Chapter 5 004 – Blood on the Moon

EVELYN POV

The dream came violently.

Flames consumed her hands. Screams echoed in her ears. She was running barefoot through the forest, cradling something against her chest.

"You have to go!"

"They'll kill her!"

Then, silence. A small gasp. A cry that shattered her soul.

Evelyn bolted upright in bed, drenched in sweat, her breath ragged. Her fingers trembled against her sheets.

The locket lay beside her pillow, glowing faintly in the dark. Not from magic, but memory.

She pressed it to her chest.

There was no longer any doubt.

Avelyn was real.

And someone wanted her dead.

KADE POV

They rode hard through the forest, wind howling past their ears.

Rory crouched low on the wolf beside him. "I don't understand how they found out."

"I do," Kade growled. "It's Theo."

Rory blinked. "Your second-in-command?"

"No," Kade hissed. "Her fiancé."

The name burned his tongue.

He never cared about titles. But hearing someone else had dared to call Evelyn theirs-someone who hid her-made his wolf snarl with fury.

"They're going after her," Rory said. "We're cutting it close."

"We're not losing her again."

EVELYN POV

Something scratched at her window.

She shot up in bed, heart racing.

The curtains billowed as the window creaked open on its own.

She slipped out of bed, approaching it slowly. "Theo?" she called.

No answer.

Just silence and then fog.

Then she saw the eyes-glowing red-on the tree-line. Watching her. Waiting.

Panic clutched her chest.

Before she could scream, the door burst open.

Theo charged in. "Back away from the window!"

He threw her to the ground and covered her body as a massive claw ripped through the wooden wall behind her.

What?

"What the hell was that?" she gasped.

Theo was already dragging her to her feet. "Pack war," he growled. "They found out about the child."

Her heart plummeted.

"They're here for her?" Evelyn whispered.

Theo didn't answer. His silence was enough.

He shoved a blade into her palm. "Stay behind me. No matter what."

But before they reached the exit, a shadow slammed into the door, hurling Theo backward and sending him crashing into the shelves.

A huge black wolf lunged inside.

Eyes red.

Claws dripping.

Snarling with bloodlust.

Evelyn screamed.

But instead of running, her feet locked into place. Her hands trembled-but the blade didn't fall.

Something shifted in her. A heat rising from her belly. A growl echoed inside her chest-not from the wolf before her, but from her own soul.

Her body moved before her mind could stop it.

With the grace of someone trained, she rolled under the wolf's attack, slashed its side, then pressed the blade to its neck.

The wolf froze.

What... what did I just do?

She barely had time to think before another shadow lunged at her,

But this one didn't attack.

It shielded her.

A wolf larger than any she'd ever seen.

Storm-grey fur.

Fangs like ivory blades.

Eyes she knew as well as her own.

"Kade," she breathed.

KADE POV

His mind pulsed with rage.

They dared come for her.

They dared touch her.

He didn't wait. With a roar, he pounced on the red-eyed wolf and tore through its throat with a swift strike.

Blood sprayed the floor.

The intruder crumbled, twitching.

Kade shifted mid-air, landing on two feet, bare-chested and seething.

He turned to her.

"You're okay," he breathed.

But Evelyn wasn't looking at him.

She was staring at her own hands-bloody, steady, controlled.

"I fought back," she said in awe.

"You did," he said softly. "And you moved like you'd trained all your life."

She looked up at him, wide-eyed. "But I've never..."

"You have," Kade said, stepping closer. "You just don't remember yet."

Groaning, Theo pulled himself from the rubble.

His eyes landed on Kade first-naked, powerful, standing protectively in front of Evelyn.

And Evelyn changed. Fierce. Lit up from the inside.

He hated it.

"You came here," Theo snarled, limping forward. "You led them to her!"

Kade didn't flinch. "They were coming either way. I came to stop them."

"You don't belong here anymore!"

Evelyn stood between them. "Stop it!"

Both men went quiet.

She turned to Theo. "I'm grateful for everything you've done. But this war? This child? It's mine to face."

Theo's jaw clenched. "You're choosing him?"

"I'm choosing me," she said, lifting her chin. "And the truth I buried."

In the ruins of the house, Rory swept through the ashes with his boots.

He found it a symbol carved into the claw of one of the attackers.

Black Fang.

"No doubt anymore," he muttered.

He turned to Kade. "They'll keep coming."

Kade nodded. "Then we prepare."

"And Evelyn?"

Kade glanced at her-sitting on the porch, wrapping her own bandages, eyes lost in a thousand emotions.

"She's waking up," Kade said. "And they won't be ready for her."

EVELYN POV

She sat by the river again.

The place she kept returning to.

This time, she wasn't scared.

She touched the scar over her womb and whispered, "Avelyn."

The wind picked up.

Something inside her stirred.

She didn't know how yet-but her daughter was out there.

Waiting.

She would find her.

And no one-not war, prophecy, or betrayal-would take her away again.