THE ALPHA WHO COULD NOT HOWL

The Woman In The Mirror

That night, Kael wouldn't let me sleep alone.

Not because of... that. He was a gentleman. He slept on the floor beside the bed, even though I told him the bed was big enough for two. He said, "We are mated, but I will wait until you say you are ready, my Luna. A true Alpha doesn't rush his Luna."

Selene inside me was purring. *"He is a good mate. Rare. Keep him."*

I was falling asleep holding his hand from the bed to the floor when I felt it.

Cold. Like ice water poured down my back.

*"WAKE UP!"* Selene screamed inside me, not purring anymore. *"SHE'S HERE!"*

I sat up straight. Kael jumped up instantly, his eyes glowing.

"What? What is it?"

The big mirror in the Alpha bedroom — the ancient mirror that has been in Silver Crest for 1,000 years — was turning black. Not reflecting. The glass was like black water, moving.

And a woman stepped out of it.

She was beautiful. Long black hair, black dress, eyes completely black with no white. And she smelled like... death and wolfsbane.

Kael pushed me behind him and shifted his arm into a claw.

"Who are you? How did you enter my pack house?"

The woman smiled, looking at me, not him.

"Hello, Selene. Or should I say, Luna? You don't remember me, do you, little cleaner?"

My head started to pound. A memory that wasn't mine flooded in — Selene's memory.

A younger version of this woman, kneeling before a white wolf — me, Selene — begging, "Mother, why do you love humans more than us? We are your children! Give us more power!"

And Selene saying, "Power without heart destroys, Morana."

The woman — Morana — screaming, "Then I will take power myself!"

Selene whispered inside me, terrified, which I had never heard before. *"Morana... my first daughter... the first werewolf I ever created... the one who wanted to be a god..."*

Morana stepped closer. The temperature in the room dropped. The plants near the mirror died instantly.

"I waited 19 years for your mother to fail to kill you as a baby," Morana said to me, smiling. "Your mother sealed you, so I couldn't find you. But your little boyfriend's first howl yesterday... it woke me up. A howl that strong can only be my mother's blood. So I followed it."

Kael growled, fully shifting into his giant Alpha Prime wolf, standing between me and her.

"You will not touch my Luna."

Morana laughed. "Your Luna? Little Alpha who couldn't howl until yesterday? You think you can fight me? I am 1,000 years old. I drank the blood of the first Alpha. I am a Wolf Witch."

She raised her hand and Kael flew across the room and hit the wall, hard. He whimpered.

"KAEL!" I screamed.

My white mark exploded. I shifted instantly into the giant white wolf — Mother Wolf form — without even thinking.

Morana's smile grew bigger.

"Yes! That's it! Shift! Come out, Mother! I want to kill you properly this time!"

She raised both hands, and black chains made of shadows shot out of the mirror and wrapped around my white wolf neck.

*"Luna, fight! She is trying to separate us!"* Selene screamed inside me.

But the chains were tight. I couldn't breathe. My white fur started turning grey.

Kael, bleeding from his head, crawled back, howling weak. He bit the black chains, but his teeth went through them like smoke.

Morana walked to me, touched my white wolf head.

"You know, Mother, I learned how to kill a god. You just need to make her feel worthless again. Like she felt for 19 years."

She leaned close to my wolf ear and whispered, "You are still just the cleaner girl. Wolfless. Worthless. Your Alpha will die because of you. Everyone you love will die because you are cursed."

And for a second... I believed her.

The white glow started to fade.