The morning came gray and wet, with a low mist clinging to the rooftops like reluctant ghosts. Thornfang Hollow looked quiet, but Elena knew better now. Peace was a performance, and this city had learned how to wear its masks well.
She sat alone in the kitchen, fingers wrapped around a cup of black coffee that had long gone cold. The Blood Moon Stone rested nearby on the table, its surface dim but not silent. She could feel it humming faintly—less like a whisper now and more like a heartbeat.
Her own.
Kael hadn't spoken much since the ritual. He'd followed her home, hovered nearby like a wolf that didn't quite know how to sit still. She couldn't blame him. She had made a decision—one that tied her to the Shadowfangs by blood—and she hadn't warned him.
She hadn't warned herself.
The apartment door creaked behind her. Kael stepped in, shirtless, towel slung over his shoulder. His hair was damp, and his expression unreadable.
"You didn't sleep," he said.
"Neither did you," she replied, not looking up.
Silence settled between them. Heavy, familiar.
"You could have said no," he said eventually, setting the towel down.
"I could have," Elena agreed. "But we both know what that would've meant. Marcus wasn't bluffing. Without the Shadowfangs, we'd be sitting ducks."
Kael's jaw flexed. "And Selene? Do you trust her?"
"No." She looked up at him finally. "But I don't trust Marcus either. Or the Silverclaws. Or the Firetooth sympathizers crawling around the council. Trust isn't the currency here. Leverage is."
Kael moved closer, leaning against the counter. His voice dropped lower, almost a growl. "You're starting to sound like them."
Elena met his gaze, steel in her eyes. "Maybe that's what it takes."
He didn't reply right away. When he finally did, it was soft. "I just don't want to lose you to all this."
"You won't," she said. "I'm still me. I'm just… not the same girl who ran from the woods with blood on her hands and no memory of how it got there."
He hesitated. Then he touched her hand, briefly, before pulling away.
They both heard the knock at the same time. Three short raps—urgent, familiar.
Lila.
They met in the alley behind the Safehouse, one of the few neutral locations left in the Hollow. Elena pulled her hood up against the drizzle, her boots kicking through old leaves and wet gravel.
Lila was already waiting, arms folded, her face set in that "you're not going to like this" expression.
"What is it?" Elena asked.
"There's been a break-in," Lila said. "Archives level. Old Dominion records, hidden vault."
Elena's blood ran cold. "That's restricted. Who?"
"No idea," Lila replied. "But they got in clean. No alarm, no trail. Took one file and vanished."
Kael appeared at Elena's side, silent as ever. "What was taken?"
Lila hesitated. "The original Moonborn genealogy scroll."
Elena's stomach flipped. That scroll contained bloodlines dating back centuries—names, symbols, clans long since scattered or extinguished. If someone wanted to manipulate power… or fabricate a claim…
"They're trying to rewrite the hierarchy," Kael said.
"Or bury something," Lila added.
Elena nodded. "Either way, they're planning something big."
Lila handed her a folded piece of parchment. "This was left behind."
Elena unfolded it.
In neat, precise handwriting were the words:You don't know who you are.
Her hands clenched.
"I think it's time," Elena said slowly. "We stop waiting for them to come to us."
That night, they returned to the Shadowfang compound.
It wasn't a house. It was a fortress—stone, iron, and magic wards deep in the industrial quarter, surrounded by decaying factories and abandoned freight lines. Wolves patrolled the perimeter in both skin and fur. No one got close without being seen.
Elena was escorted inside to the council chamber, where Marcus and Selene waited. Selene sat in the high-backed chair that had once belonged to her mother, her legs crossed, expression cool and bored.
"You're early," Marcus said, sipping something that looked like bloodwine.
"I don't have time to be polite," Elena replied. "Someone broke into the Dominion Archives last night. They took the Moonborn genealogy scroll."
That got their attention. Marcus sat straighter. Selene uncrossed her legs.
"Do you think it was the Silverclaws?" Marcus asked.
"I don't think," Elena said. "I know. This is a move. A calculated one."
Selene frowned. "That scroll's encrypted. You need a living bloodline signature to decode it."
"Then they either have one," Elena said, "or they think I do."
Marcus looked at her carefully. "Do you?"
"I don't know," Elena admitted.
Selene rose. "Then it's time we found out."
The bloodline testing chamber was beneath the compound—old magic, candlelight, and stone that hadn't seen sunlight in generations.
Selene drew the sigil on Elena's palm in ash and wolfsbane. Elena bit her tongue to keep from reacting to the sting. Kael stood nearby, tense.
"You might not like what you see," Selene said quietly.
"I'm not here to like it," Elena replied.
She placed her hand on the obsidian slab in the center of the chamber. The sigil began to glow faintly, threads of crimson light crawling across the stone like veins. Symbols shimmered—family crests, ancient runes, bloodlines pulsing to the surface.
One flared brighter than the rest.
Selene stepped back. Marcus inhaled sharply.
Elena stared.
A name appeared. A bloodline lost to time.
Lunaris.
Kael's breath caught. "That's impossible. The Lunaris line ended during the Great War."
"Or so they told us," Marcus murmured.
Elena's hand trembled slightly. "What does it mean?"
"It means you're not just bonded to the Blood Moon Stone," Selene said. "You're its heir."
Later, in the privacy of her quarters, Elena sat in silence, the revelation settling over her like a second skin.
Kael stood at the door, watching her. "You okay?"
"No," she said honestly. "But I will be."
He crossed the room, stood beside her. "You're not alone in this. Even if your bloodline stretches back to legends."
Elena gave him a tired smile. "Legends are just stories people choose to believe."
He leaned down, touched his forehead to hers. "Then let them believe in you."
The stone pulsed on the table, brighter than before.
Outside, the storm had stopped.
But inside Elena Virel, it had only just begun.