Iris Thorne POV
"Again."
Lyanna's voice cut through the darkness like a blade. Iris was on her knees in the forest, breathing hard, her hands shaking with exhaustion. They'd been at this since before dawn. The sun was setting now.
"I can't," Iris gasped.
"Then you die." Lyanna stood over her, unmoved by the tears streaming down Iris's face. "Get up."
Iris wanted to scream at her. Wanted to ask why Lyanna was doing this, why she was being so cruel when she claimed to be helping. But screaming used energy she didn't have.
She pushed herself up on trembling legs.
"Now focus," Lyanna said. "Feel for the magic. Not your body. Not your wolf. The magic."
Iris didn't know how. That was the problem. She didn't know what she was looking for. Didn't know how to find something that didn't exist.
Or so she thought.
Days blended together in the cottage and the forest. Lyanna had her gather herbs. Roots. Plants that glowed faintly in the darkness. The witch never explained why or what they were for. She just told Iris to gather and move on.
Then came the meditation.
Lyanna made her sit under the twisted trees while the witch spoke in languages Iris didn't understand. Ancient words that made her skin prickle. Iris would sit there for hours, listening to sounds that seemed to come from the earth itself.
"Stop thinking," Lyanna would say. "Your mind is a cage. Let it go."
Iris couldn't let it go. Her mind was all she had. Her mind remembered Kael's golden eyes. Remembered his voice saying unworthy. Remembered the way the entire temple had stared at her like she was nothing.
Lyanna noticed.
One day the witch grabbed her by the throat and pressed her against a tree. Not hard enough to hurt. Hard enough to demand attention.
"If you keep living in the past, you'll never reach the future." Lyanna's face was inches from hers. "Let him go or let yourself die. Those are your only choices."
Iris tried. She tried so hard to release the memories and the pain. But they were stuck inside her like poison.
Then one night, something changed.
Iris was sitting under the old stones near the cottage, meditating like Lyanna had taught her, when anger suddenly crashed through her like a wave. Anger at Kael for rejecting her. Anger at herself for being weak enough to believe in fated mates. Anger at the universe for making her this way.
Silver light exploded from her fingertips.
Just a small burst. Just for a second. But it was real. She'd done that.
Iris opened her eyes and stared at her hands like they belonged to someone else.
"So it begins." Lyanna stood in the shadows, watching. "Now we train in earnest."
The training got harder after that.
Lyanna pushed her past what she thought she could survive. Made her run through the Shadowlands at night without light. Made her drink strange liquids that burned her throat. Made her chant words in languages that tasted like blood and power on her tongue.
And when Iris cried, when the pain and exhaustion became too much and tears poured down her face, Lyanna never comforted her.
"Tears are for people who give up," the witch would say coldly. "And you are not a quitter, are you?"
Iris learned that she wasn't a quitter. She was something else. Something harder.
Weeks passed. The silver light at her fingertips grew brighter. Soon it wasn't just her hands. When she felt anger rising, her eyes would shift from violet to silver. The change happened without her meaning it to. Her body knew before her mind did.
Plants began to respond to her.
At first it was small things. Flowers opening when she walked past. Grass growing greener. But soon entire sections of the forest transformed around her. Vines grew wild. Trees bent toward her like they were bowing. The poisoned ground turned rich and dark where her feet touched it.
Animals came closer too. Deer that should have been afraid walked right up to her. Wolves from the deeper Shadowlands approached with their heads lowered. Even the vicious rogues that hunted these lands would back away when they sensed her coming.
They were submitting to something. Something that lived inside her now and was growing stronger every day.
Lyanna watched everything with satisfaction like she'd been waiting for this transformation all along.
Time moved differently in the Shadowlands. Iris couldn't track it properly. One year became two. Two became three.
She stopped trying to count the days.
Instead she focused on the power that was becoming part of her. It lived in her blood now. Hummed in her bones. Made her skin tingle with potential. She was becoming something, though she still didn't fully understand what.
Lyanna taught her to control it. Slowly. Carefully. The witch showed her how to pull the power up from her core and direct it. How to shape it. How to release it without losing herself completely.
One night Lyanna came to her and said simply, "Come with me."
They walked deeper into the Shadowlands than Iris had ever gone. Past the cottage. Past the twisted trees. Into a place that felt even older and more wrong than everything else.
An ancient stone circle stood in a clearing.
The stones were massive. Covered in symbols that glowed faintly in the darkness. The air inside the circle felt different. Heavier. Like it was saturated with centuries of magic and power and ancient secrets.
Lyanna stood at the edge of the circle and gestured for Iris to step inside.
Iris hesitated.
"What is this place?" she whispered.
"The birthplace of prophecy." Lyanna's voice sounded different here. Older. More powerful. "This is where the Moon Goddess speaks to those strong enough to listen."
Iris stepped into the circle.
The moment her feet touched the stones, images flooded her mind. Visions so real they felt like memories. A girl with silver eyes and black hair standing before an army of wolves. A throne made of moonlight. Five Alphas kneeling before her. Power so vast and terrible and beautiful it made her want to scream.
She gasped and pulled back, but Lyanna grabbed her arm.
"Stay. Let it show you."
More visions came. The temple. Kael's rejection. All five Alphas saying no. But then something else. The same five Alphas, but older now. Stronger. And they were looking at her like she was the most important thing in their entire world.
The visions faded.
Iris stumbled out of the circle, breathing hard, her heart pounding so fast she thought it might explode.
"What was that?" she demanded. "What did I just see?"
Lyanna smiled and it was the first time in three years that the smile looked kind.
"Your future, child." The witch stepped closer and took both of Iris's hands. "You are not just a wolf. You are not just a girl with magic. You are the Moonbound Queen. The one chosen by the Moon Goddess herself. The one prophesied to appear once every thousand years."
Iris tried to pull away but Lyanna held firm.
"In three days, the blood moon will rise again. The Moonrise Ceremony will happen. And you, Iris Thorne, are going to walk back into that temple and show them all what they lost when they rejected you."
The weight of the words crashed over Iris like a tidal wave.
She wasn't just surviving anymore.
She was becoming destiny itself.