The silence between them was thick—suffocating. Elara's eyes remained locked on the blue-sealed Council summons resting on the table like a loaded gun. It hadn't been touched, but its weight pressed into the room like an accusation. Moonlight spilled through the fractured balcony window, slicing shadows across Dominic's face. He stood silent, still, but she could feel the tension radiating off him like heat from a forge.
"Dominic," she said, her voice barely steady, "we need to talk."
No response. Not a glance. Just the hard line of his jaw.
"You can't pretend this didn't happen," she continued, arms folded across her chest like armor. "A rogue tried to kill me. You shifted. I bled from a dream. I—I threw light. Light, Dominic. From my hands."
Still, nothing.
"I don't know what's happening to me. And clearly something's happening to you too. So say something. Anything."
He turned at last. Slowly. His eyes looked like bruises, dark and hollow, but deeper than exhaustion lived there. Something ancient. Something breaking.
"You want the truth?" he said hoarsely. "Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you."
He moved past her, each step deliberate, and poured himself a drink. The crystal glass trembled in his grip. Not fear—fragility.
A fraying thread barely holding together.
"Three years ago," he said quietly, "I began to fade."
Elara frowned. "Fade?"
He downed the drink in one gulp. "Alpha bloodlines weaken when they resist their bond. When they deny the call of the moon. I've been resisting it for years. My pack doesn't know. Only Ezra. I've masked the symptoms—at least enough to fool them.
But I feel it. Every day. My senses dull. My shifts slow. My authority slips."
Her stomach dropped. "Why would you resist a bond?"
His eyes met hers, tired and unflinching. "Because I never accepted a mate."
The words cracked like thunder between them.
Elara took a step back, breath catching. "So you created a fake Luna Contract with a human... hoping it would buy you time?"
"Not fix it," he murmured. "Just... delay it.
Hold up a mirror of stability long enough to convince the Council. I thought maybe...
maybe proximity could mimic a bond. But then the mark appeared."
Her hand flew to the glowing skin at her collarbone, still pulsing faintly like a second heartbeat. "You lied to everyone. To me."
"I did." He didn't flinch. "And now, you're part of it."
She turned away, fists clenched. The truth didn't fall—it crashed, unraveling everything she thought she knew about herself. "I'm changing, Dominic. I feel fire under my skin when the moon rises. My dreams—my dreams feel like visions. Like someone else is living through me."
"Because you're not just human," he said.
She spun. "What did you say?"
He placed the glass down with a soft click. "You think I chose you at random? You think the mark was coincidence? I've known about you, Elara. Long before we met. I watched. Waited."
Her voice rose. "You had me followed?"
"I needed to be sure," he said, gently but without apology.
"Sure of what?"
"That the curse would choose you."
The words hung there, electric and awful.
Elara's knees gave, and she sank into the couch. "So I'm... what? Some chosen one? Cursed blood? Werewolf royalty?"
Dominic moved closer but didn't touch her. "Not cursed. Chosen. There's a legend—the Night of Crimson Bloom. A rare lunar event that births children with the moon's fire in their veins. Not full shifters. Not mortals either. Catalysts. Living keys."
"Keys to what?"
"To restoring the balance of the Alpha lines. Or destroying them."
She stared at him like he was a stranger. "You're telling me I'm some mystical detonator? And all this time, you've been what? Waiting to use me?"
"No," he said fiercely. "Waiting to understand you. And now I know. The moment you entered my territory, I felt it—clarity. Power. My strength surged. When I fought the rogue, I wasn't fading. I was... whole."
She looked up, heart thudding. "So what happens if I walk away?"
His silence was answer enough.
She stood, voice shaking. "You start dying again."
His eyes darkened. "Yes."
She staggered a step backward. "That's not fair, Dominic."
"It was never fair," he whispered.
They stood apart, breathing hard, bound by a truth too tangled to unravel.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" she asked, her voice barely audible.
"I was afraid," he said.
She blinked. "You? Afraid?"
He looked away. "Of losing the last hope I had. Of you running. Of finding out the bond was one-sided. But it's not. It's real. And so is the danger we're walking into."
Elara crossed to the balcony, needing space, needing air. The city glittered below, unaware of the storm brewing above.
"I don't know what I am anymore," she whispered into the wind.
Dominic stepped beside her. "Then let me help you find out."
For a moment, they stood in silence, side by side, staring into the moonlight as if it might answer all their questions.
She exhaled slowly. "The Council won't believe us. Not unless we prove the bond's authentic."
"They'll test us. Search for cracks. And if they discover you're moon-born..."
"They'll see me as a threat," she finished.
He nodded grimly.
Elara turned to him, eyes burning with new resolve. "Then we lie better."
He blinked, surprised.
"You dragged me into this," she said. "So now we survive it. Together."
And beneath the watchful eye of the silver moon, something ancient stirred—hope, perhaps, or something far more dangerous.
Far to the north, beyond snow-capped ridges and shadowed woods, another Alpha lifted his head to the stars and whispered to the wind.
"The Luna awakens. And the war begins