POV: Seraphina
THE MOONBORN DIES IN 72 HOURS.
The words are written in blood. I know it's blood because I can smell it metallic and wrong.
My legs won't move. My brain won't work. Someone knows what I am. Someone wants me dead.
And they gave themselves the exact same deadline as the mating law.
Get her out of here. Kael's voice cuts through my shock. His hand closes around my arm gentle but firm.
But
Now, Seraphina. He turns to the warriors crowding the doorway. Finn, I want this office locked down. Find out who had access. Check every security camera. Someone broke in during the night.
A tall man with sandy hair nods. On it.
Kael pulls me away from the scene, through the gathering crowd of pack members. They stare at me with fear in their eyes. Fear of me. The Moonborn. The thing their ancestors hunted.
He doesn't stop until we're back in his wing, door locked behind us.
Sit, he orders, pointing at the couch.
I sit. Not because he told me to, but because my knees finally give out.
Kael paces like a caged wolf. How many people knew about your mother's letter?
No one. I only read it last night after the glow started. My voice sounds hollow. The words were invisible before that.
Your mother hid it with magic. He stops pacing. A protection spell that only activated when your powers awakened.
My powers. I laugh, and it sounds half-crazy. I don't have powers. I'm just... me.
Kael kneels in front of me, bringing his eyes level with mine. Moonborn Lunas can heal with their touch. They can sense lies. They can see into souls through the mate bond. They're some of the most powerful wolves ever born.
That's insane.
Is it? His gray eyes hold mine. Think about it. Have you ever known when someone was lying? Ever felt like you could see through people?
I open my mouth to say no. Then stop.
I always knew when Marcus was hiding something. I could feel Natasha's jealousy even when she smiled. I've always been able to read people in a way others can't.
I thought I was just intuitive.
Oh God, I whisper. It's real. All of it.
Your mother bound your powers to protect you, Kael says. But when Marcus died, the binding broke. That's why the letter glowed. Why you can suddenly feel the mate bond. Your true nature is surfacing.
And someone wants to kill me for it.
Or control you. His jaw tightens. Moonborn were hunted because power-hungry Alphas wanted to use their abilities to control other packs. If someone knows what you are
They might have killed Marcus to get to me. The realization hits like ice water.
Kael's expression goes dark. That's what I'm afraid of.
I stand on shaky legs. We need to tell the Council. Tell everyone. If there's a killer in the pack
No. Kael stands too. We tell no one.
What? Why?
Because whoever wrote that message is in this pack. They have access to Marcus's office. They know about the seventy-two-hour deadline. He moves closer. If we announce you're Moonborn, we paint a target on your back. Right now, only the killer knows for sure.
And you, I point out. You know.
And I'd die before I let anyone hurt you.
The words hang between us. The mate bond hums in my chest warm, insistent, real.
Why? I ask quietly. Why would you protect me? You barely know me.
Because you're my mate. His voice is rough. Four years of watching you from a distance doesn't mean I don't know you, Seraphina. I know you take your coffee with too much sugar. I know you talk to the roses in the garden like they're friends. I know you cry during full moons because something in you aches and you don't know why.
My breath catches. You watched me?
I couldn't help it. He looks away. The bond made me aware of you every second. I knew when you were happy. When you were sad. When Marcus made you laugh or made you cry. It was torture.
I should be angry. Creeped out. But all I feel is... understood. For the first time in four years, someone actually sees me.
I cried during full moons because something felt wrong, I whisper. Like I was supposed to be somewhere else. With someone else.
With me, Kael says. The bond was calling you to me.
The space between us feels electric. I can feel his heartbeat like it's my own. Feel his fear for me, his anger at the threat, his desperate need to keep me safe.
This is crazy, I breathe. Three days ago, I had a husband. Now he's dead, my best friend betrayed me, someone wants to kill me, and I'm supposedly destined for a man I barely know.
I know.
And we have seventy-two hours to mate or I die anyway.
I won't let that happen.
How can you stop it? It's pack law.
Then we follow pack law. His eyes are fierce. We do the mating ceremony. We protect you from whoever's hunting you. And we figure out who killed Marcus.
Just like that?
Just like that.
A knock on the door interrupts us. Kael tenses, stepping between me and the door automatically.
It's Finn, a voice calls through the wood.
Kael opens the door. The sandy-haired warrior looks grim.
We found something, Finn says. You need to see this.
What?
Finn glances at me, then back to Kael. The blood used for the message? We ran tests. It's not human. Not wolf.
Then what is it?
We don't know. But here's the thing Finn's expression darkens. It's the same blood type found at the scene of Marcus's death.
My heart stops. What?
Marcus's car had traces of this same unknown blood on the driver's seat, Finn continues. We thought it was contamination. But now
Now we know whoever killed Marcus is the same person threatening Seraphina, Kael finishes.
There's more. Finn pulls out his phone. Security cameras caught someone entering the office at 3 AM. We got a partial image.
He shows us the screen. The image is grainy, dark. A hooded figure. But visible on their wrist is a distinctive silver bracelet with a moon charm.
I know that bracelet.
That's Natasha's, I whisper. She's worn it every day since we were fifteen.
Kael's eyes go cold. Where is she now?
That's the problem, Finn says grimly. She's gone. Packed her things and left pack territory sometime between midnight and dawn. No one saw her go.
My best friend. The girl I trusted with everything. She didn't just betray me with Marcus.
She killed him. And now she's coming for me.