Iris Montgomery's POV
My hands won't stop shaking.
I stand in front of the mirror in my grandmother's room and stare at the girl looking back at me. Silver dress. Silver eyes. Silver everything tonight, like the universe decided to paint me in moonlight and call it preparation.
"You look beautiful," my grandmother says from behind me, but I hear the worry in her voice. The same worry that's been there for weeks now.
I turn to face her. She's sitting on the edge of her bed, her wrinkled hands folded in her lap. She's always been small, but tonight she looks smaller. Older. Like she's carrying weight nobody can see.
"Grandmother, what if he doesn't—" I start to say, but she stands up and pulls me into a tight hug before I can finish.
"Don't think like that," she whispers against my hair. "You're stronger than you believe."
But that's the thing. I'm not strong. Everyone at Crescent Valley Pack knows I'm the weak one. The quiet girl who stammers when she talks to people. The girl without a family who actually wants her. My parents died when I was five. Before that, before they died, I don't even remember them really. Just the feeling of them. Just the way my grandmother holds me now, like I might break.
The mate bond has been pulling at me since the summer solstice. Three months of knowing Kael felt it too. Three months of him asking me to keep it secret. To wait. To let him present it publicly tonight at the Moon Festival, like tradition says an Alpha should.
Tonight is supposed to be different. Tonight, I'm supposed to become Luna of Crescent Valley Pack.
Tonight, I'm supposed to finally belong somewhere.
I look down at the dress. Silver. Expensive. My grandmother saved for months for this dress. I can see the care in every stitch. She believed tonight would be good for me. She believed I deserved something beautiful.
What if she's wrong?
What if Kael takes one look at me in front of all those people and changes his mind?
"We should go," my grandmother says, checking the window. The sun is setting. The bonfire should already be lit. "They're waiting for you."
Five hundred people. That's how many showed up for the Moon Festival. The largest gathering of the year. Alpha of every nearby pack. Elders and council members and wolves from territories I've never even been to. All of them gathering to watch their Alpha present his chosen mate to the world.
All of them gathering to watch me.
My wolf paces under my skin, excited and terrified at the same time. The mate bond pulls harder the closer we get to the bonfire. It's not painful exactly. It's more like being on the end of a rope someone is gradually tightening, pulling me toward something I want but also something that scares me.
The forest path to the bonfire is crowded. Pack members in human form mostly, though I can see a few wolves moving between the trees. Everyone is dressed up. Everyone is excited. There's an energy in the air that makes my heartbeat faster and my palms sweat.
"Stay close to me," my grandmother says, and I realize her hand is gripping mine tightly.
That's when I know something is wrong.
My grandmother isn't someone who gets nervous. She's lived through things nobody talks about. She's stronger than anyone in this pack, even if they don't know it. She's calm. She's steady. She's the one who holds me together when I fall apart.
But right now, her hand is shaking.
"Grandmother," I say quietly, pulling her to the side where people can't hear us. "What's going on? You've been weird all week."
She closes her eyes for a moment. For just a second, I see something ancient cross her face. Something that looks like sadness. Like she knows something terrible is about to happen and she can't stop it.
"Just promise me something," she says, opening her eyes to look at me. "No matter what happens tonight, you're stronger than you think. And the world needs you to remember that. Can you promise me?"
I want to ask her what she means. I want to shake her until she tells me what's wrong. But we're already at the edge of the clearing where the bonfire burns. I can see the flames from here. I can see the crowd gathering.
"I promise," I whisper, because I don't know what else to say.
The bonfire is massive. Twenty feet high at least, flames reaching toward the Blood Moon that's just starting to rise. Everyone is gathered in a circle around it. There are tables with food. Musicians with instruments. This is supposed to be a celebration.
This is supposed to be my celebration.
But the second I step into the clearing, something shifts. The crowd's energy changes. People turn to look at me. Not the good kind of look. There's something predatory in the way they're watching.
"Come on," my grandmother murmurs, guiding me forward.
The closer I get to the bonfire, the stronger the mate bond pulls. Kael is standing with his council on the other side of the flames. He's in human form tonight, but he's surrounded by the most powerful wolves in the pack. His beta. His advisors. The pack elders who actually run most of what happens around here.
He looks nervous too.
That's when I notice the other girl. She's standing slightly behind Kael, wearing a dress that's probably more expensive than everything my family owns. Her hair is perfect. Her smile is confident. She's beautiful in a way that makes me feel small.
And Kael is looking at her, not at me.
My stomach drops.
"Grandmother," I say, gripping her hand, "why is she here?"
Before my grandmother can answer, Kael steps forward. The crowd goes completely silent. This is it. This is the moment he's supposed to announce me. This is the moment everything changes.
His eyes scan the crowd. When he sees me, something flashes across his face. For a second, I think he looks sad. For a second, I think I see regret.
Then his expression goes cold.
"Pack of Crescent Valley," he calls out, his Alpha voice carrying across the entire clearing so everyone can hear. "I've gathered you here tonight because it's time I present my mate to all of you."
My heart is racing so fast I think I might actually die. My wolf is howling inside my chest. The mate bond is practically burning now, pulling me toward him so hard I can barely stand.
I push through the crowd toward the bonfire. Someone grabs my arm but I pull away. This is it. This is the moment my life gets better.
This is the moment I stop being alone.
"Come forward," Kael says. His voice doesn't sound warm. It doesn't sound like the voice of someone who's been waiting months to claim his mate.
I reach him just as he reaches for the other girl's hand.
"Iris," he says, and the way he says my name sounds like a curse. Like something wrong. "I found my mate at the Moon Festival, that's true."
My heart stops.
"But it's not you."
The words hang in the air. They don't make sense. They can't make sense. The mate bond doesn't lie. We both felt it. We both know.
"I reject this bond completely," he says, and his voice cracks like a whip. The rejection hits me like a physical blow. Like something is tearing through my chest. "I reject her. I reject what the moon goddess thinks she gave me. She's weak. She's nothing. She's not worthy of being Luna. The only thing she's worthy of is disappearing."
The crowd laughs.
Someone throws something at my feet. Food. Garbage. Like I'm trash.
And Kael turns away from me while still holding the other girl's hand. He announces her as his real mate. As his choice. As someone actually worthy.
The rejection doesn't just tear the mate bond. It tears something inside me that I don't know how to put back together.
My grandmother tries to pull me away, but I can't move. I can't think. I can't breathe.
Everything I was supposed to be just died.
And somewhere deep inside my chest, something ancient wakes up.
Something that's been sleeping my entire life finally opens its eyes.
It tastes my pain and it grows hungry.
The bonfire flames suddenly flare higher. So high they almost touch the sky. Several people scream and back away. My grandmother's grip on my arm tightens and she starts pulling me toward the forest with real urgency now.
"We have to leave," she hisses. "Right now. Do you understand me? We have to go."
But I can't stop staring at the moon rising above us. It's not red like a normal moon. It's blood red. Deep crimson. Like someone cut open the sky and it's bleeding.
I've never seen the moon look like that before.
And as I stare at it, I feel something else waking up. Something not inside me but somewhere far away. Something ancient and powerful and impossibly old.
It's waking because I'm waking.
And somewhere in the darkness, something that's been sleeping for three hundred years just opened its eyes.
It felt me.
And I felt it too.