The Fifteenth Morning

Chapter 3: The Elder's Fear

The Elder's hall was full.

I pushed the doors open. My silver marks were still glowing. The white wolf shadow was still behind me.

Everyone went silent.

"The Cursed Widow?" Someone whispered.

Elder Marcus stood up, his face twisted. "Elara! Who allowed you inside? You should be with your husband! This is a sacred meeting!"

I smiled. "Your sacred meeting is about me, isn't it? About how to kill the cursed widow after she gives Damon an heir?"

His face turned white. "How... how do you know?"

Damon entered behind me. His face was still in shock. He didn't stop me.

I walked to the center of the hall. My light was so bright, the torches looked dim.

"You called me wolfless for three years," I said, my voice echoing. "You made me clean the floors. You made me eat leftovers. You told my husband's mother that I killed her son."

I looked at every face that had tortured me.

"Today, the Moon Goddess answers."

I released my power.

BOOM!

A wave of pure moonlight hit everyone. All the Alphas, all the warriors, all the Lunas fell to their knees. Their wolves were howling in fear and respect.

Only I was standing.

Elder Marcus was shaking on the floor. "Silver eyes... moon marks... No, it cannot be..."

"What is it, Elder?" Damon asked from the doorway.

"The prophecy," Marcus cried, crawling backwards. "From 100 years ago! When a Luna is wronged by her own pack, when she is called cursed after her mate's death, the Moon Goddess will bless her with the Blessed Wolf! A wolf that can command all wolves! A Luna who will be Queen of all packs!"

The whole hall gasped.

I looked down at my hands. My wolf spoke again inside my head.

*We are not just a Luna, Elara. We are their Queen. And it is time they learned.*

I turned to Elder Marcus and grabbed his collar, lifting him up with strength I never knew I had.

"You told me I was cursed. Say it again now."

He started crying. "Blessed Luna... forgive me... forgive us..."

I threw him to the ground.

"From today, no one in this pack will ever call a widow cursed," I announced to the hall. "From today, I am your Luna. Not because I married your Alpha. But because the Goddess chose me."

I looked at Damon. His eyes were no longer full of hate. They were full of something else. Awe. Fear. And something dangerous... desire.

"My Queen," he whispered, and then he knelt. And this time, not because his wolf forced him. Because he wanted to.

One by one, every person in the hall knelt.

"All hail the Blessed Luna!"

My revenge had only just begun. Tomorrow, I would find out who really killed my first husband. Because my wolf just told me... his death was not an accident. It was murder.

"What... what are you?" Rhys whispered again, his face pale. He had seen many things in his life as an Alpha. He had fought rogues, rival Alphas, even a Lycan once. But he had never seen anything like this.

I was floating. Literally floating a few inches off the ground, surrounded by silver moonlight that had no source. My black hair was now floating around me, streaked with silver. My green eyes were gone, replaced by two glowing silver moons. And the white wolf, Lyra, was standing behind me, visible only as a ghostly, giant outline of pure power.

We are Blessed, Lyra whispered in my head, but this time Rhys could hear her too. Her voice echoed in the room, not just in my mind. We are the child of the Moon Goddess herself. And they tried to kill us.

Rhys stumbled back, his hand going to his chest. His own wolf, a massive black beast named Kaos, was howling inside him, but not in anger. In fear. And in... submission?

"Impossible," Rhys growled, trying to regain his cruel composure. "Blessed wolves are a myth. A bedtime story to scare pups. They died out a hundred years ago!"

"Did they?" I said, and my voice was layered with Lyra's. It was beautiful and terrifying. "Or were they hunted and sealed because the elders were afraid of a female stronger than them?"

The silver light pulsed, and a wave of pure power shot out from me. It hit Rhys in the chest and sent him flying back against the wall of his own luxurious suite. He groaned in pain, but when he looked up, his eyes were not angry. They were wide with shock and awe.

The door to the suite burst open again. Luna Margaret and two elders, Elder Moss and Elder Thorne, rushed in, having felt the power surge from across the pack house.

"Rhys! What happened? We felt a power surge that..." Luna Margaret stopped mid-sentence. Her eyes landed on me.

Elder Thorne, the oldest and most cruel elder of Blood Moon, who was also the one who had declared me cursed three years ago, took one look at the silver light and at Lyra's ghostly form and his face went white as paper. He fell to his knees.

"No... no, it cannot be... The mark... the silver eyes..."

Luna Margaret grabbed his arm. "Elder Thorne, what is it? What is that wolfless girl doing? Some witchcraft?"

"She is not wolfless!" Elder Thorne screamed, his voice trembling with a terror I had never heard before. "And she is not cursed! She is Blessed! She is the Blessed Luna! The prophecy... the prophecy is true!"

Prophecy? What prophecy?

Elder Moss also fell to his knees, his head bowed so low it touched the floor. "Forgive us, Blessed Luna... forgive us..."

Luna Margaret was the only one still standing, but her perfect, proud face was twisted in confusion and fear. "What nonsense is this? She is the cursed widow from Silverfang! She killed her mate!"

Lyra growled, and the sound shook the entire building. Pictures fell off the walls. The fire in the fireplace roared into a pillar of silver flame.

LIAR! Lyra's voice boomed, and this time the entire pack house could hear it. YOU sealed me! YOU poisoned Jaxon to make her look cursed! I remember your scent, old man!

She was looking directly at Elder Thorne.

Elder Thorne started sobbing. "I... I was ordered... The Silverfang Alpha... he was afraid... a Blessed Luna born in a weak pack would bring war... He told me to give the boy a silent death herb and seal the girl's wolf with a witch's spell... so she would never awaken... Please, Blessed Luna, have mercy..."

The entire room went silent. You could hear a pin drop.

I felt my blood run cold. Jaxon was not dead because of me. He was murdered. Murdered by my own Alpha and this elder to keep me from becoming powerful. They had sealed my wolf when I was a baby, which is why I was wolfless for 21 years. And they killed an innocent boy to make me look cursed.

Rhys slowly got up from the floor. His face was no longer cruel. It was filled with a rage so dark and so dangerous that even Luna Margaret stepped back.

"You... you killed Jaxon?" he whispered, looking at Elder Thorne. His hands were shaking, his claws extending. His black wolf Kaos was now fully in control, his eyes pitch black. "You killed my best friend? My brother? And you let this girl... you let my... you let Elara suffer for three years for a crime she did not commit?"

Elder Thorne crawled back. "Alpha Rhys... please..."

But Rhys was not listening. He lunged.

I moved faster than I ever had. In a flash of silver, I was between Rhys and the elder.

"Stop," I said softly, placing a glowing hand on Rhys's chest. The moment I touched him, his rage calmed. His black eyes flickered back to icy blue. Kaos inside him whimpered and bowed to Lyra.

He looked down at my hand on his chest, then into my silver eyes. For the first time, there was no hatred in his eyes. There was something else. Guilt. Shock. And something that looked like... reverence?

"Elara..." he whispered, my name for the first time without disgust.

I turned back to the kneeling elders.

"Stand up," I commanded. And they stood, unable to disobey a Blessed Luna's order. It was in their blood.

"You sealed me. You killed an innocent boy. You let me live like an animal for three years."

I walked closer to Elder Thorne, my silver light making him cower.

"For three years, I asked the Moon Goddess why she cursed me. Now I know. She didn't. YOU did."

I raised my hand, and silver light gathered in my palm.

"Now, you will feel what it is like to be wolfless. To be empty. To be cursed."

And as I brought my hand down towards his head, Luna Margaret screamed.

"NO! DON'T! SHE WILL KILL HIM!"

But I wasn't going to kill him. Death was too easy.

I was going to take his wolf.

Because the Blessed Luna's revenge was just beginning.