Evelyn didn't remember falling.
One moment, she was standing in her room, staring at the door Ronan had run through…The next, moonlight surged under her skin like liquid fire, forcing her to her knees.
Her vision blurred—white, blinding, pulsing in rhythm with her heartbeat.
One.Two.Three.
Each pulse was sharper than the last, as if the moon itself was knocking against her ribs.
She clutched the edge of the bed, breath hitching.
"What… what is happening to me?"
Her fingers glowed faintly.Her eyes burned.Her blood felt like it wasn't entirely hers anymore.
The room darkened.
Then brightened.
Then darkened again.
As if the shadows and the moonlight were fighting inside her, not around her.
A knock hit the door—soft but frantic.
"Evelyn?"
Ash.Of course Ronan had sent him the moment he felt her pain.
"Evie, open the door!"
"I… I can't," she whispered.
Or maybe she could.But she was terrified of what would happen if she stood.
Her power felt cracked open—raw and uncontrollable.
Ash tried again, banging harder.
"Evelyn, please! The Alpha told me to stay with you!"
The way his voice shook told her everything she needed to know.
Something was happening outside.Something Ronan was fighting alone.
Something that wanted her.
She forced herself upright.
But the moment her feet touched the floor—
A blast of moonlight ripped through the room, slamming into the walls.
Ash stumbled back from the door, yelling, "Evelyn?!"
She pressed her hand against her chest, gasping.
"Ronan," she whispered. "I feel him."
Not just the normal tug of the bond.Not just the warmth or the familiar pull.
This was sharper.Deeper.Almost painful.
As if something was trying to tear Ronan away from her—or drag her to him.
Then she heard it.
A voice.
Soft.Echoing.Ancient.
Child of the moon… rise.
She felt the pull in her bones.
"No," she breathed. "Not now. Not without him."
But her power didn't listen.
Her legs moved on their own, dragging her toward the window.
The moonlight outside called to her—white and silent and terrifying.
She grabbed the window frame, struggling against the force pulling her forward.
"Ash!" she shouted, finally desperate. "Break the door!"
Ash inhaled sharply.
Then—
A heavy crash.A groan.The wooden frame cracked.
"Evie, step back!"
She tried.
But the moonlight wouldn't release her.
Finally, the door splintered open.Ash rushed in, eyes widening as he saw her glowing like a star going supernova.
"Holy hell—"
"Ash," she gasped, "I can't stop it."
He didn't waste time.
He tackled her away from the window, arms wrapping around her shoulders as he pinned her to the rug.
"I've got you—just breathe—breathe—"
"I can't!" Her voice cracked. "The moon is calling me!"
Ash hesitated, face pale.
"Then Ronan is right. You can't step outside."
"I need to," she whispered. "He's in danger."
Ash's throat bobbed.
"I know. But you leaving this room will make it worse."
Her hands kept glowing, light building again.
"Ash… I'm going to explode."
"Then I'll hold you together," he said fiercely.
She almost laughed through the pain.
But then—
The light vanished.
Instantly.
Like a candle blown out.
Evelyn gasped as she collapsed against him, trembling.
"Ash… what just happened?"
He pulled back, eyes wide.
"I don't know. But—"
A deep, bone-shaking howl echoed through the forest.
Not a wolf.Not Ronan.Not anything she had ever heard before.
It vibrated the walls.Shivered through her bones.Called to something inside her power.
Ash swallowed hard.
"That wasn't Moonfall."
Evelyn sat up slowly.
"No."
Her heart raced.
"That was the thing Ronan went to face."
Ash's expression darkened.
"And it sounded like it found him."
*******************************************************************************
Ronan's body slammed into a tree, cracking it clean in half.
He tasted blood.
The creature stood in the center of the clearing, untouched by the force of the impact.
Ronan forced himself up, every muscle screaming.
He spat blood onto the dirt.
"Is that all you've got?"
The figure didn't move.
"You cannot kill me, Alpha."
"Watch me."
He lunged.The creature blurred.Ronan's claws slashed through empty air.
Something hit him from behind—fast, precise, impossibly powerful.
He crashed to his knees.
"Where is the moon-child?"
Ronan snarled.
"You'll never touch her."
The figure tilted its head.
"You cannot stop what has already begun."
Ronan forced himself up again.
"I can stop you."
The figure exhaled softly—almost pityingly.
"She will choose her path. Light or shadow. And you… Alpha… are neither."
Ronan's eyes burned gold.
"I don't need to be either."
The air crackled.
Then—
A soft, pulsing glow lit up the treeline.
Both Ronan and the creature turned.
Moonlight.
Leaking through the branches.
Moving.
Walking.
Ronan's heart froze.
"Evelyn—?"
The creature smiled.
"She comes."
And Ronan's world tilted.