Ayana barely slept.
The journal sat open beside her on the mattress, pages ruffled from being read over and over. Her mother's handwriting danced across each line like a voice from the grave, whispering truths Ayana was only beginning to understand.
Selene had been powerful—maybe more than Ayana ever would be. But even she hadn't been strong enough to break the curse.
*She ran,* Ayana thought bitterly. *Just like I've always done.*
But now, the running was over.
Outside, dawn filtered through the trees, lighting up the forest in soft gold. Kael was waiting again. Staff in hand.
Ayana stepped out, stiff and sore, but more focused than ever.
"Ready?" Kael asked.
"No," she muttered, gripping the staff. "But let's go anyway."
He cracked the ghost of a smile. "Good answer."
They trained harder than before.
Footwork, forms, blocks—Kael didn't hold back. Ayana fell. Got up. Fell again. But something had shifted inside her.
She wanted to win now. Not just survive.
Between strikes, she asked, "Did you ever know her? My mother?"
Kael hesitated, just for a second. "Yes. Before she disappeared. She came to us for help once."
Ayana's chest tightened. "And you turned her away?"
"No," he said softly. "She turned *us* away. Said she didn't trust the pack. Said she'd find her own way."
"She had me," Ayana whispered.
Kael nodded. "And for a time, you were her way out. Her hope."
Ayana turned her staff sharply. "And now I'm supposed to finish what she started."
Kael blocked the strike. "Not because you have to. But because you can."
***
Later that afternoon, Elira summoned them both. Her expression was unreadable.
"Something's wrong," she said, pacing in front of the fire. "The Hollowed are moving faster. The protective wards around the forest… they're failing."
Kael frowned. "How?"
"They've been marked."
Ayana's brow furrowed. "Marked?"
Elira turned to her. "There is one among the Hollowed who bears the Shadow Mark—a curse-wielding sigil that corrupts everything it touches. It's not just raising the dead. It's *awakening* them."
Kael's jaw clenched. "You're saying the Hollowed have a leader now?"
"Yes. A dark alpha," Elira said grimly. "And he's looking for her." She pointed at Ayana.
A chill ran down Ayana's spine.
"Why me? What does he want from me?"
Elira hesitated. "You're not just the last MoonBound. You're the only one strong enough to take the curse fully… and *live*."
Kael's head snapped toward her. "You never said that."
"I didn't want to frighten her," Elira replied.
Ayana stepped forward. "Wait. What does that mean?"
"If the curse fully awakens inside you, it can either destroy you—or give you power unlike anything seen in centuries."
Ayana's lips parted. "So I'm not just running from the curse. I *am* the curse."
"No," Kael said sharply. "You are the key to *controlling* it."
"But if I fail…"
Elira nodded slowly. "You become what we've feared all along."
The room went silent.
Ayana stepped away from the fire, her heart pounding. She felt like the air around her had grown heavier, thicker.
"What do I do?" she asked, voice cracking.
Kael looked at Elira. Then at Ayana.
"We hunt the one with the Shadow Mark," he said. "We stop this before it spreads."
Ayana didn't hesitate. "When do we leave?"
***
The forest seemed different now—quieter. Not peaceful, but… waiting.
Kael moved ahead, blade in hand. Ayana followed close behind, her fingers curled around her mother's pendant.
"How will we know who he is?" she asked.
Kael's eyes scanned the shadows. "You'll feel him. The mark calls to your blood."
Hours passed. Every snapping twig, every gust of wind made Ayana flinch. But then—she felt it.
A pull. Like a magnet inside her ribs.
"There," she whispered.
Kael nodded. "I feel it too."
They moved quickly, crouching low as the trees thinned.
And then they saw him.
A man stood at the edge of a clearing, tall and lean, with skin pale as bone and a jagged mark running down his throat—a twisted crescent, pulsing with black veins.
"The Shadow Mark," Kael muttered.
Ayana's breath caught in her chest. The man turned. His eyes were silver—and empty.
"You've come far, moonborn," he said in a voice that sounded like wind through grave dirt. "Just like your mother."
Ayana stepped forward. "You knew her?"
"I ended her," the man said simply.
Rage boiled in her blood.
Before she could move, Kael was already attacking. Steel met claws—because the man was no longer just a man. He shifted mid-strike, his body expanding into something monstrous. Not a wolf… something twisted. A corrupted version of the alpha.
Ayana tried to help—light sparked from her hand—but it flickered and vanished.
"Fear weakens you," the creature hissed. "You'll never control it."
Kael was bleeding now, fighting hard but losing ground.
Ayana took a breath, steadying her hand. She gripped the pendant.
*You're stronger than this,* she heard her mother's voice say. *You were born from the moon and the fire.*
She let go.
The light exploded from her chest—white, pure, blinding.
The creature screamed, recoiling. Smoke rose from its skin where the light touched.
Kael drove his blade deep into its side. It stumbled.
Ayana raised her hand again. This time the light surged willingly, wrapping around her arm like flame.
She struck.
The creature howled and vanished into shadow, retreating. Not dead—but wounded.
Ayana fell to her knees, breath shaking.
Kael rushed to her side. "You did it."
"No," she said. "It's not over."
She looked at the blood on her hands.
The Shadow Mark still pulsed in the ground where he'd stood.
"He's just begun."