The Last Silver Moon

"Get away from me!" My body slams against the wall as Ronan's hand wraps around my throat. His eyes are black with rage, and I can barely breathe through his grip. "You think you can embarrass me in front of my entire pack?" he snarls, his face inches from mine. "You're nothing, Aria. A weak omega who doesn't even have a wolf." I claw at his hand, gasping for air. "Please..." He releases me and I crumple to the floor, coughing. Around us, pack members watch with a mix of fear and disgust. No one will help me. No one ever does. "Tomorrow is my Alpha ceremony," Ronan says, straightening his shirt. "And the first thing I'm going to do is banish you from this pack. You're a stain on our bloodline." My stepbrother. The soon-to-be Alpha. The man who's made my life hell since my mother married his father five years ago. "I haven't done anything wrong," I whisper, my voice hoarse. "You exist. That's enough." He turns and walks away, leaving me on the cold floor. The other wolves scatter, not wanting to be associated with the packless girl. That's what they call me – packless, wolfless, worthless. I push myself up, my legs shaking. My ribs hurt where he kicked me yesterday, and now my throat burns from his grip. But I won't cry. I learned long ago that tears only make him angrier. Back in my tiny room in the attic, I look at myself in the cracked mirror. Purple bruises are already forming on my neck. My green eyes stare back at me, empty and tired. I'm twenty-one years old, but I feel ancient. 'Soon,' I tell myself. 'Soon I'll find a way out.' But I've been saying that for years. A knock at my door makes me jump. "Aria?" It's Marcus, one of the pack warriors. "The Luna wants you in the kitchen. Now." Of course she does. Ronan's mother treats me like a servant, not a stepdaughter. I change into a clean shirt that covers the bruises and hurry downstairs. The kitchen is chaos. Tomorrow's ceremony means hundreds of guests, and guess who has to prepare everything? "You're late," Luna Catherine snaps without looking at me. "Start on the desserts. Three hundred portions. And if you ruin anything, you'll pay for it out of your college fund." What college fund? They took that money years ago. I work in silence for hours, my hands moving automatically. Measure, mix, bake, repeat. The other omegas working beside me don't talk to me. They know better. It's past midnight when I finally finish. My feet ache and my hands are raw from washing dishes. As I'm heading back to my room, I hear voices from the Alpha's study. "The girl needs to go," Ronan is saying. "She's eighteen now, legally an adult. We have no obligation to keep her." "Patience, son," Alpha Michael responds. "After tomorrow, you can do whatever you want with her. But there's something you should know first." I press closer to the door. "Her bloodline isn't as weak as we've told everyone. Her real father was—" "I don't care who her father was," Ronan interrupts. "She's wolfless. That's all that matters." "She's not wolfless, son. We've been giving her suppressants since she arrived. Tomorrow, when she turns twenty-two at midnight, the suppressants will stop working. Her wolf will emerge, and when it does..." My heart stops. Suppressants? My birthday isn't tomorrow, it's... oh god. Tomorrow at midnight, I turn twenty-two. "When it does, what?" Ronan asks, sounding annoyed. "She's a white wolf, Ronan. The first in three hundred years." White wolf. The words echo in my mind. White wolves are legends – powerful, rare, blessed by the Moon Goddess herself. "That's impossible," Ronan says. "I would have sensed it." "The suppressants hide everything. But tomorrow night, during your ceremony, when the moon is at its peak and she comes of age... there's nothing that will stop her transformation." "Then we kill her before that happens." My blood turns to ice. "You can't kill a white wolf," Alpha Michael says quietly. "The Moon Goddess would curse our entire pack. But you can claim her. Force a mate bond. Then her power becomes yours." "Mate with that pathetic—" "Think, son! With a white wolf as your Luna, no pack would dare challenge us. You'd be the most powerful Alpha in the country." There's silence. Then Ronan speaks, his voice cold and calculating. "Fine. After the ceremony, I'll mark her. Whether she wants it or not." I back away from the door, my heart racing. They've been drugging me. Suppressing my wolf. And tomorrow, Ronan plans to force a mate bond on me. No. I won't let that happen. I run back to my room and grab the emergency backpack I've kept hidden for years. Clothes, the little money I've saved, my mother's necklace – the only thing I have left of her. I climb out the window and drop to the ground. The woods are dark, but I don't care. I have to get away. Far away. But as I reach the tree line, a hand grabs my arm. "Going somewhere?" I spin around and face someone I've never seen before. A man with midnight black hair and silver eyes that seem to glow in the darkness. He's tall, muscular, and radiates power that makes my knees weak. "Who are you?" I whisper. "Someone who's been watching you for a very long time, Aria." His voice is deep, dangerous. "Someone who knows what you really are." "I don't know what you're talking about." He steps closer, and I catch his scent – pine and winter storms. It makes my head spin. "Tomorrow, your wolf awakens. When she does, every Alpha for a thousand miles will sense it. They'll come for you. Fight for you. Die for you." "You're crazy." "Am I?" He touches my face gently, and electricity shoots through my body. "You're not just a white wolf, little one. You're the last of the royal bloodline. The true heir to the Midnight Crown." "The Midnight Crown was destroyed centuries ago." "No. It was hidden. Waiting for you." I try to pull away, but his grip is firm. "Let me go." "I can't do that. You see, I've been assigned to protect you. And right now, that means getting you away from here before your stepbrother realizes you're gone." "Assigned by who?" His smile is dark, predatory. "Your real father. The one they told you was dead." The world tilts. "My father is alive?" "Very much so. And he's been waiting for this day for twenty-two years." He pulls me toward the forest. "We need to go. Now." "I'm not going anywhere with you! I don't even know your name!" He stops and looks back at me, his silver eyes burning with an intensity that steals my breath. "I'm Kieran Blackwood. The Alpha of the Shadow Pack. And whether you like it or not, Aria, you're under my protection now." Before I can respond, a howl pierces the night. Then another. And another. "They know you're gone," Kieran says, his body tensing. "Run." We plunge into the darkness of the forest, and behind us, I hear Ronan's roar of fury. But there's something else in that sound – desperation. He knows what I am now. And he's coming for me. As we run, I feel something stirring inside me. Something wild and powerful, clawing at the suppressants' weakening hold. My wolf. After all these years, she's finally waking up. And when she does, everything will change.