The Lunar Prime's Awakening

Chapter Three

The transformation should have been agony, every bone breaking, reshaping, muscles tearing and rebuilding. But all I felt was power. Pure, intoxicating power flooding through every cell.

The rogues backed away as my form solidified. I caught my reflection in the shattered window. I wasn't just a wolf. I was massive, nearly as large as Damien's Alpha form, with fur that seemed to be made of moonlight itself, shifting between silver and white with every movement.

But it was my eyes that made everyone freeze, they burned with silver fire, and ancient symbols glowed beneath my fur like tattoos made of starlight.

"A Lunar Prime," Selene breathed, her wolf form trembling. "They're supposed to be extinct."

The lead rogue recovered first, lunging at me with those sickly green eyes. I moved without thinking, instinct taking over. My jaws closed around its throat, and silver fire erupted from my bite. The rogue didn't just die, it disintegrated into ash.

The other rogues fled immediately, their unnatural courage evaporating in the face of what I'd become.

Damien's massive wolf, black as midnight with eyes like burning coals, approached me slowly. The shadows that constantly surrounded him reached toward my light, and where they met, they created something beautiful, like the aurora borealis, dancing between us.

I should have been terrified of what I'd become, but all I felt was rightness. This was what had been sleeping inside me all along, suppressed by a pack that feared anything different.

The shift back was gentler, leaving me naked and glowing on the bedroom floor. Damien shifted too, immediately wrapping me in a blanket, his hands shaking slightly.

"A Lunar Prime," he said, voice rough with emotion. "Do you know what you are?"

"I don't even know what that means."

Selene, now dressed, looked between us with something like awe. "Lunar Primes were the first wolves, created directly by the Moon Goddess. They're her weapons, her justice. They were thought extinct centuries ago."

"But I was wolfless…"

"You were suppressed," Theo said, entering with an ancient-looking book. "Lunar Primes are so powerful that their wolves often don't emerge unless triggered by extreme circumstances. The rejection, the mate bond with an Alpha strong enough to anchor you, the immediate threat, it was the perfect storm."

"The rogues," Damien said, his tactical mind already working. "Someone sent them specifically. They knew…"

A slow clap from the doorway cut him off. We all spun to find a man standing there, tall, elegant, with white-blonde hair and eyes like ice. Power radiated from him, but it felt wrong, corrupted.

"Viktor," Damien snarled, pushing me behind him. "How did you get past…"

"Your guards? They're alive, just sleeping." Viktor's eyes fixed on me. "Hello, little moon. I've been looking for you for a very long time."

"You know what I am?"

"I know what your mother was," he said, and my world tilted. "Aria Lunaris, last of the Prime bloodline. She hid you well, suppressing your nature with binding spells, hiding you in a mediocre pack. But blood calls to blood."

"My mother was an omega…"

"Your mother was a goddess walking in wolf form," Viktor corrected. "And she was my mate."

The room erupted. Damien lunged, shadows exploding from him like weapons, but Viktor moved with inhuman speed, dodging easily.

"Temper, temper," Viktor asked. "I'm not here to fight. I'm here to collect what's mine."

"She's my mate," Damien growled.

"She's my daughter."

The words hit me like a physical blow. "No. My father died when I was a baby. My mother said…"

"Your mother said what she needed to keep you safe from me." Viktor's smile was cold. "I am many things, little moon, but I am your father. Your blood recognizes mine, doesn't it?"

Horror crept through me because he was right. Something in my blood did recognize him, recoiled from him, but recognized him nonetheless.

"You're the witch's mate," Damien said suddenly. "The one who cursed me. You had your own son traffic wolves to break the treaty, knowing I'd have to kill him, knowing she'd curse me."

Viktor laughed, the sound like breaking glass. "Clever boy. Though technically, he was my stepson. Means to an end. You see, I needed a cursed Alpha, someone desperate enough to accept a mate who could kill him."

"Kill him?" My voice barely worked.

"Light and shadow, little moon. You're drawn to each other, yes, but opposites of such magnitude... every time you touch, you're slowly destroying each other. Haven't you noticed, Damien? The exhaustion after she touches you? And you, my dear, the fever building in your blood?"

I looked at Damien, remembering how tired he'd looked after I'd pushed back his shadows. Remembering the heat building under my skin even now.

"You're lying," I said, but my voice shook.

"Am I? Touch him. Really touch him. Skin to skin, power to power."

"Don't," Damien warned, but I was already reaching out.

The moment our hands met, I felt it, the pull, the drain. My light attacking his shadows, his darkness trying to consume my light. We were magnets with the same charge, forcing ourselves together but fundamentally incompatible.

I jerked back, tears burning my eyes.

"There it is," Viktor said softly. "The cruel joke of the Moon Goddess. She makes mates of natural enemies. But I can fix this, little moon. Come with me, and I'll teach you to control your power, to exist without destroying him."

"And in exchange?"

His smile was sharp. "You help me wake your mother."

"My mother is dead."

"Your mother is sleeping. Has been for fifteen years, since she used the last of her power to bind yours." He pulled out a photograph, a woman in a glass coffin, looking exactly like an older version of me, surrounded by roses that never died.

My knees buckled. Damien caught me, and even through clothes, I felt the drain.

"You have three days," Viktor said, already turning to leave. "After that, the bond will start killing you both. My compound is in the neutral territory. Come alone, or don't come at all."

He vanished like smoke, leaving us reeling.

"He's lying," Selene said immediately. "He has to be."

But Theo was already examining us, his healer's magic probing. His face went pale. "There's... degradation. Cellular level. It's subtle, but it's there."

"How long?" Damien's voice was deadly calm.

"At the current rate? If you maintain physical contact... weeks. Maybe a month."

"And if we don't touch?"

"The mate bond will drive you insane within days."

It was cruel. Absolutely cruel. We were mates who couldn't touch, lovers who were poison to each other.

"There has to be another way," I said desperately.

"The library," Theo said suddenly. "The old texts might have something about Lunar Primes and cursed Alphas."

"I'll contact the Council," Selene added. "They have archives going back centuries."

They all started making plans, but I saw the truth in Damien's eyes. He was already pulling away, already building walls to protect me from himself.

"Don't," I said quietly. "Don't you dare shut me out."

"Every second I'm near you is killing you."

"Then we find a cure. Together."

"And if we can't?"

I lifted my chin, finding strength I didn't know I had. "Then we make every second count."

A howl interrupted us, not a rogue this time, but a pack howl. Silvermoon.

Damien's phone rang. He answered, listened, then his face darkened to something truly terrifying. "Silvermoon is under attack. The same enhanced rogues. They're requesting aid."

"The pack that banished me wants our help?"

"Yes." His eyes met mine. "What do you want to do?"

Six hours ago, they'd thrown me away like garbage. But Lily was there. Innocent omegas who'd never hurt anyone were there.

"We help them," I said, then felt the fever spike in my blood as Damien's approval pulsed through our bond. "But after that, we're even."

"Selene, gather the warriors. Theo, medical supplies." Damien's Alpha voice rang with command. "We leave in ten minutes."

As everyone scattered, he turned to me. "You should stay here. Rest."

"I'm your mate. Your Luna. Where you go, I go."

"You just shifted for the first time. You're exhausted…"

I let my power flare, silver light filling the room. "I'm a Lunar Prime, apparently. The first in centuries. I think I can handle a few enhanced rogues."

His eyes darkened with something that wasn't entirely the curse. "You're going to be the death of me."

"Hopefully not literally," I said, then winced at the poor timing.

But he

laughed, actually laughed, and the sound was beautiful despite everything.

"Come then, my deadly moon. Let's save the pack that doesn't deserve you.”