Chapter 1 PROLOGUE
They said the stars wept only when the moon lost its heart.
That night, the heavens cried fire.
Wolves across the realm fell silent, their howls caught in their throats as the moon turned from silver to shadow, a dark eclipse that painted the world in blood. The earth trembled, the rivers ran black, and the air tasted of ash and iron.
The elders whispered that the Dark Moon had risen again, a curse older than the packs themselves.
A promise broken, a goddess betrayed.
I didn’t believe in curses.
Not until I saw my father — the Alpha King — brought to his knees, his golden eyes burning to embers as the mark of the goddess flared across his chest. Not until the bond threads that tied mate to mate snapped like brittle strings, leaving only screams behind did I come to understand how severe the situation was.
And then I heard it — the voice that silenced the world.
“When the moon forgets her light, a child born of shadow and fire shall rise. She will love what she must destroy...and destroy what she was born to love.”
That night, my destiny was sealed in blood. My mother tried to hide me, pressing my trembling body against the cold earth, her scent of lavender and smoke clinging to me as if it could save me.
But the moon found me.
Its darkness reached down like a hand from the sky, carving its mark into my skin. My veins burned with silver fire, and I screamed as the stars above began to fade — one by one — until only the black moon remained.
When I opened my eyes again, my mother was gone. My father was dead.
And the prophecy of the Dark Moon had begun...
with me.