29

The world had never felt so empty.

Selene knelt in the ruins, her fingers still curled in the space where Alec had just been. The air still held his warmth, his presence, but it was fading—fading like mist in the wind.

Gone.

She couldn't breathe.

Her chest ached, but not in the way of wounds that could be healed. It was deeper than that, something breaking inside her. The bond she had once felt, the tether that had always drawn her to him, was now nothing but silence.

Her hands clenched into fists.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

Alec had always been the unbreakable one, the one who took every blow without falling, the one who met fate’s cruelty with a smirk and a reckless promise that he would always come back to her.

But he wasn’t coming back.

The realization hit her like a blade through the ribs.

Kael was cursing beside her, pacing like a caged animal, his hands clenched at his sides. Lucian stood rigid, his emerald gaze locked on the space where Alec had vanished, his jaw tight with something too raw to name.

The First Wolf watched.

Not triumphant. Not cruel.

But waiting.

Selene exhaled slowly, her breath uneven, her hands shaking against the stone beneath her. The air around her had changed.

Something was different.

Her power.

It was there again—but it wasn’t what it had been before. It didn’t feel like the soft embrace of the moon, like the magic she had once known.

It was vast. Infinite.

And angry.

Kael stopped pacing. “Selene?”

She didn’t answer.

She couldn’t.

Because something inside her was rising.

Something that had always been there—waiting.

The First Wolf’s silver eyes narrowed. “What have you done?”

Selene lifted her head slowly, her silver eyes gleaming with something new—something untamed.

And then—

The world cracked open.

A pulse of pure energy exploded from her, shaking the ruins to their foundation. The very air shuddered, the ground fracturing beneath her. The sky above rippled, as if the stars themselves were pulling away in fear.

Selene stood.

Kael staggered back, his storm-gray eyes wide. “Holy shit.”

Lucian’s emerald gaze flickered with something close to understanding—as if he had known, deep down, that this moment would come.

The First Wolf stilled, his expression unreadable.

Selene’s voice was quiet. “You took him from me.”

The First Wolf exhaled, tilting his head. “I did not.”

Selene’s fury ignited.

“You let it happen,” she whispered. “You knew what he would do.”

The First Wolf’s silver gaze didn’t waver. “And what will you do now, Selene?”

The ground cracked beneath her feet.

Selene didn’t think.

She moved.

The First Wolf barely had time to react before she was on him, faster than she had ever been, faster than even he had been. She hit him like a force of nature, her hand slamming into his chest, and for the first time—

The First Wolf staggered.

Kael sucked in a breath. “That’s new.”

Lucian’s voice was low, awed. “She’s not just powerful.” He met Kael’s gaze. “She’s something else.”

Selene felt it, coursing through her veins—something more than magic, more than divinity.

Something forgotten.

Something older than the gods themselves.

The First Wolf exhaled, straightening, watching her carefully.

“You are not what they made you,” he said.

Selene lifted her chin. “No.”

The energy around her crackled, her silver eyes glowing bright enough to burn.

“I am something they could never control.”

And the gods were about to learn what that meant.