Kaiden POV
"You've conquered five packs, burned four temples, and survived three assassination attempts in the last year alone," Thorne muttered beside me, tossing a scroll onto the war table. "Yet here you are. Staring at maps like a lovesick pup."
I didn't look up. My fingers drummed once against the side of the chair. A slow, heavy rhythm.
"She's in our dungeons, Thorne," I said quietly. "And I can't stop thinking about her."
"Selene," he said flatly, like the name left a bitter taste.
I turned my gaze on him and smiled, the kind of smile that made my enemies rethink breathing.
"Careful. That's my mate you're talking about."
Thorne raised both hands in surrender. "Noted. Wouldn't want to end up in the cell next to her."
I stood slowly, walking toward the massive map etched into the stone wall of my chambers. Colored pins marked my conquests. Red for packs taken. Black for those destroyed. And the gold ones…
I stared at the gold ones.
"Still untouched," I murmured.
Thorne's footsteps were a quiet shuffle behind me. "You really planning on making a move on the Moonspire Wolves? Their Alpha swore neutrality since the Devouring War."
"They've had neutrality long enough." My voice was cold. "I don't trust peace that's lasted more than a decade. It rots."
Thorne leaned against the edge of the table. "And the Bloodhollow Pack?"
I glanced over my shoulder. "Still hiding behind their seers and their mountain. But they'll fall. Eventually."
"And the Deadfangs?"
A smirk tugged at my lips. "They'll beg to kneel."
Thorne exhaled. "We're running out of enemies, Kaiden."
"No," I said. "We're running out of patience."
I traced a gloved finger over a region at the edge of the map. "There's something stirring in the West. I've heard whispers—old packs waking, names we haven't heard in generations."
"You think it's connected to her?" he asked, voice low.
I didn't answer.
Because I didn't know.
But the timing… the visions… the council's arrival. The bloodline scent that still lingered on her skin.
Something was unraveling.
"She's Sacred Born," I said finally. "And that means someone's going to come for her."
"And you'll kill them?" Thorne asked.
I turned fully, staring at him. "No."
He blinked.
"I'll destroy everything they've ever loved first."
Thorne let out a breath. "That's not obsession, that's madness."
"I've worn madness like armor," I muttered. "It suits me."
He laughed under his breath. "You really think you'll hold all the packs under one name? Under your name?"
"I don't think, Thorne." I walked back to the table and slammed a red pin into the northern corner of the map.
"I know."
He stared at it, eyes narrowing. "That's the Highwood pack. Aren't they allies?"
"Not anymore."
Silence fell between us. Just the crackling of the torches and the distant howl of wolves.
Then I looked up and said what had been building inside me for days.
"She's the reason I started conquering."
Thorne frowned. "Selene?"
"No." I paused. "The memory of her. From another life. A scent. A vision. A pull I couldn't name. I've been chasing it from battlefield to battlefield, trying to find what I lost."
"And now that you've found her?" he asked quietly.
I looked toward the window. The wind howled through the spires. The moon hung heavy in the sky, a burnished silver eye watching all.
"Now?" I whispered. "I don't know if I found her… or awakened something far worse."
Selene's POV
The cell was too quiet.
Too still.
Even the stone beneath me seemed to breathe, pulsing in rhythm with something inside me that refused to sleep.
I tried to rest.
I tried to silence the memory of his touch. The heat. The bond. The way my body kept betraying me—aching in places I didn't want to acknowledge.
But when sleep finally came, it wasn't peace that found me.
It was her.
The world around me twisted into ash and shadow. I stood in the middle of the Wastes again, only they weren't barren anymore. Thorned vines slithered across the ground like serpents. Black flowers bloomed and died in seconds. The air tasted of burnt magic.
And the sky… bled red.
I ran. I didn't know where or why, only that something was coming.
The wind howled. The ground cracked.
Then I heard her voice.
"Ungrateful child."
I froze.
"No," I whispered.
From the fog, Mother Riven emerged—her cloak of woven moonlight billowing behind her, her fingers curling with violet fire.
"You left me," she said softly, too softly.
"I didn't—" I backed away.
"You fled like a thief, Selene. After everything I gave you. My blood. My knowledge. My protection." Her voice deepened, eyes glowing like a witchfire storm. "And this… is how you repay me?"
"I had to go," I whispered, tears stinging my cheeks.
She stepped closer, her face calm and terrifying. "You think they'll love you out there? You think you're one of them?"
"I don't know what I am!"
Mother Riven raised her hand.
Chains erupted from the ground and snaked around my legs, my arms, my throat. I screamed, falling to my knees.
"You belong to me," she hissed, crouching in front of me. "And I will tear the bond from your bones, even if I have to kill you to do it."
The fire surged behind her.
The sky split.
And just as her hand reached for my heart—
I woke up.
Gasping.
Soaked in sweat.
My fingernails digging into my palms.
The cell was dark again.
The dream clung to my skin like smoke.
I pulled my knees to my chest, heart s
till thundering. Her words echoed in the silence.
You belong to me.
"No," I whispered, my voice hoarse.
But I didn't know if I was telling her…
or myself