Chapter 7 CHAPTER 7

LUNA

We didn’t figure it out together.

Instead, we made it worse.

The moment Damian said those words “we figure it out together” something inside me broke. All the fear, the anger, the desperate loneliness of the past thirteen years came crashing down, and I did the only thing that made sense in that moment.

I kissed him.

Or maybe he kissed me. I honestly couldn’t tell who moved first.

All I knew was that one second we were standing apart, and the next his mouth was on mine, hot and demanding and utterly consuming. His hands tangled in my hair, and I didn’t care that my hood fell back, exposing the silver streaks to the fading sunlight.

This wasn’t like the forest. That had been pure instinct, our wolves driving us together in a haze of moonlight and need. This was conscious. Deliberate. Dangerous.

“We shouldn’t,” I gasped against his lips.

“I know,” he said, and kissed me harder.

My back hit a tree, the rough bark scraping through my hoodie. Damian’s body pressed against mine, solid and warm and overwhelming. Every place we touched sparked with electricity, the bond singing between us like a living thing.

“This is insane,” I managed.

“Completely.” His mouth moved to my neck, finding the spot that made me gasp. “We should stop.”

“We really should.”

Neither of us stopped.

His hands slid under my hoodie, callused fingers tracing the silver glow that pulsed beneath my skin. I felt his sharp intake of breath when he touched the mate mark the crescent moon shape that had appeared on my collarbone after our first night together.

“It’s real,” he whispered, almost reverent. “The bond. It’s already marked you.”

“You too,” I said, reaching up to trace the matching mark on his neck. “I saw it in the lab. You’ve been hiding it.”

“I had to.” He pulled back enough to look at me, his golden eyes blazing. “If my father sees it ”

“He’ll kill me. I know.”

The reminder of reality crashed over us like cold water. Damian stepped back, running his hands through his hair in frustration.

“This is we can’t ” He couldn’t seem to finish a sentence.

“I know,” I said quietly. “We can’t be together. The prophecy, your father, my bloodline it’s impossible.”

“But I can’t stay away from you either.”

“I know that too.”

We stood there in the gathering darkness, two people caught in a fate neither of us had chosen, bound by a force neither of us could control.

“What do we do?” I asked again, desperate for an answer I knew he didn’t have.

Damian’s jaw tightened. “We’re careful. We keep this secret. And we figure out a way to survive what’s coming.”

DAMIAN

I was an idiot.

A complete, reckless idiot who’d just made everything infinitely more complicated.

Kissing Luna in the forest where anyone could have seen us where rogues had just been, where pack scouts might patrol was possibly the stupidest thing I’d ever done.

And I wanted to do it again.

I walked Luna back to the edge of the Outskirts, staying in the shadows, hyperaware of every sound and scent. If my father’s security team caught us together, there would be no explaining it away.

“I can get home from here,” Luna said when we reached the boundary of her neighborhood.

“I’ll watch until you’re inside.”

“That’s not necessary ”

“Luna.” I caught her wrist gently. “Let me do this one thing. Please.”

She studied my face for a long moment, then nodded. “Okay.”

I watched her walk down the broken streets, her small figure disappearing into the poorest part of town. The contrast between her world and mine had never been more stark. She lived in a shack that was barely standing. I lived in a mansion with more rooms than I could count.

And somehow, she was my mate.

When her front door finally closed behind her, I shifted and ran. Not home I couldn’t face the mansion yet, couldn’t face my father’s scrutiny with Luna’s scent still clinging to my skin.

Instead, I ran to the only person I trusted: my mother.

SERAPHINA

I was in my private study when my son burst through the door, wild-eyed and breathing hard.

“Damian?” I set down my tea. “What’s wrong?”

“Everything,” he said, pacing like a caged animal. “Everything is wrong, and I don’t know how to fix it.”

I’d been expecting this conversation for three days. Since the tremors in Eden Forest. Since the ancient magic had awakened. Since my son had bonded with the one bloodline we’d spent centuries trying to eradicate.

“Sit down,” I said calmly. “Tell me everything.”

And he did. The words poured out of him the night in the forest, the silver wolf, the moment of recognition in the chemistry lab. His growing obsession with Luna Rivers. The kiss in the forest. The impossible situation he found himself in.

I listened without interrupting, my heart breaking for my son. I’d known this day would come eventually. Known that the prophecy couldn’t be denied forever.

“Does your father know?” I asked when he finally fell silent.

“I don’t think so. Not for certain. But Mother ” His voice cracked. “He killed her father. Burned him alive on Eden Mountain. How am I supposed to ”

“You’re supposed to protect her,” I interrupted firmly. “That’s what mates do. They protect each other.”

“Even when it means betraying my own pack?”

I rose and moved to the window, looking out over the grounds of the estate. “Your father believes he’s protecting the pack by maintaining the old hierarchy. By keeping power concentrated in the golden bloodline. But prophecies exist for a reason, Damian. Balance must be restored eventually.”

“You believe in the prophecy?”

“I believe in what I’ve seen.” I turned to face him. “I’ve watched the silver bloodline be hunted nearly to extinction. I’ve seen the corruption that absolute power breeds in our kind. And I’ve seen your father become something cruel and paranoid in his determination to prevent change.”

I moved closer, taking my son’s face in my hands. “You’re my child, Damian. I love you more than anything in this world. But I’m also a witch, and I can see the threads of fate weaving around you. This girl Luna she’s not your destruction. She’s your salvation.”

“Father will never accept that.”

“No,” I agreed sadly. “He won’t.”

“Then what do I do?”

I pressed a small vial into his hand. “This is a masking potion. It will hide Luna’s scent on you for twenty-four hours. Use it sparinglythe ingredients are rare, and I can only make so much.”

“Mother ”

“I’m not asking you to choose between your father and your mate. Not yet.” My voice was gentle but firm. “But when that day comesand it will come I need you to remember something. Your father’s empire was built on fear and death. Whatever you build with Luna, build it on something better.”

LUNA

My mother was waiting when I got home.

She sat at our battered kitchen table, a cup of tea growing cold in front of her, her eyes distant and worried.

“Mama?” I said softly.

She looked up, and I saw the knowledge in her eyes. She knew. Somehow, she knew everything.

“Sit down, little wolf,” she said. “We need to talk about what’s happening to you.”

I sank into the chair across from her, my hands trembling. “I don’t know how to explain ”

“You’ve awakened,” she interrupted. “The silver bloodline that’s been dormant for generations. It’s manifesting in you.”

“How did you know?”

“Because it happened to your grandmother. And her mother before her.” Elenora reached across the table, taking my hands. “The silver wolves were the original pack, Luna. We were connected to the moon goddess herself. But the golden bloodlines feared that power, so they hunted us. Called us rogues and traitors. Destroyed our families.”

Tears burned my eyes. “Is that why Father died? Because of what I am?”

“Your father died because Alpha Maxwell is terrified of the prophecy.” Her grip tightened. “And Luna, you need to be very careful. Because if Maxwell discovers what you’re becoming ”

“He’ll kill me like he killed Father.”

“Yes.”

We sat in silence, the weight of my heritage pressing down on us both.

“There’s something else,” I said quietly. “Something I need to tell you.”

“You’ve bonded with someone.” It wasn’t a question.

I nodded miserably. “The Blackwell heir. Damian. I didn’t know who he was when it happened, and now ”

“Now you’re bound to the son of your father’s murderer.”

“It’s a nightmare, Mama. The bond is real, but we can never be together. His father will ”

“His father doesn’t control fate,” Elenora said firmly. “The moon goddess chose you for each other for a reason, Luna. Trust in that, even when everything else seems impossible.”

“How can you say that? After what his family did to us?”

“Because I believe in balance,” she said. “And because I’ve seen what hate and vengeance do to people. It consumed your father in his final days. I won’t let it consume you.”

She stood, moving to the small altar where she kept her herbs and crystals. “The Masquerade is in a few weeks. Maxwell will use it as a display of power. You need to be strong by then, Luna. Strong enough to survive whatever he has planned.”

“I don’t know how to be strong.”

“You’re stronger than you think,” my mother said, returning with a small bundle wrapped in cloth. “This belonged to your grandmother. The last true silver wolf before you.”

She unwrapped it to reveal a silver pendant a crescent moon with intricate engravings.

“Wear this,” Elenora said, fastening it around my neck. “It will help channel your power. Protect you when I can’t.”

The moment the pendant touched my skin, I felt a surge of energy. Not overwhelming, but steady. Grounding.

“Thank you, Mama.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” she said sadly. “The hard part is still to come.”