Kael Blackthorn had known war, blood, and madness. But nothing prepared him for the silence that fell when she walked back into the Ridge.
The Alpha Chamber, a stone relic carved into the cliffside, held the weight of every Blackthorn leader before him. Torches burned along the walls, casting long shadows across ancient carvings. The council sat in crescent formation—Elder Rowan at the center, draped in black robes, eyes glowing like embers beneath his hood.
Kael stood at the far end of the room, hands clenched behind his back. Blood still stained his cuffs—remnants of a night he could barely remember.
The curse was taking hold faster now.
His wolf stirred beneath his skin, snarling at nothing, pacing against the bars of his mind.
"She won't come," Kael muttered. "Not after what I—"
"She's already here," Rowan interrupted, voice like wind scraping stone.
The door creaked open.
And the air changed.
Kael felt it before he saw her—a hum, deep and magnetic, like a storm pulling iron toward its heart.
Seren Vale stepped into the chamber.
Not the girl he remembered.
Not the trembling Omega he'd once rejected beneath the blood moon.
She wore a long, sleeveless cloak of dark leather, braided cords at her waist, a blade sheathed across her back. Her black hair fell in waves, streaked with silver strands that shimmered under the torchlight. Her skin, once pale with fear, now held the glow of someone who had walked through death and chosen to return.
And her eyes—gods, those eyes—were no longer soft.
They were silver fire.
Kael's breath caught. His wolf growled.
She didn't bow. Didn't speak. Didn't even look at him.
She stood before the council like a rival Alpha.
Rowan's lips curled into a half-smile. "Lady Vale. We're honored."
"I didn't come for honor," she replied. Her voice was low, steady, sharpened to a blade's edge. "You called. I answered."
Rowan leaned forward, steepling his fingers. "The curse is accelerating. The Alpha is unraveling. We believe only your bloodline can slow its reach."
Seren gave the slightest tilt of her head. "So now the pack remembers I exist."
Kael flinched at the venom in her tone. She still wouldn't look at him. Her eyes scanned the chamber like she was weighing whether it was worth setting the whole thing on fire.
"Five years," she said slowly. "Not a letter. Not a messenger. Not even a grave marked for my mother. But now that your precious Alpha is bleeding from the inside, you remember the Moonblood."
Elder Rowan's smile didn't waver. "We didn't forget. We waited."
"For what?" she snapped. "For me to be desperate enough to crawl back?"
Kael couldn't stay silent anymore.
"She would have killed you," he said hoarsely, voice cracking under pressure. "Your mother died protecting you from this. From us. From me."
Seren turned to face him at last.
The contact nearly crushed him.
Her eyes burned into his soul like he was an old ruin she once believed in—until it crumbled beneath her feet.
"And yet you still marked me," she said coldly. "You touched me under the blood moon and branded me like property. Then rejected me in front of the entire pack."
"I was trying to protect—"
"Don't," she cut in. "Don't insult me by pretending it was noble. You weren't protecting me. You were afraid. Of the curse. Of yourself. Of what it meant to want someone like me."
Silence fell like snowfall—thick, suffocating.
Kael's heart pounded. "You think I wanted this?" he said, stepping toward her. "You think I wanted to feel you in my bones every time I shift? To see your face in my dreams while my mind unravels?"
"You didn't want me," Seren said, voice like a blade, "but you took me anyway. And now you want me to fix you?"
She turned her back to him.
"I came because the elders begged. Not because I owe you anything."
Elder Rowan broke the tension. "The Claiming Moon returns in three weeks. That night will either seal the bond… or kill him. The madness won't wait."
Seren stared at the council. "Then you'd better prepare for a funeral."
Outside the chamber, the mountain winds howled through the pine.
Kael leaned against the stone balcony, breath shaking. He had never felt more like a ghost in his own body.
Behind him, Rowan's soft steps echoed.
"She's stronger than I expected," Kael said.
"She had to be," Rowan replied. "You broke the girl. She became a weapon."
Kael's knuckles whitened. "And now that weapon is aimed at me."
Rowan's voice dropped. "Let her aim. Better her blade than Lucien's."
Meanwhile, in the forest clearing, Seren knelt at the roots of a silver tree—an old place her mother once showed her before the betrayal.
She pressed her palm to the bark and whispered in the old tongue.
Moonblood symbols glowed faintly beneath her fingers.
"She's watching," Seren murmured. "The goddess sees all."
A raven landed beside her.
"They're dying without me," she whispered. "Let them."