Sera's POV
I walk for what feels like hours but might only be minutes. Time behaves strangely under the blood moon, elastic and unreliable. The forest seems to shift and breathe around me, trees moving when I'm not looking directly at them, shadows dancing in my peripheral vision like living things with their own intentions.
The pull grows stronger with every step. My chest aches with it, like there's a rope attached to my heart, dragging me forward with inexorable force. I should be terrified. Should be running in the opposite direction, back toward the pack lands where at least the dangers are familiar.
Instead, I feel calm. Eerily calm. Like I'm finally going where I'm supposed to be, like every step I've ever taken has been leading to this moment.
The whisper comes again, clearer now, more insistent:
The curse kept you caged, daughter. The blood moon sets you free. Come home. Come to what you were always meant to be.
Branches scratch my arms as I push through thick underbrush. Thorns tear at my already ruined dress, catching on fabric and skin alike. I don't feel it. The pull is too strong, drowning out everything else the pain, the fear, even the lingering heartbreak from Damien's betrayal.
Then the trees thin abruptly, and I stumble into a clearing that shouldn't exist.
I freeze, breath catching in my throat, unable to process what I'm seeing.
Ruins.
Ancient stone structures rise from the earth like the bones of some long dead giant, like the skeleton of a civilization that existed before recorded history. Pillars that must be hundreds maybe thousands of years old stand in a perfect circle, each one carved with symbols that seem to pulse and writhe in the blood moon's crimson light. The symbols look almost alive, flowing like water despite being carved in stone.
At the center of the circle sits a stone altar, its surface glowing with the same unearthly light as the moon above. The altar looks pristine despite its obvious age, as if it's been waiting, preserved by magic for this exact moment.
The symbols cover everything the pillars, the altar, even the ground itself where grass refuses to grow. I can't read them, don't recognize the language, have never seen anything like them in the few books I was allowed to read. But somehow I understand their meaning. They sing to something deep inside me, something that's been sleeping my entire life.
Power. Awakening. Transformation. Rebirth. Destiny.
I step into the circle, drawn inexorably toward the altar like iron to a magnet, like a moth to flame. The air feels thick here, charged with energy that makes my skin tingle and my hair stand on end, crackling with static electricity. It's like standing in the moment before lightning strikes that anticipation, that building pressure, that knowledge that something massive is about to happen and there's no way to stop it.
On the altar's surface, carved into the stone itself with perfect precision, is a handprint. My size exactly. The fingers are slender, feminine, fitting my hand like it was made specifically for me. Too perfect to be coincidence.
The whisper returns, urgent now, almost desperate:
Place your hand. Accept your birthright. Claim what was stolen from you before you even drew breath. Become what you were always meant to be.
This is insane, I whisper to the empty ruins, to the ancient stones that have witnessed who knows what over the centuries. I'm losing my mind. This has to be a hallucination. Blood loss and exhaustion and emotional trauma making me see things that aren't real.
But even as I say it, I know it's not true. This is real. More real than anything I've ever experienced. Whatever this place is, whatever's about to happen, it's the most real thing in my entire life.
My hand lifts anyway, drawn to the altar like it has a will of its own, like my body knows something my mind hasn't caught up to yet.
A twig snaps behind me.
The sound cracks through the silence like a gunshot. I spin around, heart racing, adrenaline flooding my system, and watch in horror as a familiar figure step from the shadows between the pillars.
Damien.
There you are, he says, and that smile the one I used to think was charming, the one that made my heart flutter looks sinister in the blood moon's crimson light. Predatory. Cruel. I've been looking for you.
I back away instinctively, my body's survival instincts screaming danger, putting the altar between us. How did you find me?
Followed your trail. Easy enough to track someone who's bleeding and moving like a wounded animal. He takes a step closer, casual and unhurried, confident in his superiority. You made it farther than I expected, though. Most humans would have been too scared to enter the Forbidden Forest. But then, you never had much sense, did you?
What do you want? My voice shakes, but I force myself to stay still. Running would just trigger his chase instinct, and he's faster than me in every way that matters.
Victoria sent me to bring you back. He pulls something from his jacket a syringe filled with dark, viscous liquid that seems to absorb the moonlight rather than reflect it. The substance inside looks wrong, unnatural, threatening. Father can't let you just walk away. You're a security risk. You know too much about pack business, about our defenses, about things you shouldn't.
Horror floods through me. I don't know anything! I was never included in pack meetings, never told anything important
It doesn't matter what you actually know, Damien interrupts, still advancing with that predator's grace. Victoria wants to make sure you never cause problems. This he holds up the syringe like it's something precious will make you compliant. Obedient. A good little Omega who never asks questions, never fights back, never causes trouble ever again. You'll do exactly what you're told without complaint or resistance. Perfect.
Chemical slavery. Mind control. They want to turn me into a mindless puppet, a doll that moves when they pull the strings.
You can't, I breathe, backing up until my legs hit the altar's edge. That's monstrous.
Actually, I can. Alpha's orders. He moves fast, using his shifter speed that I could never match, grabbing my arm before I can run. His grip is iron, unbreakable, painful. Fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. Don't fight. It'll just make this harder for both of us. Victoria says the process is easier if you don't resist.
He raises the syringe toward my neck. The needle glints in the crimson light, sharp and terrible.
Something inside me screams. Not fear. Something else. Something that's been trapped for twenty-three years and is finally, finally finding its voice. Something that refuses to be a victim anymore, refuses to be controlled, refuses to let them win.
I bite him.
Hard.
My teeth sink into his hand with all the force I can muster, tasting copper and salt and his shock. He roars, dropping the syringe. It hits the stone altar and shatters with a sound like breaking crystal, dark liquid spreading across the ancient symbols like oil on water, like blood from a mortal wound.
The moment the liquid touches the altar, everything changes.
The symbols blaze with light not red anymore, but brilliant, blinding white that makes me squint and Damien curse. The ground beneath our feet begins to shake, a tremor that builds rapidly into a full earthquake. Small stones jump and dance. The ancient pillars groan but don't fall.
We both freeze, staring at the altar as it transforms before our eyes, as something ancient and powerful awakens after centuries of sleep.
What did you do? Damien backs away, real fear crossing his face for the first time since I've known him. What the hell did you do?
I didn't
The liquid bubbles where it hit stone, frothing and churning. Smoke rises, thick and white, carrying a smell like ozone and roses and something older, something from before recorded time. The carved symbols pulse faster and faster, their light growing so bright it hurts to look at directly.
The whisper becomes a roar in my mind, loud enough to drown out everything else:
NOW, DAUGHTER. THE BLOOD MOON RISES. THE CURSE BREAKS. CLAIM WHAT WAS STOLEN. BECOME WHAT YOU WERE ALWAYS MEANT TO BE.
The altar explodes with power.
Silver light shoots skyward like a beacon, a pillar of pure energy that pierces the canopy and must be visible for miles. The force of it throws Damien backward like a rag doll. He hits one of the stone pillars with a sickening crack and crumples to the ground, unconscious or worse. I don't care which.
I can't move. Can't run. The light wraps around me like chains, like arms, like coming home after being lost forever. It doesn't hurt. It should hurt this much power, this much energy concentrated in one place but it feels right. Natural. Like finally breathing after being underwater for twenty-three years.
My blood still on my hands from earlier, from scrubbing floors and being beaten drips onto the altar. One drop. Two. Three.
Everything changes.
Pain. Burning. Breaking. Every nerve in my body lights up at once. I scream, but it comes out animal raw and primal and not quite human.
Something inside me shatters. I feel it crack like glass, feel Victoria's curse breaking into a thousand pieces and dissolving into nothing, feel chains I didn't know existed falling away. And underneath, where the curse held it trapped for twenty-three years, something massive unfurls.
My wolf.
But not a normal wolf. This is something else entirely. Something huge and ancient and powerful enough to shake the earth and split the sky.
My body convulses. Bones crack and reform with sounds like gunshots echoing through the forest. My spine arches. Skin burns and splits and reshapes. Fur erupts across my body not brown or gray or black like normal wolves, but silver white that glows in the blood moon's light, that seems to generate its own luminescence.
The transformation takes seconds but feels like hours. Like days. Like a lifetime compressed into one impossible moment of agony and ecstasy.
When it's done, I stand on four legs in a body I've never had but that feels righter than anything ever has.
I'm massive. Bigger than any wolf I've ever seen, bigger than even the strongest Alphas in the pack. My paws are the size of dinner plates. My fur shimmers like starlight caught in silk, like moonbeams woven into strands. I catch my reflection in a puddle of rainwater and freeze.
My eyes aren't brown anymore.
They're violet. Glowing. Ancient. Like magic made visible, like power given form.
Victoria was right about one thing: I was born with silver eyes, eyes that marked me as different, as dangerous. But they weren't cursed. They were blessed. They were the sign of what I truly was.
And now they're back, transformed into something even more powerful.
Five hundred miles away, in three different territories, three Alphas jolt awake.
In the Northern Territory, Kade Nightshade sits up in bed, hand flying to his chest where a bond just snapped into place with almost physical force. What the hell? he gasps, staring at nothing, feeling everything. The mate bond. After years of being alone, of refusing to feel anything, the mate bond has formed. Without permission. Without warning. And it's stronger than anything he's ever experienced.
In the Western Mountains, Ryker Storm born stops mid training session, his practice sword clattering to the ground forgotten. His wolf surges inside him, howling with recognition and need and something almost like joy. A mate. After all these years of being alone, of controlling his berserker rage, of convincing himself he'd die alone because he was too dangerous for anyone to love. But it shouldn't be possible. Not now. Not when he's finally learned to control the monster inside.
In the Eastern Forest, Asher Silverclaw drops the ancient text he's been researching, his curse weakened body going rigid with shock. The dark magic eating him alive goes quiet for the first time in months, silenced by something stronger. And through the momentary silence, through the reprieve from pain, he feels her. Someone who shouldn't exist. Someone powerful enough to quiet his curse just by existing. Impossible, he whispers into the empty room.
All three know instantly what's happened. They feel the pull, the bond forming without permission or explanation. The mate bond the sacred connection that happens once in a lifetime, that ties two souls together for eternity.
They feel me.
And I feel them. Three threads of connection blooming in my chest, each one different but equally strong. Three strangers hundreds of miles away, bound to me in ways I don't understand.
Three mates.
I shift back to human form, the change coming as naturally as breathing, as instinctive as blinking. I'm naked now, trembling in the ruins, but I don't care. My hair has changed silver white instead of brown, cascading down my back like moonlight given physical form. My body has changed too no longer skinny and malnourished, but curvy and strong, filled with power that hums beneath my skin like electricity. Years of scars are gone, healed during the transformation like they never existed, like Victoria and Lyra never touched me.
I barely recognize myself. But somehow, this feels more like me than I've ever felt before.
Knowledge floods my mind, downloaded directly into my consciousness like information uploaded to a computer, like memories suddenly accessible after being locked away. Memories that aren't mine but belong to me anyway. The truth about what I am. What I've always been, hidden beneath Victoria's curse.
I'm Celestial.
The first wolves. The original bloodline. Created by the Moon Goddess herself to keep balance among shifters, to prevent any one wolf from becoming too powerful, to protect the weak from the strong. Extinct for three hundred years hunted down and slaughtered because they were too powerful, too dangerous, too threatening to the status quo that gave regular Alphas their power.
Until now.
Until me.
My mother was Celestial. That's why Victoria cursed me she discovered the truth somehow, feared what I might become. That's why the prophecy exists. That's why I was kept weak and broken and powerless for twenty-three years because if I ever awakened, everything would change. The entire pack structure, the hierarchy, the rules that kept Alphas in power and Omegas oppressed.
Everything.
Damien groans, stirring where he fell. I grab my torn dress and clutch it to my chest as he struggles to his feet, looking dazed and terrified and like he's seeing me for the first time.
He sees me. Really sees me silver hair, violet eyes, power radiating from every pore.
His face goes white. Impossible. You're
I let a hint of power leak out, just enough to make the point, just enough to show him what he's dealing with. The air around us crackles. The ruins glow brighter. Small stones levitate for a moment before falling back to earth. Celestial, I finish for him. The thing your precious Luna tried to prevent. The monster from her prophecy. The thing she was so afraid of that she cursed an infant.
A howl rips from my throat not my human voice, but my wolf speaking through human vocal cords. The sound is massive, otherworldly, powerful enough to shake trees and send birds fleeing into the night sky in panicked clouds. It echoes for miles, a declaration of existence, a warning to anyone who might be listening.
I am here. I am awake. I am coming. And you should be afraid.
Five hundred miles away, three Alphas hear the howl. They shouldn't be able to it's too far, physically impossible even for wolves. But the mate bond carries it directly to their souls, clear as if I were standing right beside them.
All three make the same decision without hesitation, without thought, driven by something deeper than logic. They have to find me. The bond demands it. Their wolves demand it. Something deeper than instinct, more fundamental than thought, demands it.
They begin to move. Gathering supplies. Alerting their packs. Preparing for a journey that will change everything.
In the ruins, I stare at Damien with violet eyes that see everything his fear, his regret, his desperate realization that he destroyed something precious for political gain, that he traded his future for approval from people who never really cared about him either.
You followed me into the forest, I say, my voice carrying power that makes him flinch, makes him want to submit. Tried to drug me into submission. Planned to take away my mind, my will, myself. Did you tell them what happened when it failed?
He backs away, hands raised in surrender. Sera, please. I didn't I was just following orders
Ten years, I cut him off, each word precise and sharp. Ten years you pretended to be my friend. Made me believe someone cared. And it was all a lie. All just a game to keep me controllable, to keep me hoping for something I would never have.
I'm sorry, he whispers, and maybe he even means it. Maybe he's realizing what he lost. I didn't know it would go this far. I didn't know what you were.
None of you did. That was the point of Victoria's curse. I take a step forward, and he takes three back. Run back to your mate. Tell her what happened. Tell her the prophecy she feared just came true. Tell her I'm coming.
What are you going to do? His voice breaks.
I'm going to show them what happens when you wake a sleeping monster. When you back someone into a corner with nothing left to lose. When you destroy the weak girl and create a powerful enemy in her place.
I don't wait for his response. Don't give him a chance to argue or beg or make more empty apologies that mean nothing. I shift back into my massive silver wolf form the change coming easier this time, more natural, like putting on a familiar coat and bound into the forest.
Behind me, Damien scrambles to his feet and runs in the opposite direction, crashing through underbrush like all the demons of hell are chasing him. Which, in a way, they are.
Good. Let him run. Let him tell them what's coming.
Let them fear.
Let them prepare.
It won't be enough.
My new body moves like shadow through the trees. So fast the world blurs into streaks of green and brown and red. So silent no one would hear me coming, no prey would sense me approaching. This is what I was meant to be. This power, this strength, this absolute certainty of purpose.
I feel the mate bonds pulsing in my chest. Three of them. Three threads connecting me to strangers I've never met, pulling gently, insistently. It should be impossible wolves get one mate, one bond. Never more.
But I'm not a normal wolf.
I'm Celestial. And apparently, that changes all the rules.
Through the bonds, I feel them getting closer. They're coming for me, drawn by something neither they nor I fully understand yet. Three Alphas, confused and angry and desperate, racing across territories to find their mate.
To find me.
I don't run away from pack territory. That would be the smart move disappear, hide, learn to control these new powers before facing my enemies, before confronting the people who hurt me.
But I'm done being smart. Done being careful. Done hiding and cowering and accepting abuse.
I run toward Silverclaw territory. Toward the mansion. Toward the wolves who hurt me.
Because I'm done running away.
They wanted the monster from the prophecy?
I'll give them exactly what they fear.
The blood moon watches as I race through shadows, violet eyes glowing like beacons in the darkness. Ahead, my future waits filled with three mates I don't know, enemies who will stop at nothing to destroy me, and power I barely understand but am learning to wield.
But this time, I'm not the victim.
This time, I'm the one everyone should be afraid of.
And when those three Alphas arrive when they track me down and demand answers about this impossible bond they'll find a queen, not a broken girl begging for love.
The blood moon witnesses my transformation.
And nothing will ever be the same.