I pressed myself against the cold stone wall outside, peeping through the narrow crack in the heavy door. The air inside was thick with tension. My father sat at the center of it, surrounded by his betas, his expression carved from stone.

"Alpha, we are out of time." One of his betas said. "The deadline is tomorrow night. If she isn't surrendered...."

"I know what the deadline is." My father cut him off, his voice quiet. That was always worse than when he shouted.

Another stood. "The Eastern District packs have bent the knee. All of them. They call him high king now. Even some of our own Western packs have gone to his side." A pause. "He's feeding alphas with his blood. It makes them stronger, more feral, more vicious than anything natural. They tear through enemies like rabid beasts and feel nothing doing it."

"He's taken the House of Veils." Another added. "Every pleasure house, every fighting pit, every black market in the district runs through him now. Humans and wolves alike are flocking to him. He gives them what they want and they give him their loyalty."

The room murmured its dread.

My father's hand came down on the table.

"Enough."

Silence fell immediately.

He looked at each of them in turn, his voice dropping to something cold and absolute. "I will not hand my daughter to that monster. I would rather die defending her than live with the shame of it."

"Alpha." One began carefully. "We don't have the strength to stand against what he is. I fear there may be no other choice."

"There is always another choice." My father's voice cracked through the room like a whip. "I will not sacrifice her. Before I am Alpha, I am her father. And I will not give her up without a fight."

The silence that followed was suffocating.

I pulled away from the door.

They were fighting because of me. Because of a mark I was born with and a fate I never chose. And my father, the man who had kept me locked away my entire life, was willing to die for it.

I should have listened and never wandered outside our territory. Sebastian wouldn't have set his eyes on me then.

I turned away before the tears could fall, and ran.

**********

The night air was cold against my skin as I fled the packhouse, heading straight to a place I hardly ever wandered to.

Rashidat's hut.

The priestess seperated herself from us, in the woods, in a place where silence hung heavy and the only whispers were the ones from the trees. When I reached her door, my hand hesitated before knocking.

It opened before I could.

Rashidat stood there, draped in white linen that shimmered faintly under the moonlight. Her hair, white as frost, fell to her waist. Her blind eyes, clouded and silver, met mine as though she could see right through me.

"I've been expecting you, child." She said softly. Her voice always sounded like it knew all the secrets of the world.

My throat tightened. "Then you know why I'm here."

She stepped aside, gesturing for me to enter. The air inside her hut was warm and thick with incense. Candles flickered on every surface, and a bowl of moonwater sat in the center of the room, glowing faintly.

I sank to my knees before her, my body trembling. "Tell me why, Rashidat. Why did the goddess mark me? Why did she have my path intertwined with Sebastian Kol. I did nothing to deserve this fate."

Her eyes appeared to study me in silence for some long seconds. Then, she said, "You call it a curse because you see only the suffering it brings. But the goddess's touch isn't punishment. It is purpose."

"Purpose?" I choked out, bitter laughter escaping my lips. "To doom everyone I love? To tie my fate to a monster? I hate her for it. I hate the goddess."

Rashidat's hand came down gently on mine, the touch warm and grounding. "Do not blaspheme against the mother, child. Even pain serves its place in her weaving. The threads of your life are not random. They were spun long before you drew breath."

I shook my head, tears sliding freely. "He's stronger than anything I've ever seen. You didn't see him that night, Rashidat. He isn't a wolf, he's something else, something wrong and ancient. I could feel it in my blood when he touched me. I'm powerless against him." I said, last night's dream flooding back into my memory. He had infiltrated my dreams and spoke to me, and even did something more. His powers were something I'd neither heard nor seen before.

"No, you're wrong, Leilani." Rashidat smiled faintly.

I blinked, lifting my head. "What do you mean?"

"You hold more power over him than he dares to believe." She said, voice low and rhythmic, like a chant. "You are not merely bound to him. You were made to balance him."

"Balance him?" I echoed, confused.

"Yes." She reached out, her wrinkled hand finding mine. Her touch was warm, pulsing with strange energy. "You are his cure and key to freedom but more importantly, his undoing and damnation. The same blood that burns in his veins answers to you. You can reverse what he has corrupted."

My heart skipped. "Reverse? You mean the Alphas? The ones who've taken his blood?"

She nodded slowly. "Yes. You can break his hold on them. Undo the curse he spreads like wildfire. Heal what he poisons."

Her words barely made sense. "I don't understand. How could I possibly-"

"The mark on your back bears the goddess's crescents. One for creation. One for destruction. You are the moon's child, Leilani. You were born to undo the night."

I sat there, trembling, her words echoing in my head. Undo him? Heal what he poisons? Reverse the effect of his blood? It was all too much to digest.

"I never asked for this," I whispered. "I never asked to be her weapon."

"No one ever does " Rashidat said softly, her clouded gaze seeming to look through me. "But destiny does not wait for permission. When the goddess calls, every wolf submits."

Her hand pressed lightly to my shoulder. "Be careful, little one. The beast hunts what he fears most, but be not afraid for neither will the goddess stop protecting you." She murmured.

*********

The woods were quiet on the walk back.

Too quiet.

And I felt it in my bones. A shift in the atmosphere. A wrongness in the air that made the hairs on the back of my neck rise. The kind that didn't belong to the forest and the kind that said 'You are not alone'.

I stopped walking.

Chapter 4 The Goddess's Design

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