The Fifteenth Morning

Chapter 10: Lyra Speaks

The howl did not stop.

Kael's wolf was still on its knees, but its head was thrown back, howling at the ceiling of the Great Hall. It was not a howl of pain. It was a howl of claiming. A howl that every wolf in the Northern pack had heard only once in their lives.

Aria was frozen. The silver mark on her shoulder was still glowing, and now the light was spreading. It was not burning anymore. It was warm. Like moonlight was pouring into her veins.

"Her wolf... is awake," Elder Mara whispered, and then she dropped to her knees too. "The Blessed Luna has returned."

One by one, the hundred wolves in the hall started kneeling. Not to Kael. To Aria. The wolfless widow they had cursed for two years.

Aria couldn't breathe. "What... what are you all doing? Stop?"

Kael finally moved. He pulled her closer, his arms still around her, his golden eyes now back to normal, but filled with something she had never seen before. Awe. And fear.

"Aria, listen to me," he said, his voice low so only she could hear. "You need to control it. Your wolf has been sleeping for years. If you don't control it now, it will take over."

"I don't have a wolf!" she cried, but even as she said it, she felt it. Inside her chest. A second heartbeat. A soft growl that was not Kael's. It was hers.

For three years she was told she was wolfless. After her mate Jax died on the battlefield, they said her wolf died with him. That she had killed him with her curse. That she was empty.

But she was not empty. She had never been empty.

"I feel her," she whispered, tears falling down her face. "I feel her."

Kael's hand, which was hovering over her glowing mark, finally touched it.

The moment his skin touched the silver light, the hall went silent.

A wave of pure power exploded from Aria's shoulder. It threw Kael back, but gently, like a wind. The silver light burst out of her body and hit every wolf in the room.

And for a second, everyone saw it.

Not Aria the cursed widow. They saw a wolf. A giant, pure white wolf with silver eyes and small white flowers blooming around its paws where it stepped. A wolf made of moonlight.

Aria gasped and fell back. The vision was gone. The mark was still glowing, but softer now. And inside her head, she heard a voice for the first time in three years.

Finally. You finally let me breathe.

Aria's hands went to her mouth. "Did... did you hear that?"

Kael was staring at her, his own wolf growling inside him, but not in anger. In submission. "That was your wolf. What's her name?"

"I... I don't know," Aria said. She closed her eyes and focused inside, on that second heartbeat. "What is your name?"

The voice laughed, soft and warm. I am Lyra. And we have been caged for too long.

"Lyra," Aria whispered out loud. "Her name is Lyra."

Elder Mara started crying loudly now. "Lyra! The Blessed Luna's wolf was named Lyra! It is in the prophecy! The white wolf Lyra will return when the pack is on the edge of war!"

Kael stood up slowly. He looked at his pack - his entire pack - on their knees in front of his brother's widow. His brother's widow who was now glowing like the Moon Goddess herself.

He walked towards her again. This time, every step was slow. Respectful.

"Aria," he said.

But Aria was not listening. She was listening to Lyra.

They hurt us, Aria. They called us cursed. They made us sleep while they treated us like a slave. Do you want revenge?

Aria's eyes, which were brown a minute ago, flashed silver.

"Yes," she whispered to her wolf. "I want them to feel what I felt."

Lyra growled happily inside her. Then let me out. Just a little.

Aria looked up at Kael. The Alpha who had rejected her. Who had told her she would never be his Luna because she was wolfless and cursed and his brother's widow.

"Don't come near me," she said to him. Her voice was not her own. It was double. Hers and Lyra's together.

Kael stopped. "Aria?"

"You called me cursed," she said, and her voice echoed. The silver light on her shoulder became brighter. "You said my wolf was dead. You said I killed Jax."

The whole hall was silent. No one dared to breathe.

"I didn't kill him," Aria said, and tears of silver were falling from her eyes now. Lyra was crying with her. "I never killed him. You all did. You sent him to that war. You sent a young wolf to die."

Elder Mara lowered her head. "We had to, Blessed Luna. The Southern pack—"

"Don't call me that!" Aria shouted. The lights in the Great Hall flickered. "I am not your Blessed Luna! I was your servant for two years! I cleaned your floors! I washed your clothes while you called my dead mate a fool for choosing me!"

Kael tried to touch her again. "Aria, calm down. Your power—"

"My power is mine!" she said, stepping back from him. "For the first time in three years, something is MINE. My wolf is mine. Her name is Lyra. And we don't need you. Any of you."

She turned to leave. Her legs were shaking, but Lyra was holding her up.

Walk, Aria. Walk out like a Luna. Let them see.

And she did. She walked through the hundred kneeling wolves, her head high, her silver mark glowing like a crown on her shoulder.

Kael watched her go. His wolf was howling inside him, telling him to go, to follow, to bring his Luna back.

But for the first time in his life, the great Alpha Kael was scared. Not of a war. Not of another Alpha.

He was scared of losing her again. But this time, not as his brother's widow.

As his Luna. His blessed, white wolf Luna who finally had a name.

Lyra.

And as Aria disappeared out of the Great Hall doors, Elder Mara whispered the last line of the old prophecy book:

"When Lyra returns, the Alpha will kneel. And the pack will have to choose - the old blood, or the blessed one."

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