Prologue
Long ago, before werewolves existed, before vampires crept from the shadows, the sun and moon warred not over light, but over control.
The moon won.
And from its blood came us. The Werewolves.
But with power comes war. More bloodshed. And most importantly, greed.
The moon favored one pack above all others. The Crescent Dominion Pack, known to fight beside the moon during the war. Chose them to have more power than normal werewolves. More strength. More magic.
But even that wasn't enough.
"I want more powers. I want control. I don't want to be an alpha who shares the same powers with my pack. I want MORE."
Alpha Valek stood at the edge of the sacred cliff, staring up at the full moon that had blessed his bloodline for centuries.
The moon that whispered secrets known to elders. The moon that granted power to those worthy of it.
The moon that he was about to betray.
"You gave us strength," he said to the glowing moonlight above.
"But you kept the real power for yourself. Tonight, I take what should have been mine, should have been our generation's from the beginning."
The ritual was forbidden. Ancient. Deadly.
Valek carved the symbols into his flesh with claws dipped in moonwater. Spoke words that should never be spoken. Called on forces that should never be woken, he did the abominable.
The moon tried to stop him. It Sent lightning. Sent pain. Sent visions of what his greed would cost his bloodline.
He didn't care.
The power flooded into him like hot silver. Like the very essence of darkness itself.
For one perfect moment, Valek was a god.
Then the curse hit.
The moon's voice echoed across the realm, cold and furious.
"YOU WANT POWER BEYOND MEASURE? YOU SHALL HAVE IT. BUT YOUR BLOODLINE WILL PAY THE PRICE FOR YOUR GREED. THEY WILL BE BLESSED AND CURSED IN EQUAL MEASURE. STRONGER THAN ANY WOLF THAT WALKS THIS EARTH, BUT HOLLOW INSIDE. EMPTY. SEARCHING FOR SOMETHING THEY CAN NEVER NAME."
Valek screamed as the curse burned into his soul. Into his blood. Into every child that would come after him.
"And when the time comes," the moon continued, "when balance must be restored, I will send someone to undo what you have done. Someone who carries both my light and the sun's fire. Someone who will either save your bloodline or destroy it completely, and the earth will be consumed."
Valek fell to his knees, the power still coursing through him but tainted now. Poisoned.
He had gotten what he wanted.
He had doomed them all.
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Thousands of years later, in the floating spires of Nyxthrone, a young woman with green eyes and sun-touched hair walked through the shadows of the great city with a broken veilrunner.
She didn't know she was the answer to an ancient prophecy.
She didn't know she carried the power to break the curse that had plagued the Valek bloodline for millennia.
She didn't know that the Alpha King who ruled this realm was the direct descendant of the man who had defied the moon itself.
All she knew was that she was running. Running from a life of rejections, betrayal. Running toward something she couldn't name, something worse, if she had known… what's installed for her, running straight into the arms of her destiny.
The moon watched her every step, waiting.
The sun held its breath.
And in the highest tower of the Moonspire Palace, Alpha King Thorne Valek woke from the same nightmare that had haunted his family for generations.
A dream of green eyes and a voice that whispered, "The time has come."