Chapter 6 Secrets in the Shadows

*Maya's POV*

I could not sleep. Every time I shut my eyes, I saw Cyrus's sharp smile and heard him say he owned my future. The paper that said this was kept in my dad's locked safe, but I knew it was there and it hurt my head like a mark.

I got out of bed and went without shoes to my mom's old room. Dad had left it just as she had - her books were still on the shelf, her box of jewelry still played that sad tune when open. The air still had the smell of her most liked lavender scent.

I had not gone to this room for years, but tonight I needed to know things that only she could tell me.

On her desk were old letters, bills, and photos. But the last drawer was stuck. It took more effort than the others. When it opened, I found something that stopped my heart.

A book made of leather, tied with a silver chain, locked with a part I'd never seen. The leather was old and dark, and odd signs were cut into its side. My fingers felt weird when I touched it, like a deep know.

The lock opened when I touched it.

Inside were my mom's written words, but not soft thoughts like I thought. These were notes, big worry scribbled about old blood lines and lost talks of the future.

*"The dreams come more now. I see her future, my lovely girl in a big fight that will change our world. But which way will she go?"*

I stopped breathing. She'd had dreams about me.

*"The Moonborn talk isn't what the Council says. I found old books, words much older than theirs. The child born at the blood moon won't just bring packs together; she'll wake something that's been asleep since the first wolves walked."*

My hands shook as I moved to the next page.

*"The Council is scared of what they don't know. They've been killing Moonborn kids for a long time, saying they are too dangerous. But I've seen the truth in my dreams. Maya isn't the first. Others were gone before they could do what they were meant to."*

I sat down, shocked. The Council, the group that said yes to me after I showed my worth, had been ending the lives of kids like me.

*"I found her today. A Moonborn girl, only ten, with a group in the North. Her name is Seraphina, and she's already showing powers that scare her Alpha. I must warn them, but time is low."*

Seraphina. A cold ran through me. My mom knew about her, tried to help her.

*"Too late. The Council got her first. They took her, saying she was a risk. But I know where they keep her. I know about the place."*

My mom knew the Council's secret place for Moonborn kids. The same place I had helped break into by mistake when I was saved.

*"Marcus thinks my mind is coming loose. The dreams eat at me, show me ways Maya dies many times. But I've seen another way she lives, stopping the circle. It asks for a loss, but not that the talk speaks of."*

Her words got wild, the writing bad as she got worse.

*"The illness isn't just sick. I've been made ill in a slow, planned way. Someone wants me gone before I can keep Maya safe. But I won't let them win. I'll find a way to keep her safe, even if I lose everything."*

I couldn't breathe. Someone had killed my mom, made it seem like she was just sick.

*"I know who made me sick. The hurt is worse than the illness. But I have a plan. The blood deal with Cyrus will buy me time, make a guard around Maya that even the Council can't break. They won't touch her if she's under his care."*

My head spun. The blood deal wasn't just a last hope it was a planned spell. My mom gave herself to keep me away from the Council.

*"If Maya reads this, then my plan works. She made it to being grown, which means the Council didn't end her as a kid. But real risk starts now. The blood moon is coming, and with it, the wake of something old and big."*

I flipped to the last page, heart fast.

*"The First Wolf is moving. I feel it in my dreams, in the air. The Moonborn talk was never about bringing packs together, it was about keeping the First Wolf locked up. Every Moonborn kid gone makes the walls holding it weaker. Maya might be the last guard, the last lock on a jail that's held for so long."*

*"I hope she's strong enough for what comes. I hope she finds friends who won't turn on her. And I hope she forgives the choices I've made."*

*"Tell her I love her. Tell her the wolf in her dreams isn't her foe, it's her family from a long time back, trying to warn her. The First Wolf isn't bad, just... misunderstood. But if it gets out without a guide, without the Moonborn to hold it, it will end everything in its hurt and anger."*

*"The blood deal ends when she's twenty-two. After that, she's really free to pick her own way. But by then, the walls will be weak. She'll need to decide: be the guard her blood was meant to be, or see the world end."*

*"The answer isn't in the talk. It's in her heart. Love will lead her, as it always has our kind. But she must pick the right lovethe one that makes her stronger, not weaker, the one that builds, not breaks."*

The book stopped there, making me have more things I did not know than things I did. But one thing was for sure: my mom had died to keep me safe, and now I stood as the only block to stop an old evil from hurting the world.

I shut the book and held it tight to me, feeling how big my task was. The Moonborn tale, the lies from the Council, the blood deal-all linked to this First Wolf my mom had written of.

A soft hit on the door made me jump. "Maya?" The worried sound of Kane's voice came through. "Are you alright? Your fear hit me."

Even before we made the full bond, we felt each other. I put the books under my arm and opened the door to him, knowing I had to share this with him.

"Kane, we must talk. About the tale, about why the Council truly wants me dead, about what will come." I showed him the book in my hand. "My mom left me a clue."

He sat next to me on the bed, making me feel calm right away. "We will face it as one," he said.

I opened the book and read it out loud. Kane's face grew grim with every word I read. When I stopped, he was quiet for a bit.

"The First Wolf," he said last. "I've heard small bits about it in the old tales. The first of our kind."

"My mom thought it was locked up, not just a tale."

"What if it's both?" Kane looked into my eyes. "What if the First Wolf has been locked up so long it turned into something else-something that could end the world if set free?"

Before I could say anything back, my phone rang. A text from a number I did not know: *Dreams have started, right? The wolf in your sleep is not your foe, young keeper. But we are low on time. Each day, the walls get weaker. Meet at the old oak grove at night. Come by yourself. You need to know more about what you truly are.*

Kane read the text too, his face getting all hard. "It's a trick."

"Maybe." I looked at the book in my hand, then at the text. "Or it could be someone who knew my mom. Someone who may tell me what she left out."

"Maya, you can't go."

"I must. If there's a shot this person can help me know what's up, I have to try."

Kane held my hands tight. "I can't lose you. Not to some old tale, not to the Council, not to any one."

"Then come with me."

"The text told you to go by yourself."

"When did we start doing what strangers tell us?" I got up, set now. "And if this is about the First Wolf, you need to know about it too. You're about to be my mate, which means you're in this with me."

Kane let out a breath but nodded. "We'll go together. But Maya-if things feel wrong, or if anything seems off, we leave right away."

"Deal."

As we got ready to go, I saw my face in my mom's mirror. For just an eyeblink, I thought I saw something else-a face with old, sad golden eyes that was not quite human staring back.

The First Wolf was reaching out to me, and I was about to find that my mom's book had only told me part of what I needed to know.

The meet at midnight would tell me the rest-about what the First Wolf needed from me, and why all beings would kill to keep me from doing it.