The forest was quiet after the battle, but not in the peaceful way Ayana remembered from her first night here.
This quiet was wrong.
Kael knelt beside the spot where the Shadow Mark had pulsed and slowly faded. The grass there was dead—blackened like ash after a wildfire. Whatever that thing was… it left something behind.
Ayana stood a few feet away, arms wrapped tightly around her chest. Her fingers trembled, not just from the magic she had summoned, but from what she had *felt*.
That surge of power—it hadn't felt borrowed. It had felt like her.
And that scared her more than anything.
Kael rose. "He wasn't trying to kill you."
Ayana looked up. "What?"
"He could've. He had chances. But he didn't take them. He was testing you."
Ayana's stomach turned. "Why? To see if I'm strong enough?"
Kael nodded. "Or if you're weak enough to turn."
The implication chilled her.
They made the long walk back to the camp in silence. Elira was waiting. Her face fell as soon as she saw them.
"You encountered him."
She didn't notice the air changing until it was too late.
A howl broke through the night—close.
She spun around, heart thundering, and came face to face with a beast.
But it wasn't the dark alpha. It wasn't even Hollowed.
It was a wolf. A *real* one. Gray, lean, golden-eyed.
It stared at her, unmoving. Then… it bowed its head.
Ayana blinked. "What—"
Pain slammed through her chest.
She dropped to her knees, gasping. Her vision blurred. Her bones felt like they were being stretched, shattered, remade.
Her hands hit the ground—her nails sharpening.
"No—no, no, not now—"
The shift came like a storm.
Her scream turned to a snarl.
And then she wasn't Ayana anymore.
She was the wolf.
***
When she came to, her body was curled in the underbrush, soaked in sweat, dirt in her hair. Her muscles ached in ways she didn't understand.
Kael was crouched beside her, worry etched in his face.
"You shifted."
Ayana could barely nod.
"You shouldn't have been able to—not yet."
She sat up slowly, trembling. "It wasn't on purpose."
Kael held something out to her—her pendant. She hadn't even realized it had fallen off.
She took it. "Did you see it?"
He nodded. "You didn't lose control."
Her eyes welled up. "I thought I would."
Ayana nodded. "He bears the Shadow Mark. And he… spoke about my mother."
Elira's lips tightened. "Then the stories were true."
"What stories?" Kael asked.
Elira looked at Ayana. "That when Selene sealed the curse, she didn't destroy the dark alpha. She *split* him. Left part of the curse dormant… and locked the rest in flesh."
Ayana's heart thudded. "Whose flesh?"
Elira didn't answer.
Ayana stepped closer. "Say it."
Kael's eyes darkened. "Ayana—"
"No," she said. "If there's something you're keeping from me, I need to know. Now."
Elira's voice was a whisper. "He is your father."
The ground tilted. Ayana stumbled back.
"No."
Elira looked pained. "The man you saw—the one with the Mark—he was once a good man. Selene loved him. But the curse changed him. Twisted him into something she couldn't save. So she ran. Took you. And sealed him with what power she had left."
Ayana's world spun. The trees. The sky. The journal. All of it now meant something different.
The monster hunting her… was her own blood.
***
She didn't sleep. Not that night. Not the next.
She wandered the forest instead, letting her feet guide her. Her thoughts screamed, looping endlessly: *He's my father. He's the one I'm meant to destroy. Or become.*
"You didn't," he said quietly. "You *fought* it."
That meant more to her than he could possibly know.
***
Later, at camp, Elira examined her hands, her eyes glowing faintly.
"The shift was triggered by instinct. But you returned without being pulled back."
"What does that mean?" Ayana asked.
"It means your blood is strong. But so is your will."
Ayana let out a shaky breath. "So what happens now?"
Elira sat back. "Now you prepare for the next one. Because the next time, it will not be instinct—it will be a *call*. And when it comes… you will have to decide whether to answer it."
Ayana touched the spot over her heart. The pendant was warm again.
Kael entered the cabin quietly. "We found tracks. He's moving east. Toward the ridge."
"Elira," Ayana said. "Why would he go east?"
The seer's face darkened. "Because that's where the old temple is buried. The origin of the MoonBound."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "He's going to awaken the source."
Ayana stood. "Then we go now."
Elira didn't stop her. "Be warned. If you face him again… you might not come back the same."
Ayana met her gaze. "I won't come back *at all* if we don't stop him."
She turned to Kael. "We leave at dawn."
And for the first time, she didn't feel like a girl surviving.
She felt like the alpha her mother hoped she'd be.