from Elara's numb fingers. Poisoned. Someone had poisoned her. For years.
"Who?" Her voice came out deadly soft. "Who did this to me?"
"That's what we need to find out." Caelan's jaw tightened. "But I have suspicions. The timing is too perfect—the poison in your system dates back six years. Right around the time you married Dante Blackwood."
Understanding hit like a physical blow. Six years ago. Her wedding. When she'd started feeling weak and sick all the time. When her bond with Dante had felt muted and distant instead of the blazing connection other mates described.
"Someone didn't want me to bond properly with Dante," Elara said slowly. "Someone wanted me weak. Wanted the bond corrupted."
"Yes." Caelan's eyes flashed with approval at her quick thinking. "And I think that same someone convinced Dante you weren't his true mate. Made him believe Selena was the real bond."
Rage unlike anything Elara had ever felt flooded through her veins. Her skin began to glow brighter, silver light crackling around her hands like lightning.
"Elara." Caelan's voice cut through the fury. "Control it. Your power responds to emotion. If you let rage drive it, you'll destroy everything around you."
She forced herself to breathe, to push down the anger burning in her chest. The light faded slowly.
"Good." Caelan nodded. "You're stronger than you know. But strength needs training. Control."
"How long?" Elara looked up at him. "How long will it take to learn control?"
"Weeks. Maybe months." Caelan studied her carefully. "Which brings us to your choice. You can return to your old life—go back to Dante, try to win back your son, live as the rejected mate everyone dismissed. Or—" He paused. "You can stay here. Train with me. Learn what you truly are. Become the Silvermoon heir and take back the power that was stolen from you."
Elara's throat tightened. "My son is back there. Kieran needs me—"
"Does he?" Caelan's question was brutal but necessary. "Right now, he thinks Selena is his mother. He ran past you to hug her, remember? If you go back weak and broken, you'll lose him permanently. But if you go back strong, powerful, undeniable—" His voice turned fierce. "Then you can take back everything that's yours. Your son. Your dignity. Your life."
The truth of his words cut deep. Elara had spent six years being weak, being dismissed, being nothing. And where had it gotten her? Rejected, replaced, forgotten by her own child.
Never again.
"I'll stay," Elara said, her voice steady despite the fear. "Teach me. Show me what I am."
Caelan's smile was sharp and approving. "Good. We start training tomorrow at dawn. It won't be easy—"
The door burst open.
A man in guard uniform rushed in, his face pale with panic. "Alpha King, we have a problem. Dante Blackwood is at our borders with half his pack. He's demanding to see Elara. Says he won't leave until—" The guard swallowed hard. "Until he gets his mate back."
Elara's blood turned to ice. "He can't feel the bond. He rejected me. Why would he—"
"Because the poison is wearing off." Caelan's expression turned grim. "Your Silvermoon awakening burned it out of your system. Which means any bonds connected to you are purifying too." He looked at Elara with something close to pity. "The mate bond Dante couldn't feel for six years? He's feeling it now. All of it. And it's probably driving him insane."
Horror and dark satisfaction warred in Elara's chest. Dante was suffering now. Good. He deserved to burn.
But another thought made her stomach drop.
"If Dante's feeling the real bond now," she said slowly, "then what about Selena? If their connection was fake—"
"Then it's collapsing as we speak." Caelan finished. "And Selena will do anything to keep her place as Luna. Including—"
Another guard burst in, this one carrying a phone. "Alpha King! Emergency call from Shadowpine Pack. It's about the boy. Kieran Blackwood."
Elara's heart stopped. "What about my son?"
The guard's face was ashen. "He's missing. Disappeared from the pack house thirty minutes ago. And there's a ransom note." He held out the phone with shaking hands. "It's addressed to you, ma'am. From someone calling herself your 'dearest friend.'"
Elara snatched the phone and read the message on the screen:
"Dear Elara, I have your precious boy. If you want to see him alive again, you'll come home immediately—alone and powerless. You have twelve hours. If you bring the Alpha King or use your Silvermoon abilities, Kieran dies. Tick tock. Your loving friend, Selena."
The phone shattered in Elara's glowing silver fist.