Marked by the Moon Goddess

The full moon hung heavy over the forest, thick clouds parting just enough to let its silvery glow bathe the treetops. Kael stood naked at the edge of the cliff, blood staining his hands, breath ragged. His wolf howled inside him, mourning a mate he had never known but ached for.

Every moon, he felt it. Her fear. Her pain. Her loneliness.

Somewhere, his mate suffered - and he had no name, no scent, no way to reach her.

But the Moon Goddess had whispered a promise.

"Find her. She is yours. She is the flame that will end the dark."

And Kael would rip the world apart to bring her home.

--

Ember didn't remember the last time she'd seen sunlight.

The basement was always cold, the stone walls weeping moisture. A chain rattled at her ankle as she curled tighter on the cot, her body aching from the last time Caleb "disciplined" her. Her wolf stirred weakly, suffocated by the potion they'd made her drink every day. Suppressants.

She wasn't allowed to shift. She wasn't allowed to speak unless spoken to. She wasn't allowed to be anything.

But tonight, something felt different.

A throb in her chest. A pulse. A warmth she hadn't felt in years. It wasn't pain - it was pull.

She saw him again in her dreams. Amber eyes glowing like coals. A wolf with fur black as night, teeth bared in fury - not at her, but for her.

He was coming. And she would not die before she met him.