Lyra's scream died in her throat as she looked at her father's weathered face pressed against the window. Alpha Thorne looked older, broken, his once-proud features carved with lines of sadness and regret.
Before she could move, big arms grabbed her from behind.
"Don't make a sound," whispered a familiar voice in her ear. "Your father isn't alone."
Darius.
Relief flooded through her as she recognized his warm smell pine trees and wild rain. The rogue who'd saved her life countless times during her years of hiding had somehow found her again.
"How did you" she started. "Later," he breathed, pulling her away from the window.
"Right now, we need to get you out of here."
Through the glass, Lyra saw her father's desperate eyes searching her room. Behind him, shadows moved in the darkness. Other wolves. A shooting party.
"They're not here to talk," Darius said grimly, reading her thoughts.
"I've been tracking them for three days. Your father brought soldiers from his pack."
"Why would he"
"Because someone told him you're in danger." A chill ran down Lyra's spine.
"What kind of danger?" Before Darius could answer, her father's fist pounded against the window. The glass cracked under the force.
"Lyra!" Thorne's voice was raw with feeling.
"I know you're in there. We need to leave. Now."
"He's lost his mind," Darius muttered, but Lyra heard something else in her father's words. Terror. The bedroom door burst open. Kade stormed in, his eyes blazing with Alpha rage.
"What's happening? I heard" He stopped dead when he saw Darius holding Lyra protectively against his chest.
"Who are you?" Kade's voice dropped to a dangerous growl.
"Someone who actually cares about her,"
Darius shot back, not removing his grip on Lyra. The tension in the room burst like lightning. Two Alphas facing each other, both claiming territory over the same woman.
"Let her go," Kade ordered, power rolling off him in waves.
"Make me," Darius replied quietly.
Before either could move, the window shattered completely. Alpha Thorne climbed through, followed by two of his troops. Glass crunched under their boots as they advanced into the room.
"Daughter," Thorne said, his voice breaking on the word.
"Forgive me. For everything. But you have to come with me."
"I'm not going anywhere with you," Lyra said, finding her voice at last.
"You threw me away, remember?" Pain flashed across Thorne's face. "I was wrong. Terribly, horribly wrong. But staying here will kill you."
"That's not your choice to make anymore,"
Kade stepped forward, putting himself between Lyra and her father.
"She's my mate. She's under my protection." Thorne laughed bitterly.
"Your protection? You've been slowly killing her since she arrived."
"That's enough," Kade growled.
"Is it?" Thorne's eyes blazed with desperate fury.
"Do you think I don't know what you're planning?
The rejection ceremony? Breaking the mate bond that could save her life?" Shock rippled through the room.
Lyra's knees nearly buckled. Her father knew about Kade's plan.
"How did you" Kade started.
"Because I've been watching," Thorne said simply.
"Waiting. Hoping I was wrong about what I suspected. But seeing that woman, that creature trying to be"
"Choose your next words carefully," Kade warned, his voice deadly quiet.
"Seraphina isn't who you think she is," Thorne continued anyway.
"And if you reject Lyra for her, you'll destroy the only thing standing between this world and chaos."
"What are you talking about?" Lyra wanted. Thorne's eyes met hers, filled with a decade of guilt and lies.
"The night Alina disappeared... I lied about what happened." The room went silent except for the sound of everyone's breaths.
"She didn't just fall into the river," Thorne continued, his voice cracking.
"Something took her. Something that shouldn't exist in our world. And now it's back, wearing her face, twisting everything we hold dear."
"You're insane," Kade said, but doubt flickered in his eyes.
"Am I?"
Thorne pulled something from his jacket a small, leather-bound notebook.
"This belonged to my grandma. She was a seer, gifted with views of the future. Every statement she made came true. Including this one."
He opened the notebook to a page marked with a red ribbon.
Even from across the room, Lyra could see the fading ink, the careful handwriting. "She wrote about the Moonbane," Thorne said.
"A child born under a blood moon, marked by divine magic, doomed to either save or destroy the supernatural world. A child who would lose everything before finding her true power."
"What does that have to do with" Kade began. "Lyra was born during a blood moon," Thorne said softly.
"The night she was born, my mother had a vision so scary it turned her hair white. She saw a war between humans and gods, with my daughter standing at the center, holding the fate of both worlds in her hands." Ice formed in Lyra's veins.
"That's impossible."
"Is it?" Darius spoke for the first time since the break, his voice thoughtful.
"In ten years of life, how many times should you have died? How many times did you walk away from fights that should have killed you?"
Images flashed through Lyra's mind.
The bear attack she'd survived without a scratch. The poisonous plants that never touched her. The way other rogues seemed to fear her without knowing why.
"I got lucky," she whispered.
"Nobody's that lucky," Darius said softly.
"I've been watching you for years, Lyra. You're different. Special. And now that you're back in the magical world, that power is waking up."
"This is ridiculous," Kade interrupted, but his voice lacked force.
"Even if any of this were true, what does it have to do with Seraphina?" Thorne's face darkened.
"Because she's not Seraphina. She's not even fully Alina anymore. She's a vessel, created by forces that want to use Lyra's power for their own ends."
"Created by who?" Lyra asked, though part of her already knew the answer.
"The Moon Goddess herself," Thorne said. "And she's been planning this for a very long time." The words hung in the air like a death sentence. Nobody moved. Nobody breathed.
Then footsteps echoed in the hallway outside. Light, elegant steps that could only belong to one person.
"Kade?" Seraphina's words drifted through the door, sweet and innocent.
"Is everything alright? I heard yelling." Thorne's face went white with fear.
"She knows we're here," he whispered.
"She's been listening to everything."
The doorknob turned slowly, and Seraphina stepped into the room. She looked beautiful as always, but something was different.
Her blue eyes seemed to glow with their own light, and when she smiled, Lyra could swear she saw something ancient and terrible hiding behind her familiar features.
"Hello, Father," Seraphina said to Thorne, her voice carrying power that made the air itself quiver.
"It's been such a long time." Thorne stumbled backward, his face a mask of fear.
"You remember."
"I remember everything now," Seraphina said, her eyes shifting to Lyra.
"Including what my dear sister cost me."
The temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees. Frost began forming on the windows, and everyone's breath came out in noticeable puffs.
"Alina," Lyra breathed.
"Not anymore," Seraphina replied, and when she spoke, her voice echoed with divine power.
"I am so much more than that scared little girl who fell into the river. I am picked. I am lucky. I am eternal."
Her eyes flashed with silver light, and suddenly everyone in the room except Lyra dropped to their knees, including Kade and Darius.
"And you, sister," Seraphina continued, stepping closer while the others stayed frozen in place,
"are going to help me finish what the Moon Goddess started."