Chapter 5:The Alpha's Mark
1360 Words
Luna's POV
The dying puppy's scream pierced through my nightmare. I jolted awake on the forest floor. The red light from the moonstone was gone, but the mysterious voice still echoed in my head: "The real enemy has been with you all along." A tiny gray wolf pup stumbled into the clearing, foam bubbling from its mouth. Its eyes were rolling back, showing only white. It collapsed at my feet, its whole body shaking. "Poison," Valeria gasped, rushing toward us. "Don't touch it!" Damon warned, but I was already kneeling beside the puppy. My hands moved without my permission. Blue light poured from my fingers as I touched the pup's fur. But this time felt different. Harder. Like trying to heal a fire while it was still burning. "Something's wrong," I said through gritted teeth. "The poison is fighting back." The pup's breathing got weaker. "Luna, stop," Valeria said urgently. "You're not strong enough yet." "I have to try!" I pressed my hands harder against the puppy's chest. The blue light grew brighter, but it was turning purple at the edges. That couldn't be good. Suddenly, the pup's eyes snapped open. They weren't the normal brown of a wolf. They were bright green and glowing. "That's not possible," Damon breathed. The puppy sat up and looked straight at me. When it opened its mouth, words came out instead of barks. "The silver one lies," it said in a child's voice. "Trust no one with winter eyes." Then it collapsed again, back to being just a regular dying animal. "Did that puppy just talk?" I asked, my heart hammering. "Impossible," Valeria said, but she looked scared. "Unless..." "Unless what?" "Unless it's not really a puppy," Damon finished. Before anyone could explain, footsteps crashed through the trees. Three men in dark clothes burst into the clearing. They had the same cold eyes as Jericho's pack, but these were different. Their eyes were black instead of gray. "There she is," one of them snarled. "The hybrid." "Hybrid?" I scrambled backward. "What's a hybrid?" "Half human, half wolf," the man said, pulling out a silver knife. "And completely forbidden." The men started circling us like predators. "Luna, get behind me," Damon said, his body beginning to shift and grow. But I was staring at the man with the knife. Something about him looked familiar. "I know you," I said slowly. "You were at the gallery. You're one of Magnus's guards." The man smiled, showing sharp teeth. "Very good. Yes, I work for Magnus in the other time. Just like I work for someone else here." "You're a spy," I breathed. "I prefer the term 'double agent,'" he said. "And my job is to make sure you never remember who you really are." He lunged at me with the silver knife. I threw my hands up to protect myself. Blue light exploded outward, but instead of healing energy, this was something else. Something violent. The man with the knife screamed and flew backward into a tree. He didn't get up. "What was that?" I stared at my hands. "Your other power," Valeria said quietly. "The one they tried to make you forget." "What other power?" "You don't just heal, Luna," Damon said, his voice full of awe. "You can also destroy." The other two attackers looked at their fallen friend, then at me. Fear flickered in their black eyes. "Impossible," one of them whispered. "Her destructive magic was supposed to be locked away." "Locked away by who?" I demanded. But they were already running back into the forest. I looked down at the puppy. It was breathing normally now, its eyes back to regular brown. "Did I save it?" I asked. "You did more than save it," Valeria said. "You brought it back from the edge of death. And you unlocked magic that was supposed to stay hidden." "Hidden by who? Why won't anyone give me straight answers?" A new voice spoke from the shadows between the trees. "Because the truth would destroy you." A man stepped into the clearing. He was tall and powerful, with dark hair and the same golden eyes as Magnus. But where Magnus was elegant, this man was wild. Dangerous. "Damon Silverclaw," Valeria breathed. "Alpha of the Northern Pack." Wait. Damon? But there was already a Damon standing right next to me. I looked between the two men. "There are two of you?" The Damon who had been with me looked confused. "That's impossible. I'm Damon Silverclaw." The new Damon smiled coldly. "No, brother. You're someone else entirely. Someone who's been lying about his identity." My blood turned to ice. "What do you mean?" "The man standing beside you isn't Damon Silverclaw," the real Damon said. "He's Ezra Bloodworth. My best friend. The man who betrayed me three hundred years ago." I stared at the Damon I thought I knew. "Is that true?" His face crumbled. "Luna, I can explain—" "You lied to me," I whispered. "This whole time, you lied." "I had to! If you knew who I really was—" "You're the enemy the voice warned me about," I said, backing away from him. "No!" Ezra—not Damon—reached for me. "Luna, please. I was trying to protect you." "By lying?" "By making sure you fell in love with the right person this time," he said desperately. The real Damon Silverclaw stepped closer. His golden eyes locked onto mine. "You've returned to me," he whispered. The moment he said those words, memories crashed into my head like a tidal wave. Dancing under moonlight with golden-eyed Damon. Ezra watching from the shadows, jealous and angry. Ezra making a deal with Jericho to get rid of his competition. Ezra leading me into a trap where Jericho was waiting with a silver knife. "You got me killed," I said to Ezra, my voice shaking with rage. "I didn't know Jericho would actually kill you!" Ezra cried. "I thought he'd just scare you away!" "But I died because of you." Ezra fell to his knees. "I've spent three hundred years trying to make it right. Every lifetime, I've tried to save you instead." "By pretending to be someone else?" "By trying to be the man you deserved." The real Damon moved to stand beside me. "Luna, there's something else you need to know." "What now?" I asked weakly. "The puppy you saved? It's not a puppy at all." Damon knelt beside the small wolf. "Show her your true form, little one." The puppy began to change. It grew taller. Its fur disappeared. Soon a small child stood where the animal had been. A child with my face. "Hello, Mama," the little girl said. My legs gave out. I hit the ground hard. "That's impossible," I whispered. "Her name is Aurora," Damon said softly. "She's our daughter. The child we had together before you died." I stared at the little girl who looked exactly like me. "But how is she still alive if that was three hundred years ago?" Damon's expression grew dark. "Because she's been trapped in wolf form this whole time. Cursed to live as an animal until her mother returned." "Who cursed her?" Before Damon could answer, the child spoke again. "The same person who's been controlling everything," she said in her small voice. "The same person who made sure you and Daddy could never be happy." "Who?" I demanded. Aurora pointed at Valeria. "Aunt Valeria did it. She's the one who's been breaking us apart. She's the one who made the deal with the bad man. She's been pretending to help you, but really she's been making sure you never remember the truth." I turned to look at Valeria, hoping to see confusion or denial on her face. Instead, I saw a cold smile. "Hello, sister," Valeria said, her voice completely different now. "Did you really think I'd let you have everything while I got nothing?" The moonstone in my hand began to crack again. And as the world started spinning around me, I heard Aurora scream: "Mama, she's going to send you back! Don't let her touch the—" Everything went black.
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