Afternoon wore on to evening, and I eventually decided it was time to shower and get ready for the Lunar Eclipse Celebration. The anticipation of the event had my nerves frayed, and the feeling of my heart racing in my chest had become normal to me by that point.With a groan, I reluctantly pulled myself off of Tyler's bed and headed back to my room. I took a long, hot shower, hoping to wash away some of the anxiety that had built up inside me, but when I got out, I felt exactly the same as I had when I got in.My dress was hanging on my bathroom door, waiting for me to slip it on. I eyed it out with a smile.I'd bought it from a small boutique store in Colorado where they sold clothes made by student designers. The second I saw it, I fell in love with it. The fabric was soft, flimsy and feminine and the skirt had a flattering flare to it. The straps were thin and dainty and crossed over at the back where you would then tie them together in a bow.I'd had it for at least a year but ha
"Tyler!" I heard a man's voice calling out.I looked around, trying to find the source, when a guy about our age with light brown hair began walking towards us from the tables that were being set up.Tyler's face lit up in a smile as he approached."Hey!" Tyler greeted him as he neared, then they shared a brotherly hug."You must be Katelyn," the stranger said, wrapping his arms around me in an unexpected hug now too. I hugged him back awkwardly, feeling like I should probably know him, but if I did, I couldn't remember where from.“Kate, this is my best friend, Kyle,” Tyler introduced him.“Oh, Kyle!,” I exclaimed, registering at last. "Nice to meet you," I added with a friendly smile.“Tyler talks about you all the time. I feel like I know you already," he said, giving Tyler a teasing look. "Glad to finally put a face to the name.”I continued to watch the setup while the guys chatted. Listening with half an ear, I overheard Kyle saying that his dad had been aimless without Tyler ar
More and more pack members began to arrive, and Tyler kept introducing me to new people. Eventually, the names and faces began to blur together as darkness settled over the clearing.Alpha David made his way up onto the stage as I watched. It felt like time stood still. My heart was racing, my ears were ringing, I was sweating, it felt like I had pins and needles in my toes and fingertips. I couldn't remember the last time I had inhaled and I began to feel momentarily faint."You okay?" Tyler asked with concern.I nodded, unable to speak."Good evening!" Alpha David called out, his voice carrying through the air with purpose and authority.Silently, Ryder emerged through the throng of people with Ash at his side. Ash gave me a warm smile and a small wave in greeting as David continued, "I'd like to welcome you all to our Lunar Eclipse Celebration."The world seemed to blur in and out of focus for a moment. Alpha David was talking, but he sounded so far away I couldn't make out what h
The crowd began to disperse, leaving only the Valentine family and myself standing on the stage. Their eyes were all on me, watching me as if I had grown a second head.Tyler's expression was a mixture of admiration and surprise. "Where the hell did that come from?" he asked, his voice tinged with amazement.I shrugged, still feeling the adrenaline coursing through me. "I don't know. I just got so upset when I heard Jess boo. I wasn't going to let her get away with it."Alpha David stepped forward with a rare smile gracing his usually stern features. "Katelyn," he began with a hint of uncertainty, "That was... unexpected. You handled yourself well up there. I'm impressed."Ryder and Liz nodded in agreement, their faces reflecting their own astonishment at my impromptu speech."Thank you," I replied, feeling a flush of pride. "But right now, I really need something to drink." My throat felt drier than the desert.Tyler chuckled, taking my hand as he led me towards the tables of food an
I felt an overwhelming heat coursing through my body as I stood, staring at Tyler. It wasn't just hot, it made my skin feel prickly and then my vision began to blur. The world around me seemed to spin and I was sure I was fainting again. The thought made me panic and my heart raced uncontrollably."Tyler," I gasped, reaching out to grab him for support.Before he could react, I felt my legs give way beneath me. I was falling, the ground rushing up to meet me, but instead of hitting it, I fell through it and everything went black.Panic surged through me, my heart racing as the empty black void swallowed me whole. It was like one of those dreams where you’re falling but you never hit the ground. I struggled to catch my breath. Time felt like it was both moving incredibly fast and standing still all at once and the sheer disorientation made it impossible to process what was happening.Suddenly, the darkness gave way to daylight.The abrupt change was jarring. I could hear the gentle sou
Had Tyler experienced the same thing as I had? Had I had some kind of seizure or a waking dream or something equally strange?“What just happened?” Tyler asked, his eyes wide with confusion as my chest heaved for breath.His question confirmed it had been real, that we had experienced it together. Or maybe it had been some kind of shared hallucination?“How did you do that?” he went on, taking a tentative step towards me.I wiped my lips with the back of my hand and rounded on him. “I didn’t do that!” I exclaimed defiantly. “That was you! It was your memory, right?!”Tyler seemed bewildered as he contemplated my response.We heard a few angry shushes coming from the clearing as our conversation grew heated.It made me feel self-conscious, so I lowered my voice as I continued. “I didn’t do that,” I reaffirmed with certainty. “Maybe it’s some weird Alpha shit,” I suggested, grasping at straws for an explanation.“Weird Alpha shit?” Tyler scoffed. “I think I would have known by now if I
The rest of the night was a blur to me. All I could recall were tiny snippets of Tyler's concerned face, feeling so hot I thought I was going to burst into flame, and having a huge headache that seemed to radiate from the top of my skull down and into my shoulders.When I woke up in the morning, Tyler filled me in on the details. He said that at some point I had fallen into a fitful sleep. I was burning up, but then I started trembling like I was cold at the same time. He didn't know what to do and had been so concerned that he covered me in a blanket and decided that he would wait five more minutes to see if that would help before calling Dr Kelly. Fortunately, a couple of minutes later, the shaking stopped and I seemed to be a little better, although still very hot.He'd had a miserable night, wide awake to check on me for most of it, and I couldn't help but feel guilty about it.Now, in the morning, my temperature seemed to have returned to normal, and I felt fine. None of the ailm
When we headed upstairs, Alpha David was in his office, working away on his laptop. Tyler asked if it was okay if we checked some of the books, mentioning that he had a question from his studies and wanted to show me. Alpha David agreed offhandedly, continuing to type away with an expression of deep concentration.Tyler and I read the spines of the books and when something sounded interesting, we would page through the book to see whether it might possibly contain any valuable information.I noticed that the room had suddenly gone very quiet, realizing that Alpha David had stopped typing. "Katelyn, are you feeling any better today?" He asked with mild concern."I'm okay, thanks," I replied. "I'm not sure what was wrong, but whatever it was, it seems to have passed now, at least.""That's good to hear," Alpha David said with a nod. "By the way, you did a fantastic job with your speech last night. The engagement with the pack was overwhelmingly positive.""Thank you," I said, feeling a
I adjusted my grip on the tiny, squirming bundle in my arms and smiled as a chorus of laughter echoed through the Valentine house."Could you hold her for a sec?" I asked Ryder, shifting Ava into a more comfortable position. "I forgot my phone downstairs.""Absolutely," he replied, his face lighting up as he took her from me.I had to admit, Ryder had surprised me. I’d always known Tyler would step up to fatherhood like it was his destiny, but Ryder… I thought he might need a little more coaxing along the way.To my relief, and, I'll be honest, surprise, that hadn’t been the case at all.Ryder had embraced fatherhood like a natural. Late-night feeds? He was right there with me. Diapers? No problem. Making sure I ate? He was relentless. And the way he loved our daughter, with every fiber of his being... God, it melted my heart daily.Tyler, on the other hand, was exactly the dad I’d known he’d be. He was steady, dependable, and endlessly patient. Where Ryder brought the energy and fun,
(Katelyn's POV)I nodded slowly, processing it all as I tried to picture it in my mind's eye."Oh! And get this!" Ryder piped up with an excited grin. "Michael, the guy you wrapped around the pillar? He's Simon's cousin!""What?! How do you know that?" I asked, confused.Tyler replied this time, "Well, when we were leaving, we bumped into Simon in one of those long, winding corridors. He started going off at us asking where we were going and if we had permission to leave, blah blah blah... But Helen shut him down. She told him that the decision had been made and instead of giving us a hard time he should probably go and check on his cousin because the last time she saw him, he didn't look so good.""You should have seen his face," Ryder smirked, chuckling to himself. "He just stood there for a moment, still blocking our path, but then I think something clicked in his head. He probably saw that we were all covered in blood and shit and realized that something was wrong and he practicall
(Katelyn's POV)The first thing I registered was the sound of hushed voices and the faint smell of lavender.My eyelids felt like they’d been superglued shut, but after what felt like an Olympic-level effort, I finally managed to pry them open.My vision swam, the room around me looking like a watercolor painting that someone had left out in the rain.Where was I? WHO was I? It felt like I had been asleep for a hundred years.I blinked repeatedly, willing my vision to focus, but when it finally did, nothing seemed familiar.It was dark, from what I could tell, and the only light was coming from a lamp somewhere on the other side of the room.I shifted onto my elbow, trying to sit up, but I instantly regretted it. Pain throbbed in my skull, my head spinning like I’d spent hours on some rotating carnival ride. A groan escaped me, and the low murmurs nearby stopped immediately.“Kate?” A voice cut through the haze... Familiar, warm, desperate.My gaze darted toward the sound, and there t
(Katelyn's POV)She was furious, but not with me. I could feel her... like a storm raging inside me, raw and untamed. I waited in the quiet shelter of my own mind, nothing more than an observer as I watched her wrath unfold. It was like witnessing a hurricane from the safety of a bunker, awe and terror warring inside me."We... We didn't know!" the iron-haired woman’s voice quivered, her arms raised defensively, as if they could shield her from the Goddess's divine fury."You didn't know?! You didn't know that you were exploiting them? Or you didn't know that I would care?" the Moon Goddes spoke through my lips, her words flowing like liquid thunder."I... We..." the woman stammered, her eyes darting around desperately, searching for someone, ANYONE, to come to her rescue. But no one did. No one dared to move. They were all frozen like statues in the face of the storm."You will—" the words spilled from my mouth, but I somehow managed to cut them off abruptly when I heard Tyler's angu
(Tyler's POV)"I don't know what to do," Kate whispered, her voice filled with helplessness as she looked up at me while I struggled against the attendants who held me in place."Let him go," she ordered, authority resonating through her voice in a way I'd never heard before.When they hesitated, she glanced toward the man she'd just sent flying through the air like a puppet as some kind of silent warning of her power.That seemed like enough for them to release me.The second I was free, I fell down beside her, desperate to stop the blood that was pouring from Ryder's neck. It was coming out so fast it was clear that they must have gotten an artery, the blood pulsating out of the wound in steady throbs."What do we do?" she whispered, looking to me for answers I didn't have.I reached out, holding my hand over hers in some futile attempt to stop the bleeding, but it was like trying to hold back a flood with a fucking paper towel.His neck was a mangled wreck. The flesh was torn open t
(Katelyn's POV)Tyler’s hand trembled as he held it in place over mine, trying desperately to stop the blood that continued to pulse out, albeit at a much slower pace now.His voice was a whisper and it wavered with desperation. "You’re going to be okay, Ryder. You hear me? Just hang on. Just—" he broke off, choking back a sob as his other hand found its way to Ryder’s blood-matted fur as he rubbed him affectionately.He looked at me, his face pale and his eyes swimming with tears that he tried uselessly to blink away.“Kate...” His voice cracked, barely audible above the rapid, shallow breaths of his brother. “The bleeding... it’s too much. He’s not healing fast enough.”His words struck me like a dagger to the chest. I'd thought it, but hearing him say it out loud made it real.“What are you saying?!” I cried, my voice raw and broken as I gripped Ryder’s limp paw, shaking it in hopes of some kind of reaction. My vision blurred as I let the tears spill down my cheeks. “Is he going to
(Katelyn's POV)Through a blur of tears, I found myself face to face with the broad-shouldered Elder, Michael."You're an abomination!" he snarled, his hands gripping my arms with a ferocity that promised bruises. "You're a curse! A witch! A temptress! Do you know how my family has suffered because of you?!" he spat as he shook me violently, his eyes filled with absolute rage."But... I..." I stammered, trying to form words into sentences, but my brain couldn't do it.All I could do was stare at him, still reeling from the fact that one second I had been kneeling beside Ryder, trying to help him, and the next, I was being violently shaken by a man who seemed to have gone full psycho."Katelyn?!" Tyler called out, realizing I was no longer at his side.Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him struggling against about three or four attendants who tried to hold him back.Suddenly, pain shot through my cheek and the world around me fell into a darkness that seemed to ebb and flow like the t
(Katelyn's POV)For a moment, the entire room froze and my ears rang with the word exterminated."We're leaving," Tyler said, his voice low as he snatched me by the wrist and tugged me toward the door.The attendants remained though, none of them making any move to unblock our path. Instead, they all looked toward the iron-haired woman as if waiting for her to give them some instruction."Move," Tyler demanded sharply as Ryder appeared on my other side."We aren't finished here," the iron-haired woman called out as three more attendants appeared to block our exit."She wants to leave," Ryder replied, his voice filled with venom as he turned to address her."We aren't finished," she repeated, her voice cold and sharp as steel."I thought you said this was a hearing," I shot back, glaring at her. "Was there some line in the invitation about being held against my will? Because if there was, I must’ve missed that part," I spat, trying to hide my growing fear with sarcasm.The room fell si
(Katelyn's POV)The iron-haired woman watched me, her grip on her notes tightening once more. Her restraint was evident as she took a deep breath before finally replying. “You have already been told, Miss Grey, that this meeting is for us to ascertain—”I cut her off, my own patience now unraveling fast. “God, you can’t even give me a straight answer! What are the potential outcomes here?!” I demanded. "Even criminals on trial know what potential penalties they'll be facing! Why can't I be afforded the same courtesy?! Are you going to impose some kind of limitations on me and my abilities? Or do you plan to lock me in a prison cell? Or maybe a tower in the middle of nowhere? Are you going to kill me? Seriously, what options are on the table here?!" I pressed, annoyed by how fucking evasive she was being.It felt like they had already made up their minds here. While a few of them did seem to be on my side, it's clear that many of them were not. And those who sat on the fence would likel