Heir of the broken sky

The elders

The elders had just raised their hands for silence when Vessa laughed.

It wasn’t soft.

It wasn’t amused.

It split the clearing like something breaking.

“This is a lie.”

Every sound died.

Varlor stiffened beside me, confusion flickering through the bond before irritation followed, sharp and fast. His wolf surged, offended by the disruption.

Vessa stepped forward, her composure shattered, eyes blazing with a fury she no longer bothered to hide.

“You really expect us to believe this?” she demanded, pointing at me as if I were an object misplaced. “One moment she turns eighteen and suddenly fate decides she’s it?”

Murmurs rippled through the crowd.

Before I could speak, my father moved.

He didn’t raise his voice.

He didn’t rush.

He simply stepped forward—and the pack felt it.

Silence deepened, instinctive and absolute.

“You will lower your hand,” he said calmly, eyes fixed on Vessa. “And you will address my daughter with respect.”

Vessa’s head snapped toward him. “With respect?” she laughed harshly. “She’s an impostor. I am the chosen Luna. The elders decided—”

“My daughter does not answer to decisions made in fear,” my father interrupted. “Nor to wolves who mistake entitlement for destiny.”

A ripple of approval moved through the crowd.

Vessa’s breath hitched, rage spilling over. “I have trained my entire life for this role. I was promised—”

“You were prepared,” my father corrected coolly. “Not promised.”

The distinction landed hard.

Vessa turned to Varlor, desperation bleeding through her fury. “You were meant to be mine.”

Varlor’s voice was ice. “I was meant to find my mate.”

His hand tightened around mine, grounding, possessive.

That was when Vessa snapped completely.

“This bond is a lie!” she screamed. “She’s manipulating you. She thinks she can take my place, but I am the Luna. Nobody replaces me!”

I stepped forward then, my father’s presence steady at my back.

“There was never a place to take,” I said quietly.

Her scream tore through the clearing, raw and unrestrained. Power flared wildly around her, uncontrolled, cracking the air as her wolf surged in humiliation and rage.

Guards moved immediately.

Elders shouted for restraint.

Varlor stepped in front of me, his aura slamming down like a command.

“Enough.”

The word shook the ground.

Vessa froze, chest heaving, eyes wild.

“You will not speak to my mate that way,” Varlor said, voice lethal. “Not now. Not ever.”

The word mate destroyed her.

Tears streaked down Vessa’s face as she was restrained, her screams echoing as she was dragged away, still shouting about fate and betrayal.

The clearing was silent when she was gone.

My father placed a hand on my shoulder, firm and grounding.

“No one takes what was never theirs,” he said softly. “And no one challenges you in my presence.”

I exhaled slowly, the weight of the moment settling in.

The pack resumed its celebration hesitantly, but something had shifted.

They no longer looked at me like a future possibility.

They looked at me like a certainty.

Star stirred at last.

This was the beginning, she said. Not the end.

And for the first time since the bond snapped into place, I believed her.