Chapter 8 The Vision

Chapter 8 The Vision
Nyssa POV

The pack house didn’t feel like a home anymore. It felt like a wound.

Wolves hovered near the walls. They were all too thin, too tired, and too broken to try and hide it.

I opened my mouth to speak....and the world fell away. Silver moonlight slammed through my skull so violently my knees hit the wood. The wolves shouted, Rowan grabbed at me, and Greta cried out, "Don't touch her! It's a vision!"...but they sounded far away, and muffled.

“Nyssa.”

Her voice was soft, furious, and ancient. The Moon Goddess did not appear in gentle light this time. She manifested in a storm. Silver fire spiraled around Her form, cascading like rivers. Her eyes blazed, not at me, but at the state of the world itself.

“The alphas have failed.”

The words shook the celestial plane. Images flooded my vision:

\- packs on their knees
\- children orphaned and starving
\- hunters claiming territories with fire
\- alpha after alpha falling, abandoning, and destroying lives and packs.

My heart pounded. “Show me what to do. Tell me.”

Her expression softened...but only for me.

“You will lead them.”

Cold poured through my veins. “Lead who?”

Her hand lifted. A constellation unfolded behind Her...fifty bright points of moonlit flame.

“Fifty Lunas.”

The lights dimmed, narrowing into symbols, markings, and runes.

“I will mark them,” the Goddess said.

“A glowing sigil at the base of their neck, visible only to you and those of your blood.”

A shimmering halo burned into my mind: a crescent moon with three rising lines.

“They will be chosen from every surviving pack. When they feel the Mark ignite, they will travel to you. They will train under your command.”

Tears stung my eyes. “Train for what?”

Her gaze turned devastating.

“To survive what is coming.”

“The packs are dying,” She said softly, and almost sorrowfully. “If the alphas continue to rule, wolfkind will be extinct within a decade.”

“No…” My breath shook.

“Yes.”

Her fingers caressed my temple with infinite gentleness.

“But the Lunas...the women...were always meant to rise. This was the secret the first wolves carried. The power that was abandoned when evil men seized thrones.”

The lights behind Her sharpened again.

“You will gather the fifty. You will build them into the fiercest leaders our kind has ever known. And then…”

The vision flared white.

“You will host the Mate Hunt.”

My heart stopped.

“You will choose among the alphas. And they will fight for the right to serve beside a Luna, not rule above her.”

“But....”

Her voice softened again.

“You were destined for more than one love, Nyssa Blackwell. The moon made you that way. Through your marks, your choices, and your Hunt, wolfkind will rise again.”

The vision snapped...and I screamed as I slammed back into my body. Rowan caught me. Greta sobbed. Wolves backed away, whispering my name in terror and awe.

I gasped, and my vision swam, just as the front windows shattered inward. Glass exploded across the floor. Wolves leapt aside as a figure stepped through the broken frame, brushing off shards like they were raindrops.

He was massive, tall and broad. Shirtless despite the cold. His long black hair was wild. His amber eyes were burning with fury. A stranger, but he didn't seem like an enemy. Yet.

He took in the ruined room, the wounded wolves, Rowan’s protective stance, and my trembling hands. His expression hardened into something lethal.

“Moonfang,” he muttered, “looks worse than I expected.”

Rowan stepped forward, with his teeth bared. “Identify yourself.”

The man smirked. It was dangerous, and confident. Not cruel...just brutally honest.

“Ronan Hiram,” he said. “Alpha of… well, no one now.”

His gaze slid to me. And when our eyes met, something clenched hard behind my ribs. A storm waiting to be named.

Vianna howled inside me, shaking my bones. “Alpha. Powerful. MATE.”

I ignored her completely. Ronan crossed his arms, unimpressed by Rowan’s growl.

“I came because the hunters are tearing through every pack from Vermont to Pennsylvania,” he said. “And your drunk bastard of an ex-Alpha let your borders rot. I figured someone here needed help, though I wasn’t expecting…” His eyes swept the room again.
“…this level of disaster.”

Gasps rippled through the wolves. But he wasn’t mocking us. He was furious on their behalf. On mine.

I stepped forward, with my chin held high. “Why help us?”

His amber eyes locked on mine.

“Because someone has to,” he said simply. “And apparently the alphas aren’t doing their damned jobs.”

Something in me jolted.

That echoed the Moon Goddess’s warning exactly.

“This place needs a leader with teeth,” Ronan added. “A Luna who doesn’t bow. I saw your ex in the forest. He is drunk, and screaming threats at the trees.” His lip curled. “He won’t last long. But your pack might. With help.”

Rowan bristled. “You expect us to trust a rogue?”

Ronan shrugged. “Trust me, don’t trust me, it’s all the same. I’m here either way.”

His eyes flicked to me again, slow, assessing, and curious.

“But if you’re the Luna I think you are,” he said softly, “then this whole damn nation might not be lost after all.”

Shivers raced down my spine. Vianna whispered, trembling. “He’s one of them.”

“One of who?” I demanded.

“One of the alphas who will change everything. He is our mate.”

I swallowed hard. Outside, wolves howled. Inside, my destiny roared like a heartbeat. And the Moon Goddess’s final words burned through my skull:

“Gather the fifty.
Train them well.
For the world will be remade by the Lunas.”

As Ronan took another step toward me, with power rolling off him in waves, I realized the first piece of that prophecy had just walked through my broken door.

"Ronan. Rowan. Greta,” I said quietly. “I need a moment alone with you. The rest of you....please, go home.”

The wolves hesitated, torn between exhaustion and hope. Their eyes searched my face, trying to determine whether I truly meant what they thought I did. I stepped forward, letting my voice fill the broken hall.

“Moonfang,” I called, “I will assess the damage. I will bring food, medicine, builders, and soldiers. I will restore what has been lost. But that begins with unity.”

Silence. Hope throbbed in the air.

“I am not only your Luna now,” I said, letting the truth settle into my bones. “I am your Alpha.”

Gasps rippled through the room, butt one wolf looked surprised. It felt like they had been waiting for those words their whole lives.

“If you are with me,” I said, “kneel. And let us bind.”

One heartbeat. Two. Then the first wolf dropped to their knees. Then another. And another. Until the entire hall bowed before me.

Rowan knelt without hesitation. Greta knelt with a hand over her heart. Even the trembling young wolves who had never known a true Alpha found themselves lowering their heads.

And then....Ronan Hiram. The rogue. The stranger. The man full of fire and arrogance and fury at the world. He knelt. Heat flared, in an explosion of silver fire through my veins.

Vianna howled inside me. “He is no longer rogue. He is ours.”

I ignored her, but the truth burned like molten gold. I took a breath and raised my chin.

“I, Alpha Luna Nyssa Blackwell,” I declared, “offer my life, my love, and my soul to the Moonfang Pack. Will you accept me as your Alpha?”

One voice answered. But it carried the weight of three hundred wolves.

“We accept.”

The bond slammed into place. A tidal wave of power. A rush of memories, emotions, and trust came pouring into my chest. Wolves gasped as the tether tightened around all of us, warm, fierce, and alive. I staggered. Rowan reached for me. Greta cried openly. Ronan’s head lifted, and his amber eyes burned as the bond wrapped around him too.

I felt him. His strength. His wildness. His relief...like he had been wandering for years and finally found ground solid enough to stand on. I tore my gaze away before Vianna could scream mate again.

“Come,” I said hoarsely. “We talk outside.”

We stepped into the cold night air, leaving the last whispers of the bond settling behind us. The moon seemed extra bright, like it was watching, and approving.

I turned first to Rowan.

“You stood for this pack when no one else would. You protected the children. You remained loyal.” I placed my hand on his shoulder. “You are my Beta now.”

His breath hitched. His eyes filled. “It would be my greatest honor, Alpha.”

Then I faced Ronan. He watched me silently, with his arms crossed, and his expression unreadable.

“You knelt,” I said.

He lifted a brow. “The pack needed an Alpha. You stepped up. I respect that.”

“That wasn’t an answer.”

A smirk ghosted across his lips. “Alright, fine. I’ll give you the truth...you impressed me. And my wolves need a safe place. They’ll follow if I follow. So I knelt.”

“You have wolves?” Rowan asked sharply.

Ronan nodded. “About one hundred fifty. Rogues, refugees from collapsing packs, a few ex-Alphas who lost their territories. Good people. Strong fighters.”

I inhaled slowly, letting the scale of that hit. Three hundred in Moonfang. One hundred fifty more...Enough to rebuild an army.

“Bring them here,” I said. “All of them.”

Ronan’s smirk widened. “I thought you’d say that.”

“Don’t get smug.”

“Too late.”

"Be my Gamma?"

That took him by surprise. He met my eyes and nodded once.

Greta cleared her throat, wiping her eyes. “Luna, Alpha, whatever you wish to be called. The pack house is yours. I’m ready to lead it again.”

I touched her wrinkled hand. “I know you are. And I trust you with my life.”

I moved to a weathered picnic table near the porch. Ronan leaned on one post, Rowan stood at my side, Greta settled on the bench. I pulled my laptop from my bag and powered it on. The screen glowed blue against the darkness.

Rowan blinked. “You brought a laptop?”

“I run a billion-dollar company,” I said. “We’re not rebuilding this pack with prayer alone.”

My fingers flew across the keys.

\- emergency bulk meat delivery
\- industrial freezers
\- generators
\- clean water barrels
\- first aid kits
\- disinfectant by the gallon
\- seed catalogs
\- organic produce shipments from the Amish communities
\- job postings for carpenters, electricians, builders
\- wolf-safe shelters and fencing
\- financial transfers from my personal accounts into Moonfang’s resurrected bank fund

Greta gasped softly. Rowan stared like I’d grown wings.

Ronan whistled. “Damn. You don’t play small.”

“I never have,” I said simply.

Then I opened the wolf-run social media network, LupineLink, and typed:

Moonfang Pack is hiring.
Moonfang Pack is accepting rogues.
Moonfang Pack is rising.
If you have no home or no Alpha..
you have one now.
Jobs, food, shelter, safety.
We rebuild together.

Within seconds, replies pinged. Ronan’s phone buzzed. Messages came pouring in.

“Told you they’d come,” he muttered.

“I’ll need every wolf we can get,” I said. “The Moon Goddess isn’t done with us.”

Rowan frowned. “What did She show you?”

I closed the laptop and looked at all three of them.

“She’s marking fifty Lunas,” I said softly. “Right now. Across America. A glowing sigil on their necks. They’ll feel it ignite. And they’ll come here.”

Greta’s hand flew to her mouth. “Fifty?”

“They will train,” I said. “Hard. With me. Under me. And then…they will choose their mates in a Hunt that will decide the future of wolfkind.”

Ronan muttered, “Shit. That bad out there?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “Worse.”

Before anyone could answer...the front door blew off its hinges. A massive wolf with matted fur, foaming at the mouth, and in a drunken rage... lunged through the frame with a snarl that shook the trees.

Cassian.

His gaze locked directly onto me.

And he charged.