The fire had died.
Only embers pulsed softly in the corner of the cave, casting Kael's broad silhouette in shades of gold and iron. His muscles tensed like coiled steel, his chest rising and falling in shallow, warning breaths.
Rhea stood behind him, heart hammering against her ribs.
But the figure in the dark didn't move.
She hovered inches off the ground, feet never touching stone, her hair flowing like black ink in water. A veil of sheer starlight clung to her pale face impossibly beautiful, eerily familiar.
"Do you know me, daughter?" the woman whispered.
Her voice came from everywhere and nowhere.
Kael's arm swept protectively across Rhea. "She's not your daughter. She belongs to herself."
The Moon Queen laughed. It was soft. Too soft. The kind of softness that came before a scream.
"I bore no daughters," she said. "But I left behind a seed. A whisper. A sliver of my soul in the bloodline of the woman who betrayed me. Rhea is that echo, reborn."
Rhea's blood chilled.
"What do you mean?" she asked, stepping out from behind Kael.
The Queen floated closer, her veil glowing faintly with runes etched in moonlight. "The woman who cursed me wasn't a witch or a warrior. She was a midwife. A mortal. A weak thing… like you. But she took my bond, stole my wolf, and sealed my soul beneath this realm. For centuries I waited, hidden in wombs and dreams until you."
Kael growled low, his voice layered with wolf. "Leave her."
But the Queen tilted her head. "You want her. You hunger for her. But mark my words, Alpha if you bite her, if you bond her, you awaken me. Entirely."
Rhea's voice shook. "I've felt you in my dreams."
"Yes," the Queen purred. "Because I am part of you."
"Then get out."
"Oh, child…" She floated closer still. "You don't get to choose your blood."
Kael stepped forward, eyes glowing fiercely. "She chooses her path. Not you."
But the Queen simply smiled then reached forward with an ethereal hand.
Kael lunged
But her fingers brushed Rhea's forehead first.
In a flash of cold light, Rhea's world splintered.
She saw visions.
A cradle soaked in blood. A crown of bone. Kael and Theron as boys, chained and howling in a dungeon beneath the stars. The Queen's eyes watching from behind a mirror. A blade of moonsteel held at her throat by her own hand.
And Kael naked and wounded walking into fire to save her.
Rhea gasped and collapsed, her knees hitting stone.
Kael caught her just in time, dragging her back into his arms.
The Queen's presence vanished.
Gone like fog in sunlight.
But the bond between them pulsed violently now alive, raw.
"Rhea." Kael's voice was broken. "What did she show you?"
She looked into his eyes. "Us. Dying."
Kael's jaw clenched. "Then we won't let it happen."
But Rhea wasn't sure.
She could still feel the Queen beneath her skin like a second heartbeat.
"I need to know more," she whispered.
Kael nodded slowly. "Then it's time we went to the Alphas' Vault. To the place where her bones are buried."
Her eyes widened. "You said it was cursed."
"It is." He brushed a thumb over her lip. "But so are we now."
He leaned down, his breath warm and wild at her ear.
"If you fall… I fall with you."
The weight of his words crushed the air between them. The pull of the bond became unbearable. Kael's mouth brushed hers not a kiss, not yet,but a claim waiting to happen.
And she wanted it.
Gods, she wanted him.
But she also wanted to live.
And right now, wanting both might be impossible.