Damon's POV

The golden wave hit me like lightning.

I was sitting in my office, reading stories about rogue attacks, when the power slammed into me. It felt like being struck by pure sunshine. Every cell in my body came alive at once.

"MATE!" Reign roared in my mind, so loud I almost fell out of my chair. "MATE! MATE! MATE!"

I dropped my papers and pressed my hands to my head. In thirty years of life, Reign had never acted like this. He was going totally crazy, clawing at my insides, trying to take control.

"Where?" I gasped out loud. "Where is she?"

Reign spun around in my mind, sniffing furiously. South! She's south of here! She's in pain! She's scared! GO NOW!

Another wave of power washed over me, weaker this time but still making my skin tingle. Whoever my mate was, she was incredibly strong. Stronger than any wolf I'd ever met.

But why could I feel her from so far away? Mates usually had to be close to sense each other like this.

I jumped up from my desk and ran to the window. In the distance, I could see flashes of light in the sky. Like lightning, but wrong somehow. Too bright. Too shiny.

That's where she was. I knew it in my bones.

"Kane!" I yelled for my Beta.

He burst through the door, his face worried. "Alpha King! What's wrong? I felt that power wave—"

"My mate," I cut him off. "She's out there, and she's in trouble."

Kane's eyes went wide. "Your mate? Are you sure?"

Another golden flash lit up the southern sky, and Reign howled with need.

"I'm sure," I said, already making for the door. "Get the fastest horses ready. And call Elder Moira. Tell her the promise is starting."

"Which prophecy?" Kane called after me.

But I was already running down the hallway, Reign pushing me to move faster. I'd been having dreams about a golden-eyed girl for months now. Dreams where she called my name and reached for me across a great darkness.

Elder Moira had told me those dreams meant something important was coming. Something that would change the werewolf world forever.

I burst out of my castle and shifted into my wolf form without slowing down. Reign was huge and black, built for speed and power. We took off into the forest like a shot, heading south toward whatever fate waited for us.

Faster! Reign demanded. She needs us!

Trees blurred past us as we ran. I'd never moved this fast in my life, but it still didn't feel fast enough. With each passing second, the pull toward my mate got stronger.

But there was something else mixed in with the mate link. Fear. Pain. Desperation.

Someone was hurting her.

Reign snarled, showing teeth like knives. Whoever was causing our mate pain was going to die tonight. Slowly.

We ran for what felt like hours but was probably only minutes. The golden flashes in the sky were getting brighter, closer. And underneath the power, I could smell something else.

Blood. My mate's blood.

KILL! Reign roared. KILL WHOEVER HURT HER!

I pushed myself to run even faster. My lungs burned, my muscles screamed, but I didn't care. Nothing mattered except getting to her.

That's when I heard the scream.

It cut through the night like a knife, high and scared and definitely female. My mate was in real trouble.

I burst through a line of trees and saw them.

A small cave sat at the bottom of a rocky hill. Golden light poured out of it like morning. And standing at the door was a tall, thin man with silver hair.

But it wasn't just any man. I could smell what he really was from here.

Moon Spirit. One of the old ones. The kind that were meant to be extinct.

Danger! Reign warned. Ancient magic! Very dangerous!

I crept closer, staying hidden in the shadows. The Moon Spirit was talking to someone inside the cave. His voice was cold and cruel. "—half Moon Spirit, child. The first of your kind in a thousand years."

My blood went cold. Half Moon Spirit? That was impossible. Moon Spirits couldn't have children with wolves. Could they?

But then I heard her voice, and everything else stopped mattering.

"What does that mean?" she asked, and her voice was like music. Scared music, but still the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard.

MATE! Reign screamed in my head. THAT'S HER! SAVE HER NOW!

"It means," the Moon Spirit said with an evil smile, "that you're the most powerful thing born in the last millennium. And also the most dangerous."

He stepped into the cave, and I heard my mate gasp with fear.

That's when I stopped thinking and started moving.

I changed back to human form and charged toward the cave. "Get away from her!"

The Moon Spirit spun around, his silver eyes sparkling with surprise and anger. "Alpha King Damon Blackthorne. How handy. I was wondering when you'd show up."

"Let her go," I growled, my hands already changing into claws.

"Let her go?" The Moon Spirit laughed. "Boy, I'm her father. She's coming home with me whether she likes it or not."

Father? This monster was my mate's father?

But then I saw her.

She stepped out of the darkness behind him, and my world tilted sideways. She was small and dainty, with auburn hair and the biggest amber eyes I'd ever seen. But when the starlight hit those eyes, they flashed with silver fire.

She was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in my life.

And she was definitely my mate.

"Mine," I whispered, the word coming out without my permission.

Her silver-gold eyes met mine across the space between us. I felt the mate link snap into place like a rubber band, connecting us forever.

But instead of joy or relief, her face filled with fear.

"No," she whispered. "Not you too."

Too? What did that mean?

The Moon Spirit smiled bigger. "Oh, this is great. The prophecy is coming together nicely."

"What prophecy?" I asked.

"The one about the Luna of Light who will either unite all supernatural creatures under one rule, or destroy them all." His silver eyes gleamed with crazy. "The one about my daughter choosing between love and power."

He raised his hand, and silver light began to gather around his fingers.

"The one about the Alpha King who must die before she can claim her true inheritance."

Before I could move, silver lightning shot toward me.

But my mate screamed "NO!" and golden light burst from her body.

The two powers crashed together in midair, causing a blast that shook the entire forest.

When the light faded, I was still standing. But the Moon Spirit was gone.

And my mate was on her knees, glowing like a falling star, with tears of liquid gold streaming down her face.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, looking at me with those amazing eyes. "I never wanted to drag anyone else into this nightmare."

Then she fell, and I caught her just before she hit the ground.

As I held her unconscious body against my chest, one frightening thought echoed through my mind: If she really was half Moon Spirit, then loving her might literally be the death of me.

But looking down at her peaceful face, I realized I didn't care.

I was already lost.