Chapter 105 Kael's Transformation
LIRA POV
We were halfway to the temple when Kael stumbled. "I'm fine." He waved off my concern. "Just tired."
But through the bond, I felt something darker. A creeping cold that wasn't exhaustion. "Your eyes." I grabbed his face, forcing him to look at me. "They're changing."
Gray irises flickered with black. Just for a moment then it turned normal again.
"It's starting." He pulled away, jaw clenched. "The curse is trying to claim me."
"No." I grabbed his arm. "Not yet, we still have time"
"Do we?" He laughed bitterly. "I'm Magnus's direct heir. First bloodline, I am the primary target. I should've been chained with the others."
"I need you for the ceremony." My voice shook. "Need you present, conscious, and yourself."
"Then we'd better hurry." He kept walking, but I saw him wince. "Before I become someone else."
The temple ruins were lit by hundreds of candles. The pack had gathered, forming a circle around the ancient altar. Elder Selene stood at the center, ceremonial robes flowing.
"The Luna and her Alpha." She announced as we approached. "Come to complete the claiming under the Moon Goddess's witness."
"We come in honesty." I recited the traditional words. "In vulnerability and trust."
"Then step forward." Selene gestured. "And bare your souls as you've bared your bodies."
Kael and I moved to the altar. I felt every eye on us, judging, waiting.
"The claiming ceremony requires absolute truth." Selene continued. "No lies, no walls. No hiding. You must speak your deepest fears, your greatest shames, your hidden weaknesses. Only then can your bond be complete."
"I'm ready." I lied.
"No, you're not." Kael's voice came strained. "But we're doing it anyway."
He removed his shirt, revealing the silver cuffs around his wrists. His skin was pale, veins darkening.
"The curse is fighting." Selene observed. "This ceremony may accelerate the possession."
"Or prevent it." I countered, removing my outer robe. "That's the gamble."
I stood in thin ceremonial silk, feeling exposed already. And we hadn't even started.
"Alpha Kael." Selene addressed him formally. "Speak your truth. What do you fear most?"
He closed his eyes briefly. When he opened them, black flickered again.
"I fear becoming my father." The words came rough. "I fear that despite everything, I'm just like Magnus. Cruel. Controlling. Willing to sacrifice others for power."
Murmurs rippled through the pack.
"I enslaved Lira." He continued, voice hardening. "Hurt her. Used her. Treated her like property instead of a person just like he would have done."
"But you changed." I said quietly.
"Did I?" He looked at me, eyes swirling between gray and black. "Or did I just find better ways to control you? The bond, the ceremonies, the public claiming—it's all still control."
"It's protection." I argued.
"It's possession." The curse spoke through him briefly. "Just like we possess. Taking what isn't ours, claiming ownership of souls."
"Kael, fight it!" I reached for him.
"Let him finish." Selene stopped me. "The curse speaks truth too. However ugly."
"I don't deserve her." Kael's voice returned to normal. "Don't deserve forgiveness. Don't deserve love, I deserve to be consumed by this curse. It's justice."
"No." I moved closer despite Selene's restraining hand. "You deserve a chance. Everyone does."
"Even Magnus?" He challenged. "Even the five alphas who committed genocide?"
"They're dead." I said carefully. "They can't change, but you are alive, you can."
"But will I?" Black veins spread up his neck. "Or will I keep making the same choices? Hurting people I claim to protect?"
"You'll choose differently." I gripped his hands, ignoring the curse's cold. "Because you're choosing now, choosing truth, choosing vulnerability."
"Luna Lira." Selene turned to me. "Your turn, speak your truth."
I took a shaking breath. "I fear I'm not enough. Not strong enough, not brave enough, not worthy enough to be Luna. I fear everyone will see what I've always known." I continued. "That I'm still that broken girl in the cellar. Scarred, damaged and worthless."
"You're not worthless." Kael said fiercely.
"Aren't I?" I laughed, tears building. "Twenty years in chains. Twenty years believing I was cursed, wolfless, wrong. You can't erase that damage with ceremonies and pretty words."
"Then what can erase it?" He asked.
"Nothing." I met his eyes. "That's what I fear most, that I'll always be broken.”
"You're the strongest person I know." He insisted.
"Because I have to be!" My voice cracked. "Because if I stop being strong for even a moment, I'll shatter completely. And I'm terrified of what I'll find in those pieces."
Silence fell. The pack stared at me—their powerful Luna admitting weakness.
"I'm afraid of you." I addressed them directly. "Afraid you'll reject me again, hurt me. Prove that I was right to build walls."
"We won't." Someone called out.
"You already have." I countered. "Some of you still think I'm cursed. Others think I'm too weak, too damaged, young. You're not entirely wrong."
"Lira" Kael started.
"I'm afraid of you most of all." I turned to him. "Afraid of needing you. Afraid of losing you. that loving you makes me vulnerable in ways I can't afford."
"Love is supposed to make us vulnerable." He said softly.
"I know." Tears fell freely now. "That's why it terrifies me. Because the last time I loved freely, everyone died. My parents, my pack, everything I knew, love destroyed my world."
"Or saved you." Aria spoke up from the crowd. "Your mother's love protected you, it kept you alive."
"For what?" I demanded. "Twenty years of torture? Twenty years of believing I was better off dead?"
"For this." Kael pulled me close despite the curse spreading through him. "For becoming exactly who you were meant to be."
"And who's that?" I whispered against his chest. "Because I still don't know."
"Luna." He said simply. "An Alpha, a survivor, a fighter. Mine."
The bond flared between us, bright and painful.
"The claim requires blood." Selene reminded us. "Mixed willingly and freely given."
Kael raised his wrist as I raised mine. Selene drew a silver blade, cutting us both quickly. Our blood met, flowing together.
The bond exploded with power. I gasped as his emotions flooded through—love, fear, guilt, hope, all crashing into me. And the curse surged, trying to use the connection to possess us both.
"Fight it!" I poured through the bond. "Kael, stay with me!"
"Can't" His eyes went completely black. "It's too strong"
"You're stronger!" I grabbed his face, forcing him to look at me. "You're not Magnus! You're not the curse! You're Kael! My mate! My alpha! Mine!"
The possessive claim rang through the bond like a bell. The curse recoiled from the intensity.
"Say it!" I demanded. "Say who you are!"
"I'm" He struggled. "I'm Kael Thorn. Alpha. Mate. Yours."
"Louder!" I let my power pour into him. "Make the curse hear you!"
"I'm Kael Thorn!" He roared, eyes clearing. "And I chose her! I choose love! I choose this bond over any curse!"
The black veins receded violently, the curse shrieked and released him. He collapsed against me, breathing hard. I held him up with shaking arms.
"Is it done?" Thomas asked uncertainly.
"The claim is complete." Selene announced. "The bond is absolute. But" She stopped, looking at something behind me.
I turned to see shadows gathering. Not natural darkness—the curse, manifesting physically.
"The spirits are here." Selene said grimly. "The ceremony called them forth, they want their judgment now."
"Not yet." I stepped between the shadows and the pack. "I need time to prepare"
"No more time." A thousand voices spoke as one. "The claiming is done, now comes purification, now comes the truth. Now you face us, Moonblood."
The shadows surged forward. I raised my hands, summoning what little power I had left.
"Lira, wait—" Kael grabbed me.
Too late. The darkness engulfed me, pulling me away from the physical world. Into the spirit realm, into the land of the dead. Where hundreds of murdered wolves waited for their vengeance.
The last thing I heard was Kael screaming my name. Then silence, cold deeper than anything I'd ever known. And eyes. Hundreds of glowing eyes, all fixed on me with rage and hunger.
"Hello, little Luna." The dead spoke together. "Welcome to our world. Welcome to your judgment."
I stood alone in the dark, separated from my mate, my pack, my power. And I knew I was about to die.