Chapter 3: The Call of the Moon

The forest had never felt so alive. Every leaf, every blade of grass, every breath of wind hummed with a frequency I’d never known. I stood in the center of the clearing, the silver light of the full moon cascading over my trembling shoulders. Kael’s rejection should have broken me. Instead, it had cracked me open, and something ancient was pouring out.

My wolf clawed at the inside of my skin, but she wasn’t the same wolf I’d known. She was bigger. Wild. And she was *furious*.

“Show me,” I whispered to the sky. “Show me what I’ve become.”

The ground beneath my feet shuddered.

A wave of dizziness crashed over me, and I dropped to my knees. The world tilted, spun, and then—silence. Total, deafening silence. The trees vanished. The moon vanished. I was floating in a void of stars, billions of them swirling like a galaxy made of silver tears.

And then I saw her.

She was woven from moonlight itself, her hair a cascade of liquid pearl, her eyes twin supernovas that held the weight of a thousand millennia. She wore a gown of shadows and starlight, and when she stepped toward me, the void *breathed*.

“Mia.” Her voice wasn’t a sound—it was a feeling, a primal knowing that resonated in the marrow of my bones. “Daughter of the Crescent Moon. Beloved of the Night.”

I couldn’t speak. My tongue was frozen, my mind scrambling to comprehend the impossible. The Moon Goddess. *The* Moon Goddess. She was real, and she was standing in front of me.

“You have been wronged,” she said, her voice brushing against my soul like a cool breeze. “The Alpha of the Ashen Fang Pack has severed his bond with you, thinking it would make you weak. He believes you are nothing.”

My fists clenched. The anger—the raw, bleeding rage I’d felt when Kael’s wolf tore our bond apart—surged back to life. “He’s wrong.”

She smiled, and the stars around us glowed brighter. “You have always been more than he could see. Your bloodline runs deeper than the pack records show. Deeper than even the elders know.”

She raised her hand, and the void shattered into scenes. I saw a woman in ancient robes, standing atop a mountain as wolves bowed at her feet. I saw a queen with silver eyes, her hand on the throat of a tyrant king. I saw myself—my face, my *silver* eyes—surrounded by glowing wolves, my hands raised as a storm of moonlight rained down on an army.

“This is your inheritance,” the Goddess said. “The power of the Luna of the Ancients. A title that has not been claimed for a thousand years. It was whispered in the shadows of sacred oaks, sealed in the blood of the first wolves. And it has found its way to you.”

I stumbled back, shaking my head. “No. I’m not... I’m nobody. I was the pack’s weakest link, the one they all looked down on. Kael rejected me because I was *nothing*.”

“Kael rejected you because he is a fool,” the Goddess snapped, and for a moment, the void crackled with electric fury. “You were never weak, Mia. You were dormant. Your wolf has been sleeping, waiting for the right moment to awaken. And tonight, under the call of the blood moon, she has risen.”

A warmth spread through my chest, and I looked down. My hands were glowing—faint silver light seeped from my pores, pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat. The symbol of the crescent moon was emblazoned on my sternum, burning like a brand.

“The ancient Luna’s power flows through your veins,” she continued. “You are the bridge between wolves and the divine. You can command the moon itself. But that power comes with a price.”

I swallowed. “What price?”

Her eyes darkened, the stars flickering like dying embers. “The pack that rejects their true Luna will be cursed to walk in darkness forever. And the Alpha who dared to sever the bond with the Moon’s chosen... he will wither, his wolf starved until he is nothing but a hollow shell of what he once was.”

I thought of Kael. His sharp jaw, his mocking amber eyes, the way he’d looked at me like I was dirt beneath his boots. The mate bond had been snapped, but the echo of his touch still lingered on my skin. I hated him. I hated him so much it burned.

And yet... hearing that he would suffer?

“Good,” I spat, the word bitter on my tongue.

The Goddess tilted her head. “Then claim your birthright, Luna of the Ancients. Rise from the ashes of your rejection and become the moon’s vengeance.”

She reached out and pressed her palm to my forehead.

Everything exploded.

I slammed back into my body, gasping, the clearing spinning around me. My wolf surged forward with a force that almost knocked me off my feet. She was there—massive, silvery-white, her coat shimmering like the moon’s reflection on a lake. She looked at me with ancient eyes, and I felt her speak for the first time in words I could understand.

*We are not weak. We are the beginning and the end. And we will make them all kneel.*

I got to my feet, my breath ragged. The pain in my chest was gone. The hollow ache from Kael’s rejection had been replaced by something else—a roaring, insatiable hunger. I touched my chest, feeling the pulse of power beneath my skin.

*Who am I now?*

The wind carried a whisper in response, the voice of the ancient thing that had taken root in my soul: *You are the Moon’s Wrath. And Kael will learn to fear the night.*

I turned toward the barely visible lights of the pack house. They were celebrating Kael’s choosing ceremony right now. Sienna would be draped over his arm, grinning like she’d won the world. They had no idea what was coming.

I smiled—a slow, dangerous smile that felt wrong on a face that had only ever known sorrow. “Tomorrow, Alpha Kael,” I whispered, the silver light of the moon dancing in my eyes. “You’ll realize you didn’t reject a loser. You rejected the one thing that could have saved you.”

I began to walk toward the treeline, my new wolf prowling beside me in spirit.

But a sound stopped me dead in my tracks.

A howl. Long, mournful, and impossibly familiar. It cut through the night like a blade, and every hair on my body stood on end.

That was not just any wolf.

That was a wolf of the *Blue Silver Crescent* werewolf—the ancient pack from the legends. The pack that had been dead for a thousand years.

A wolf was calling for me.

And the silver marks on my skin were burning in answer.