The chamber holds its breath, wrapped in a silence that feels sacred, not eerie. The soft hiss of burning sage winds through the air, sweet and sharp, curling like smoke laced with secrets. Sasha doesn't move. Her heartbeat knocks against her ribs, wild and unsure. The mark on her back pulses, silver blue and electric, like it knows something she hasn't yet remembered.
Mama Liana hasn't spoken to her since it flared under the moonlight. Just whispered something no one could catch, then disappeared deep into the temple. Now, they all stand in the heart of the sanctum, carved into the mountain itself, smooth stone cool beneath their bare feet. At the center rests a book, ancient, sealed, pulled from the underground where sunlight has never touched it. Its leather binding is cracked and dark, its surface dusted with age. Mama Liana breathes a spell over it, and it reacts instantly. Light flickers from its spine, and the pages flip open in a blur of motion, then freeze. Everything stills. Her voice cuts through the quiet:
"Ryan. Read it."
He hesitated.
Sasha sees it, the flicker in his eyes. Everyone knows this isn't just a reading. It's a calling. A risk. And Sasha can't stop wondering why Him? Why him? Why would Mama Liana want her own son to die?
Sasha thought to herself:
Well maybe she chose him because he has powers.
I mean, soon enough he'd be an Alpha, and he carries a strong lineage. So what could be the worst that would happen?
The mark on her back throbs again, like it's trying to warn her. Sasha ignored it. Mama Liana saw it, and she squinted her eyes in the dark. She was trying to whisper something to the mark.
And then Sasha caught her.
She shook. Awkwardness flowed in her, and she avoided eye contact with Sasha.
Sasha said to herself:
That's weird.
Ryan walked to the altar where the ancient book was. The golden light from the book shimmered on his face. A sigil burned into view, a crescent moon wrapped in flame. Beneath it, written in forgotten ink, was a name.
Lunara Valerieth.
Ryan's voice trembled. "Born under the twin eclipse. Blood of the Moon Line. Daughter of the Last King…"
Sasha stumbled back, clutching her chest. "What… What is this?
Who's Lunara? Don't tell me I'm Lunara."
Mama Liana's eyes were wet with something between reverence and fear. "Your real name, child. You are Lunara, daughter of King Alaric Valerieth, the last ruler of the moon."
Silence. Then, the truth poured out like a storm.
Ryan continued:
King Alaric ruled the hidden kingdom of moon-bound wolves and elemental kin. He loved fiercely. But the world feared Lunara, the child of prophecy. "She will return as a flame and quake. The earth will answer her sorrow."
So they hunted her. The war began. Kingdoms fell.
To save her, Alaric smuggled her away. She was just a baby when he placed her at the door of a human orphanage, whispered a blessing over her sleeping face, and disappeared into the final battle.
"He never made it back," Ryan read quietly.
Mama Liana said, "But he left you with the moon's mark. A seal. A prayer that fate would one day bring you home."
Sasha couldn't speak. Her throat closed. All the nights she cried as a child, wondering why no one came for her… all the pain she bore for a man who wasn't even her real father… and now, this?
Sasha raised her voice.
"Why does all this have to happen to me?
Why me?
I got out of a toxic relationship. I suffered for a man who wasn't even my real father. I was adopted all my life.
What sin did I commit? Why's the universe doing this to me?
Why are the gods doing this to me?"
Mama Liana looked very weak, like she was about to die.
Sasha ignored her and ran into the woods.
Anger, fear, and sadness took over her.
She ran and ran.
Her pup was pushing.
She stopped and said, "Oh, my little pup, come out and bring happiness to me.
This world hates me.
You'd be the only one who wouldn't lie to me."
Sasha continued running.
She didn't know where she was running to.
She just had to.
She ran and cried.
"Why me? Why me?"
Anger rose.
And BAM! She transformed.
The anger in her body made all the trees shake.
The water from her river rose, and she shifted.
Her bones were reforming. Everything changed about her.
She was as white as snow.
She's not a wolf.
A white, clean wolf with blue eyes.
Sasha stopped and looked at herself.
"This can't be possible.
No, no.
This can't be."
Amusement took over her, but the pain in her heart was still there.
She turned around to see herself, and she ran towards the riverside to check herself out.
If truly she wasn't dreaming, if she was a wolf now.
She walked towards the river, and she saw it.
Tears burned her eyes.
"I'm a wolf. My powers are awakening. It wasn't a lie all through."
"The prophecies are real," she said, while tears streamed down her wolf face.
Just as she began to cry herself out—
BAM! BAM! BAM!
A figure appeared from the water. A woman , no ordinary woman.
She was horrifying in her beauty. She had silver tangled hair designed with pearls, real pearls, and kelp tangles around it.
Her eyes were a deep, ancient forest green, alive with secrets no mortal should know. But it was her tail that truly shattered reality. It unraveled behind her like liquid sapphire, glistening with pearls that shimmered like stolen moonlight. It moved with a will of its own, graceful and terrifying. At the center of her forehead, a crescent-shaped mark pulsed with eerie silver light, glowing like it remembered every betrayal of the gods.
She looked like something out of the world.
Sasha transformed back into a human , she stumbled back.
"W-what are you? W-who are you? What do you want from me?"
The creature ignored Sasha's question and said,
"You wear his grief like a crown."
Sasha murmured, "What do you mean, thing, sorry I meant, woman creature ?"
The creature said, "Mind your words, sweetheart."
She continued,
"I am the one your father couldn't resist," the creature whispered, voice like drowning silk. "I was to be Queen beside him. But he chose your mother instead.
I am the moon siren. I am here to save you from fake prophecies."
"Moon siren?" Sasha said.
She continued, her voice shaking in confusion.
"What happened to my mother?
What do you know?
Spill it now!"
The moon siren said, "Revelation isn't my mission.
I'm here to save you and your pup."
Sasha said, "Moon siren, tell me now!!"
The moon siren hissed , "No, no, princess. You don't call me that. I am Nyxaria Veilmoira."
Sasha whispered, "Veilmoira… I've heard that name before.
I know I have," Sasha murmured.
"Veilmoira…
Veilmoira…
Veilmoira…
Sasha clapped her hands.
"Yes, yes!
It's Camilia Veilmoira!"
Something flickered in Nyxaria's eyes, but it disappeared fast, really fast.
Nyxaria said, "I don't care, and I have no time for your conversations.
Give it to me," she said.
Sasha asked , "Give what to you?"
Nyxaria muttered , "The moon bracelet."
Sasha replied in shock, "H-h-how… do you know? How do you know about the moon bracelet?"
Nyxaria replied, "Have I been talking to myself the whole time?I mean, I told you about I and your father. I was his mistress. He was intimate with me while with your mother, Selene."
"Oh… he stopped looking at me the same way," Nyxaria whispers, voice brittle.
"Maybe your mother just got sexier," Nyxaria giggles, her voice like a shard of ice wrapped in honey.
Sasha's jaw clenches. "Don't make fun of my mother, you witch."
Nyxaria steps closer, her voice coiling around Sasha like smoke. "Get away from me," Sasha growls, "or else you won't like what comes next."
But Nyxaria only smirks.
"You know something, my love?" she murmurs. "You're just like your father. Overconfident. Always trying to prove you know best."
She leans in close, her breath cold against Sasha's cheek. "Do you want to end up like your father, Sasha?" Her smile fades into a shadow. "I know you don't."
The water behind her shifts.
Nyxaria glides from the moonlit river, the water bending around her like it worships her. She clutches the amulet at her neck, and in a breath, her body shifts, liquid silver becoming flesh. Legs form where once there were fins, long and perfect, gleaming in the starlight.
Sasha gasps. The transformation is seamless. Terrifying.
Her legs are beautiful.
Everything about her is familiar. The way she walks, confident, elegant, dangerous. The tilt of her chin. Her voice.
She's like Camillia.
No… she moves like Camillia. She smiles like Camillia.
It's like the moon siren stole a piece of her.
Nyxaria steps barefoot onto the grass, dripping with moonlight. "Now, Sasha," she says calmly. "Give it to me."
Her eyes darken. "You don't want to lose your life. Or your pup. So do as I say."
Sasha hesitates. Her fingers tremble near her pocket.
"I don't need you to be my savior," she whispers, half to herself. "If fate really wanted me as the Moon Heir… it wouldn't make it feel like punishment."
Her hand rests on her stomach. "I don't want to lose my baby. She's my life. Literally."
Nyxaria extends a hand, her nails glittering like glass. Sasha's hand slips into her pocket. She pulls it out, the object Nyxaria wants.
She's about to give it to her.
"SASHA!"
Ryan bursts through the trees, gasping for air.
"I've been looking everywhere for you," he pants. "What are you doing out here all alone? It's late."
He looks her over, eyes wide with worry. "I get it , you're overwhelmed. But it's not safe out here, not in the woods. It's 11:47 p.m., Sasha. Come on. You need to rest."
Sasha blinks. "Alone?"
Her voice is sharp.
"Can't you see her?" she demands.
Ryan glances around. "See who?"
She steps toward him, confused. "Nyxaria. She's right here. She just transformed. She—"
"You're just tired," he says gently. "It's probably the pregnancy. You're seeing things. Come on, let's go."
"STOP IT, RYAN!" Sasha snaps. "I'm not imagining this!"
Ryan stares at her, genuinely alarmed.
"Nyxaria," she turns back to the siren, voice trembling, "he can't see you?"
Nyxaria smiles. "He can't."
She lifts her hand, brushes Sasha's cheek almost lovingly, then turns her chin gently toward her.
"Follow me," she whispers. "The bracelet alone won't rid you of what's not yours."
Sasha freezes. "What do you mean?"
Nyxaria sighs and mutters, "Holy shit… are you naturally this dumb? Because your father was brilliant. I didn't expect his offspring to be so… disappointing."
The words hit like a slap.
Sasha's eyes flash. She spins to Ryan. "I.."
BAM!
Nyxaria lunges and clamps her hand over Sasha's mouth. A flash of silver light erupts as she tries to teleport them both.
It doesn't work.
Sasha thrashes. Nyxaria's face twists. "What the hell? What kind of power do you have?!"
Ryan grabs Sasha's arm. "What are you doing?! What's going on?! Let's go, Sasha! Enough games!"
But she doesn't move. Her eyes are locked on the siren. On something else.
A shadow appears in the distance.
"Mama Liana!" Ryan breathes. "Thank the gods."
Liana walks forward slowly, hair windswept, her moonstone pendant glowing faintly.
"Mama—" Sasha begins, "she's here! She's trying to take me—"
Mama Liana raises her hand, voice low and ancient. "In tenebris lunae, redde te in abyssum."
A wind howls. The trees groan.
Nyxaria shrieks, stumbling backward as glowing runes circle her feet.
"NO!" she cries. "You don't get to banish me, witch! She's mine!"
Another voice joins Mama Liana's, Ryan's. He's chanting. Holding Sasha's hand tightly.
The wind thickens like water.
And then
Flash.
Nyxaria lets out a wretched scream and vanishes into mist.
It's over.
Sasha drops to her knees.
But as she breathes, shaking, gasping, she looks up just in time to see Mama Liana do something strange.
She winks.
At the place where Nyxaria vanished.
Sasha's blood goes cold.
Did she just see that?
No… she knows she saw it.
Mama Liana helped banish her. But… w-why would she wink?
Ryan helps Sasha to her feet, fussing, checking her pulse, speaking, but Sasha's no longer listening.
She's watching Mama Liana.
Sasha then sees it.
The moon mark on her arm , it's glowing again.
It always glows before something happens.
Or when she wants something to happen.
Something clicks in Sasha's brain.
Has Mama Liana orchestrated this? All of it?
Sasha narrows her eyes, suddenly cold. Her thoughts sharpen like blades.
Something is wrong.
Very, very wrong.
And now… she's watching everything.