Chapter 38
1794 Words
Hailey
The dream feels real.
Too real.
Moonlight spills across ancient stone ruins while silver wolves run beneath a sky filled with stars. Voices echo through the darkness, distant yet familiar, speaking words I cannot quite understand.
A woman stands before me.
Silver hair.
Silver eyes.
My mother's eyes.
Her hand reaches toward me.
Behind her stand four warriors bearing the symbols of the ancient clans.
Guardians.
Protectors.
Family.
Then everything changes.
The sky darkens.
Shadows spread across the ruins.
Screams echo through the night.
Fire consumes everything.
My mother's face twists with fear.
Run.
The command tears through the dream.
Run.
A flash of silver.
A howl.
Blood.
Then darkness.
I wake with a gasp.
Sweat clings to my skin.
My heart pounds violently against my ribs.
For several long moments, I don't know where I am.
Then warmth surrounds me from every direction.
The brothers.
Reality slowly settles back into place.
The enormous bed.
The fortress.
Bloodmoon.
The moonlight spilling through the giant windows.
A heavy arm is draped across my waist.
Another across my legs.
Rider and Zane.
Both asleep.
Both apparently convinced I might disappear if they weren't physically attached to me.
Despite everything, the thought makes me smile.
Rider's face is relaxed in sleep, the usual alertness gone from his features. Beside him, Zane is sprawled across half the bed like a wolf who has never heard of personal space.
Kael sleeps near the headboard.
Even now, he somehow looks composed.
The bond hums softly between us.
Safe.
Protected.
Not alone.
For the first time in my life, I know exactly what that feels like.
Carefully, I begin untangling myself from the tangle of limbs surrounding me.
The process is significantly harder than expected.
Zane mutters something unintelligible and tightens his arm.
I freeze.
He immediately relaxes again.
Honestly.
Wolves.
After several minutes of strategic maneuvering, I finally escape and slide quietly from the bed.
The room is silent.
Almost.
A figure stands beside the enormous windows overlooking the valley.
Watching.
Guarding.
Asher.
Moonlight illuminates the side of his face as he studies the darkness beyond Bloodmoon's borders.
He doesn't turn around.
Yet somehow, I know the exact second he senses me.
The bond shifts.
Awareness.
Relief.
"You should be sleeping."
His voice is quiet enough not to wake the others.
I walk toward him slowly.
"I could say the same thing."
A faint smile touches his lips.
"Someone should be awake."
The answer doesn't surprise me.
Nothing about Asher surprises me anymore.
He carries responsibility the way other people carry shadows.
Constantly.
Silently.
I glance toward the sleeping brothers.
"They would probably be offended if they knew you were standing watch while they slept."
His smile grows slightly.
"They volunteered."
"You refused."
"I did."
That sounds exactly like him.
The large sofa beside the windows overlooks the entire valley.
Without speaking, I settle beside him.
Close enough that our shoulders almost touch.
Far below, Bloodmoon glows softly beneath moonlight and lantern fire.
The mountains stand like silent guardians around the valley.
Beautiful.
Ancient.
Endless.
For several moments neither of us speaks.
The silence feels comfortable.
Safe.
Then Asher breaks it.
"You had another dream."
Not a question.
The bond.
I should have known.
I pull my knees slightly closer.
"It felt like a memory."
His gaze remains fixed on the valley below.
"Most likely it was."
The answer sends a small chill through me.
Because somehow I already knew that too.
My fingers tighten slightly against the blanket draped around my shoulders.
"Asher."
For the first time, he looks at me fully.
Moonlight catches in his eyes.
Waiting.
Patient.
Listening.
The same way he always does.
My throat tightens unexpectedly.
Because there is a question that has been sitting inside me for days now.
A question everyone keeps answering with half-truths and fragments.
A question I am no longer willing to ignore.
"Tell me."
The words come out softer than I intended.
His expression grows serious immediately.
"Tell me what?"
I stare out toward the mountains.
Toward the darkness beyond Bloodmoon.
Toward the future waiting for all of us.
Then I finally ask.
"Tell me what I really am."
Silence settles between us.
Not uncomfortable.
Heavy.
Meaningful.
Asher studies me carefully.
Choosing his words.
Choosing the truth.
When he finally speaks, his voice is quieter than before.
"You're Hailey."
I groan immediately.
"That was a terrible answer."
A small laugh escapes him.
A real one.
Rare enough that I stare.
"Fine."
He leans back slightly against the sofa.
"You want the historical answer?"
"Yes."
"The political answer?"
"Yes."
"The prophecy answer?"
"Definitely yes."
His smile fades.
The seriousness returns.
"The historical answer is that you're the last living heir of the Silvermoon bloodline."
The words settle heavily into the room.
Not new.
Yet somehow hearing them aloud still feels overwhelming.
Asher continues.
"The political answer is that your existence changes everything."
I blink.
"That's not dramatic at all."
"It wasn't intended to be."
Which somehow makes it worse.
"Entire kingdoms fell trying to erase your family from history. Ancient alliances shattered. Bloodlines disappeared. And now, after centuries, the final heir has returned."
The enormity of it makes my stomach twist.
I don't feel like someone capable of changing kingdoms.
I feel like a girl who spent most of her life trying to survive.
Asher seems to sense the thought immediately.
Probably because he does.
The bond is becoming increasingly unfair.
Then his expression softens.
"And the prophecy answer?"
I nod slowly.
This is the one that scares me most.
Asher's gaze drifts toward the moon.
"The prophecy says that when darkness rises again, the Silvermoon heir will return."
The room feels colder suddenly.
"The guardian bloodlines will find her."
His eyes return to mine.
"And together they will either save the world..."
The pause stretches.
Long.
Dangerous.
Or what?
I hold my breath.
Asher's voice drops lower.
"...or watch it burn."
The words settle heavily between us.
The truth.
The burden.
The future.
For several moments, neither of us speaks.
Then, quietly, I ask the question that has haunted me since Selene awakened.
"What if I'm not strong enough?"
Asher doesn't hesitate.
Not for even a second.
His hand finds mine beneath the blanket.
Warm.
Steady.
Certain.
"Then we'll be strong enough for you until you are."
And somehow, beneath the moonlight, with the valley sleeping peacefully below and the bond humming softly between us, those words feel stronger than any prophecy.
Asher
The question lingers between us long after I answer.
What if I'm not strong enough?
It is the wrong question.
Not because she is weak.
Because she still doesn't understand who she is.
Or who we are.
Moonlight pours through the giant windows, bathing the valley below in silver light. Bloodmoon sleeps peacefully beneath us, unaware that the future of every pack, every clan, and perhaps the entire world is sitting beside me wrapped in a blanket.
Hailey stares out at the mountains.
Thinking.
Worrying.
Carrying burdens she was never meant to carry alone.
The sight twists something deep inside my chest.
The Moon Goddess entrusted her to us.
Not as a weapon.
Not as a queen.
Not as a prophecy.
As a person.
A young woman who has spent her entire life believing she was unwanted.
Unworthy.
Alone.
Slowly, I slip an arm around her shoulders and pull her gently closer.
For a brief second she stiffens.
Then she relaxes.
The bond hums warmly between us.
Acceptance.
Trust.
Home.
I lower my chin slightly against the top of her head.
The position feels strangely natural.
Like something we've done a thousand times before.
Perhaps somewhere in the memories of our ancestors, we have.
For generations the guardian bloodlines waited.
Prepared.
Protected knowledge passed down from father to son.
Stories around fires.
Ancient vows.
Forgotten promises.
Most wolves stopped believing the Silvermoon heir would ever return.
We didn't.
Not completely.
The old stories remained.
The old duty remained.
And now she sits beside me.
Alive.
Breathing.
Real.
The final heir.
The Moon Goddess' chosen daughter.
The woman fate tied to all four of us.
A quiet sound behind us breaks the silence.
I don't need the bond to know who it is.
Kael.
A low grumble follows.
Then a yawn.
Then another grumble.
I glance over my shoulder.
Kael stands beside the bed with his hair completely disheveled, blinking at the room as though personally offended by being awake.
The sight is unexpectedly amusing.
His gaze immediately sweeps across the room.
Searching.
The moment he finds Hailey, the tension leaves his shoulders.
Instantly.
His wolf settles.
His expression softens.
The reaction is so automatic that I almost laugh.
Almost.
Hailey notices too.
A smile tugs at the corner of her mouth.
"You were looking for me."
Kael crosses the room without shame.
"Obviously."
The answer is immediate.
Matter-of-fact.
As though there is no universe where he would wake up and not immediately check where she is.
Honestly.
The man is hopeless.
Without asking permission, Kael drops onto the sofa beside her.
The large piece of furniture should comfortably fit three people.
Instead, he somehow manages to take up most of it.
Hailey immediately finds herself trapped between us.
Her eyes widen.
Then narrow.
Then widen again.
I can practically see the realization forming.
Kael on one side.
Me on the other.
No escape.
A Hailey sandwich.
The corner of my mouth twitches.
Kael looks entirely too pleased with himself.
"So," Hailey says slowly.
Dangerously.
"You're my guardians."
Neither of us answers immediately.
Because technically...
Yes.
Very much yes.
The old stories called us guardians.
Protectors.
The four bloodlines sworn to stand beside the Silvermoon heir.
Hailey's grin grows wider.
Oh no.
I recognize that expression.
She's about to become impossible.
"So you serve me now?"
Kael chokes.
Actually chokes.
I look away before she sees me laughing.
Unfortunately, the bond immediately betrays me.
Traitor.
Hailey turns toward me.
"You're laughing."
"I am not."
"You absolutely are."
Kael recovers enough to glare at both of us.
"No."
Hailey folds her arms.
"Pretty sure that's exactly what the prophecy says."
"It does not."
"It basically does."
"It absolutely does not."
She looks entirely too pleased with herself.
For the first time in days, her laughter fills the room.
Real laughter.
Not forced.
Not fragile.
Happy.
The sound settles warmly through the bond.
Through the room.
Through something much deeper than either.
Kael shakes his head.
I smile despite myself.
And somewhere beyond the mountains, beyond the coming war and the ancient enemies moving toward Bloodmoon, I imagine the Moon Goddess smiling too.
Because for this one small moment, before duty and prophecy and battle reclaim us all...
Her chosen daughter is simply laughing.
And that is enough.
- Writer
