The guest cabin Kane had assigned to Luna was a far cry from her Manhattan penthouse, but somehow it felt more like home than anywhere she'd lived in her adult life. Rustic wooden walls, a stone fireplace, and windows that looked out over the moonlit forest created an atmosphere of peace that her wolf spirit seemed to crave.
Luna sat on the porch swing, wrapped in a thick woolen blanket, trying to process everything that had happened in the past few days. The crystallized silver light from her trial sat on the wooden table beside her, pulsing gently with an inner radiance that matched the rhythm of her heartbeat.
"Can't sleep either?"
She turned to find Kane approaching through the darkness, two steaming mugs in his hands. Even in the dim light, he moved with that fluid grace that marked him as predator, but there was nothing threatening about his presence. If anything, being near him felt like coming home to a hearth fire after a long, cold journey.
"Too much to think about," Luna admitted, accepting the mug he offered. The scent that rose with the steam was complex—herbs she didn't recognize, but that somehow smelled like childhood and safety and belonging.
"Pack blend tea," Kane explained, settling into the chair across from her. "Sarah's special recipe. It helps calm overactive wolf spirits."
Luna took a tentative sip and felt warmth spread through her chest that had nothing to do with the temperature of the drink. "It's perfect. Thank you."
Kane was quiet for a moment, studying her face in the moonlight. "You really don't remember any of this, do you? The pack lands, the rituals, the people who love you?"
"I remember impressions sometimes," Luna said softly. "Like déjà vu, but stronger. When I saw my grandfather today, something inside me knew him. But the actual memories..." She shook her head. "It's like trying to recall a dream after you've been awake too long."
"What about me?" Kane's voice was carefully neutral, but Luna could hear the pain underneath. "Do I feel familiar at all?"
Luna looked at him properly for the first time since they'd sat down. In the moonlight, Kane was breathtakingly beautiful—all golden hair and strong features, with eyes that held depths of loyalty and love she wasn't sure she deserved. There was something about the way he moved, the way he held himself, that seemed achingly familiar. But when she reached for specific memories, there was nothing but empty space.
"You feel..." Luna searched for the right words. "You feel like coming home. Like safety and protection and something I've been missing without knowing it. But I can't remember you, Kane. I can't remember us."
Kane set down his mug and leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. "Would you like me to tell you about us? About who we were before the world tore us apart?"
Luna nodded, not trusting her voice.
Kane's expression softened with memory. "You were three years old when your parents first brought you to the pack lands for the summer. I was five, and I thought I was very grown up and important because my father was the Alpha's brother." He smiled, and Luna caught a glimpse of the boy he must have been. "You marched right up to me on your first day, stuck out your tiny hand, and announced, 'I'm Luna, and we're going to be best friends.'"
Despite everything, Luna found herself smiling. "That sounds presumptuous of me."
"It was. And you were absolutely right." Kane's eyes crinkled with warmth. "Within a week, you had me following you around like a devoted puppy. You were fearless, Luna. You'd climb the tallest trees, explore the deepest parts of the forest, challenge boys twice your size to races you somehow always won."
"I was a handful?"
"You were magnificent," Kane said simply. "Even as a child, you had this natural authority, this way of making people want to follow you. The other pack children looked up to you, not because you were the Alpha's daughter, but because you were you."
Luna felt a strange ache in her chest, mourning for a childhood she couldn't remember and a version of herself that seemed so confident and sure. "What happened to that girl?"
"She's still there," Kane said firmly. "I saw her tonight when you faced down Thomas, when you chose to break Victor's mark rather than submit to something you didn't agree to. That courage, that refusal to be controlled—that's the Luna I fell in love with all those years ago."
Luna's breath caught. "Fell in love with? Kane, we were children."
"Not at first," Kane agreed. "At first, you were my best friend, my partner in adventures, the person who made every day feel like a new possibility." His voice grew softer, more intimate. "But somewhere around your fifteenth birthday, something changed. You walked into the summer solstice celebration wearing a white dress with flowers in your hair, and I looked at you and thought, 'I'm going to marry that girl someday.'"
"Fifteen?" Luna felt heat rise in her cheeks. "That seems young for such serious thoughts."
"Wolves mature differently than humans," Kane explained. "Our bonds form early and run deep. By sixteen, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life making you laugh, protecting you from anything that tried to hurt you, standing beside you as you led our people into the future."
Luna set down her mug, her hands trembling slightly. "Kane, I—"
"I know you don't remember," Kane interrupted gently. "I know this must feel overwhelming, hearing about feelings and promises you can't recall making. But I need you to know that those two years before you disappeared were the happiest of my life."
"Tell me about them," Luna whispered.
Kane's expression grew dreamy with memory. "You were brilliant, even then. You'd spend hours in your father's study, learning about pack law and supernatural politics. But you'd also sneak out at night to meet me by the lake, where we'd sit under the stars and plan all the changes we wanted to make when we led the pack together."
"What kind of changes?"
"You wanted to modernize without losing our traditions. You talked about werewolves taking their place in the broader world, not hiding in the shadows anymore. You dreamed of a future where our children could choose their own paths, whether that meant staying with the pack or building lives in human society." Kane's smile was soft with love and loss. "You were going to change everything, Luna. You were going to make us stronger."
Luna felt tears prick at her eyes. "I sound like quite the idealist."
"You were. But you were also practical enough to know how to make your ideals reality. Your father used to say you had your mother's heart and his strategic mind."
"What was my mother like?"
"Beautiful, like you. But fierce in a way that made everyone respect her, even the most traditional pack members. She could calm a room with a glance or inspire warriors to follow her into battle with just a few words." Kane's voice grew reverent. "Isabella Silvermoon was the kind of leader people write legends about. And you, Luna, you were going to surpass even her."
Luna wiped away a tear that had escaped despite her efforts to maintain composure. "It doesn't feel real. Any of it. I look at you and I feel this pull, this recognition that goes deeper than memory. But I can't be the person you're describing. I'm just a lawyer who likes order and predictability and—"
"And who broke a vampire's mark through sheer force of will," Kane interrupted. "And who faced down a pack challenge on her first day home. And who created something entirely new during a traditional ritual." He leaned forward, his blue eyes intense. "You're exactly who you've always been, Luna. You've just been wearing different clothes."
Luna was quiet for a long moment, processing his words. "Kane, what you're describing... those feelings, that relationship... I can't just step back into that. Even if part of me wants to."
Pain flickered across Kane's features, but he nodded. "I know. I'm not asking you to pretend to feel something you don't remember. I'm just hoping... I'm hoping that maybe, given time, you might choose to build something new with me. Something based on who we are now, not just who we were."
"And if I can't? If I never remember, or if the person I am now is too different from the girl you loved?"
Kane was quiet for so long that Luna wondered if she'd hurt him too deeply to answer. When he finally spoke, his voice was thick with emotion.
"Then I'll love this version of you too," he said simply. "I'll love whoever you choose to become, and I'll spend every day grateful that you're alive and safe, even if you're not mine."
The raw honesty in his words hit Luna like a physical blow. This man—this beautiful, loyal, devoted man—had spent twenty years waiting for her. Had built his entire adult life around the hope of her return. And now she was here, but she couldn't give him what he wanted most.
"Kane, I—"
"Don't," Kane said gently, rising from his chair. "Don't say anything you might regret, or make promises you're not sure you can keep. We have time, Luna. For the first time in twenty years, we have time."
He moved toward the cabin steps, then paused and turned back. "For what it's worth, I think the woman you became is even more incredible than the girl I lost. Your strength, your intelligence, the way you've built a life for yourself in an entirely different world—Isabella would be so proud of who you are."
Kane disappeared into the darkness, leaving Luna alone with her thoughts and the memory of his words. She sat there for a long time, staring out at the forest and trying to reconcile the confident, idealistic princess he'd described with the careful, controlled lawyer she'd become.
Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled—long and mournful and beautiful. Without thinking, Luna found herself responding, a sound rising from her throat that she'd never made before but that felt as natural as breathing.
When the echo faded, she realized she was crying.
Not for the memories she'd lost, or the childhood that had been stolen from her. She was crying for Kane, who had loved a ghost for twenty years. For the pack that had waited for a savior who might never be able to save them. For the girl she'd been, who had dreamed of changing the world and never gotten the chance.
But most of all, she was crying for herself—for the woman caught between two lives, two identities, two possible futures, with no clear path forward and no way to go back.
The crystallized silver light pulsed beside her, as if responding to her emotional turmoil. Luna picked it up, feeling its warm weight in her palm. Whatever this thing was, it represented power she didn't understand and responsibilities she wasn't sure she could handle.
But as she held it, she made herself a promise. She might not be able to remember the girl who had dreamed of changing the world, but she could choose to honor that girl's memory. She could choose to become worthy of Kane's devotion, of the pack's faith, of her parents' sacrifice.
She might not be the Luna Silvermoon who had disappeared twenty years ago.
But she could choose to become the Luna Silvermoon the world needed now.
Even if she had no idea what that might cost her.
End of Chapter 6