Chapter 47
1369 Words
The Last Prisoner
Hailey
Sleep should have come easily.
Exhaustion weighed heavily on every muscle in my body, and the steady warmth of Zane's arm around my shoulders should have been enough to pull me into a dreamless rest.
Instead, the moment my eyes close, the world disappears.
The crackling fire fades.
The scent of pine and smoke vanishes.
The warmth of my mates slips away.
For one terrifying second, I am falling.
Then silver light erupts around me.
My feet touch solid ground.
I gasp softly.
An endless forest stretches before me.
Moonlight filters through towering silver trees whose branches glow with an ethereal light. The leaves shimmer like stars caught amongst the canopy, illuminating a landscape that feels both beautiful and impossibly ancient.
The air itself hums with magic.
Not dark magic.
Not witch magic.
Something older.
Something sacred.
Something familiar.
A soft breeze stirs the glowing leaves overhead.
I already know who waits for me.
"Selene."
She stands several meters away.
For the first time, she is not a wolf.
She is a woman.
My breath catches.
Moonlight spills across silver hair that falls almost to her waist. Her eyes glow with the same ancient power I see whenever she appears within my mind, yet standing before her like this makes me realize something terrifying.
Selene is not merely powerful.
She is ancient.
Older than kingdoms.
Older than legends.
Older than memory itself.
And tonight, for the first time since I met her, she looks tired.
Not physically.
Soul deep.
As though she has carried a burden for far too long.
For several moments neither of us speaks.
Then she smiles sadly.
"You deserve the truth, little moon."
A chill moves through me.
Because whenever someone says those words, the truth is rarely kind.
Selene
I have waited for this moment longer than she could possibly understand.
Longer than any mortal mind could comprehend.
For centuries I watched.
For centuries I protected.
For centuries I prayed she would never need to know.
Yet fate has always been cruel.
Especially to Silvermoon blood.
I step closer.
Hailey's eyes search mine.
So much of her mother lives within those eyes.
The sight makes my chest ache.
"You are afraid," she says quietly.
I almost laugh.
The honesty of the observation catches me off guard.
Because she is right.
I am afraid.
Terrified.
Not for myself.
For her.
For the future.
For what waits beneath the mountains.
I lift a hand.
The silver forest changes instantly.
The trees vanish.
The ground dissolves.
History unfolds around us.
Hailey
The world transforms.
Suddenly we are standing above a vast kingdom.
My breath catches.
Castles of silver stone stretch across endless valleys.
Massive wolf banners fly from towering walls.
Thousands of wolves move through streets filled with life.
The scale is breathtaking.
"It was beautiful," I whisper.
Selene's gaze remains fixed on the kingdom.
"Yes."
The sadness in her voice feels heavy.
Painful.
"This was Silvermoon."
My heart stops.
Silvermoon.
Not the bloodline.
Not the legend.
The kingdom.
The original kingdom.
The place from every story.
The place that vanished.
I stare in amazement as life unfolds beneath us.
Children run through market squares.
Warriors train.
Families laugh.
Everything feels vibrant.
Alive.
Then the scene changes.
Darkness spreads across the kingdom.
Like ink staining water.
The sky turns black.
The earth cracks.
Screams fill the air.
My stomach twists.
"What happened?"
Selene's expression hardens.
"The beginning."
Selene
The memory still hurts.
Even now.
Even after thousands of years.
I watch Hailey witness the fall.
The terror.
The death.
The suffering.
Entire armies disappeared.
Cities burned.
Kingdoms fell.
Not because of war.
Because of something far worse.
Something that should never have existed.
"It was not a wolf."
Hailey looks at me.
"It was not human."
The darkness grows beneath us.
Spreading across the ancient world.
Consuming everything.
"It was born when ancient magic became corrupted."
The memory makes me shudder.
"It fed on fear."
The darkness swallows another city.
"It fed on grief."
More death.
More destruction.
"It fed on hatred."
The shadows grow stronger.
Larger.
Hungrier.
"It fed on betrayal."
By now tears burn in Hailey's eyes.
Because she can feel it.
The suffering.
The despair.
The endless hunger.
"It consumed everything it touched."
Hailey
I can barely breathe.
The darkness isn't merely destroying people.
It's feeding on them.
Growing stronger with every life it takes.
The feeling is horrifying.
Wrong.
Evil in its purest form.
"What was it?"
My voice trembles.
Selene remains silent for several moments.
Then she finally answers.
"The Last Prisoner."
The words echo through the dream.
Ancient.
Terrible.
Final.
I stare at the darkness.
Even now it feels alive.
Watching.
Waiting.
Hungry.
"Why wasn't it destroyed?"
The pain that crosses Selene's face tells me I won't like the answer.
"Because it couldn't be."
Selene
The final memory appears.
A woman stands alone beneath a silver moon.
Power crackles around her.
Ancient.
Beautiful.
Terrifying.
My throat tightens.
The first Silvermoon Queen.
Hailey immediately notices the resemblance.
The same eyes.
The same strength.
The same blood.
"The queen sacrificed everything."
The darkness crashes toward her.
The entire world trembles.
Magic erupts across the mountains.
The sky fractures.
The earth shakes.
Then a prison forms.
Massive.
Ancient.
Unbreakable.
The Crescent Vault.
"The prison was never built to protect treasure."
Hailey's eyes widen.
"It was built to contain it."
Hailey
The realization crashes into me.
The Vault.
The witches.
The symbols.
The figure in the forest.
Everything connects.
Everything.
"The Veil knows."
Selene nods slowly.
"They have always known."
My pulse races.
"They want to release it."
A look of disgust crosses her face.
"They believe they can control it."
The same mistake.
Again.
Just like every villain in every story.
Only this isn't a story.
This is real.
People will die.
Entire packs could disappear.
Then another question strikes me.
The most important question.
"Why was I left at the ruins?"
Silence follows.
Heavy.
Painful.
Selene closes her eyes.
When she opens them again, I see tears.
Actual tears.
The sight shocks me.
Because I have never imagined Selene crying.
"You were not abandoned."
My throat tightens.
The words hit harder than expected.
"You were hidden."
Everything inside me freezes.
"You were protected."
The silver forest trembles around us.
"Your parents knew what was coming."
Emotion burns inside my chest.
Pain.
Love.
Grief.
"They loved you more than their own lives."
The tears finally fall.
"They died making certain nobody would find you."
My knees nearly buckle.
All these years.
All this time.
Thinking nobody wanted me.
Thinking nobody chose me.
Thinking I had been discarded.
And the truth was the exact opposite.
They loved me enough to die.
Ironclaw Pack
Far away from the mountains.
Far away from Bloodmoon.
Alpha Darius kneels before a circle of witches.
Dark magic coils through the chamber.
Ancient runes glow across stone walls.
The air smells of blood and ash.
"I found her."
The witches smile.
Cold.
Cruel.
Hungry.
"The Silvermoon heir approaches the Vault."
For a moment, Darius expects praise.
Reward.
Power.
Instead, fear flashes across several faces.
The oldest witch rises abruptly.
"No."
Darius frowns.
"No?"
The witch's expression darkens.
"They found it sooner than expected."
For the first time, genuine panic fills the chamber.
Hailey
The dream begins breaking apart.
The silver forest shakes violently.
Cracks spread across the ground.
Moonlight fractures around us.
Selene grabs my face.
Her hands tremble.
Fear pours from her.
Real fear.
Not concern.
Not worry.
Terror.
"Listen carefully."
My pulse races.
The world continues collapsing.
"If the prison breaks..."
The urgency in her voice makes my stomach twist.
"What happens?"
The answer comes immediately.
Without hesitation.
Without hope.
"The Last Prisoner will not seek to destroy the world."
Everything freezes.
The dream.
The forest.
The moonlight.
Even my heartbeat.
"Then what does it want?"
For the first time in history...
The immortal wolf goddess looks afraid.
Truly afraid.
Her silver eyes lock onto mine.
"It wants you."
The dream shatters.
Darkness explodes around me.
I hear her final words as I fall.
Words that follow me back toward waking.
Words that steal every breath from my lungs.
"It will try to possess you."
- Writer
