Previously: After being rejected by her pack, Sera fled into the Forbidden Woods where she was attacked by corrupted wolves. In a moment of desperation, something awakened inside her—a silver power that let her defeat her attackers with impossible speed and strength. Now she's found shelter with a mysterious old wolf named Aldric, who claims to know the truth about what she really is.
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The fire crackled in the hearth, casting flickering shadows across Aldric's cabin. The interior was sparse but purposeful—weapons mounted on walls, ancient texts stacked on shelves, and herbs hanging from the rafters that filled the air with a sharp, medicinal scent. Everything about this place whispered of a warrior's discipline, maintained through decades of solitary exile.
I sat rigid in the worn chair, my hands gripping the armrests so hard my knuckles had gone white. Aldric's question hung in the air between us like smoke.
Have you ever heard of the Moon Blessed?
"No," I said finally. "Should I have?"
Aldric's weathered face creased into something between a smile and a grimace. "Your family made sure you wouldn't. The Ashwoods have spent eighteen years ensuring you knew as little as possible about what you truly are." He rose slowly, moving to a shelf and retrieving a leather-bound book so old the cover had cracked like dried earth. "The Moon Blessed were the first wolves. The originals. Born directly from the Moon Goddess herself, before she created the lesser bloodlines that populate the world today."
He opened the book carefully, revealing pages covered in elegant script I couldn't read—some ancient language long forgotten by modern wolves. But there were illustrations. Images of massive wolves with silver fur, their eyes blazing with inner light, standing before a luminous female figure wreathed in moonbeams.
"They were gods among our kind," Aldric continued, his voice taking on the cadence of a storyteller reciting sacred history. "Stronger than any Alpha. Faster than thought. They could heal mortal wounds with a touch, command lesser wolves with a word, and manipulate moonlight itself as if it were a tangible thing." He looked up at me, his ancient eyes piercing. "They were also incredibly rare. And incredibly dangerous."
"Dangerous how?" My voice came out barely above a whisper.
"Power without wisdom is always dangerous, child. The Moon Blessed were meant to be guardians, protectors of wolfkind. But some grew drunk on their own strength. They saw themselves as superior to the 'lesser' wolves—the Alphas and Betas and Omegas the Goddess created after them. Wars erupted. Entire packs were slaughtered. The world ran red with wolf blood for three generations."
He turned another page, revealing an illustration of wolves locked in savage combat, their forms wreathed in silver and shadow. The brutality depicted in those ancient drawings made my stomach turn.
"So the Moon Goddess made a choice," Aldric said quietly. "She stripped the Moon Blessed of their immortality and sealed their bloodline. One by one, they died. Within two hundred years, they were extinct. Or so everyone believed."
I stared at the illustrations, my mind racing. "But they're not extinct."
"No." Aldric closed the book gently, reverently. "Because you exist, Seraphina Ashwood. And unless I'm very wrong—which I haven't been in three hundred years—you carry Moon Blessed blood in your veins."
The words should have sounded insane. Should have been impossible.
But they resonated in my chest like a struck bell, vibrating with truth I couldn't deny.
"The power you felt tonight," Aldric continued, "the silver eyes, the impossible speed—those are all markers of the Moon Blessed awakening. Your seal is breaking, child. Whatever was done to lock your power away is failing."
"Who sealed me?" The question came out sharp, almost accusatory. "And why?"
"Those are the right questions." Aldric returned to his chair with a sigh that spoke of old pain. "As for who—I don't know for certain. But I can make educated guesses. Someone with tremendous power and knowledge of ancient magic. Someone who knew what you were from the moment you were born. Someone in a position to hide you in plain sight within a pack that would never suspect the truth."
"My family." The realization hit like ice water. "The Ashwoods knew."
"Perhaps. Perhaps not all of them. Your father, certainly—the Alpha must have known. Whether your mother and siblings were told..." He shrugged. "That I cannot say."
Rage bubbled up in my chest, hot and acidic. "They knew. All this time, they knew I wasn't broken, and they let everyone—they let Marcus—" My voice cracked on his name. "They watched me fail, over and over, watched me be humiliated, and they said nothing!"
"Would you have preferred they told you?" Aldric's tone was gentle but unflinching. "Told you that you carried a bloodline so dangerous that entire armies once marched to exterminate it? That if the wrong wolves discovered what you were, they would kill you without hesitation? That the seal keeping your power locked away was the only thing standing between you and a very short, very brutal life?"
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
"They were protecting you," Aldric said. "In their own misguided way, they were trying to keep you safe. By making you seem worthless, they ensured no one would look too closely. No one would question why the Ashwood heir couldn't shift. You were dismissed as defective, and that dismissal kept you alive."
"Alive but miserable." The words came out bitter. "Alive but hated by my own pack. Alive but rejected by my mate."
"Yes." Aldric didn't soften it, didn't try to make it hurt less. "That's the price they chose for you. Whether it was the right choice..." He spread his hands. "That's not for me to judge."
I stood abruptly, unable to sit still any longer. My legs carried me to the window, where I stared out at the dark forest. Somewhere out there, back in Ashwood territory, my family was probably sleeping peacefully. Relieved, even, that the embarrassment of my failure was removed from their presence.
They had no idea what they'd unleashed by driving me away.
"You said Moon Blessed blood," I said, focusing on the details to keep the rage at bay. "Not *pure* Moon Blessed. What does that mean?"
"Sharp." Aldric's approval was evident. "It means you're not purely of that bloodline. If you were, the awakening would have been more... catastrophic. You would have killed those wolves without conscious thought, reduced them to ash with pure moonlight. The fact that you held back, that you had control even in that first surge—it suggests dilution. One parent with Moon Blessed blood, perhaps, and one without."
"My real parents." I turned to face him. "The Ashwoods aren't my birth family, are they?"
"I would be very surprised if they were. Jonathan Ashwood's bloodline is well-documented—strong Alpha heritage, but nothing extraordinary. No, child. Whoever gave birth to you possessed something far rarer." His expression grew distant. "I spent decades hunting for survivors of the old bloodlines. I never found any. Until tonight, I thought I was chasing myths and ghosts."
"But you recognized what I was immediately."
"Because I've seen Moon Blessed power before." His voice dropped, weighted with memory. "A very long time ago, I served in the court of the last known Moon Blessed Alpha. I watched her command an army with nothing but her will. I saw her heal wounds that should have been fatal. I witnessed her manipulate moonlight like it was clay in her hands." He met my eyes. "And I watched her die when her enemies finally found a way to kill her—betrayed by one of her own pack who feared her power too much to let her live."
The cabin fell silent except for the pop and hiss of the fire. Outside, an owl hooted, distant and mournful.
"Is that why you're out here?" I asked softly. "Hiding? Because you served the Moon Blessed?"
"Partly." Aldric's smile was sad. "After she died, her enemies hunted down everyone associated with her court. Most were killed. A few of us escaped. I've been here for... oh, two hundred years or so. Long enough that most wolves have forgotten I exist. Long enough that the Forbidden Woods' reputation keeps the curious away."
Two hundred years. The number was staggering. Most wolves lived to maybe a hundred and fifty if they were lucky and avoided violence. Aldric must have been ancient beyond measure—and powerful enough to survive when others hadn't.
"The seal on your power," he continued, steering back to practical matters, "is breaking. That much is clear. But it's not breaking cleanly. What you experienced tonight was a crack, a fracture. Your true power is leaking through in bursts. It's dangerous, Seraphina. Dangerous to you and to anyone near you when it surges."
"Can it be fixed? Can the seal be... I don't know, removed properly?"
"Yes. But it won't be easy, and it won't be quick." Aldric leaned forward, his expression intense. "The seal was created using ancient magic—magic that no one alive still practices. Breaking it requires time, training, and considerable pain. You'll need to learn to control the power as it emerges, piece by piece. If you don't, the next surge might kill you. Or worse, it might kill someone you don't intend to harm."
The weight of his words settled over me like a physical thing. I thought of those wolves in the forest—how easily I'd thrown them, how close I'd come to snapping the alpha's neck. If that had happened in the middle of Ashwood territory, surrounded by pack members...
"How long?" I asked. "How long will it take?"
"Months. Maybe a year." He paused. "Maybe longer, if your bloodline is more complicated than I suspect."
"Complicated how?"
Aldric's expression shifted—something flickered across his face that I couldn't quite read. Concern? Curiosity? Fear?
"The Moon Blessed weren't the only powerful bloodline that was sealed away by the Goddess," he said slowly. "There were... others. Darker lineages. Wolves who drew power not from the moon, but from shadow and blood and death itself. They called them the Night Cursed, though that's not a name spoken aloud anymore."
A chill ran down my spine. "You think I might have that blood too?"
"I don't know. But when you fought tonight—did you feel anything besides the silver light? Any other power stirring?"
I thought back to those moments in the forest. The silver had been overwhelming, all-consuming. But underneath it, hadn't there been something else? Something that felt less like moonlight and more like the darkness between stars? Something that had whispered not of protection but of dominance?
"Maybe," I admitted. "I'm not sure."
Aldric nodded slowly. "Then we proceed carefully. Very carefully. Because if you carry both bloodlines—Moon Blessed and Night Cursed—you're not just rare, Seraphina. You're unique. Possibly the only one of your kind in existence."
"Is that good or bad?"
"Yes," he said simply.
I wanted to laugh at the non-answer, but the sound died in my throat. This was too big, too overwhelming. Hours ago, I'd been the pack disappointment, the defective heir who couldn't even manage the most basic function of our kind. Now I was apparently descended from extinct godlike wolves and possibly cursed shadows, with power sealed inside me that could kill with a thought.
"I need time to think," I said, my voice sounding hollow even to my own ears.
"Of course." Aldric stood, moving toward a door in the back of the cabin. "There's a spare room—small, but clean. You can stay as long as you need. Tomorrow, if you choose, we can begin your training. But the choice must be yours, Seraphina. I won't force this path on you."
"What happens if I say no? If I just... leave, try to live a normal life?"
He looked back at me, and for the first time I saw true pity in his ancient eyes.
"The seal is breaking regardless of what you choose. The power will emerge. Without training, without control—" He shook his head. "You'd be dead within a month. Either killed by your own power consuming you from within, or killed by someone who sensed what you were and decided you were too dangerous to live."
"So it's not really a choice."
"No," he admitted. "I suppose it's not."
---
The spare room was exactly as promised—small, clean, containing nothing but a narrow bed and a single window that looked out over the dark forest. I dropped my bag in the corner and sat on the bed, which creaked under my weight.
Exhaustion should have claimed me immediately. I'd been awake for nearly twenty-four hours, and the emotional and physical toll of the day should have left me unconscious the moment I lay down.
Instead, I stared at the ceiling, my mind churning.
Moon Blessed. Night Cursed. Sealed bloodlines. Ancient power.
It sounded like a fairy tale. Like the stories parents told children to make them behave.
"Eat your vegetables, or the Night Cursed will steal your shadow."
"Say your prayers, or the Moon Blessed won't protect your dreams."
But my glowing silver eyes weren't a fairy tale. The way I'd moved in that forest, the power that had surged through me—that was real. Terrifyingly, intoxicatingly real.
I lifted my hand, studying it in the moonlight streaming through the window. Normal now. Just pale skin and slender fingers, the scratches from earlier completely healed without even a scar.
But underneath...
I focused, reaching for that place inside me where the power lived. For eighteen years, I'd searched for my wolf and found only silence. Now, when I looked inward, I saw light.
Silver light, pulsing gently like a heartbeat.
And beneath it—almost hidden, like something deliberately concealed—a flicker of red.
I pulled back quickly, my heart racing.
Two bloodlines. Two powers. Both sealed. Both breaking free.
A soft knock interrupted my spiraling thoughts. Aldric's voice came through the door. "Can't sleep?"
"No."
"May I come in?"
I considered saying no, sending him away so I could wrestle with this alone. But the solitude of my room back at Ashwood Manor had never brought me answers.
"Yes."
He entered carrying two steaming mugs. The scent hit me immediately—chamomile and something else, something earthy and soothing that I couldn't name. He offered me one, and I took it gratefully, wrapping my hands around the warmth.
"An old recipe," he said, settling into the room's single chair. "Good for nights when sleep won't come and thoughts won't quiet."
We sat in silence for a moment, sipping the tea. It was good—better than good. I felt some of the tension in my shoulders ease.
"You have questions," Aldric said finally. "Ask them."
"Why did you stay here?" The question came out before I could stop it. "After everyone you served died, after you escaped—why hide in the Forbidden Woods for two hundred years? Why not just... leave? Find a new pack, a new life?"
"Because I was waiting."
"For what?"
"For you." His eyes met mine over the rim of his mug. "Or someone like you. I knew the old bloodlines couldn't truly be extinct. The Goddess doesn't make mistakes—if she sealed them rather than destroying them, it was because she knew they'd be needed again someday. So I waited. Watched. Listened for any whisper of ancient power awakening."
"That's a long time to wait for a maybe."
"When you've lived as long as I have, time becomes... negotiable." He smiled faintly. "Besides, what else did I have to do? Return to pack politics? Chase territorial disputes? I'd had my fill of that centuries ago."
I took another sip of tea, marshaling my thoughts. "The training you mentioned. What would it involve?"
"Pain, mostly." His bluntness was almost refreshing. "Breaking a seal isn't like learning to shift—it's not a natural process. We'll be forcing your power to emerge in controlled bursts, teaching you to channel it, to shape it. Each breakthrough will hurt. Each new ability you unlock will feel like your body is tearing itself apart and rebuilding."
"Sounds awful."
"It is. But the alternative is worse."
I thought of the silver light, the rush of impossible speed and strength. The feeling of *rightness* that had come with it, like I'd finally found a missing piece of myself.
"When do we start?"
Aldric's expression shifted—surprise giving way to approval. "You're certain? Once we begin, there's no going back. The seal can't be repaired. You'll either learn to master your power, or it will master you."
"I'm certain." And I was. For the first time since last night's disastrous ceremony, I felt clear. Focused. "They called me defective. They threw me away. I'm going to prove them all wrong."
"Revenge is a powerful motivator," Aldric said carefully. "But it's not enough to sustain you through what's coming. You'll need something deeper. Something true."
"What did you fight for? When you served the Moon Blessed court?"
He was quiet for a long moment, gazing into his tea as if seeing the past reflected there.
"I fought because she believed in something better," he said finally. "My Alpha—the last Moon Blessed—she wanted to unite the packs, end the constant warring, create a world where strength meant protection rather than domination. She died before she could achieve it. But I never forgot what she stood for."
"And you think I should fight for something noble like that?"
"I think you should fight for whatever keeps you alive long enough to discover who you really are." His eyes found mine. "Right now, revenge will do. Later, you'll find your own reasons. Or they'll find you."
I finished my tea, setting the empty mug aside. The exhaustion was finally catching up to me, pulling at my limbs like weights.
"Tomorrow, then," I said. "We start tomorrow."
"Tomorrow," Aldric agreed, rising. "Rest while you can, Seraphina. You're going to need it."
He left, closing the door softly behind him.
I lay back on the narrow bed, pulling the thin blanket over myself. Through the window, I could see the moon—nearly full, bright enough to paint silver patterns on the floor.
Moon Blessed, I thought, testing the words in my mind. Is that what I am? What my real parents were?
The moonlight seemed to pulse in response, or maybe that was just my imagination.
I closed my eyes, and for once, sleep came quickly.
But my dreams were not peaceful.
I dreamed of wolves wreathed in silver light, standing before a luminous goddess. I dreamed of battles that painted the earth red, of ancient powers clashing like thunder. I dreamed of a woman with my face but not my eyes—her eyes were pure molten silver—standing on a cliff overlooking a vast pack, her hand raised to the moon.
And I dreamed of darkness. Of shadows that moved with purpose and hunger. Of red eyes watching from places light couldn't reach. Of a voice that whispered in a language I shouldn't understand but somehow did:
"You are more than they know. More than they fear. And when you rise, little wolf, the world will remember why they sealed us away."
I woke with a gasp, my hands clutching the blanket, my heart hammering.
The room was still dark. Still quiet.
But in the corner, where the moonlight didn't reach, I could have sworn I saw something move.
Something with eyes the color of fresh blood.
Then I blinked, and it was gone.
Just shadows. Just nightmares.
Just the seal breaking and ancient power stirring to life inside me.
I pulled the blanket tighter and stared at the ceiling, waiting for dawn.
Tomorrow, my real education would begin.
Tomorrow, I would start learning what I truly was.
And somewhere, in a manor house that no longer felt like home, the Ashwood pack slept peacefully—unaware that the girl they'd rejected was about to become something they'd never imagined.
Something they'd learn to fear.
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NextChapter: "Hell's Training" - Aldric begins Sera's brutal education, and she discovers that unlocking ancient power comes at a price. Meanwhile, back at Ashwood Manor, someone begins asking dangerous questions about where Sera really went...
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End of Chapter 3