"Alpha Damon and Miss Vivian are the perfect match."
The whispered words drifted from a bakery stall as I walked out of the clinic. I stopped at the edge of the sidewalk, keeping my head down.
"An Ashford and Blackthorn union?" another voice chimed in from across the street. "The entire wolf kind would grow stronger. We need that kind of power."
"Serena doesn't deserve the Alpha," a third woman scoffed, her tone dripping with disgust. "She's a useless stain on the pack."
My chest didn't ache. My eyes remained completely dry. The crushing weight of despair had finally flattened my heart into nothing.
Damon didn't love me. Noah hated the sight of me. My own family viewed me as a humiliating joke.
Death was a terminal diagnosis, but right now, it sounded like a welcome home.
I returned to the empty estate. I didn't bother packing a bag. I walked straight to Damon’s heavy oak desk, grabbed a silver pen, and pulled out two sheets of thick parchment.
*I, Serena Vale, officially sever my bond and resign as Luna of the Blackthorn Pack.*
I signed the first page.
*I, Serena Vale, officially sever my bloodline ties and renounce my status as a daughter of the Vale family.*
I signed the second page.
I slid my gold wedding band off my finger. I set the ring on top of the letters. The metal clinked sharply against the wood.
I walked out the front door and left the territory behind.
I walked until the paved roads turned to dirt, and the dirt dissolved into overgrown brambles. The trees grew twisted and thick, blocking out the afternoon sun. The Forbidden Zone.
My vision blurred. A sharp spike of pain clawed at my veins. My knees buckled, and the damp earth rushed up to meet my face.
Blackness swallowed me.
"Finally."
A voice pierced the dark.
"I have waited so long for you, Serena Vale."
My eyes snapped open. The smell of burning pine filled my nose. I lay on a lumpy cot inside a drafty wooden cabin.
An old woman sat beside the bed. Her skin resembled cracked parchment. Her eyes were milky white, completely blind, yet her wrinkled hand gently stroked my forehead.
I shoved myself backward against the wooden headboard.
"Elder Selene?" I gasped.
The missing High Priestess.
"Damon is tearing the territory apart searching for you," I said, my voice hoarse. "The entire pack is looking. Why are you living in the Forbidden Zone?"
Elder Selene offered a serene smile. She didn't remove her hand from my face.
"Because the Moon Goddess told me to wait here," she murmured.
"Wait for what?"
"For a werewolf who will decide the future of our entire kind," Selene said. "And that person is you."
A bitter laugh scraped my throat. "You found the wrong person. I have a terminal illness. I'm going to die."
Selene shook her head. "I am blind, child, but my heart is not. Tell me the truth. Have you been hearing another voice recently?"
My muscles locked. I stared into her sightless eyes.
"Do you feel your body changing?" she pressed. "Is your blood mutating?"
"The doctor said my cells are failing," I whispered.
"Human doctors know nothing of divinity," Selene countered, her voice ringing with sudden authority. "These are not symptoms of death. They are the signs of the Moon Goddess's divine power awakening inside you."
I gripped the coarse blanket. "Power? I don't have a wolf."
"You possess the strongest divine power in the entire wolf realm," Selene said. "It has merely been sleeping. But the slumber is over. On the next full moon, you will gain supreme strength."
My heart slammed against my ribs. "When is the next full moon?"
"Tonight."
I shook my head, refusing to accept the impossible. "This is a fever dream. The sickness is making me hallucinate."
Selene pulled her hand away from my forehead. "Your power is already reaching out. Close your eyes, Serena. Listen. You are tied to the earth. Tied to the pack."
"I don't understand."
"Listen," she commanded.
I squeezed my eyes shut. A sharp crackle of energy split my skull. The wooden walls faded away. The scent of pine vanished, replaced by the familiar smell of polished leather and cold marble.
I couldn't see them, but the voices echoed in my mind with terrifying clarity.
"What does Serena think being Luna means?" Damon's furious roar vibrated through my consciousness.
I heard the nervous shuffle of Martha, our housekeeper.
"What does she think I am?" Damon snarled. "A hotel? She comes and goes as she pleases! She thinks she can just leave papers on a desk and walk away?"
"Alpha," Martha whimpered. "Should we send a search party?"
"No!" Damon barked. "Fine. If she has the guts to leave, tell her to never come back."
A hollow numbness spread through my chest. He didn't care. He was only angry about the disrespect.
Heavy boots suddenly pounded against the marble floor. A guard's frantic panting interrupted Damon's rage.
"Alpha!" the guard yelled. "The wolf plague is worsening!"
Silence fell over the estate foyer.
"Report," Damon ordered, his tone shifting to pure ice.
"Several villages have completely lost their support systems," the guard rushed out, panic lacing every word. "The hospitals can't research a cure fast enough. The infected are dying by the hour."
"Contain the bodies," Damon said.
"We are trying," the guard cried. "We have to burn the corpses in the streets. The entire pack is spiraling into panic!"
I opened my eyes. The vision snapped shut. The quiet cabin returned.
The plague. That was the real reason Damon had been desperately meeting with the elders. The werewolf world was collapsing.
Selene leaned forward, her blind eyes fixed perfectly on my face.
"The plague ravages them," she whispered. "And tonight, the moon rises."
