Chapter 78

Chapter 78

CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT

Kai’s POV

The storm that had hovered over the pack all morning finally broke open as evening settled, spilling silver rain over the rooftops. Wolves hurried through the courtyard with cloaks pulled tight, guards rotated in pairs, and the scent of wet pine drifted through every open window of the Alpha wing.

I stood at the balcony outside my office, gripping the railing harder than I realized. The pack was trying to pretend everything was normal again, but anyone with ears could hear the tension in the air. Conversations died when I passed. Patrol reports came in thicker and more frantic each hour. Even the pups, usually loud enough to shake the walls, kept close to their mothers.

Something was coming.

Not from the mountain.

Not from the Core.

From within us.

Selene.

I looked toward the west wing, where her room overlooked the training grounds. A faint light glowed behind her curtains. She hadn’t slept in two nights, not really. She had eaten barely enough to keep standing. And every time I tried to pull her closer, she flinched like her skin was listening to something I couldn’t hear.

I pushed off the railing and went inside. The papers on my desk were a mess of patrol rotations, supply counts, and incoming pack complaints. The council wanted answers. The elders wanted reassurance. The warriors wanted direction.

But all I wanted was Selene.

I crossed the hall and made my way toward her room. The guards posted there stepped aside with nervous bows. They didn’t look me in the eyes. They hadn’t since Selene’s return from the Core. She was their Luna, but she was also something none of them understood and were too afraid to ask about.

I knocked once, lightly. “Selene?”

No response.

I opened the door.

The fire in her room burned low, casting everything in dim amber. She stood near the window, rain sliding down the glass like streaks of silver. Her hair was damp on the ends, like she had walked under the rain earlier. Her shoulders were bare, wrapped only in one of my long shirts that hung almost to her knees.

She heard me enter, but she didn’t turn.

“You’re avoiding sleep again,” I said quietly.

Her fingers curled against the windowsill. “I can’t sleep.”

“You mean you won’t let yourself.”

Finally, she turned her head slightly, enough that I could see her reflection in the glass. Her eyes looked too bright, and not just from exhaustion. The silver in them wasn’t fading.

“The dreams keep getting clearer,” she whispered. “And I keep waking up with something new.” She lifted her wrist. Faint lines of glowing silver traced beneath her skin like shifting veins.

I crossed the room and took her hand gently. The warmth of her pulse hit me first, then the faint hum beneath it. Not dangerous. Not dormant. Just… present.

“What happened this time?” I asked.

Her throat bobbed. “I heard the First Queen again. Only this time she didn’t speak in riddles. She said the pack is standing on borrowed time.”

My jaw tightened. “I don’t care what she says. You’re here, alive, and nothing is taking you away again.”

She pulled her hand from mine, pacing back toward the bed. “Kai, this isn’t something I can outrun. I feel it every night, every hour. The Core may be sleeping, but whatever it changed inside me… it’s still moving.”

I followed her, slower. “You’re not alone in this.”

She laughed once under her breath, tired and strained. “Sometimes I feel like I am.”

That hit deeper than she meant it to.

I stepped closer until we were only a breath apart. “Look at me.”

She hesitated, then lifted her gaze.

“You’re not alone,” I repeated. “Not now, not ever. Whatever the Core made you, whatever the First Queen wants, you are still Selene. My Selene.”

Her lips parted, and for the first time tonight, something soft flickered in her eyes. A fragile crack in the armor she kept around herself.

But before I could reach her, she stepped back.

“Kai… something’s happening inside me. Something I can’t understand yet. I feel stronger, but also fragile in ways I’ve never been. It’s like the mountain left a piece of itself behind.”

“Then we’ll face it together.”

She shook her head slowly, wrapping her arms around herself. “You say that like it’s simple.”

“It is.”

“It’s not. Every time I close my eyes, I see things. Wolves I’ve never known. Lands I’ve never stepped foot in. Battles that happened centuries ago. And when I wake up, I’m terrified that I’m not fully… me.”

I didn’t move closer this time. I let her speak.

“I don’t want to lose myself,” she whispered. “I don’t want to lose us.”

I walked toward her with slow, deliberate steps, giving her time to stop me if she wished. She didn’t. I took her hands again and brought them against my chest so she could feel my heartbeat.

“You won’t lose yourself,” I said. “And you won’t lose me. Not unless you’re planning to throw me out.”

Her breath hitched. The tension in her shoulders eased just slightly. “I couldn’t.”

“Then nothing else matters.”

The storm outside crashed suddenly, a clap of thunder shaking the window. Selene startled and instinctively stepped into me, her forehead pressing against my collarbone. I wrapped my arms around her, feeling her exhale against my chest.

She trembled, not from fear, but from the pressure she’d been carrying too long.

“It’s so much,” she murmured. “Everything is so much.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want the pack to see me like this.”

“You’re allowed to break. You’re allowed to be tired. You don’t have to be a goddess for them. You don’t have to be the monster the ancient queens want you to be. Just be Selene. That’s enough for me.”

She looked up at me again, rainlight and firelight reflected in her eyes. “Kai…”

I cupped her jaw, my thumb brushing her cheek. She leaned into the touch, her breath steadying.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me,” she whispered.

“I never was.”

“Even when my power scares you?”

“Especially then.”

Her lips parted in something like surprise, but also relief. She stepped closer, and this time she didn’t pull away when I lowered my head to hers. Our foreheads touched, our breaths mingling.

“I want to feel grounded again,” she whispered. “I want something real.”

“You’re real,” I murmured. “You always were.”

She closed her eyes. “Stay with me. Tonight. No dreams. No fear. Just… stay.”

“Always.”

I lifted her gently, her legs wrapping around my waist, her hands sliding into my hair. She kissed me, slow at first, then deeper, pulling me into her like she was drowning and I was the first breath she’d taken in hours.

I carried her to the bed, the storm still raging outside, the pack murmuring faintly below. But the world felt smaller now. Warmer. Human. Alive.

She curled against me with a soft sigh, fingers tracing my ribs, grounding herself in every inch of me she could reach. I held her, keeping her close, letting her bury the fear in my heartbeat.

No Core.

No mountain.

No visions.

Just her.

Just us.

She kissed me again, slower, as if memorizing the moment. “Kai… stay awake with me.”

I smiled against her lips. “Try to sleep, Selene.”

“What if the dreams come back?”

“Then I’ll be there to pull you out.”

She relaxed into me fully. For the first time in days, she let herself rest against something that didn’t demand anything from her. I felt the tremble leave her body by degrees, as though she were melting into the safety she’d been refusing all week.

My wolf pushed closer, brushing against her aura. Her wolf brushed back, instinctive, warm, familiar. A silent promise neither of us needed to put into words.

Outside, the storm softened. Inside, her breathing steadied.

She fell asleep in my arms.

And I watched her, guarding every second of her peace, knowing the war was far from over but refusing to let it touch her now.

Tonight belonged to us.

Tomorrow would wait.