Chapter 5 Moonbound

Luca's wounds were already healing by the time we reached his house-a massive stone mansion that looked like it had been carved from the mountainside itself. Inside, the walls were lined with ancient tapestries depicting wolves and moons and symbols I didn't recognize.

"Sit," he ordered, pressing a glass of water into my trembling hands. The silver light had left me drained, like I'd run a marathon. "My father will be here soon."

"Your father?" Fear spiked through me. "But he told me to stay away from you."

"That was before." Luca's voice was grim as he pulled on a fresh shirt, hiding the rapidly fading scars. "Before we knew what you were."

Heavy footsteps echoed in the hallway, and Marcus Thorn entered the room with two other men I didn't recognize. All three moved with the same predatory grace as Luca, and their eyes held the same otherworldly intelligence I'd seen in the wolves.

"Show us," Marcus commanded without preamble.

I looked at Luca, confused. "Show you what?"

"The light," he said softly. "What you did in the forest."

"I don't know how-"

"Close your eyes." Marcus's voice was surprisingly gentle. "Feel for the warmth inside you. The power that's always been there, waiting."

I did as he said, searching inside myself for that sensation of liquid fire. There-a pulse of heat near my heart, like a second heartbeat. When I opened my eyes, my hands were glowing with soft silver radiance.

The three men exchanged looks that spoke of things I couldn't understand.

"It's true, then," one of them murmured. "After all these years."

Marcus nodded grimly. "She's Moonbound. The last daughter of the Blake bloodline." He turned to me, and for the first time, his expression held respect instead of fear. "Your mother never told you, did she? About what you are? What your family really is?"

"My mother's dead." The words came out sharper than I intended. "And she never mentioned anything about bloodlines or prophecies or whatever this is."

"She was protecting you," Luca said quietly. "The Moonbound are both blessed and cursed. You have the power to unite the packs-or destroy them completely."

"Packs?"

"Werewolves, Aria." Marcus's blunt words hit me like a physical blow. "We're werewolves. And you're the key to our survival-or our extinction."

The room spun around me. Werewolves. Of course. The wolves that were too intelligent, too large. Luca's inhuman grace. The way he'd communicated with the creature in the forest.

"The ones who attacked you tonight," Marcus continued, "they're from the Northern Pack. They believe the prophecy means you'll destroy us all. They want you dead before the Red Moon rises."

"When's that?" I whispered.

Luca's jaw tightened. "Tomorrow night."

The glass slipped from my numb fingers, shattering on the stone floor. "And if I don't... unite the packs or whatever... what happens?"

"Civil war," Marcus said simply. "Pack against pack until there's nothing left but blood and ashes."

I stood on unsteady legs, needing space to breathe, to think. "This is insane. I'm eighteen years old. I don't know anything about werewolves or prophecies or-"

"But you feel it, don't you?" Luca stepped closer, his gray eyes searching mine. "The pull of the forest. The way your heart races when the moon's full. The dreams."

The dreams. I'd been having them since I was a child-running through forests on four legs, howling at the moon, feeling wild and free and powerful. Mom had always said they were just nightmares, but they'd never felt like nightmares to me.

"The Blake line has always been connected to our kind," Marcus explained. "Your ancestors were our guardians, our guides. But the bloodline was thought to be extinct until your mother appeared here eighteen years ago."

"She lived here?"

"She was born here. Fell in love with your father and left to live in the human world." His expression softened slightly. "She knew what you might become. That's why she never brought you back-until now."

"She didn't bring me back. She died, and I had nowhere else to go."

"Or maybe," Luca said quietly, "she knew it was time. The Red Moon only comes every few decades, and you're of age now. Old enough to fulfill the prophecy."

I backed toward the door, overwhelmed. "I need air. I need to think."

"Aria, wait-"

But I was already running, bursting through the front door into the cold night air. Behind me, I heard Marcus's voice, low and urgent: "Let her go. She needs to choose this for herself."

I ran until my lungs burned, until I reached the edge of the forest where it all began. The trees whispered secrets in languages I was starting to understand, and when I looked up, the nearly full moon seemed to pulse with anticipation.

Tomorrow night, everything would change. The question was: would I be ready?