Chapter Five: What the Moon Knows
896 Words
The council chamber smelled of iron and old stone.
Selene felt it the moment she crossed the threshold, the air heavy with expectation and restraint. Wolves lined the curved walls, elders and sentinels alike, their gazes sharp, curious, wary. Power gathered in the room like a held breath.
At the center stood Aiden.
Alpha. Anchor. Shield.
He did not look back at her as she took her place beside him, but she felt his awareness settle around her like a quiet promise. Not possession. Not dominance.
Protection.
“Speak,” intoned Elder Marek, his voice rough with age and authority. “You bring a vampire into sacred space. Explain.”
Aiden lifted his chin. “She was attacked on neutral land by vampire war parties.”
A ripple moved through the chamber.
“An internal matter,” another elder growled.
Selene stepped forward before Aiden could respond.
“It stopped being internal when blood was spilled on your soil,” she said calmly.
A low rumble echoed. Not a growl. A warning.
Aiden’s hand brushed her wrist. A grounding touch. Permission, not restraint.
Selene met the elders’ gazes one by one. She did not bow. She did not challenge.
“I am Selene Valtoria,” she continued. “Of the imperial bloodline. I did not come seeking alliance. I came seeking distance. And my own kind has decided I am no longer allowed either.”
Silence fell.
Names mattered. Bloodlines mattered more.
“You expect us to believe you?” Marek asked.
“No,” Selene replied. “I expect you to listen.”
Something stirred beneath the chamber, old magic responding to truth spoken without fear. The runes etched into the stone glowed faintly, then stilled.
“She carries a curse,” Aiden said quietly. “One that reacts to power imbalance. To domination. To forced obedience.”
Murmurs spread.
“A weapon,” someone muttered.
“A liability,” said another.
Selene smiled faintly. “That depends on who holds the leash.”
Aiden’s voice cut through the noise. “No one does.”
The finality in his tone silenced the room.
Marek studied them both. “If what you say is true, then war is already moving.”
“It is,” Selene said. “And when it breaks, it will not distinguish between wolf and vampire. Only between those who bend and those who burn.”
A long pause followed.
Finally, Marek exhaled. “You may stay. Temporarily. Under Alpha protection.”
Selene inclined her head once. It was more than she had expected.
When the council dismissed, the tension did not leave her body immediately. It lingered, coiled tight, even as she followed Aiden back into the night air.
The moon hung low and luminous, painting the forest in silver and shadow.
“You did well,” Aiden said quietly.
“I told the truth,” she replied. “That is not the same thing.”
They stopped at the edge of the clearing. Crickets sang softly. The world felt suspended, as though waiting for something neither of them had named.
“Why did you choose me?” Selene asked suddenly.
Aiden turned to face her. “That is not the right question.”
“Then what is?”
“Why you let me.”
The honesty of it stripped something raw in her chest.
She looked away, fingers curling into her cloak. “Because you see me as a choice, not a consequence.”
Aiden stepped closer. Close enough now that she could feel the heat of him, steady and real. Her curse stirred, not violently, but with awareness. Recognition.
“You terrify me,” she admitted softly.
His gaze darkened. “Good.”
Her breath caught.
He reached out, stopping just short of touching her cheek, waiting. Always waiting.
Selene closed the distance herself.
The contact was electric.
Not desperate. Not hurried.
A meeting of restraint pushed to its edge.
His thumb brushed her jaw. Her hand slid into his hair. The world narrowed to sensation and breath and the quiet thunder of something inevitable.
When he kissed her, it was slow. Controlled. As though he were asking rather than taking.
Selene answered without hesitation.
Heat bloomed, sharp and consuming, but it did not burn. It anchored. The curse flared briefly, then settled, soothed by proximity rather than provoked.
They broke apart only when breath became necessary.
“This changes things,” Selene whispered.
Aiden rested his forehead against hers. “Everything worth surviving does.”
A distant howl rose, long and urgent.
Selene stiffened. “That was not a signal.”
“No,” Aiden agreed, eyes lifting to the trees. “That was fear.”
The forest shuddered.
Power rippled outward, ancient and vast, answering something older than treaties.
Selene felt it then. A pull deep in her blood. A truth she had avoided naming.
The curse was not merely a punishment.
It was a key.
“They are coming,” she said. “Not just for me.”
Aiden’s arms tightened around her, protective without being possessive. “Then we meet them together.”
Selene looked up at the moon, feeling its light sink into her bones.
For the first time in centuries, she did not feel alone beneath it.
And somewhere between blood and bone, between choice and destiny, a war chose its opening move.
- Writer
