The storm arrived before nightfall.
Dark clouds rolled over the Keep like waves of smoke, the wind howling through the corridors as if mourning something not yet lost. Thunder cracked overhead, shaking the ancient walls.
Selene stood at the highest tower, watching it all.
It felt… appropriate.
The storm mirrored everything she felt — wild, loud, impossible to ignore.
Below her, the Summit crumbled.
Council members argued behind closed doors. Alphas shouted about betrayal. Some demanded her exile. Others whispered about war. Daxon had been pulled into a political chamber with his Beta. Cian was nowhere to be found.
And Selene?
Selene had done the unthinkable.
She had rejected fate.
Not permanently, but enough to shake the foundation of everything they believed in. Enough to mark herself not just as Luna — but as a threat.
Behind her, soft footsteps echoed.
She didn't turn.
"I'm not in the mood for company," she said.
"You never are," came Vaughn's dry voice. "But you're getting it anyway."
He joined her at the balcony's edge, his long coat snapping in the wind.
"The council is furious," he said.
"I expected that."
"They think you've cursed the bond."
"I freed it."
"They don't see it that way."
Selene finally turned to him. "Then let them choke on their fear. I won't pretend for their comfort."
Vaughn studied her.
"You're bold," he said. "Like your mother."
Her chest tightened. "You knew her?"
He nodded once. "A long time ago. Before she was mated. Before she was hunted."
Selene swallowed. "Did she… make enemies too?"
"She was the enemy," Vaughn said. "Because she refused to be controlled. Just like you."
That hit harder than she expected.
He reached into his coat and handed her a sealed letter — aged, yellowed, but preserved with care.
"She wrote this," he said, "in the days before she died. I've kept it hidden. Until now."
Selene stared at the envelope, her name written in ink that had faded but not disappeared.
"You waited all this time?" she whispered.
"I waited for the right you," he said. "The one strong enough to open it."
He turned and walked away, his footsteps swallowed by thunder.
Selene held the letter like it was glass.
She didn't open it. Not yet.
Down in the great hall, the storm's noise couldn't drown the fury.
Daxon stood before the council, arms crossed, face blank.
"She defied the law," Alpha Garet shouted. "That makes her a threat to all bonded unions!"
"She didn't reject the bond," Daxon said. "She delayed."
"What difference does that make?"
"She chose herself. You fear her for it."
"We fear what she could become."
Daxon stepped forward, voice like stone. "Then fear me, too. Because if you touch her — if any of you move against her — I will burn this council to ash."
The threat hung in the air.
No one dared challenge him.
But the hatred lingered. Quiet. Growing.
In the northern courtyard, Selene found Cian sitting by the fountain — soaked from rain, his shirt clinging to him, his head bowed.
She walked to him slowly.
"You weren't at the council."
"I didn't trust myself not to start a war."
She sat beside him, letting the rain soak her too.
"I never meant to hurt you," she said.
"You didn't."
"I saw your face when I spoke."
"I wasn't hurt," he said. "I was proud. And terrified. Because now the whole world sees you as I do."
Selene looked at him, the tension between them soft and raw.
"I don't want to choose out of fear," she whispered. "I want to choose when my heart is steady."
Cian nodded. "Then I'll wait."
She smiled faintly. "You say that, but your wolf doesn't agree."
He laughed under his breath. "He howls every night."
They sat in silence, letting the rain baptize their wounds.
Then Cian reached into his pocket.
"I wasn't going to give you this yet," he said, "but you should have it."
He placed a small velvet box in her palm.
Inside, nestled on black silk, was a pendant — a moonstone framed in silver, glowing faintly like it held starlight.
"It was my mother's," he said. "She said it protected our bloodline."
Selene touched the stone. It pulsed.
"Why give it to me?"
"Because you're more than Luna now. You're something older. Something the prophecy didn't name."
Selene closed the box.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"Don't thank me," he said, standing. "Just survive this. Then come back to me."
That night, she sat in her chamber with the letter from her mother.
Her fingers trembled as she broke the seal.
Inside was a single page — faded, but still legible.
My Selene,
If you are reading this, it means the world has tried to take you too. I pray the Moon still watches you.
You are not just my daughter. You are the last of something ancient — a bloodline bound not by one Alpha, but by two. It is rare. Dangerous. Powerful.
They will tell you it's unnatural. That it must be severed. But they are wrong.
One mate will give you strength. The other, clarity. But only you can decide who is truth.
And if you choose neither… the world will bend. Or break.
Don't let them decide your fate, my moon.
Be the storm.
—A.
Selene wiped her eyes.
The storm outside matched the one inside her now — wild, loud, and unforgiving.
She read the letter three more times before tucking it under her pillow.
Tomorrow, she would face them again.
Tomorrow, she would begin preparing not just for choice — but for war.
Elsewhere, in the dungeons beneath the Keep…
A hooded figure knelt before a chained wolf.
"Are the seeds planted?" the captive asked, voice a rasp.
"Yes," the figure replied. "The council turns against her. One mate doubts. The other burns."
"And the girl?"
"Still standing."
"Not for long."
The hooded figure nodded, then disappeared into the dark — leaving only the whisper of a rising storm… and the scent of betrayal.