The night was too still.
The kind of stillness that carried weight, as if the air itself held its breath.
Kai's eyes glinted with a quiet rage as he stood on the balcony, the moonlight cutting sharp silver lines across his jaw. Below, the courtyard of the Silverfang estate swirled with whispers—pack elders gathering, strangers in unfamiliar armor, and… her.
Selene.
But she wasn't alone.
Standing too close—close enough for Kai's knuckles to ache—was Draven, the so-called emissary from the Northern Clans. His smile was infuriatingly calm, but it was the way he leaned in to speak to her that made something deep in Kai's chest snarl. Every instinct in him screamed to end that man where he stood.
Yet Selene's eyes were unreadable. She wasn't pushing Draven away, but she wasn't inviting him closer either. Instead, she seemed to be watching him with a guarded curiosity, her fingers brushing the crescent-shaped pendant at her throat.
The pendant that had once belonged to the first Moonbound Alpha.
A relic of her bloodline.
One that shouldn't even exist.
---
"Kai," a voice broke through the tension. It was Valrik, his most trusted second. "You need to hear this before you act."
Kai didn't turn, his eyes locked on Selene and Draven below. "Speak."
"The Northern Clans know more about her heritage than they should. Draven… he claims to have proof that she's not just Moonbound." Valrik hesitated, his tone heavy. "He says she carries the blood of the First Howler himself."
Kai's breath stilled. The First Howler—the primal wolf whose roar had split the mountains and called the ancient gods into the mortal realm. If Selene truly carried that blood…
Everything would change.
And the gods would wake.
---
The meeting in the courtyard grew louder, voices clashing as the elders debated Draven's presence. Kai's control frayed. The sight of Draven's hand brushing Selene's as he handed her some sealed scroll nearly made him leap from the balcony.
But then—her eyes lifted.
Selene looked up at him, and in that one glance, there was a silent exchange. A flicker of defiance. A warning. And something else—something softer—that told him not to ruin whatever game she was playing.
He hated that she could still calm the storm inside him.
---
Later, when the meeting dissolved into shadows and mutters, Kai found her in the library. The firelight painted her in gold, her hair loose, her fingers tracing the edges of the scroll Draven had given her.
"You're playing a dangerous game," he said, his voice low as he stepped inside.
She didn't flinch. "And you're letting jealousy cloud your judgment."
"Jealousy?" He was in front of her before she could step back, his hands braced on either side of the desk. "He touches you, breathes your air, looks at you like you're his to claim. I should tear his throat out."
Selene's lips curved in something that wasn't quite a smile. "You could. Or you could let him think he's winning, and we find out what he really wants."
Kai's eyes dropped to the scroll. "And what's that?"
She unrolled it slowly, revealing an inked crest—half moon, half sun, wrapped in a chain of runes. Kai froze.
"That's…"
"The mark of the First Howler," she finished. "Draven says I'm his descendant. That I'm the key to waking them."
"Them?"
Her eyes lifted to his. "The gods, Kai. The ones your elders swore never to speak of."
The fire cracked, sending shadows dancing across the shelves. For a moment, neither spoke.
Then she stepped closer. "If it's true… everything changes. You, me, the packs—our war isn't just ours anymore."
His hand closed around hers. "Then we make sure they never use you. Not Draven. Not the gods. No one."
Her voice was almost a whisper. "And if they already are?"
---
That night, sleep didn't come. For either of them.
Selene found herself on the balcony hours later, the wind cool against her face. She heard the door open behind her, felt Kai's warmth as he stepped up beside her.
"Do you trust me?" he asked quietly.
She didn't answer immediately. Instead, she turned her head, studying him in the silver light. The tension in his shoulders, the heat in his eyes. The silent vow in the way he stood—ready to kill the world for her, if she asked.
"Yes," she said finally.
It wasn't the whole truth. But it was enough for tonight.
He didn't move closer. Not yet. But his hand found hers, fingers tightening, as if to anchor her to the earth itself.
---
Far below, in the forest's black heart, something stirred.
The ground trembled.
The air thickened.
And in the darkness, ancient eyes opened for the first time in millennia.
The gods were waking.