Chapter Twelve – The Moon’s Echo
1168 Words
Lura’s POV
The car ride to the seer’s cottage was unusually quiet, but not tense—more like the calm before a storm. The windows were down halfway, letting in the scent of pine and moist earth, and Alpha Hulf sat beside me with one hand on the wheel and the other resting near the gear shift, his knuckles brushing mine every time we hit a bump in the road.
There was something different about him today. His usual cold reserve was replaced with a focused intensity, and every time his eyes met mine, a storm brewed in my stomach. I couldn’t tell if it was nerves… or something else entirely.
Maybe it was last night.
The heat of his body as he helped me to bed.
The way his thumb grazed my cheek.
The quiet way he said my name, like it meant something.
“Are you ready for what you might hear?” His voice finally cut through the silence, low and gravelly.
I swallowed hard and nodded. “I don’t know. But I need to know. I can’t keep living in a fog.”
He gave me a side glance. “If it hurts you, I’ll stop it. No matter what the seer says.”
There it was again—that protective fire that warmed something long frozen inside me.
After twenty minutes of winding forest roads, we arrived at a clearing. A small, crooked cottage sat at the center, surrounded by weeping trees and strange wind chimes made of bones and stones. The air thickened. My skin tingled.
“Stay close,” Alpha Hulf said, stepping out and rounding the car. He offered me his hand. I hesitated, then placed mine in his.
The warmth that rushed through me was electric, startling even. My knees nearly buckled.
He felt it too.
His eyes darkened, his jaw tightening slightly, but he said nothing.
The seer was already waiting at the door. A hunched woman with white eyes that seemed to see through time. “The moonchild has come,” she rasped, ushering us inside.
The inside of the cottage was dimly lit with flickering candles and a burning sage that stung my nose. Symbols were drawn on the floors and walls—wolves, moons, and runes I couldn’t read.
“She’s not awakened yet,” the seer whispered, placing a skeletal hand on my forehead. “But the wolf inside her stirs. You have felt it.”
“She doesn’t know what she is,” Alpha Hulf said sharply. “Help her understand.”
The seer turned to him slowly. “You feel the bond. But she cannot. Not fully.”
“Why?” he demanded.
“Because she was sealed—by her bloodline. Her power was locked the moment she was born. And you, Alpha Hulf, are the key to unsealing it.”
I gasped.
Alpha Hulf stiffened. “Me?”
The seer nodded. “Your bond. Your closeness. The mating call between you has already begun to chip away at the seal. Her wolf stirs when you are near. When you touch. When your souls align.”
I stepped back, my heart hammering in my chest.
So the dreams… the heat in my chest… the strange reactions around him…
They weren’t just fantasies.
“Why was I sealed?” I asked, barely able to get the words out.
The seer's milky gaze softened. “Because the prophecy spoke of you—born of the moon goddess’s essence. Destined to bring balance between bloodlines. To end the tyranny of the corrupted Alphas. Your parents feared you would be hunted. So they gave you away. Hid you in the human world.”
I clutched my chest, shaking. “My adopted family—”
“They were never meant to know. But they weren’t the danger. The real threat still lurks.”
She turned to Alpha Hulf. “She needs your protection. More than ever.”
His hand gripped mine tighter, possessive and grounding.
“There’s more,” she said, voice dropping to a whisper. “When the seal breaks, her power will not be subtle. She will become something this world hasn’t seen in centuries. And many will try to possess her… or destroy her.”
Alpha Hulf’s POV
My wolf was already pacing beneath my skin.
The scent of her fear… her confusion… her awakening—it was too much.
Everything I’d felt for her since that first dream now had an explanation. And it wasn’t just lust or obsession—it was the bond. The pull of a true mate.
But what shook me was the weight of what she was.
A reincarnation of the moon goddess.
My mate.
And the key to some ancient prophecy.
She didn’t just belong to me.
She belonged to the world.
And I hated that.
I watched her hands tremble as the seer continued to speak, her words half-mystic, half-curse. I wanted to pull Lura away, wrap her in my arms, and protect her from all of this. From the weight. From the destiny.
From the danger.
But I couldn’t. She needed to know.
“She must stay close to you,” the seer said. “Your presence will keep the seal breaking gradually—safely. But if she is forced, harmed, or provoked too soon, it could tear her mind apart.”
Lura flinched.
I stepped forward. “She’ll stay with me. No one will touch her.”
The seer nodded, then handed me a stone carved with runes. “Keep this near her. It will temper the chaos.”
As we left the cottage, the sun had begun to set, casting the forest in golden shadows. Lura walked beside me, silent, but her hand never left mine.
“You’re shaking,” I said as we got back into the car.
“I don’t know who I am anymore,” she whispered.
I reached over and cupped her cheek. “You’re mine. That hasn’t changed. The rest… we’ll figure it out.”
Her eyes locked with mine, glassy and unsure. “Do you think I’m… dangerous?”
“Only to those who try to take you from me.”
She gave a broken laugh, and for a moment, her smile returned.
Back at the mansion, I escorted her to her room. But as I turned to leave, she grabbed my hand.
“Stay,” she whispered.
My heart thudded.
She didn’t know what she was asking. Or maybe she did. Her wolf was stirring—there was no denying it now. And my own was clawing for release, hungry for her.
But I stayed.
Not because of desire—but because I knew she needed safety more than anything else right now.
I lay beside her, watching her sleep, memorizing every breath, every shift of her body.
And when her scent changed—richer, deeper, laced with power—I knew the seal was beginning to break.
And the world would never be the same.
- Writer
