Chapter Five
The night didn't end. It stretched—long and silent—over Shadow Fang's territory like a blade waiting to fall.
Selene stood alone by the window in her chamber, the message from Crimson Hollow still echoing in her mind.
The Hybrid Must Fall.
The pendant at her neck pulsed faintly. Not with light—but with heat. A warning. Or perhaps… an awakening.
She didn't sleep. She couldn't. Because in her gut, in the marrow of her cursed bones, she knew this wasn't over.
And then—just before dawn—a knock.
Not the guards.
Not Ronan.
The sound was softer. Deliberate. Almost hesitant.
She opened the door slowly, half-expecting a dagger.
Instead, she found a boy. Thin. Barefoot. Eyes are too big for his face.
His scent hit her first—earth, moss, and rain. Omega.
"Don't scream," he said quickly, his voice a whisper. "I'm not supposed to be here."
Selene narrowed her eyes. "Then why are you?"
The boy glanced over his shoulder, trembling slightly. His name, he told her, was Kye. Fifteen at most. Born mute but blessed by the Moon at twelve. Since then, he'd heard things—felt things. His kind were rarely trusted, treated more like ghosts than wolves.
But he'd come anyway. Because of her.
"There's something inside you," Kye said. "It's starting to wake up."
Selene stepped back. "What do you mean?"
He didn't answer in words.
Instead, he reached into the folds of his worn cloak and pulled out a scrap of parchment. On it, a symbol she didn't recognize—a spiral made of thorns, inked in red.
"It's old," he whispered. "From the time before Luna blessed the packs. The bloodline of the first cursed one."
Her stomach turned.
"My mother wore this once," she murmured. "On a silver bangle. She never explained what it meant."
Kye nodded solemnly. "That's because it's a warning. To those who carry both beast and shadow inside."
He lifted his hand—small, dirt-stained fingers—and pointed to her chest.
"You're not just a hybrid. You're the last daughter of the broken moon."
Selene froze.
Before she could ask more, his eyes went wide. Footsteps. Loud. Coming fast.
Ronan.
Kye darted back, melting into shadow faster than Selene could stop him.
Ronan pushed open the door. His coat was dusted in ash, his boots bloodied.
"You're awake," he said, eyes scanning the room warily. "Did someone come to you?"
Selene hesitated. "Why would they?"
He didn't answer.
She studied him as he ran a hand through his hair—thick and dark, damp from sweat. His jaw was tense, mouth tight with unspoken thoughts.
"I went to the southern border," he said. "I needed to see the body for myself."
"And?"
Ronan's voice was quieter now. "They didn't just carve that message into him. They took something."
"What?"
"My father's mark." He met her eyes. "Whoever killed that sentry knew how to get through our territory without being seen. Which means someone inside this pack is working with Crimson Hollow."
Selene's heart sank.
"How can you be sure?"
"Because I found this," he said, pulling a charred piece of fur from his coat pocket. Not wolf. Something darker. Almost reptilian. It reeked of old blood and ancient heat.
"That's not from here," she whispered.
"No," Ronan replied. "It's from below. From the tunnels beneath Shadow Fang—sealed off after the last war."
Her skin prickled.
"What lives down there?"
"Nothing," he said. "Nothing alive, anyway."
But Selene felt something then.
A twist in her stomach. A pull under her skin. Like the fire in her blood was calling.
She stumbled back, grabbing the wall.
"Selene?"
She couldn't speak. Her hands burned, her chest ached—like her bones were rearranging from the inside.
"What's happening—?" she gasped.
Ronan was beside her instantly, catching her as she sank to the ground.
And that's when she saw it.
Her reflection is in the mirror.
Her eyes—usually dark violet—now glowed silver. Not gold. Not wolf.
Something else.
A crescent moon, faint but there, shimmered beneath the skin of her collarbone.
"I've seen that mark before," Ronan said, stunned.
Selene looked up at him, her vision clearing. "Where?"
"In the old scrolls. Before the packs were divided. Before the Moon Goddess sealed the cursed bloodlines away."
He took her face in his hands—his touch careful, but fierce.
"You're not just cursed," he said. "You're the key to unlocking what was never meant to rise again."
Before she could speak, a knock—urgent. Then the door burst open.
Caelan.
"Ronan. We've got a problem," he said breathlessly. "Someone's broken the seal on the tunnels. From the inside."
And in his palm?
Another pendant.
This one burned red.
The pendant Caelan held in his palm pulsed—dim red light throbbing like a heartbeat. It was identical to the one Selene wore…except for the bloodstone set in its center, fractured down the middle like a wound that never healed.
Ronan grabbed it and turned it over, his jaw clenching.
"Where did you find this?" he demanded.
"In the old wolf temple ruins," Caelan said, breathless. "Near the tunnel mouth. And there was more—symbols etched in ash along the stone door."
Selene slowly rose to her feet, her head still throbbing from the vision. Her blood felt too warm, like something ancient stirred in it, waiting to speak again.
"What symbols?" she asked.
Caelan's eyes flicked to her, uncertain. "One looked like a serpent wrapped around a full moon. The other was… your name."
A chill kissed her spine.
Not her full name.
Just Selene. Burned into old stone.
"Someone's marking her," Ronan muttered. "Calling to the cursed blood."
Selene stepped forward, her voice low. "What aren't you telling me?"
Caelan shot Ronan a warning glance, but it was too late.
Ronan straightened. "There's a prophecy. Buried in the scrolls my father hid after the Great War. It was deemed too dangerous to speak aloud."
"Tell me," she pressed.
He hesitated, then said, voice grim:
"When the blood of moon and shadow meet,
And howl as one beneath the deep,
The last cursed daughter shall awake,
And love shall tear the earth to break."
The words settled over the room like a shroud. Ancient. Irrevocable.
Selene's breath hitched.
"The last cursed daughter," she whispered. "You think that's me."
Ronan didn't answer. He didn't need to. His silence spoke louder than a thousand truths.
Caelan swallowed, unease flashing across his sharp features. "There's more. That symbol we found—it wasn't just carved. It was bleeding. I touched it and it burned. Not like fire. Like it knew I didn't belong."
Selene stared at the bloodstone pendant still in Ronan's hand. "What does it mean?"
Ronan closed his fist around it. "It means the seal beneath our lands isn't just broken—it's waking something that's been waiting for you."
Selene backed away, her mind a riot of memory and instinct. She could still feel Kye's warning, the searing in her chest, the vision of silver eyes staring back from the mirror.
"I'm not what you think I am," she muttered. "I never asked for this."
"But it chose you," Ronan said. His voice wasn't harsh—it was honest. Strained. "Whatever power sleeps in your blood, it didn't die. It just needed the right moment to return."
The pendant at her neck warmed again, syncing in time with the fractured bloodstone Ronan held.
Two halves of a whole.
Shadow and moon.
Selene's vision swam.
And then—
The world tilted.
She wasn't in the room anymore. Or in her body.
The floor beneath her vanished, replaced by ash and fire. The scent of charred fur and wet stone filled her senses. And in the distance—howls. Dozens. Hundreds.
A battlefield.
Bodies twisted, not quite wolf and not quite human. And standing at the center—
Her.
Hair wild, skin marked with silver runes that shimmered across her shoulders like a second skin. Eyes glowing, blade dripping with blood.
The cursed daughter of prophecy.
A man stood opposite her—armor blackened, eyes burning crimson. His aura bled chaos.
Not Ronan.
But familiar.
She gasped and fell back into herself with a violent jolt.
"Selene!" Ronan's arms caught her as she collapsed, breath heaving.
"I saw it," she rasped. "The war. Me. And someone else. Not you—but close."
Caelan stepped back, brows furrowed. "What did he look like?"
Selene looked up, haunted. "Like you. But not. His aura was darker. Hungrier."
Ronan paled. "My brother."
Selene blinked. "You have a brother?"
Ronan didn't answer at first. His face was stone.
"He was banished when we were children. Cursed blood ran through him too—but the madness claimed him before the moon ever could. He's supposed to be dead."
Caelan turned sharply. "What if he isn't?"
Silence swallowed the room.
Selene rose shakily to her feet. "If he's alive… and tied to what's awakening…"
Ronan's voice turned deadly calm. "Then he's the one who opened the seal."
The pendant at her throat pulsed again. This time, brighter.
A whisper followed—barely audible. Not a voice she knew, but one she recognized.
Come find me, moon-born. The world forgets what it fears… but I remember you.
Selene grabbed Ronan's arm. "We need to go to the tunnels."
He stared at her. "Now?"
She nodded. "Before whoever's calling me from below decides to come up here."