The moonlight no longer felt soft.

It pressed against my skin like a warning: cool, watchful, deliberate. My mark pulsed underneath my tunic, glowing faintly whenever I passed the ancient symbols carved into the stone walls of the outpost. I didn’t know if it was trying to protect me… or prepare me.

I stood alone in the Solon chamber called “the Heart.” Magic clung to the air like incense. The walls whispered, even when no one spoke.

Behind me, I felt him.

Maverick.

He didn’t speak. He rarely did unless it mattered. But he was always there like gravity. Like instinct.

“I couldn’t sleep,” I said without turning around.

“You never do,” he replied, his voice warm, low. He stepped beside me and looked at the mark on the wall I’d been tracing with my fingers. It glowed under my touch, like it knew me.

“Solon said this place was built before the packs even formed,” I murmured. “Before the Council.”

“He said it was built for her,” Maverick said. “The first Moon Priestess.”

“And now it’s mine.”

I placed my hand on my belly. The curve was growing faster than it should have Solon had warned me. Hybrid pregnancies didn’t obey normal time. The baby moved often now, her flutters turning into kicks that echoed like tiny drumbeats inside me.

“She’s strong,” Maverick said softly, placing a hand over mine. “I can feel it.”

“She glows,” I whispered.

He smiled, but there was awe in it. “So do you.”

His hand slid up, brushing my cheek gently. I didn’t pull away. I was too tired of pushing people out especially the ones who stayed.

“Last night,” he said, “you were whispering her name.”

“Who?”

“The old Priestess.”

“Aralyn.”

The name sent a ripple through the room. The flame near the door flickered higher.

“She died young,” I said. “She gave everything to save them.”

“And you think you’ll have to do the same?”

“I know I will.”

He stepped closer. His forehead rested against mine. “Then let me walk into the fire with you.”

My breath caught. There was something in his voice and an ache I knew too well. A longing that wasn’t just desire. It was devotion. And in that moment, I knew something had shifted between us. The man I once saw as my enemy was now the only one I could trust with my life and hers.

I didn’t say I loved him.

Not yet.

But my silence didn’t lie.

Later, Solon led us into a deeper chamber beneath the mountain. The air was colder here, still. He showed me a mirror framed in bone and silver.

“The Mirror of Haleth,” he said. “It shows not what you are, but what lies within.”

Maverick looked uneasy. “Is it safe?”

Solon gave a tight smile. “Safe? No. But nothing about destiny is.”

I stepped forward.

At first, all I saw was me. Pale face. Tired eyes. The scar.

Then the reflection shifted.

She appeared.

Cloaked in smoke and moonlight, her eyes silver like lightning, her mark glowing as if her blood hummed with power. Fire coiled around her fingers, and behind her, wolves howled at a burning sky.

She was me. But stronger. Wilder. Unapologetic.

I gasped and stepped back.

“She’s the end of something,” I whispered. “And the start of something else.”

Solon nodded solemnly. “That’s what the prophecy meant. The world ends every time a Priestess rises.”

That night, I dreamed again.

I was standing in the ruins of a pack hall. Broken thrones. Burned banners. Blood on the floor.

Then I saw them.

Mason.

And Chizzy.

She was dressed in white, a false Luna’s crescent glittering on her neck. Mason’s hand was on her back, possessive.

“I didn’t want this,” Mason said in the dream, stepping toward me.

“But you chose it,” I answered.

Chizzy sneered. “You can’t outrun what you were, Maggie. You’ll always be the broken one.”

And then I burned.

Flames roared from my hands and swallowed everything.

I woke in a cold sweat, the mark on my ribs glowing hot. Maverick sat up instantly beside me.

“What is it?”

“I think they’re coming.”

By dusk, I was right.

Six cloaked figures emerged from the treeline.

The Council.

Solon met them at the outpost’s gate. His voice was calm but clipped. “You weren’t invited.”

“We go where we are needed,” one of them said.

“You’re not needed here,” Maverick growled, stepping beside me.

The Council's leader, a tall man with eyes like carved obsidian, stared at me. “You bear the mark.”

“I do.”

“And the child?”

“She’s mine.”

“She is a threat,” another councilwoman hissed. “A magic-born hybrid wolf, witch, and Priestess. That is forbidden.”

“Then un-forbid it,” I snapped.

“She could be the end of us all,” another said.

“Or the beginning,” Solon countered.

They weren’t listening. They had already decided.

“The child must be taken.”

I stepped forward. “Touch her, and I will end you.”

The fire torches flared violently, rising behind me. Magic licked the edges of my vision. The Council tensed.

“Stand down,” a new voice said from the trees.

Familiar.

Rotten.

Mason.

He emerged slowly, wearing the same wolf leathers he used to wear when we were mates. His hair was trimmed, his beard neatly shaped but his eyes? They were colder than I remembered.

And beside him Chizzy.

Her golden curls framed a face too sweet to match the venom in her eyes. She wore white again. My title. My crown.

“Maggie,” Mason said, his voice soft. Too soft.

Chizzy stepped forward like she owned the earth. “The Council asked us to come. To meditate.”

I laughed bitterly. “You think I need a mediator now?”

Mason flinched. “We didn’t know you were alive.”

“You didn’t care,” I snapped. “You wanted your throne and your fake Luna and your clean hands.”

“Maggie”

“Don’t say my name like you miss me,” I growled. “You buried me the moment I bled.”

A flicker of guilt passed his face.

Chizzy crossed her arms. “You’re unstable. You’re glowing like a ticking bomb. That child isn’t natural”

“She’s mine,” I said, stepping forward. My eyes locked on hers. “And you? You’re a coward. You couldn’t be me, so you stole what you could.”

“I didn’t steal anything. Mason chose me.”

“Then you can keep him.”

Before anyone could move, I raised my hand.

Magic surged. Chizzy was yanked forward by an unseen force, her boots dragging across stone. My hand was at her throat in a blink.

“I warned you once,” I said calmly. “Touch me again, and I’ll show you just how dangerous I’ve become.”

Her eyes widened. She couldn’t breathe.

Maverick’s hand slid gently onto my shoulder. “Maggie… she’s not worth it.”

He was right.

I let her go.

She fell to the ground, gasping, glaring.

“You’ve changed,” Mason said hoarsely.

“No,” I said. “I finally remembered who I am.”

That night, I stood outside under the full moon. The baby kicked softly, and my hand rested over her.

“You hear all that, little one?” I whispered. “That’s the sound of fear. They’re scared of you already. Of us.”

The trees swayed like they were listening.

Maverick joined me quietly.

“They’ll come again,” I said.

He nodded. “We’ll be ready.”

“Do you really believe that?”

“I believe in you.”

I looked up at him. “I’m falling for you, Maverick.”

He swallowed hard. “Then fall. I’ll catch you.”

I leaned into him, my mark glowing warm between us.

And in that moment, I realized something important:

I wasn’t just the girl who’d been betrayed. I wasn’t just a broken Luna or a forgotten mate.

I was the flame.

And they had every reason to fear me.