Silence stretched over the clearing like a sheet of glass, fragile and ready to shatter.
The Crimson Pack had retreated—for now. But they didn't leave in defeat. They left in calculation. In the way predators withdraw not out of fear, but to plan a more lethal strike.
Lucian walked me back to the cabin, his hand warm against the small of my back, grounding me. But my mind was far from still.
The glow in my veins had faded. My skin returned to normal. But something inside me had changed. I could feel it—like a door had been kicked open in my soul, and now something ancient was walking the halls of my mind.
"I need answers," I said quietly as we stepped into the dim cabin.
"You'll have them," Lucian replied. "But once you know, there's no going back."
I turned to face him. "You keep saying that. But my life's already changed. You bit me, I turned, I was almost killed by a rival pack. I've watched you tear through wolves like they were paper. What else could possibly change?"
Lucian didn't answer right away. Instead, he walked over to the fire and stoked it higher. Shadows danced along the walls.
"You carry Moonborn blood," he said finally. "That much is clear now."
"What does that even mean?"
He turned to me, face solemn. "It means your bloodline comes from the original line of wolves. Not turned, like most of us. Not bitten. Born. Blessed by the moon itself. The first line. The purest—and the most dangerous."
"Dangerous?" I asked, eyebrows raised.
He nodded. "Because you weren't meant to survive."
I sat slowly, trying to process.
"My mother," I said. "The Crimson Alpha said she was one of them. Was she Moonborn too?"
"She was," Lucian said. "But she kept it hidden. Fled before they could bind her into their bloodline again. When she had you, she broke one of the oldest taboos—she mated with a human. That's why they want you dead. Because you're something that shouldn't exist."
I swallowed hard. "And you? Why did you bite me?"
His jaw tensed. "Because I felt you coming. Even before you turned eighteen. Your energy pulled at mine. I thought... I thought if I found you first, I could protect you. I didn't expect the bond to be so strong."
"You marked me without permission," I said, voice hardening.
His shoulders fell. "I know. I'm sorry. But it was either mark you… or let them take you."
I didn't respond. My thoughts were spinning too fast, caught in a storm of memories and new truths. My mother. The bloodline. The mark.
A flicker of heat bloomed on my skin again. The mark was glowing faintly beneath my clothes.
"Something's wrong," I whispered.
Lucian was instantly alert. "What is it?"
"I don't know… it feels like something is pulling me again. But not from the outside. From inside."
Suddenly, I doubled over, pain flaring behind my eyes. My hands trembled. My breath came in short, ragged gasps.
Lucian reached me in a flash. "Raven—"
Then the world tilted.
I wasn't in the cabin anymore.
I was standing in a forest of silver trees under a pitch-black sky. The moon above me was enormous, blood-red, and pulsing like a heartbeat.
And before me stood a woman.
She had hair like moonlight, skin the color of shadowed snow, and eyes the exact same molten silver as mine.
"You've awakened," she said.
"Who… who are you?"
"I am what sleeps within you. I am the gift and the curse. I am your ancestor—and your shadow."
"You're the Moonborn."
She nodded once. "And so are you. But incomplete. Untrained. You've cracked open the door, Raven, but you have not walked through it."
"Then show me how," I begged. "Help me understand this."
The woman stepped forward. "There is a price. Always a price. Your power comes from the moon—but the moon is cold. Lonely. To walk its path means to give up the warmth of the world you knew."
"What do I have to give up?"
"Your past. Your name. Your weakness."
I blinked. "My name?"
"You cannot become what you must while still holding on to who you were."
The dream-world shimmered.
"I'm not ready," I whispered.
"No one ever is."
Her hand touched my mark, and the world exploded in silver light.
When I came to, I was lying on the cabin floor, Lucian kneeling beside me.
"Raven!"
I gasped, breath rushing in like fire.
"I saw her," I whispered.
Lucian's eyes widened. "Who?"
"The Moonborn. The first. She said… there's a price to this. To becoming."
He helped me sit up. "There always is."
"I think…" My voice trembled. "I think I'm starting to remember something that was never mine. Memories. Not just from my mother, but from the line. From the beginning."
Lucian looked at me like he was seeing a ghost. "You're changing faster than I expected."
"I don't think I have a choice."
Outside, the wind howled again. But this time, it didn't sound like a warning.
It sounded like a welcome.