Vale's POV
Dante's hand clamped over my glowing palms, and instantly the silver light died out.
"How did you do that?" I gasped, staring at my normal-looking hands.
"Werewolf touch can ground magical energy," he explained, but his face was worried. "The problem is, that much power doesn't just disappear. It goes somewhere else."
As if his words had summoned it, we heard the distant sound of howling. Not one wolf, but many. Their voices carried through the morning air, getting closer by the minute.
"They felt your magic," Dante said grimly. "Every supernatural creature in the area knows something powerful just woke up. We have to move now."
But before we could take a step toward the door, it burst open.
Three men in black tactical gear stormed into the cabin, guns raised. Behind them came a woman I'd never seen before, tall and elegant with ice-blue eyes that seemed to see right through me.
"Hello, little moon child," the woman said with a smile that made my skin crawl. "I'm Dr. Sarah Voss, and I've been looking everywhere for you."
Dante stepped in front of me, his body already starting to shift toward his wolf form. But Dr. Voss just laughed.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Mr. Blackthorne. One word from me and my men will pump you full of silver bullets. And we both know how deadly those are to your kind."
Dante froze, his eyes flashing between human and wolf.
"What do you want?" I demanded, trying to keep my voice steady.
"I want to help you understand what you really are," Dr. Voss said sweetly. "Your father has been lying to you your whole life. But I can show you the truth about your heritage."
"I'm not going anywhere with you."
"Oh, but you are." Dr. Voss nodded to her men. "Take them both. The werewolf might be useful for keeping our moon child cooperative."
Everything happened too fast to follow. Dante lunged at the nearest gunman, but something hit him in the neck - a dart that made him stumble and fall. I tried to run, but hands grabbed me from behind.
A sharp sting in my arm, and the world started spinning. The last thing I saw before darkness took me was Dr. Voss's cold smile.
When I woke up, I was lying on a narrow cot in what looked like a prison cell. The walls were concrete, and the only light came from a small bulb hanging from the ceiling. My head pounded and my mouth felt like cotton.
"Dante?" I called out, sitting up slowly.
"I'm here," his voice came from somewhere nearby. I looked around and saw another cell across from mine. Dante sat on his own cot, looking groggy but alert. "How do you feel?"
"Like I got hit by a truck. Where are we?"
"Some kind of warehouse. I can smell old motor oil and rust. We're not in the mountains anymore."
I stood up and walked to the bars of my cell. The space beyond was huge and mostly empty, filled with shadows and the echo of our voices. Somewhere in the darkness, I could hear the hum of machinery.
"What does that woman want with me?" I asked.
"Nothing good," Dante replied. "People like her think supernatural beings are things to be studied and controlled. If she really knows about moon children, she'll want to run experiments on you."
The thought made me shiver. "How long have we been here?"
"A few hours, I think. It's hard to tell without windows."
I was about to ask another question when a sharp pain shot through my head. Not a normal headache, but something deeper. Like someone was digging around in my brain with a shovel.
Then I saw something that shouldn't have been possible.
I was seven years old again, standing in a moonlit garden behind a huge house. Flowers glowed white in the darkness, and the air smelled like jasmine and magic. My little hands were cupped in front of me, holding a ball of silver light that pulsed with my heartbeat.
"Very good, little moon child," said a woman's voice behind me. "You're learning so fast."
I turned around and saw the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen. She had long, dark hair that moved in a breeze I couldn't feel, and her eyes were the color of starlight. She knelt down next to me, her elegant hands covering mine.
"Remember, the power comes from love, not fear," she said gently. "Love for the world, love for the creatures who need healing, love for the magic itself."
"But what if I hurt someone by accident?" my younger self asked.
"Then you learn to control it better. Magic isn't dangerous, sweetie. It's how we use it that matters."
The memory vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving me gasping and confused. I was back in the prison cell, staring at Dante through the bars.
"What just happened?" he asked, concern clear in his voice.
"I remembered something. A woman was teaching me to use magic when I was little. But I don't understand - my father never told me about any of this."
"Your memories are starting to come back because your power is awakening. The magic and the memories are connected."
Another sharp pain hit my head, and suddenly I was somewhere else again.
This time I was even younger, maybe five years old. I was playing in a forest that looked just like the woods around Dante's cabin. Sunlight filtered through the trees, and birds sang in the branches above me.
That's when I heard the whimpering.
Behind a fallen log, I found a wolf cub with its leg caught in a metal trap. Blood matted its black fur, and its eyes were wide with pain and fear. But there was something special about those eyes - they were silver instead of the usual brown or yellow.
"Oh no," my little voice said. "You're hurt really bad."
The cub tried to growl at me, but it was too weak and scared. I sat down next to it, not afraid at all.
"It's okay," I whispered. "I can help you."
I reached out and touched the cub's injured leg. Silver light flowed from my small hands, warm and gentle. The metal trap opened with a click, and the wounds began to heal. Within minutes, the cub was completely better.
It looked up at me with those amazing silver eyes and licked my face with its rough tongue. Then it bounded away into the forest, healthy and free.
But just before it disappeared, the cub turned back and looked at me one more time. In that moment, I felt something click into place between us. Like we were connected by invisible threads that would never break.
The memory faded, leaving me shaking and confused.
"Vale?" Dante's voice sounded far away. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
I stared at him through the prison bars, my heart pounding with impossible understanding. Those silver eyes that had always seemed so familiar. The way he'd protected me even when I was supposedly his enemy. The strange connection I'd felt between us from the very beginning.
"The wolf cub," I whispered. "I saved a wolf cub when I was five years old. It was caught in a trap and I healed it with my magic."
Dante went very still. "What did this cub look like?"
"Black fur. Small for its age. And silver eyes." My voice shook as the truth hit me. "Silver eyes exactly like yours."
Dante's face had gone pale. He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out.
Because we both knew what this meant.
The wounded cub I'd saved in my childhood memory was him.