The cave is cold, but my heart is burning.

Lara and Leo are finally safe, curled up beside Luan near the fire. I still keep waking to check if they’re real, to touch their hair, feel their breath. Every time I do, my chest fills with both joy and fear.

Victor still has power.

And he knows we’re coming.

Outside the cave, the sky is gray. The wind howls across the rocks like it’s warning us.

The full moon is two nights away.

And I can already feel it calling to my blood.

Lucien returns first. He steps inside, brushing snow from his shoulders.

“No sign of Victor’s men for now,” he says. “But that won’t last. He’ll come.”

I nod. “He’s hunting us.”

Lucien kneels beside me. He glances at the children, then meets my eyes. “We should move by nightfall.”

“We need a safe place,” I say. “Somewhere Victor can’t reach.”

“There is no safe place anymore,” he says quietly. “Not while he still walks free.”

Jack enters a moment later, carrying two rabbits. He tosses them onto the ground and starts cleaning them with a sharp blade.

“We eat now. We move before dusk.”

He doesn’t look at me, but I feel the tension in him. He hasn’t said much since we escaped the ruins. Something’s bothering him.

I reach over and touch his hand. “Jack?”

He pauses, then finally meets my eyes. “What if we can’t stop him?”

“We will.”

“You didn’t see the way he looked at them. Like they weren’t even children.”

“I did see it,” I whisper. “That’s why we stop him. That’s why we fight.”

He nods slowly, but the worry doesn’t leave his face.

Lucien watches us quietly, then says, “I found something strange on the edge of the valley.”

Jack frowns. “What kind of strange?”

Lucien pulls something from his pocket—a small stone, flat and black, with the spiral symbol burned into it.

“It wasn’t just lying there,” he says. “It was in the center of a circle of bones.”

I take the stone from him and stare at it. My fingers tingle as I hold it.

“It’s calling to them,” I whisper. “It’s how Victor’s drawing power.”

Jack grabs the stone and throws it across the cave. “Then we break the link. We destroy whatever gives him strength.”

Lucien shakes his head. “It’s not that simple. These stones are tied to something older. Something deep.”

I look over at the pale man we rescued from the last cage. He still hasn’t told us his name.

He watches us now, his eyes half-lidded, voice hoarse. “The stones are part of the ritual. They are the map. The key. The sacrifice.”

I walk over to him. “You said Victor raised you. You said you were my brother. Tell me everything.”

He coughs. “He took me when I was just a baby. Said I was the last piece of the moon’s will. That my blood would guide the chosen ones.”

“Chosen ones?” Jack asks.

He nods. “Your children.”

I go still.

“My kids?”

“Three born under the Blood Moon,” he says, his voice soft. “Three with the power of the wolf and the light. Victor believes if he gives them to the moon, he will become the Primordial Alpha.”

Lucien mutters a curse under his breath. “We have to stop the ritual.”

I swallow hard. “Then we stop it before the next moon rises.”

The pale man grabs my wrist weakly. “There’s one more thing. He has the last stone. The heartstone.”

“What does it do?” I ask.

“It binds the soul. If he places it into the circle with the triplets… it will take their power forever.”

Jack steps forward. “Where is he keeping it?”

“In the Temple of Night,” the man whispers. “Built in the hills north of the valley. Hidden. Guarded by blood.”

I look at Jack and Lucien. “Then that’s where we go.”

Lucien nods. “We should leave now.”

Jack adds, “We’ll split. I’ll go ahead and clear the path. You follow with the kids.”

“I’m coming with you,” I say to Jack.

He shakes his head. “You should stay with the children.”

“I won’t hide while you face him alone.”

Lucien says calmly, “I’ll stay with the children.”

Jack glares at him, then sighs. “Fine. But we move quickly.”

The Temple of Night sits on a mountain like a wound.

The air is sharp and dry. No trees grow here. No animals move. Just gray stone and the whispers of ancient things.

Jack and I approach the base of the steps. I feel the pull in my chest. The same pull I felt when I touched that black stone.

“He’s here,” I whisper.

Jack draws his blade. “Then we end it.”

We climb the steps slowly. At the top, two guards stand at the entrance, armored in black.

Jack throws a rock into the shadows behind them. One turns, and in that moment, we strike.

Jack tackles one. I knock the other off his feet with a burst of energy from my wolf side.

The fight is fast.

We leave them unconscious and step into the temple.

Inside, the walls are covered in carvings. Spirals. Wolves. Moons. Blood.

Jack mutters, “This place gives me chills.”

I walk forward, drawn toward a faint red glow.

In the center of the chamber is a pedestal.

And on it sits the heartstone.

It pulses like a heartbeat. Like it’s alive.

“I’ll grab it,” Jack says.

“No.” I stop him. “It has to be me.”

He hesitates, then steps back.

I walk forward slowly. Each step heavier than the last. The stone calls to something deep inside me.

I reach out and touch it.

Pain shoots through my arm. I scream but don’t pull back.

I see visions—my children, their eyes glowing, standing in a circle of fire. I see Victor, laughing, holding the heartstone high.

And then I see myself—standing over his broken body, the stone shattered in my hand.

The vision ends.

I pull the stone free and collapse.

Jack catches me.

“Eleanor!”

“I’m okay,” I whisper. “I saw it. The ritual. He’s preparing it now.”

“Then we have to stop him before the moon rises.”

Back at the cave, Lucien is waiting with the kids.

Luan runs to me. “Mama!”

I hug him tight.

“We have it,” I say. “The heartstone.”

Lucien looks at it and nods. “Then we end this tomorrow night.”

We prepare.

Jack sharpens his blade. Lucien sets traps around the cave. I spend time with my children.

Leo asks, “Mama, will we be okay?”

I cup his face. “Yes. I promise.”

Lara stares at the moon. “It’s coming.”

Luan adds, “The fire or the light?”

I freeze.

“What?”

He shrugs. “That’s what Lara said. The moon will give us fire or light. But not both.”

Lucien hears it too. He looks worried.

“What does that mean?” Jack asks.

“It means,” I say slowly, “we may have to choose between saving the world… or saving each other.”

The night arrives.

The moon rises, full and red.

Victor waits in the valley, surrounded by his loyal wolves. The spiral circle is complete. The three cages are set again—waiting for Lara, Leo, and Luan.

We arrive before he can start.

Victor laughs when he sees us. “You brought the heartstone to me.”

I hold it up. “Not for you. For them.”

“Then you will die with them,” he hisses.

The battle begins.

Jack rushes forward, blade flashing. Lucien shifts into his wolf form—massive, silver, wild.

I fight too—my wolf powers bursting through me, stronger than ever before.

Guards fall.

Victor charges toward the heartstone.

I reach him first.

We fight—claws, teeth, fury.

He tries to steal the stone.

I shove it into his chest—and it burns him from the inside.

He screams.

Then he crumbles into ash.

Silence falls.

The circle breaks.

My children are free.

Later, we stand in the ruins of the valley.

The sky clears.

The moon turns silver again.

Lucien walks to me. “It’s done.”

Jack says nothing. Just watches me.

I look between them.

Two mates.

One past.

One future.

And I finally speak.

“I loved you, Jack. I always will. But I can’t forget what happened. The children need peace. I need peace.”

He nods, pain in his eyes. “I understand.”

I turn to Lucien. “I don’t know what the future holds. But I’d like to find out—with you.”

Lucien takes my hand.

My children run toward us, laughing.

For the first time in years, I feel whole.