THE MOON HEIRESS

"Alice." I spun around. Arthur stood in the moonlight, reaching for me. I rushed into his arms and we were just holding each other when my father's voice exploded through the moment. "What do you think you're doing?" My heart stopped. Arthur was going to die for this,touching the Alpha's daughter without permission was treason. "Father, please..." "Alice." "Wake up!" "Alice!" I jerked awake. Jeffrey was leaning over me, worried. "You were crying in your sleep again." Right. I wasn't in exile anymore. I was in Millbrook Village, five years later, lying in bed next to Jeffrey in our little cottage that smelled like sawdust and bread. Not being burned,not losing Arthur,Just a nightmare. "I'm fine," I lied, sitting up. My back ached where the scars were phantom pain from markings that didn't exist anymore."That's the third time this week." Jeffrey brushed hair out of my face. "Maybe you should..." "I said I'm fine." He looked hurt. Jeffrey was the opposite of everything I'd grown up with,he's gentle, patient and kind. Three years together and he's never once pushed me to explain the nightmares or the scars or why I woke up sometimes thinking I could still feel my wolf under my skin. "Sorry." I caught his hand, kissed it. "Bad dream. That's all." He nodded and headed to the kitchen. I got dressed, braided my hair, tried to shove the wolf back down where it belonged.Five years of pretending to be human,five years of being normal.Then I walked into the kitchen and saw black snow falling from a clear sky. "Jeffrey." My voice came out wrong. "What is that?"He was at the window, touching the glass. "I don't know. Is that.." But I was already moving, stumbling outside. The black flakes fell slow and wrong, coating the village. Dogs started howling,all of them at once, like they could sense something coming.Dozens of Ravens landed on our fence,just watching. Then I smelled wolf. My head snapped toward the trees and I saw a figure stepped out of the shadows looking tall, built like a fighter, moving like a predator.I whispered "Arit Cyrus"..He looked different,maybe harder with more scars. Five years of being the pack's enforcer had turned him into something brutal.But his eyes were the same. They locked on me and didn't let go. "Alice Henry." His voice was deeper than I remembered. "I need to talk to you." Jeffrey came up behind me, put his arm around my shoulders. "She doesn't know you. Leave." Arit's eyes flicked to Jeffrey, dismissed him like he was nothing and came back to me. "The pack is dying.I can't decipher much but there's a curse Ongoing that's turning children into monsters.Alice,your father is dying." He paused. "We need you." "No!,I don't have a pack anymore." I yelled He pulled out a small glass vial and I could see something black and moving, like it was alive. "This is what's in their blood now.We have lost twenty three of us,especially kids." I felt something twist in my chest. The wolf I'd buried for five years, suddenly waking up. "Please." That single word looked like it cost him everything. "I know what we did to you. But there are kids dying who weren't even born when you left. The seer says only you can stop it." "Then your seer is wrong. I'm not special anymore. My father burned that out of me. You helped." "The markings were just ceremonial," he said quietly. "Your blood is still moon-born. You're still connected to the clan's magic. You're the only one who can save them." Arit grabbed my hand to take me through his memories and all i could see was wolves preying on each other,fire burning houses and my father looking half-dead already. "I'll come" "I'll help break your curse. Then I'm done." Jeffrey's hand tightened on mine. "Alice..." "I have to." I looked up at him. "I can't let kids die." "What's going on and who is he?" "Look jeff,I can't explain right now" I kissed him quickly. "I'll be back in a week, I promise,then we'll talk about all of it." "We go at dawn," Arit said, then disappeared back into the trees. Jeffrey held me while I shock. "What are you?" I looked at where Arit had vanished and felt my wolf stirring for the first time in five years. "Something I've been trying to forget."