Iris Montgomery's POV
I push through the crowd like my body knows something my mind hasn't caught up to yet.
The mate bond is screaming at me to move toward Kael. It pulls so hard I can barely breathe. My chest feels like it's being squeezed by invisible hands. Every cell in my body is moving toward him, drawn by something I didn't know existed until three months ago.
People move out of my way. Their faces blur. I don't care about them. I only care about getting to him. About making him look at me with recognition instead of the way he's been looking at that girl.
My silver dress catches the bonfire light as I walk. I must look beautiful right now. I must look like someone who belongs here.
I reach him and open my mouth to say his name.
That's when he looks at me.
His eyes are hard. Cold. Like he's looking at something that disgusts him. Like I'm something he found stuck to the bottom of his shoe.
"Not her," he says.
The words don't make sense. Not her? He's looking right at me. Of course it's me. The mate bond connects us. He can feel it the same way I feel it.
"I reject this bond completely," he continues, and his voice carries an Alpha command that makes everyone in the clearing stop moving. Stop breathing. Stop thinking about anything except what he's saying. "She's unremarkable, weak, and unworthy of being Luna. I claim Natasha Verin as my true mate."
The girl steps forward like she was waiting for this. Like they planned this. She's smiling. Confident. Powerful. Everything written in the way she moves says she belongs here and I don't.
The pack erupts in laughter.
It's not a warm sound. It's cruel. It's the sound of people who finally have permission to hurt someone they've always seen as weak.
Someone throws something at my feet. Burnt wood from the bonfire. It hits my shoe and I stare at it like it might explain what just happened.
This isn't real. This can't be real.
But it is.
The rejection tears through me like someone ripped open my chest and pulled out my heart while it was still beating. The mate bond doesn't break gently. It shatters. It explodes. It leaves bleeding wounds in places I didn't know I could be wounded.
I can't breathe.
I'm trying to breathe but there's no air left in the world.
"Move along," someone says, and I realize it's my parents. My mother and father are telling me to get out of the way. They're looking at me like I embarrass them. Like I brought shame to our family just by existing.
They turn away from me. They actually turn their backs and walk toward the bonfire.
Their own daughter and they just turn away.
Something inside me breaks in a way that goes deeper than the rejection. Deeper than humiliation. This is the kind of break that doesn't heal. This is the kind of break that changes everything.
I feel it start in my chest.
A stirring. An awakening. Like something ancient is opening its eyes from a very long sleep.
My skin starts to burn.
Not the kind of burn that comes from fire. This is different. This is coming from inside me. Like my bones are made of lava and it's trying to escape through my skin.
I look down at my hands.
They're changing.
My fingernails darken. My skin seems to glow from within. And my eyes. I can feel my eyes changing. The color shifting. Moving. Becoming something that's not quite human anymore.
Around me, people start backing away.
Someone screams.
I can feel it now. Something ancient waking up inside my blood. Something that's been dormant my entire life, held down by magic and herbs and my grandmother's careful protection. Something that doesn't care about broken mate bonds or humiliated girls or families that turn their backs.
Something that cares about power.
And it's angry.
But that's not the only awakening happening.
I feel it the same moment my eyes fully shift to silver. A presence so overwhelming and so impossibly far away that it shouldn't be possible to feel it. But I do. I feel it like a second heartbeat. Like there's another person inside my chest.
It's ancient. Older than mountains. Older than oceans. Older than anything I have words for.
And it's waking because I'm waking.
The connection between us snaps into place like lightning striking twice in the exact same spot. I gasp. My entire body goes rigid. For a moment I feel everything this presence feels. Darkness. Three hundred years of darkness. Pain beyond pain. Loss beyond loss.
And beneath it all, a desperate longing for something. For someone. For me.
It felt me.
The presence moves toward me across impossible distance. I can feel it moving like I can feel my own heartbeat. It's coming. It's crossing through the world like something is tearing open between us just so it can reach me.
Everyone around the bonfire is backing away now. Their faces are white with fear. They can feel it too. This thing that's waking up. This ancient power that doesn't belong in their world.
Kael looks confused. Afraid. Like he finally realizes he rejected something far more dangerous than he ever imagined.
My grandmother pushes through the crowd. She's moving toward me but she's too far away. She'll never reach me in time.
In time for what?
I don't know. But I can feel it happening. I can feel the presence getting closer. I can feel my power rising like a wave that's about to crash against the shore.
I look up at the Blood Moon.
It's brighter now. Redder now. Like it's feeding power directly into my body.
My skin is glowing.
My blood is singing.
And somewhere in the darkness beyond the bonfire, something is coming that will change everything.
Something that's been sleeping and dreaming of this moment for three hundred years.
I try to reach for my grandmother. I try to call out to her. But my voice doesn't work anymore. Nothing works anymore.
The world starts to spin.
The bonfire. The crowd. Kael's face. Natasha's triumph. My parents' shame. All of it spins around me like I'm standing in the center of a tornado.
The presence gets closer.
I can almost feel hands reaching for me. Hands that are ancient and strong and absolutely certain that I belong to them.
And I want to run.
But I also want to run toward it instead of away.
Everything is happening too fast. My power is rising too quickly. The connection is too strong. The presence is too close.
I open my mouth to scream.
But before any sound comes out, everything goes black.
The last thing I feel is something ancient claiming me with absolute certainty.
The last thing I feel is like coming home after being lost my entire life.
And then there's nothing.
Just darkness.
Just the echo of a voice that sounds like broken starlight saying one word over and over again.
"Mine."