Chapter 24
1141 Words
The White Wolf Goddess
Hailey
The silence after I speak her name feels unnatural.
Heavy.
Sacred.
"Selene," Kael repeats quietly, the word sounding almost reverent on his tongue.
The moment he says it, something shifts in the room again.
Not violently this time.
Softly.
Like moonlight spilling across still water.
Inside me, my wolf stirs.
Power rolls beneath my skin in slow waves now instead of uncontrolled explosions, but it is still there immense and ancient and impossible to ignore. I can feel the brothers watching me carefully, their instincts balancing somewhere between awe and concern.
And honestly?
I understand why.
Because I can feel her memories brushing against mine.
Not fully.
Not clearly.
Fragments.
Pieces of something older than history.
A ruined temple beneath a silver moon.A white wolf standing atop ancient stone.Four kneeling warriors bowing their heads.Blood.Fire.Screaming.Magic.
I stagger slightly, gripping the edge of the table.
Asher moves instantly. "Easy."
"I'm fine," I whisper automatically.
Lie.
Nothing about this feels fine.
My head pounds violently as flashes continue tearing through my mind.
A woman with silver hair running through burning woods.A man covered in blood fighting creatures made of shadow.Ancient symbols glowing beneath moonlight.A voice whispering over and over
Protect the child.
The child.
Me.
Fear coils sharply in my stomach.
"What's happening to me?" I ask weakly.
None of them answer immediately.
Because they do not know.
But someone else does.
Selene.
My wolf steps forward inside my mind fully now, her silver fur glowing against endless darkness. She is enormous. Bigger than any wolf I have ever seen. Not simply powerful
divine.
Her eyes meet mine.
And suddenly
the cabin disappears.
The Vision
Moonlight floods the world around me.
Cold silver light stretches across ancient stone ruins hidden deep within endless forest. Massive pillars rise toward the night sky, cracked with age but still carrying traces of power carved into every surface.
The air hums.
Magic.
Ancient.Sacred.Alive.
At the centre of the ruins stands a wolf unlike anything mortal eyes were ever meant to witness.
White.
Not pale grey.Not silver.
Pure moonlight white.
Her fur glows beneath the stars like living light itself, enormous paws resting silently against the stone platform beneath her. Silver markings pulse faintly along her body, shifting like constellations across snow.
Her eyes find mine immediately.
Silver.Ancient.Endless.
And somehow
familiar.
The White Wolf lowers her head slowly.
Not in submission.
In recognition.
Moon Goddess.
The truth slams into me instantly.
Not metaphor.Not religion.Not myth.
Real.
The Moon Goddess was real.
And she was a wolf.
"You remember me," the Goddess says softly.
Her voice echoes everywhere at once inside the wind, inside the ruins, inside my soul itself.
"I..." My throat tightens painfully. "Who are you?"
Sadness flickers through her silver eyes.
"They once called me Selene."
My breath catches.
No.
No, that's impossible.
"You're my wolf."
"I am what remains of her."
Confusion crashes through me instantly.
The White Wolf moves slowly across the ruins, moonlight trailing behind her like silk.
"Long before the kingdoms fell," she says quietly, "before the clans divided themselves through pride and war... I walked beside wolfkind openly."
Images appear around us as she speaks.
Ancient wolves gathering beneath moonlit temples.The four great clans united.Massive cities built into mountains, forests, deserts, and storm valleys.
Peace.
Balance.
"For centuries I protected the balance between the clans," Selene continues. "Not as a ruler. As a guide."
The vision darkens.
Fire spreads across kingdoms.
Bodies fall.
Blood stains rivers.
"The Demon corrupted more than land," she says softly. "It corrupted hearts. Fear turned wolves against one another. The clans broke apart. Trust died."
The Great Sundering.
The war from the prophecy.
"The witches came afterward."
At the word witches, the vision sharpens violently.
Women dressed in dark ceremonial robes stand inside underground chambers lined with glowing symbols. Their eyes burn black with unnatural magic as ancient scrolls spread across stone tables.
"They feared what remained of my bloodline," Selene says quietly.
My stomach twists.
Bloodline.
Mine.
"They believed if the Silvermoon line survived... balance could be restored. And those who sought power through division would lose everything."
The witches hunted them.
Hunted us.
I watch flashes of violence unfold around me.
Silver wolves being slaughtered.Children taken.Temples burning.
My chest tightens painfully.
"No..."
"Your family carried the final surviving bloodline," Selene says.
And then I see them.
My parents.
The woman from my visions turns toward me fully for the first time.
Silver-black hair.Golden skin.Storm-grey eyes.
Mine.
She looks like me.
Or maybe I look like her.
Beside her stands a tall warrior with ice-blue eyes and dark hair, blood covering his arms as he fights shadow creatures pouring through the trees.
"They were among the strongest of the remaining Silvermoon descendants," Selene says softly. "Guardians of the prophecy."
The vision shifts rapidly.
The witches found them.
I watch my mother clutching a tiny infant wrapped tightly in blankets.
Me.
Fear fills her face as distant screams echo through the forest.
"They knew they would not survive," Selene whispers.
My father turns sharply, killing another shadow creature before grabbing my mother's arm.
Run.
Even without hearing him, I know the word.
The vision changes again.
Ancient ruins deep in the forest.
These ruins.
The place where Garrick found me.
My mother falls to her knees beside an enormous carved stone altar glowing faintly beneath moonlight. Tears stream down her face as she presses a kiss against the infant's forehead.
Against my forehead.
"You must live," she whispers brokenly.
My chest physically aches watching her.
"You must survive long enough to awaken."
My father kneels beside her, bloodied and exhausted, his ice-blue eyes filled with grief.
"The prophecy depends on you, little moon," he says softly.
Little moon.
My throat closes completely.
"They sealed your power," Selene says gently beside me. "They hid your wolf deep within your soul so the witches could not sense what you were."
That is why I never shifted.
Not broken.
Hidden.
Protected.
The vision trembles violently now.
The witches are close.
My mother lays the infant carefully against the ancient altar.
Then both parents step back into the shadows of the trees.
Toward death.
Toward sacrifice.
To protect me.
Tears spill uncontrollably down my face.
"No... please..."
But visions do not change.
I hear screaming.Magic.Howls.
Then silence.
The ruins remain empty beneath moonlight.
Only the infant survives.
Only me.
Selene's silver eyes meet mine again.
"The prophecy could only be fulfilled by one raised outside power," she says quietly. "One shaped by hardship instead of privilege. One who understood loneliness... sacrifice... survival."
My knees give out beneath me.
"They died because of me."
"No," Selene says firmly.
"They died for you."
The difference shatters me completely.
And somewhere beyond the vision
far away
I can feel four mates waiting for me to come back to them.
- Writer
