Rowan's POV
Ember's heartbeat was too slow.
I pressed my fingers to her tiny wrist, counting the beats while red Feral eyes glowed in the darkness outside. My daughter lay unconscious in my arms, her skin burning hot from the power that had burst through her.
"Her pulse is weakening," I said, trying to keep my voice calm. "Whatever that power did, it's draining her life force."
Thaddeus moved closer. "Can you heal her?"
"I don't know." My hands shook as I put them on Ember's chest. Golden light flickered from my hands, but it felt wrong. Weak. "My healing isn't working properly. It's like something is stopping me."
"The Eclipse binding," Dante said sadly. He stood at the window, shadows whirling around him as he watched the Feral wolves circling outside. "When Ember triggered her power, it disrupted the balance between the three of us. Until we stabilize the binding, none of our powers will work right."
A Feral howled, closer than before. Lyanna's soldiers yelled orders outside. We were running out of time.
I looked down at Ember's face—so small, so pale—and something inside me cracked open. Memories I'd hidden for four years came flooding back.
Four years ago. Nightborne Fortress.
I'd been twenty-one years old and frightened. My healer's rites event was the most important night of my life. If I passed, I'd become a full healer. If I failed, I'd be sent away from the Covenant forever.
The ceremony hall was packed with fighters and healers. Candles flickered everywhere. I knelt at the front, waiting for the Commander to speak the blessing that would finish my rites.
Commander Thaddeus Nightborne stood at the stage. He was the most honored warrior in Covenant history. Everyone feared him. Everyone respected him. He never smiled. Never showed fear.
"Tonight we honor Rowan Emberthorn," he started, his voice cold and formal. "She has completed three years of training and—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
His nostrils flared. His storm-grey eyes found me across the candlelit hall and locked on. Something changed in his expression—shock, confusion, hunger.
"You," he said, his authority voice making everyone freeze. "My rooms. Now."
The hall went quiet. My mentor grabbed my arm and whispered quickly, "Don't go. The Commander doesn't do extensions. He uses nurses and discards them like trash. You'll be just another capture."
But I couldn't refuse a direct order from the Commander. My legs felt like water as I climbed the fortress stairs to his private rooms.
Thaddeus was waiting when I arrived. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me inside, closing the door. Then he did something that shocked me—he pressed his face to my neck and breathed deeply.
His whole body went stiff. "What are you?" he whispered.
"I—I don't understand, Commander."
"Your smell. Your soul. It's—" He pulled back, and I saw something I never expected. Vulnerability. Confusion. Fear. "I've never felt anything like this before."
"Should I leave?" I asked quietly.
"No." His hand tightened on my wrist. Not terribly, but desperate. "Stay. Please."
That night changed everything. Thaddeus didn't use me and dump me like my mentor warned. He talked to me. Really talked. About the weight of power. About watching soldiers die under his orders. About his father going mad after losing his mate.
"Attachment destroys warriors," he said, staring at his hands. "I watched it destroy my father. I swore I'd never let it happen to me. I never visit the same doctor twice. I never let anyone get close."
"Then why am I here?" I asked.
He looked at me with those storm-grey eyes. "Because you're different. And I don't understand why."
For four months, I lived a double life. By day, I worked as a regular healer, unnoticeable among dozens. By night, Thaddeus came to my rooms, increasingly desperate to see me.
"I can't stop thinking about you," he revealed one night. "It's like you've gotten into my blood. I've never wanted to see someone again before. Never felt like I'd die if I went too long without—" He stopped, jaw clenched. "What are you doing to me?"
I fell in love with him completely. Stupidly. I thought I was special. Believed our relationship transcended his rules.
Then came the predicted vision—sudden and undeniable. I saw myself pregnant with his child. Saw Ember's face clear as daylight.
That same evening, war drums called everyone to the courtyard. Thaddeus stood beside Lyanna Stormweaver, announcing their blood-binding. His hand rested on her shoulder while he promised himself to someone else.
My world shattered. I pressed my hand to my flat stomach, knowing his child grew inside me while he bound himself to another woman.
Present day. The house.
"Rowan?" Thaddeus's voice broke through my thoughts. "Are you okay?"
I blinked back tears, looking down at Ember. "You really hurt me, you know. When you chose her over us."
"I know." His voice cracked. "I thought I was saving thousands of lives. I thought I was doing the right thing. But losing you—" He stopped. "It broke something in me that never healed."
"The binding," Dante said quietly. "That's what you both felt. The Eclipse magic recognized you as anchor points even before Ember was born."
A Feral slammed against the house wall, making us all jump. Lyanna's words rang out: "The Ferals are getting bolder! If you don't give the child in the next five minutes, we're leaving you to be torn apart!"
"We need a plan," Thaddeus said. "Now."
I pressed my healing hands harder against Ember's chest, pouring everything I had into her. "I won't let them take her. I won't let them kill my daughter."
"Our daughter," Thaddeus corrected softly.
Something in those words—the way he said them—made the memories crash over me again. Not just the pain of his deception, but everything else. The nights he held me like I was precious. The way he looked at me like I was the sun after years of darkness. The frantic hope in his voice when I told him I was pregnant.
"You really searched for four years?" I asked.
"Every single day." Thaddeus knelt beside me. "I deployed full units. Spent wealth. Let my order suffer. Everyone said I'd gone mad. Maybe I had. But I couldn't stop. Something inside me knew I'd lost the most important thing in my life."
Ember's eyes suddenly snapped open—but they weren't grey anymore. They glowed pure gold.
"Mama," she said in that old voice again. "The sacrifice comes. Three threads must burn as one. The biggest must fall so the others can rise."
"What does that mean?" I asked.
Ember's fiery eyes fixed on Thaddeus. "The Commander's thread burns hottest. His death will save them all."
Thaddeus went pale. Dante cursed. And I felt like the world had stopped spinning.
"No," I whispered. "There has to be another way."
But Ember's next words made my blood turn to ice: "The Feral King comes. He who was once Nightborne. He who fell to evil seeking the power to save his mate. He knows the Eclipse Child can fix him. And he will kill everyone in this town to take her."
The Feral cries outside changed. Became organized. Purposeful.
And through the broken window, I saw something that made my heart stop.
One Feral stood apart from the others. Bigger. More strong. With eyes that glowed red but held something the others didn't.
Intelligence.
The Feral King stared straight at Ember with ancient, hungry eyes. Then it spoke in a voice that sounded almost human: "Give me the child, and I will spare you. Refuse, and I will feast on her heart while you watch."
Thaddeus moved in front of us, his body already changing to wolf form. "Over my dead body."
The Feral King's lips pulled back in a hideous smile. "That can be arranged, Commander."
Then it threw back its head an
d howled—and every Feral in the forest answered.
They charged.