Chapter 4 Blood Memory

The moon no longer felt distant.

It was in her lungs, in her skin, in the rhythm of her thoughts. Since the bonding rite, Selene could feel Kade even in his silence, his rage simmering beneath stillness, his sorrow cloaked in command. She could feel his nightmares as her own.

And worse, he could feel hers.

They avoided speaking of it. But neither of them slept.

The northern wing called louder now.

Every night, as the fortress quieted, Selene would hear the whisper again. It was not a voice. Not a sound. But a feeling, like a breath on the back of her neck. A pressure beneath her ribs.

And always, it spoke one word:

Selene.

She asked Mael about it.

The old shaman looked older than ever.

"There is a reason it was sealed. That wing holds the remnants of the oldest bond. The First Betrayal."

"Elira?" Selene asked.

Mael nodded slowly. "Her blood still sings there. Bound by grief, rage, and the moon's own punishment."

Selene wanted to ask more, but Mael's face warned her.

Some knowledge costs too much.

The next full moon came faster than expected.

Selene had taken to patrolling the outer gates at night. She did not shift, but she no longer feared the wolves. Some even patrolled with her in silence, offering quiet solidarity.

It was on one of these rounds that she found the child.

A small girl, barely ten, curled at the base of the old obsidian tree. Her clothes were torn, her hair matted. Her eyes were the same colour as Kade's.

Silver.

Selene froze. The child did not move.

"Are you hurt?" she whispered.

The girl looked up, and in a voice not her own, said:

"It comes again. The blood debt. The bond must break."

Then she collapsed.

The fortress went into uproar.

Kade was called from the war room. When he saw the girl, he remained silent. He knelt, placed a hand over her chest, and inhaled sharply.

"This child is not alive," he said.

Mael confirmed it. "She is a vessel. A messenger. The old blood speaks through her."

Selene could not look away.

She felt something crack in her ribs, not pain. Recognition.

She had seen this girl before.

In a dream. In a fire.

Kade forbade Selene from returning to the child.

So she waited until the fortress slept.

She crept into the shrine chamber where the girl was kept. But she wasn't alone.

Kade was already there.

"You defy me," he said without turning.

"Only when you stop telling the truth."

He turned. His face was drawn, but his eyes were clear.

"She is Elira's blood."

Selene's world tilted.

"How?"

"When Elira died, part of her spirit was bound to the moon's judgment. She would return only when the bond was disturbed again."

"And our bond disturbed it."

Kade nodded. "You carry too much of her. Or maybe she never fully left."

Selene stepped forward, eyes burning. "Am I her replacement?"

Kade's silence was louder than any answer.

The child woke the next morning.

Not as Elira.

But as herself.

Her name was Mira. She remembered nothing.

Selene stayed by her side, day and night. She washed her hair, mended her clothes, and sang to her when nightmares came.

Kade watched from afar, a war growing in his chest.

The Council was summoned.

"The child is an omen," said Ryla. "She should not remain."

"She is innocent now," Mael countered. "If we banish her, we banish our last hope."

Selene stood.

"She stays."

They all looked at her.

Kade did not speak.

But he did not stop her.

That was all the approval she needed.

A week later, the Howlers attacked again.

This time, they didn't come for territory.

They came for Mira.

A shadow slipped through the barrier gates, a figure cloaked in red, wielding fire in its bare hands.

Selene and Kade met him on the battlefield.

The fire sorcerer smiled.

"Return the girl, or burn."

Selene stepped forward.

"Come take her."

The battle that followed would become legend.

Wolves versus fire.

Blood versus ash.

Selene felt the bond burn in her veins. Kade shifted, mid-air, and tore through enemies with vengeance older than language.

And when the sorcerer reached Mira, Selene was already there.

Her body shielded the girl.

Her hands glowed.

With moonlight.

She did not know how.

But the light surged from her fingers, blinding and pure.

The fire broke.

The sorcerer fled.

And Mira whispered: "She is back."

That night, the northern wing opened.

No one touched it.

It opened on its own.

And Elira stood in the doorway.

Not fully fleshed.

Not fully spirited.

But her face was real.

And her eyes met Selene's.

"We are not enemies," she said. "But only one of us can remain."

That night, the northern wing opened.

No one touched it.

It opened on its own.

And Elira stood in the doorway.

Not fully fleshed.

Not fully spirited.

But her face was real.

And her eyes met Selene's.

"We are not enemies," she said. "But only one of us can remain."

Elira's presence cloaked the fortress in silence. Where she passed, torches dimmed. Wolves dropped to their knees without command. Her hair moved as though water surrounded her. Her voice, when she spoke, seemed to carry on a frequency beyond sound; you felt it in your bones before your ears.

Selene could not sleep. Every night, she felt Elira's heartbeat in her dreams. Every step she took seemed to echo with Elira's memories. She stopped walking past mirrors. Not because of her reflection. But sometimes, it wasn't her staring back.

Kade avoided them both. But he watched from a distance. Selene knew that part of him still searched for Elira in her. She also knew she would never survive this if she continued trying to be both.

So when the council summoned her, Selene did not wait to hear their verdict.

She gave them hers.

"Let me face her."

"The moon will decide," Mael warned.

"Then let it look into both of us."

The Ritual of Mirrors had not been performed in three generations. It was older than the fortress itself. It was not a battle of body or blade. It was a battle of memory and soul. You entered with the truth of your life, and the moon decided which truth was stronger.

The chamber was carved beneath the roots of the obsidian tree, the place where Bloodfang was born. Legend said the First Alpha had howled there when he was still half-man, half-spirit. When the gods answered his cry, the roots split and glowed with quartz.

Selene stood on one side of the lake. Elira floated to the other.

They said no words.

Mael raised a silver blade.

"By blood that binds and blood that breaks, let what is fractured now be faced."

He sliced the air. The water between them lit with an ethereal glow.

They stepped into the shallows.

And the lake pulled them under.

Selene gasped, not for air, but for memory.

She was five again, clinging to her mother's skirts in the wheat field. She tasted the bread they shared, felt the warmth of her mother's arms. Then the smoke rose. The flames. The screams. Her mother's body was falling.

But it did not stop there.

She saw Kade. Alone in a courtyard. His eyes were hollow. Then she saw Elira, not as a spirit, but as a girl. Laughing. Running through the halls. Kissing Kade in the dark.

And then bleeding for him.

Then nothing.

Then everything.

Selene opened her eyes.

Elira was beside her. Not attacking. Not angry.

Just crying.

"You carried more than I did," Elira whispered.

"I was never meant to carry it," Selene replied.

"But you did."

Selene touched her hand.

It was warm.

Real.

"What now?" she asked.

"Now, I give it back."

Elira stepped into Selene.

Not violently.

Gently.

Selene fell to her knees.

Her heart raced.

She felt two pulses, then one.

Her mind flooded with power, with sorrow, with fire and light.

And then peace.

She awoke on the lake's edge.

Kade held her.

The wolves watched in silence.

Mael touched her forehead and stepped back.

"She lives."

Selene opened her eyes.

They glowed.

But not silver.

Not gold.

Both.

Kade knelt beside her that night. He said nothing for a long time.

Then:

"You are not her."

"No," Selene replied. "But I carry what she could not finish."

"And I failed you both."

She reached for his hand.

"Then help me lead. Not as Alpha. As a partner."

He bowed his head.

And for the first time in centuries, Kade whispered:

"Yes."

Selene rose the next morning.

Her cloak billowed behind her.

The wolves lined the inner court.

Ryla stepped forward and dropped to one knee.

"Moonborn Alpha."

The others followed.

Selene stepped to the dais, Mira beside her.

She looked across the sea of warriors, shamans, and wolves.

And she howled.

Not in pain.

In promise.

A howl that said:

The old ways end. A new blood rises.

And far beyond the mountains, in the shadows of the Howlers' camp, a crimson-eyed sorcerer felt the tremor in his bones and whispered:

"So it begins."