Selene stood before the mirror in the Lunar Queen’s chamber, breathing in shallow pulls. The silver circlet... now fused to her forehead ; radiated a low, unrelenting hum. Her eyes, once molten silver, flickered with streaks of midnight black, like ink seeping through cracks in her soul.
> “The Moon has turned its back.”
Malrik’s last words haunted her.
Ryker watched her from the shadows, arms crossed. “You haven’t been sleeping.”
“I can’t,” she murmured. “Every time I close my eyes… I see her. The Moon Mother. And she’s bleeding.”
He stepped forward, brushing a thumb along her jaw. “You don’t bleed for the moon anymore, Selene. She bleeds for you.”
She wanted to believe that. But the darkness within her pulsed with a different truth.
She turned away. “Summon the council. I want answers.”
The chamber fell silent as Selene entered, flanked by Ryker and Gamma Irisa. The council members ; warriors, witches, and old allies sat with guarded expressions.
She went straight to the point. “One of you has been feeding Malrik information.”
Murmurs broke out. Irisa’s eyes scanned the table. “We locked him in the stone vault. No contact. No outside magic. And yet… he escaped the night of the Trial.”
Ryker slammed a dagger into the table. “So someone helped him. From inside.”
Selene’s gaze landed on each face.
Liora looked pale, avoiding her eyes.
Beta Callen tensed.
Irisa didn’t flinch.
“I’ll find the traitor,” Selene said coldly. “Even if I have to rip out their heart with my bare hands.”
That night, she walked the halls of the keep alone.
Her hands burned with magic she couldn’t control. Shadows clung to her footsteps. Every mirror she passed whispered back pieces of her name.
The curse was growing.
And in the center of her chest, beneath her skin, something pulsed. Something ancient.
She stopped outside Callen’s chambers.
Voices. Two of them.
She pressed her back to the stone and listened.
Callen: “It’s getting worse. If we wait too long, it’ll consume her.”
Unknown voice: “Then maybe it’s time to end her before she becomes worse than Malrik.”
Selene’s blood ran cold.
The door creaked open.
She stepped inside and the voices vanished.
The room was empty.
Except… for a silver dagger still warm from someone’s grip.
She called Callen to the throne room the next morning.
“You’ve been keeping secrets.”
Callen stood before her, chin lifted. “Only the ones that would protect you.”
Ryker growled low. “What does that mean?”
Callen’s jaw twitched. “The curse isn't just corrupting your body. It’s breaking the bond you have with the Moon. You’re drawing power from somewhere else now.”
Selene stepped down from the throne, each heel clicking against the marble like thunder.
“Where?” she demanded.
Callen hesitated.
“I said... where?”
He finally said, “The Blood Moon. The same force that corrupted Malrik.”
The room erupted in chaos.
Selene raised a hand... and everyone silenced.
“I trusted you,” she said, voice icy. “And you thought to protect me by hiding this?”
Callen lowered his gaze. “You’re becoming something else, Selene. Something… we may not be able to stop.”
That night, Ryker found her outside on the battlements.
She stood facing the stars, her hands clenched, black smoke curling from her fingertips.
“You think it’s him, don’t you?” Ryker asked. “Callen.”
Selene didn’t answer.
“Or is it Liora?” he continued. “She’s been disappearing for hours at a time. You saw the way she looked during the Trial.”
Selene turned. “Everyone’s a suspect, Ryker. Including you.”
The silence between them stretched thin.
“You don’t trust me?” he asked.
She hesitated. “I want to. But the moment I let my guard down, someone else bleeds.”
Ryker stepped close. “Then let me help you watch. I’ll find whoever’s behind this.”
Selene looked into his eyes. “You already know who it is, don’t you?”
Ryker’s jaw clenched.
And he said nothing.
They found Irisa’s body at dawn.
Throat slit. Eyes burned black.
Pinned to her chest was a note, scrawled in a language only Selene could read:
> "The Queen’s fire must be extinguished before it burns the world."
The writing wasn’t Malrik’s.
It was someone who knew the Moonborn script.
Selene stumbled back, rage surging.
“She was loyal,” she whispered. “She was mine.”
Callen stepped forward. “The writing… that’s ancient Blood Moon language.”
Selene looked at him, heart thundering. “You recognized it too fast.”
Callen froze.
Ryker stepped between them. “Wait. We need proof.”
Selene growled. “And I’ll get it.”
She summoned the witches.
Under the light of the full moon, they opened the Pool of Memories ; a sacred, shimmering lake that revealed truth.
Selene threw Irisa’s dagger into the pool.
The water shifted.
An image formed.
Irisa, walking through the keep.
Following someone.
A figure in shadow.
They turned, face revealed in the reflection of a blade.
Selene gasped.
“Callen.”
He stood behind her now, slowly backing away.
Selene spun. “You betrayed me.”
Callen’s eyes were wild. “I tried to protect you! You don’t understand what you’re becoming. I loved you, before all of this! But now? You’re not Selene anymore. You’re a monster.”
Her power flared.
“Then you should have run.”
The council chamber exploded in chaos.
Callen shifted, fur sprouting, claws out.
Ryker leapt forward, but Selene stopped him with a wave.
“This is mine.”
She shifted in an instant , her white-gold fur blazing with fire.
They collided with thunder.
Callen fought like a man possessed. Desperate. Ruthless. But Selene was no longer just Alpha. She was Moonborn.
She pinned him in seconds, her teeth at his neck.
“Tell me why,” she growled, voice trembling.
“I loved you,” he whispered. “But you chose your throne. You chose him.”
She stepped back.
His words hit like arrows.
She turned, walking away.
But Ryker didn’t.
He struck.
Callen’s body hit the floor.... lifeless.
Later that night, Selene stood alone before the Moonborn altar.
She dropped to her knees.
“Why does everyone I trust betray me?” she whispered. “Am I the curse?”
The moon above flickered.
And then, a voice spoke behind her.
“You’re not the curse, Selene. You’re the key.”
She turned.
Liora stood there.
Eyes glowing red.
“You didn’t think it was just Callen, did you?”
Before Selene could react, Liora threw something.
A black crystal that exploded on impact.
Dark magic surged through Selene’s body.
She screamed, collapsing.
Liora knelt beside her, whispering in her ear.
> “You were never meant to rule. Only to awaken her.”
Selene’s eyes fluttered open.
And in the reflection of the altar stone, she saw herself....
But not her.
Someone older. Darker. Wearing her face.
The true Moonborn.
And she was rising.
---
Get ready for Chapter 10: A Forbidden Alliance ; where enemies become allies, secrets of the Blood Moon deepen, and Selene faces the terrifying truth:
She's not just cursed.
She might be possessed.
The night air was thick with blood and smoke. The ruins of the Moonborn altar still smoldered, blackened stone hissing where the crystal bomb had detonated. Selene’s skin felt like it was burning from the inside out, her veins pulsing with corrupted magic.Liora had vanished into the night like a ghost, leaving behind betrayal, pain, and a message Selene couldn’t forget:> You were never meant to rule. Only to awaken her.Ryker found her on the stone steps, half-conscious and shaking.“Selene,” he murmured, crouching beside her. “Can you hear me?”Her eyes fluttered open, dim silver tarnished by black. “She’s in me, Ryker. The true Moonborn. She’s been sleeping inside me all along.”He lifted her into his arms, fury etched across his face. “Then we wake her on our own terms. Not theirs.”She wanted to believe him.But the darkness was growing louder.Back in the heart of the keep, Selene gathered the remnants of her court.Only a handful remained.Irisa? Dead! Callen? Dead! Liora?
Selene’s body was motionless, eyes closed, breath shallow, like a marionette with its strings cut.But inside… inside, a storm raged.She screamed in the void, her voice swallowed by the darkness. The Moonborn—, the other her... had taken control, banishing her into her own mind.> “This is my body now,” the Moonborn whispered through their shared consciousness.“You were only the vessel.”Selene fought, claws scraping against invisible walls, but the Moonborn’s grip was too strong.> “You want the truth?”“Then suffer it." And the visions began.The moon bled red overhead in the memory. A dark forest. A woman running; wild-eyed, barefoot, clutching a newborn.Her mother.Selene’s heart ached as she recognized her.Chasing her through the trees were men cloaked in council robes. One of them held a sword shimmering with obsidian.The woman hid the baby under the roots of an old tree.> “Live, Selene,” she whispered. “Live, even if it kills me.”Then she turned to face the hunters.Sel
Selene & Ryker finally surrender to the bond that’s been tormenting them. The night burns with raw desire, soul-binding heat, and emotional surrender.The moon was high and pulsing, swollen with silver fire, and Selene couldn’t breathe.Everything had cracked her illusions, her strength, her carefully built walls. And Ryker stood in front of her like a wildfire with fangs, burning hotter than anything she’d ever known.> “Say it,” Ryker said, voice low, guttural. “Tell me you want this.”Her chest rose and fell fast. Her pulse throbbed in her neck. The ache between her thighs had been building for days, but this...this was something else. This wasn’t lust anymore.This was need.> “I want you,” she whispered, stepping forward. “I want all of you. No more holding back.”A growl rumbled from deep in his chest.Before she could blink, his mouth was on hers; devouring, demanding. He lifted her like she weighed nothing, slammed her back against the nearest wall, and kissed her like she was
When the moon calls, only the strongest will answer.The night was unnaturally silent as Selene arrived at the ancient Stone Circle; a sacred arena carved into the heart of the forest, guarded by jagged black monoliths said to have been touched by the Moon Goddess herself. The clearing shimmered under the blood-red hue of the rising moon, casting eerie shadows across the ground.She walked into the center alone.No cloak. No crown. No armor.Just her.Selene’s midnight hair flowed loose down her back, catching the light like a wave of starlight. Her bare feet touched the sacred earth with purpose. Each step echoed the silent promise she had made: No more fear. No more waiting.The moment her presence was felt, the crowd parted.Pack members, elders, warriors, even rogues hidden among the trees, watched in awe and tension.And at the far end of the circle stood Cassian.Her former mate. The one who had humiliated her. Rejected her. Who now sought to destroy her before she could rise.H
The shattered black crystal lay at Selene’s feet like a warning. Her mother’s scream still echoed through the clearing, leaving a silence that wrapped around the crowd like a shroud.Selene didn’t move.Her fingers curled into fists at her sides, her body trembling, not from fear, but from something much darker.Rage.The voice had been real. The blood-soaked memory trapped in that crystal hadn’t been a vision or illusion. It was her mother’s dying moment, sealed in stone.She turned slowly to face the council."Who was that man?"None of the elders answered."I said, who the fuck was that?!"Silence.Ryker stepped forward, his jaw tense. "He wasn’t one of us. I’ve never seen a presence like that. He didn’t smell alive."Selene’s silver eyes locked on the eldest of the council, a woman with sunken eyes and trembling hands."You knew something. Don’t lie to me."The elder shook her head slowly. "There are stories... about a forgotten faction. Exiles. Wolves who followed the Blood Moon,
The rain fell in slow sheets, washing the blood from the castle stones, but it couldn’t cleanse what had just happened.Selene stood frozen.Her father’s face, aged, scarred, alive.He had been the heart of her nightmares. The question that never had an answer. The ghost that lingered behind every throne room door she opened alone. But there he was, in the colors of the enemy.Not a prisoner.A general.A commander of the very force that hunted her bloodline to near extinction.Her knees buckled, but she didn’t fall.She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.Behind her, Ryker stood silent, holding his side where the beta’s blade had torn into his ribs. But his pain wasn’t just physical. She felt it. A dull throb in the bond between them. Weak. Flickering. As though something sacred was slipping."Selene," her father said, his voice like gravel after a decade of silence. "You’ve grown into her spitting image."She didn’t respond.Couldn’t.He walked slowly toward her, ignoring Ryker’s p
The moon bled red in the sky.An omen.A warning.Selene stood at the highest tower of the Moonspire Fortress, arms folded tightly across her chest, wind snapping her cloak behind her like black wings. Below her, the outlands stretched in shadows, forests once ruled by peace now patrolled by fear. Her eyes gleamed silver in the darkness, and for the first time in weeks… they were dry.Ryker was alive.But he was no longer hers.He walked the corridors like a ghost; silent, lost, glancing past her as though she were a stranger. The bond that once pulsed between them had shattered with the crystal’s light, and whatever piece of him remained behind the glow in that magical coma… wasn’t coming back on its own.And Selene? She no longer had the luxury of heartbreak.Not when the Council had declared war on her throne.Not when her own people were too afraid to speak her name aloud.Not when her own people were too afraid to speak her name aloud.She turned away from the window, her fingers
Chapter 17: The Moon’s Secret KeeperThe moon hung low over the ravaged sky, smeared with silver clouds that danced like restless ghosts. Deep in the heart of the Rogues' reclaimed territory, Selene sat beside a flickering fire surrounded by the loyal few who remained at her side. The smoke twisted upward, casting shifting shadows against her solemn face.Her eyes were far away, locked on something no one else could see."She's calling again, isn't she?" Lucien asked, crouching near the fire with a hand on his sword hilt.Selene nodded slowly. "Every time I close my eyes... it's her voice. The same chant. Over and over. Something ancient. I can’t understand it yet, but I think I can feel it."He glanced around the clearing. "And you're sure it's not a trap?""Yes." Her voice was sharper than she intended. "It’s not the council. It’s older than them. It's her."Lucien stilled. “The Moon’s Secret Keeper?”Selene's lips parted at the name. She hadn't spoken it aloud. Not yet. But somethi
A week had passed since the Mirror Reborn and her followers left the shrine. Their banner, broken mirror over twin moons, flapped in every wind. They’d recruited outcasts and exiles from border villages; their ranks swelled with warriors once loyal to no king.But another summons echoed across the wild lands, this one darker.From the scorched fields of Volkrash, where ash rained from permanent ember skies, came two riders, black-cloaked envoys bearing an ebony scroll. They advanced upon the Mirror Reborn’s camp, where she and her companions rested in the ruins of a fire-forged fortress.Nyra sat at the campfire’s edge, twins cooing in Kaelia’s lap, Ryker sharpened his blade; Caelum inspected recruits; Selene meditated beneath broken battlements.A rider knelt before Nyra, eyes hidden beneath cowl. They presented the ebony scroll sealed by scarlet wax bearing the symbol of the Fire King: a crown of molten rock.Nyra lifted a brow. “Read it.”The rider’s voice was low and rasping. “Que
Night lingered with a violet bruise across the sky as Nyra Duskbane and her small company fled through the Wild Lands of Ebonreach. The air smelled of iron and ash ; grasses shivered with silver dew under a dying moon.Nyra rode at the front, her daughters cradled against her chest, their soft breaths warm on her shoulder. Kaelia led the twins on a second mare ; Caelum and Ryker flanked each side like sentinels of storm and ruin. Selene walked behind, cloak billowing, eyes storm-gray as distant lightning.They were fugitives now, hunted by every army they had once commanded, chased by prophecies that branded them as outcasts. Each night they pressed farther from the Citadel ; each dawn brought new dangers—bandits, elementals, warlords who demanded tribute or blood.Tonight, Nyra paused beside an obsidian shrine, pillars carved with ancient runes of warding. She dismounted, daughters in arms, and sank to her knees on jagged stones.“This shrine,” she murmured, fingertips tracing the ru
Nyra Duskbane stood at the shattered threshold of every realm’s final gate, her daughter cradled in one arm, twins held tight by Kaelia. Behind her, Ryker and Caelum knelt amid cracked cobblestones, eyes downcast. Above, the Sacrificial Moon had waned to a thin sliver, and the sky bled dawn’s first light.They had refused the prophecy’s demand and spared the Daughter of Ash. Now, the realms had spoken: Nyra was anathema, her bloodline tainted by defiance.A chorus of trumpets sounded from the heavens. Angelic wings beat in chilling unison; the Celestial Host formed ranks along the ramparts. At the Citadel’s peak, Celena the Oracle-Mistress raised her staff, its blood-red gem dull for the first time since the Sacrificial Moon began.“Queen Nyra,” she intoned, voice resonant as cracked marble; “you have shattered the covenant. By the ancient laws, you are exiled from all seven realms. Your kingdom falls; your throne is no more.”Nyra’s heart hammered. She tightened her grip on her daugh
Night draped Silver Fang Citadel in velvet darkness, but no lanterns burned. Every torch had been extinguished in reverence of the prophecy that now governed their fate. In the central courtyard, beneath the shattered bell tower, Nyra Duskbane stood alone with her daughter cradled in her arms. The twins and Ryker and Caelum watched from the battlements, hearts suspended in fragile hope.Above them, the moon carved a silver crescent into the sky, its light weak and quivering. They called it the Sacrificial Moon tonight, for an ancient oracle had whispered that only under this waning sliver could the realms be saved... or lost forever.Nyra’s daughter cooed softly, her wide silver eyes reflecting the pale lunar glow. Kaelia knelt beside her, offering gentle reassurance. Ryker rested a hand on Nyra’s shoulder; Caelum stood guard by the stair.All other souls had withdrawn, not a single sentinel remained. Even angels and wolves honored this grim vigil with silence.Nyra raised her head, v
The Citadel’s shattered bells still trembled in the dawn air when the ivory bone banners of the northern legion advanced, spectral warriors clad in furnaced steel, armor glimmering like ghost fire. Nyra Duskbane stood on the ramparts, her threefold runes dim after Mother of Ruin’s defeat, her cloak torn but her spirit unbroken. Beside her, Ryker leaned on Urhan’s broad shoulder, Caelum and Kaelia watched the children with wary eyes, and Aelion hovered in wounded grace under silver wings.“Queen Nyra,” Aelion’s voice rang like folding wings; “they answer a war chant older than the Covenant. They seek the Mistress of Ash.”Nyra’s gaze never left the legion. “They come for me... and for her,” she breathed; “the one I betrayed.”Below, the ivory legion halted. At their forefront strode a figure wreathed in living embers: Azrath, the Flamebound Prince of the Infernal Halls. His horns gleamed with molten brimstone, wings of shadow-smoke fanned behind him, and in his scarred hand he carried
Silver Fang Citadel’s gates groaned on their hinges as the dark banner of the Crimson Covenant unfurled against a sky still breaking into dawn. Nyra Duskbane stood atop the ramparts with Ryker at her side and Caelum Varis just behind, the twin daughters in Kaelia’s arms. Their battered host, angels, wolves, demon-hunters, lined the walls, hearts pounding at the sight of fresh legions.“You see them?” Ryker whispered, voice tight. “Thousands of warriors… clad in coilmail that shifts like oil.”Nyra’s gaze was fixed on the valley below. The Covenant’s war drums rolled like thunder, a warning that made even the Celestial Host flinch. “They come not for us,” she murmured, “but for the world we’ve fought to save.”Aelion hovered at her shoulder, wings folded in silent vigilance. “They march under the sign of the Obsidian Mother,” he said. “A goddess of ruin, worshipped by those who would see creation burn.”Nyra’s heart clenched. “I know that sign,” she replied, voice low. “It’s hers... my
The Citadel lay in ruin beneath the blood-red dawn. Scorched banners drooped from shattered poles; half-burned bodies lay strewn among broken siege engines. Everywhere, soldiers, angelic, lupine, human, moved like ghosts, tending wounds or dragging away the dead.Nyra Duskbane stumbled through the carnage, every step a trial. Her gown was torn, stained with Ryker’s blood; her heart pounded in her ears louder than any horn. She found him where she had last left him, half-buried under rubble near the Hall of Wings.She dropped to her knees, cradling his shattered form. His silver armor was cracked, chest caved in by Selene’s lunar blade. A macabre crown of bone shards brushed his hair.“Ryker,” Nyra whispered, voice raw; tears carved tracks of ash across her cheeks. She pressed her hands over his wound, murmuring words of healing power she could scarcely muster. “Hold on… please, hold on.”Ryker’s eyes fluttered open. Gold faded to gray as he tried to smile. “Nyra,” he rasped, “you came
The morning sun had barely broken Silver Fang Citadel’s steel gates when the horns sounded, three long blasts of war. Nyra Duskbane stood atop the eastern ramparts, her cloak torn where Seris’s dagger had caught her, and her heart hammered with fresh dread. At her side, the angel Aelion on one flank and Urhan the Beast King on the other, their combined presence was a living bulwark against the tide of Council forces amassing below.“Queen Nyra,” Aelion intoned, voice like distant thunder; “the heavens obey your will, yet the enemy outnumbers our host three to one.”Nyra’s gaze flicked across the valley where white-winged angels hovered overhead, shining spears of starfire in hand. Below them, banners of black and red, the Council’s crest, snapped in the wind. Soldiers in tarnished plate lined up in ranks that seemed endless.Ryker emerged behind her, human form restored but limp, supported by Kaelia. Wounds from the Executioner’s Yard still ran dark lines across his chest. He nodded o
The pale light of dawn had barely touched Silver Fang Citadel when chaos erupted. Nyra Duskbane’s blade clanged against thundering steel; Seris lunged with a poisoned dagger, and Thane’s staff shattered stone where it struck. Smoke and embers swirled through the courtyard as Kaelia and Ryker formed a protective ring around the infants.“Queen Nyra,” Kaelia cried, voice urgent; “they’ve broken their oath!”Ryker’s silver wolf-form shifted mid-leap; claws raked the ground as he pinned a guard to the flagstones. “Protect the children!” he snarled.Nyra parried Seris’s thrust; the councilor’s blade was coated in black venom that hissed on contact with Nyra’s armor. She twisted back, pain flaring where the metal bit her wrist.“Seris,” Nyra spat; “your treachery ends today.”Seris smiled, poison droplets glinting on her blade. “I do what must be done to save our world.”With a roar, Thane the Stonehand uprooted a fallen pillar, swinging it like a club. His booming laughter echoed as he str