REJECTED BY MY MATE CLAIMED BY THE BILLIONAIRE ALPHA

THE MOONS PROMISE

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*CHAPTER 13: THE MOON’S PROMISE - PART 1/3*

Ten years.

That’s how long it had been since the silver wolf walked out of the lake.

That’s how long Lyra had been ours.

That’s how long the cuff had stayed blue.

I woke up before sunrise. Again.

Some habits you don’t break.

The house was quiet. Too quiet.

Kade was already gone from bed.

Lyra’s room was empty.

My stomach dropped.

“Kade?” I called.

“Kitchen,” he answered.

I ran downstairs in socks.

He was at the table. Coffee.

Lyra was on his lap. Age 11 now. Gray eyes. Kade’s jaw. My stubbornness.

And she was holding something.

A letter.

No return address.

Paper that looked 100 years old. Yellowed edges. Silver seal.

“Mama,” Lyra said. “This came. With the mail.”

I took it. My hands shook.

Inside, one line. In silver ink that shimmered:

`The promise must be kept. Come to the lake. Alone. - M`

M.

Moon Goddess?

Maris? Maris was dead. We’d seen the body. We’d testified at the trial.

Kade stood. “You’re not going alone.”

“I have to,” I said. “If it’s about Lyra—”

“Then we all go,” Elara said from the doorway. She was already dressed. Hair in a braid. No makeup. War face.

Damian was already by the door, boots on, gun checked.

“The note said alone,” I said.

“And I said we all go,” Kade said. “If something happens to you, it happens to all of us. That’s the deal.”

The lake was 10 minutes through the woods.

We walked in silence.

Snow crunched under our boots.

The moon was still up. Full. Pale.

And in the center of the lake, standing on the ice: the silver wolf.

Bigger now. Older. Scars across its muzzle that weren’t there before.

And behind it, in the water under the ice: shapes. Dozens of them. Hundreds.

Wolves. All silver. All watching.

Lyra gasped. “Mama?”

“It’s okay baby,” I said. But my cuff was burning. Blue and white. Pulsing like a heartbeat.

The wolf looked at me.

`Kira Moore. The time has come.`

“What promise?” Kade asked. He stepped in front of me.

`Ten years ago you chose each other.` The wolf’s voice was in all our heads. Deep. Ancient. `The Moon Goddess witnessed it. And she made a promise. That if you kept your pack, she would give you one gift.`

Elara stepped forward. “What gift?”

The ice cracked.

Not broke. Cracked. Like a door opening.

The wolves under the water rose.

They weren’t wolves.

They were women.

Wolfless women. Hundreds of them.

All ages. From 18 to 90. All standing under the ice. Breathing. Eyes open.

`The gift of choice,` the wolf said.

`For ten years your Center has saved them. Now the Goddess will save them back.`

The ice shattered.

Not with noise. With light.

The women stepped out. Dry. Unharmed. Warm.

And every single one of them had a blue cuff on their wrist.

One stepped forward. Old. Maybe 80. Hair white.

“Is it true?” she asked me. Voice shaking. “Are you the one who chose?”

I nodded. I couldn’t talk.

She took my hand. Her skin was paper thin.

“Then we choose you too.”

Behind her, the others knelt.

All of them.

300 women. Kneeling on the ice.

Lyra started crying.

Kade pulled her into his arms.

*End of chapter 13*