Chapter 23 ROGUES AT THE GATE
KAI’S POV
The symbol carved into the lead rogue's shoulder makes my blood freeze.
Three claw marks crossed by a broken chain. The mark of the Silver Moon Pack.
My pack. The one that was slaughtered five years ago while I ran like a coward.
I'm at the window before I realize I've moved, staring at the woman with the scarred face. She's too young to have been part of Silver Moon, thirty at most. But that symbol doesn't lie.
"Kai?" Ray's voice cuts through my shock. "You know these wolves?"
"The symbol." My voice comes out rough. "That's Silver Moon’s Pack. They were destroyed five years ago."
"Apparently not all of them." Monty stands close to Alicia, His left hand wrapped around her. The completed mate mark on her neck is visible, fresh, already healing. The sight sends an unwelcome spike of jealousy through me.
The scarred woman takes three steps closer to the packhouse. Close enough that I can see her eyes, one brown, one eerily pale. Heterochromia. Unusual among wolves.
"We mean no harm," she calls out. "We come in peace to honor the True Luna."
"Armed peace?" Logan notes the weapons visible on several rogues. Silver blades, chains, even a few guns.
"We're rogues. We're always armed." The woman spreads her hands, showing she's currently unarmed herself. "But we haven't drawn weapons against you. Haven't made any aggressive moves. We simply wish to speak with her."
"Not happening," Ray says flatly.
The woman's mismatched eyes fix on the window where I'm standing. On me. She made a face that suggests that she recognizes me.
"Kai Vale ." My name on her lips is like a punch to the gut. "I wondered if you'd be here."
"How do you know me?" But even as I ask, pieces are clicking together. The Silver Moon symbol. Her age. The way she looks at me with something between pity and expectation.
"Because I was there that night. Five years ago. When your pack was slaughtered." Her voice carries clearly through the broken window. "I was twelve years old. Hiding in the root cellar when the killers came."
My heart stops. "That's impossible. There were no survivors. I searched."
"You searched for two days then gave up." There's no accusation in her tone, just fact. "I stayed hidden for a week. By the time I came out, you were long gone."
"Who are you?"
"Sera." She inclines her head slightly. "Formerly of the Silver Moon Pack. Now Alpha of the Forgotten, the rogues who serve no territory, answer to no council, exist only to fulfill the prophecy."
"What prophecy?" Alicia's voice makes everyone turn. She's moved to stand beside me at the window, Monty shadowing her like a protective ghost.
Sera's eyes lock onto Alicia, and something like awe crosses her scarred face. "The True Luna prophecy. The one that says when the moon bleeds and the packs fracture, a Luna born of forbidden love will rise. She'll be marked by four mates, wielding power enough to unite or destroy all wolves." Sera takes another step forward. "You are that Luna. And we are the army that's waited a thousand years to serve you."
"I don't need an army. I need answers." Alicia's eyes are steady despite the fear I can feel through our mate bond. "Why did you attack Kai's pack? Why did you let everyone die?"
"We didn't attack them." Sera's expression hardens. "That was the Council's doing. The same council that controls pack politics from the shadows. They learned Silver Creek Pack was harboring knowledge about the True Luna's return. So they eliminated the threat."
The Council. The shadowy organization Alicia's mother mentioned in that letter Logan found. The pieces are connecting in ways I don't like.
"And you?" I force the words out. "Where were you when they were killing everyone I loved?"
"Hiding. Surviving. Learning." Sera's mismatched eyes meet mine without flinching. "My mother was the pack seer. Before she died, she told me about you. About how you were marked from birth to find the True Luna. To be one of her four mates."
"That's—"
"True." Sera's voice is absolute. "You survived that night for a reason, Kai Rowan. Not luck. Not cowardice. Purpose. You were meant to live so you could find her." She gestures to Alicia. "And you did. Just as the prophecy foretold."
The mate bond pulses between Alicia and me, warm and undeniable. I've been telling myself it was random. A cosmic accident. But what if it wasn't? What if everything—the slaughter, the survival, the five years of loneliness—was all leading to this moment?
"Even if that's true," Ray says, "it doesn't explain why fifty rogues are surrounding my territory."
"We're here to protect the True Luna." Sera's voice hardens. "Because the Council that killed Silver Creek Pack? They're coming for her next. And they won't send three warriors like Jake did. They'll send everything they have."
"The Council wants Alicia dead?" Monty's voice is tight.
"The Council wants the True Luna controlled or eliminated. They've ruled the wolf world from shadows for centuries. The last True Luna threatened their power. They won't allow another to rise." Sera looks directly at Alicia. "You have perhaps a week before they move against you. Maybe less now that you've awakened your power so publicly."
"Then we fortify," Ray says. "Increase patrols, strengthen defenses—"
"It won't be enough." Sera's tone is flat, certain. "The Council has resources you can't imagine. Spies in every pack. Assassins who can slip past any defense. Political leverage to turn your allies against you." She pauses. "Your only chance is to accept our help."
"Help from rogues?" Ray's skepticism is obvious. "Why should we trust you?"
"Because we have nothing to gain by lying. No territory to defend. No council to answer to. Just a prophecy we've been waiting a thousand years to fulfill." Sera's eyes find mine again. "And because Kai Rowan knows deep down that what I'm saying is true. Don't you, survivor?"
The word "survivor" cuts deep. That's what I've been for five years. Not living. Just surviving. Disconnected. Running from attachments because everyone I ever cared about was torn away in a single night.
"Let her in," I hear myself say.
Everyone turns to stare at me.
"What?" Ray's voice is dangerous.
"I said let her in. To talk." I don't take my eyes off Sera. "If she wanted to attack, she'd have done it already. She wants to talk to Alicia. Give her five minutes."
"Kai.." Monty starts.
"Five minutes. What's the worst that happens?"
"She could kill Alicia," Logan points out.
"Then she'd have fifty witnesses and four very angry mates to deal with." I finally look at my mate-brothers. "Let her talk. Hear what she has to say. Then we decide."
Ray's jaw clenches. He looks at Alicia. "Your choice. She's asking to speak with you."
Alicia takes a breath, straightens her shoulders. "Let her in. But just her. The rest stay outside."
Sera nods once and turns to her rogues. "Stand down. I'm going in alone. If anything happens to me, you know what to do."
The rogues settle into watchful waiting. Sera walks toward the packhouse entrance like she's approaching a temple. Watchful but not afraid.
One minutes later, she's standing in Alicia's room. Up close, the scar on her face is even more dramatic, running from her left temple down across her nose to her right jaw. A killing blow that somehow didn't kill.
"True Luna." Sera drops to one knee. The gesture is immediate, instinctive, like her body can't help but submit to Alicia's presence.
"Get up." Alicia's voice is uncomfortable. "I'm not, I don't want people kneeling."
Sera rises slowly. "Whether you want it or not, you are what you are. True Luna. The prophesied one. And I've waited my entire adult life to find you."
"Why?" Alicia moves closer, studying Sera's face. "Why does this prophecy matter so much to you?"
"Because I watched my pack die for knowledge of it. Because my mother's last words were 'find the Luna, protect the Luna, serve the Luna.'" Sera's voice roughens. "Because for five years I've gathered every rogue, every outcast, every wolf the council abandoned or tried to kill. Built an army with one purpose, to be ready when the True Luna awakened."