Serena's POV
Serena heard every word.
She'd been outside the meeting room door getting water when Elder Moira's voice cut through the walls. Sharp. Cold. Damning.
"Twin Alphas cannot share a mate. It is forbidden."
"You have one week to reject the girl or we strip your titles."
The words kept replaying in her head even now as she stuffed clothes into her backpack with shaking hands. One week. The Council was giving them one week to choose between her and everything they'd built.
It was no choice at all.
She could hear Dante and Kael downstairs, could feel their agony through the bond like it was her own. The shame. The impossible position she'd put them in. The way she'd crashed into their lives like a meteor and destroyed everything stable.
This was her fault.
If she left, they'd keep their titles. Keep their pack. Keep their power. The Council wouldn't exile them. Their father's legacy would survive.
Serena zipped the backpack quietly and moved toward the window.
The pack house was dark and sleeping. Most of the wolves were probably resting after the Council meeting. She could sneak out through the gardens, hit the border, and be gone before anyone realized she was missing.
It was the only way to save them.
She climbed out the window and moved through the shadows like she'd done it a hundred times before. Her feet knew how to be quiet. Her body knew how to disappear.
The border came into view. The trees that marked where Nightshade territory ended and the human world began. Just a few more steps and she'd be gone.
A hand grabbed her wrist.
Serena spun around and found Kael standing there. His silver eyes were glowing in the darkness and his face was a mask of raw emotion. His control, that thing he'd built his entire life around, had completely shattered.
"Where are you going?" His voice was rough. Desperate.
"Away," Serena said. She tried to pull her hand free but he wouldn't let go. "You know I have to leave. The Council will strip your titles if I stay. I won't be the reason you lose everything."
Kael stepped closer. His hands came up and cupped her face with shaking intensity. For someone who prided himself on control, he was barely holding it together.
"You are everything," he said. His voice cracked on the words. "The pack. The title. The power. None of it matters. None of it has ever mattered compared to you."
Serena's heart broke.
"Kael—"
"I don't care about the Council," he continued. "I don't care about tradition or law or what happened three hundred years ago. I care about you. That's all I've ever cared about since the moment I saw you in that clearing."
She wanted to believe him. Wanted to think that love was enough to overcome everything. But she'd learned the hard way that love couldn't protect people from consequences.
Then Dante's voice came from behind her.
"We are not letting you go."
Serena turned to find him standing at the border, his expression fierce and determined. He moved toward her, boxing her in between himself and Kael. Not forcing her. Not threatening her. But making it clear that she wasn't leaving without going through both of them.
"I have to," Serena said. Her voice was breaking. "Don't you understand? I'm destroying you. I'm destroying both of you."
"You're not destroying anything," Dante said. He reached out and took her other hand. "You're saving us. You're showing us what matters. You're making us choose love over everything else and that's the strongest thing we could possibly do."
Serena felt the tears start. They came like a flood she couldn't stop. All the fear and confusion and guilt and desperate need all pouring out at once.
"I want you," she sobbed. "I want both of you so badly it hurts but not like this. Not at this cost. I won't let you lose your pack for me."
Kael pulled her against his chest. His arms wrapped around her and she could feel him shaking. Could feel the desperation in his grip like he was afraid she'd disappear if he let go.
Dante wrapped around her from behind, sandwiching her between them.
"We're not losing anything," Kael said against her hair. "We're gaining everything."
Serena's body seized.
It wasn't pain exactly. It was something deeper. Something that came from inside her bones and exploded outward with the force of a volcano. She screamed.
Heat ripped through her veins like molten gold. Her skin burned from the inside out. Her heart was beating so fast it should have stopped.
The Luna powers.
They were waking up and they were violent.
Golden light erupted from her skin, so bright that both Kael and Dante had to shield their eyes. The light spread across her body in waves, burning through her clothes, burning through her human form, burning through everything she'd been.
She wasn't human anymore. She was becoming something else. Something ancient and powerful and completely beyond her control.
Serena collapsed and both Alphas went down with her, trying to hold her together as the power tore her apart.
"Stay with us," Kael said. His voice was somewhere above her, somewhere outside the chaos of transformation. "Stay with us, Serena. Come back to us."
Golden light consumed everything.