Rejected By The Alpha, Claimed By Moonfire

Chapter 2: Awakening Fires

*Three months later...*

The cottage that had once been filled with the scents of healing herbs and warm bread now smelled of stale air and neglect. I hadn't left my bedroom in two weeks, not since the last time I'd tried to help with pack healing duties and accidentally froze Mrs. Henderson's broken arm solid instead of mending it.

"Luna, honey, you need to eat something." Sarah's voice came through my bedroom door, patient but strained. She'd been bringing me meals every day since the festival, most of which I left untouched on the nightstand until they grew cold and she quietly took them away.

I pulled my blanket higher over my head, staring at the wall where I'd scratched tally marks counting the days since my rejection. Ninety-three days. Ninety-three days of feeling like I had a gaping hole where my heart used to be, ninety-three days of random magical surges that left scorch marks on my furniture and frost on my windows regardless of the weather.

"I'm not hungry," I mumbled, my voice hoarse from disuse.

The door creaked open anyway, and I heard Sarah's familiar footsteps crossing my room. The mattress dipped as she sat on the edge of my bed, her warm hand finding my shoulder through the blankets.

"Your grandmother wants to see you," she said softly. "She says it's important."

"Everything's important to Grandmother," I replied bitterly. "Ancient prophecies, bloodline legacies, destiny. None of it matters when your own mate throws you away like garbage in front of half the supernatural community."

Sarah was quiet for a long moment, and I could feel her choosing her words carefully. "Luna, what happened at the festival... that wasn't normal. The way the air shimmered around you, the temperature drop, that silver light. People are talking."

"Let them talk." I finally rolled over to face her, and I saw her flinch slightly at my appearance. I probably looked as terrible as I felt - hollow cheeks, dark circles under my eyes, and my usually lustrous silver hair hanging in limp tangles. "I don't care what anyone thinks anymore."

"But I care what happens to you," Sarah said firmly, her brown eyes bright with unshed tears. "You're disappearing right in front of me, and I don't know how to help you."

The raw pain in her voice made something crack inside my chest. Sarah had been my constant companion through everything, and here I was, wallowing in self-pity while she suffered watching me waste away.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, reaching out to squeeze her hand. "I know you're trying to help. I just... I don't know how to exist in a world where the person who was supposed to love me most thinks I'm beneath him."

"Then maybe it's time you learned the truth about what you really are," came my grandmother's raspy voice from the doorway.

Sarah and I both turned to see Sage Blackwood standing in the entrance to my room, her pale blue eyes sharper than I'd ever seen them. She was dressed in her ceremonial robes - deep purple fabric embroidered with silver moons and stars - and carried a leather-bound book that looked older than the pack itself.

"Grandmother, I'm not in the mood for cryptic wisdom," I said, but there was something in her expression that made me sit up straighter in bed.

"This isn't wisdom, child. This is truth. And it's time you heard it." She moved into the room with surprising grace for her age, settling into the chair by my window. "Sarah, dear, you may want to stay for this. What Luna is about to learn will affect everyone she cares about."

Sarah shot me a questioning look, but I nodded. If I was finally going to get answers about the strange things happening to me, I wanted my best friend there.

Sage opened the ancient book, its pages crackling with age, and began to speak in a voice that seemed to carry the weight of centuries.

"The Blackwood line is not like other werewolf families, Luna. We are not descended from the first wolves blessed by the Moon Goddess. We *are* the first wolves blessed by the Moon Goddess. We are the original Moon Children, the ones she chose to be her hands and voice in the mortal realm."

I stared at her, processing her words. "That's impossible. The Moon Children are just legends."

"Legends have a way of being true, child. Your ancestor, Selene Moonfire, was the first of our kind. She could bend reality itself to her will, control the very elements, and channel the Moon Goddess's power directly through her body. She was so powerful that other supernatural beings feared her, and eventually, they banded together to hunt down her bloodline."

Sarah gasped softly beside me. "That's why your family has always been called outcasts. It wasn't because you were rogues - it was because you were too powerful."

"Exactly." Sage's weathered finger traced symbols on the open page. "For centuries, we've hidden our true nature, let people believe we were just strange wolves with unusual healing abilities. We've kept the Moonfire legacy dormant, passing it down through bloodlines but never fully awakening it."

"But Alpha Dante's rejection..." I started, pieces clicking together in my mind.

"Shattered the seals that have kept your power contained since birth," Sage finished. "Emotional trauma of that magnitude, combined with your coming of age, was enough to crack open what we've spent generations keeping locked away. You, Luna Blackwood, are the first full Moonfire in over two hundred years."

The room fell silent except for the sound of my own rapid breathing. Everything made sense now - the strange dreams I'd been having about silver fire, the way my emotions seemed to affect the physical world around me, the feeling that something vast and powerful was stirring inside me.

"Show me," I whispered.

Sage smiled for the first time in months. "Stand up, child. It's time you met your true self."

I climbed out of bed on shaking legs, Sarah supporting me when I swayed slightly. Sage stood as well, closing the ancient book and setting it aside.

"Close your eyes," she instructed. "Reach inside yourself, past the pain, past the heartbreak, to the place where you feel that silver fire burning. Don't fight it this time. Welcome it."

I did as she said, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. Instead of pushing down the strange sensations I'd been experiencing, I opened myself to them. Immediately, I felt it - a warm, tingling energy that started in my chest and spread through my entire body like liquid starlight.

"That's it," Sage encouraged. "Now, open your eyes and look at your hands."

When I opened my eyes and looked down, I gasped. My hands were glowing with soft silver light, the same light that had exploded from me at the festival. But this time, it felt controlled, purposeful, like an extension of my own will.

"This is impossible," I breathed, watching the light dance across my palms.

"Nothing is impossible for a Moonfire," Sage said proudly. "Now, focus that energy on something. Something simple. Try making the dead flowers on your nightstand bloom again."

I turned toward the wilted roses Sarah had brought me weeks ago, their petals brown and brittle. Concentrating on the silver fire inside me, I extended my hands toward them and imagined them full of life again.

The response was immediate and dramatic. Silver light flowed from my palms, enveloping the dead flowers. But instead of simply reviving them, they transformed completely - the petals turned silver as moonlight, the stems strengthened and grew, and new buds sprouted and bloomed instantly. Within seconds, my entire nightstand was covered in the most beautiful silver roses I'd ever seen.

"Oh my goddess," Sarah whispered, reaching out to touch one of the glowing petals. "Luna, they're incredible."

But I was staring at my hands in horror. The silver light was spreading up my arms now, and I could feel the power growing stronger, demanding more outlets. The temperature in the room was dropping rapidly, and frost was forming on the windows.

"I can't control it," I said, panic rising in my voice. "It's too much. It wants to do more."

"Let it," Sage said calmly. "You've been suppressing your true nature your entire life. Your power needs to stretch its wings."

"But what if I hurt someone? What if I—"

My words were cut off by a sound that made all three of us freeze - a low, inhuman growl coming from outside the cottage. Sarah moved to the window, pushing aside the curtain to peer out into the afternoon sunlight.

"There's something in the garden," she said, her voice tight with fear. "Something big and dark, and it's not a wolf."

The silver light around me flared brighter, responding to my fear and adrenaline. But along with the terror, I felt something else - a fierce protectiveness for the two women in this room with me, and a strange certainty that whatever was outside was here because of me.

"Shadow demons," Sage said grimly, moving toward the window herself. "They're attracted to newly awakened Moonfire power. We need to—"

Her words were cut off as something massive slammed into the side of the cottage, hard enough to shake the entire building. Pictures fell from the walls, and I heard the distinct sound of claws scraping against wood.

"Stay behind me," I said, surprising myself with the authority in my voice. The silver fire was burning brighter now, and with it came an instinctive knowledge of what I was capable of.

"Luna, you don't know how to fight these things," Sarah protested, but I was already moving toward the door.

"Maybe not," I replied, feeling power coursing through my veins like liquid lightning. "But I'm about to learn."

As another impact shook the cottage and something roared outside with a sound like tearing metal, I realized that my three months of depression and self-pity were over. Whatever had come hunting for me was about to discover that the last heir of the Moonfire bloodline was done hiding.

The silver light around me pulsed once, bright as a star, and I smiled for the first time since the festival. It felt good to finally stop fighting what I was and embrace the fire within.

Time to show these shadow demons what happened when you threatened a Moon Child's family.