Chapter 2 The Blood Oath Broken

The walls of Nightfang Keep trembled with whispers.

A girl bearing the Bloodmark.

An Alpha who felt the bond spark outside of the blood oath.

A Luna who watched it all unfold in secret rage.

By morning, everyone in the central stronghold had heard of Seraphina the mystery girl found on the edge of their territory, rescued by warriors, marked by moonlight. She was kept in the eastern wing, closely guarded, not as a prisoner... but not exactly as a guest either.

Kael ordered it himself.

He needed time.

Time to think. To search. To resist the magnetic force that seemed to pull him closer to the girl with fire in her eyes every time they crossed paths.

Meanwhile, Lyra Morwen was anything but still.

"She's not staying here," she snarled to Elias Fenrir, pacing her chamber like a cornered beast. Her usually cold composure cracked around the edges.

Elias leaned against the stone wall, arms crossed. "Kael doesn't make decisions lightly. He believes she might be important."

"I am his Luna," she hissed.

"You are his chosen Luna. Not his fated one."

The slap rang out in the air before she even realized her hand had moved. Elias's head snapped to the side. He looked back at her, slowly, dark eyes unreadable.

"She threatens everything, Elias. Our rule. Our pact with the Elders. If the Moon Goddess has chosen her"

"Then perhaps the Goddess knows something we don't."

Lyra's mouth curled. "You forget your place, soldier."

"No. I remember it too well." Elias bowed with just enough sarcasm to make her flinch. "You may be Luna in title, Lyra... but not in destiny."

Down in the archives, Kael ran his fingers over a tattered scroll that smelled of dust and sacred ink. His Beta had retrieved it from the Temple of the Moon after Seraphina collapsed in the courtyard.

The prophecy. It was real.

"When blood and fire bear the mark of light..."

Seraphina's hair - like flame. Her sudden arrival. The crescent etched into her skin. Her dreams.

Kael's stomach churned.

What haunted him more wasn't the prophecy.

It was the bond.

He hadn't felt it with Lyra. Not once.

The bond was sacred rare. It could only happen once. And now, his wolf stirred violently every time Seraphina was near. When she spoke, his instincts burned. When she cried out, he felt her pain.

But how could this be? He had already taken a blood oath to Lyra. Their union was set by the Elders. Breaking it would fracture the peace treaty across all the neighboring packs.

He wasn't just a man.

He was an Alpha.

And this choice could start a war.

Seraphina sat by the window of the room they'd given her, watching the moon's rise. It had been five days since she arrived. Since the incident. Since the mark appeared.

Since him.

Alpha Kael barely spoke to her, but when he did... her skin hummed. Her chest ached when he left.

She was drawn to him. Dangerously.

And yet, she didn't understand why. She was a nobody. An orphan. A half-trained rogue who didn't know the first thing about real pack life.

But there was something inside her that wouldn't stay silent. A power that pressed against her ribs, whispering that she was more than she'd been told. That the dreams she had weren't just dreams.

And the mark... she'd seen it before.

On her birth blanket years ago. Before Emberclaw burned it when she was caught shifting without permission. They feared her, always had.

A knock pulled her from her thoughts.

She opened the door to find a priestess - robed in silver and deep purple, the symbols of the Moon Temple etched into her veil.

"You must come with me," the woman said gently. "It's time you saw what the stars have been hiding."

Deep beneath the temple, in a chamber no outsider had entered for decades, Seraphina stood before a glowing pool known as the Goddess's Eye.

The priestess motioned for her to kneel. "Offer your hand."

Seraphina cut her palm with a ritual blade and let the blood drip into the water. It shimmered

then swirled into a vision.

Two infants. One crying beneath starlight. One wrapped in crimson silk.

A switch. A deal made in silence.

A midwife running. A noble mother weeping.

Then... a crest. The symbol of the Nightfang Pack.

Seraphina gasped.

"That was me... I was taken."

The priestess nodded. "You were born under the celestial eclipse the rarest alignment in a thousand years. The mark proves your heritage. You are of noble blood, child. The true heir to Luna Liora of Nightfang, who died giving birth to you."

Seraphina's knees buckled.

Lyra Morwen was not just a usurper.

She was a thief of fate.

That night, Kael finally came to her chamber, heart pounding with truths he could no longer suppress. He had seen the visions. The priestess had confirmed it. And the moment he saw her again... the bond pulsed so hard his wolf growled aloud.

"Seraphina," he said, voice rough. "I need to talk to you."

She turned, firelight catching the glint in her tearful eyes. "You knew."

"I suspected. I hoped I was wrong."

"I was switched at birth," she whispered. "Your real Luna."

A beat of silence.

Then Kael stepped forward, placing his hand over her heart.

"I knew... the moment I touched you in the forest."

She trembled beneath his palm.

"I'm not ready," she whispered.

He leaned close, voice barely a breath. "Neither am I."

Their lips almost met when a voice shattered the moment.

"Get away from her!"

Lyra stood in the doorway, eyes burning with rage, two warriors flanking her.

"I warned you," she spat. "She's poisoned your mind. She's an intruder-"

"She is your Luna," Kael snapped.

Lyra's hands curled into fists. "Then you've broken your oath. And the Elders will have your head for it."

"Let them try."

But even as he said it, a shadow moved in the hall behind Lyra.

Elias.

Watching.

Expression unreadable.

Far above the keep, the moon turned blood red.

The Goddess watched in silence.

And the true war began