Bound By Fate

Elder Mora's POV

I dropped the old book so hard it cracked the stone floor.

My hands were shaking as I stared at the page I'd been dreading to read for sixty years. The forecast was written in the old language, the words burned into wolf hide with silver ink that glowed in the candlelight.

It was real. After all these years of hoping it was just a scary story, it was actually happening.

"No, no, no," I whispered, my voice booming in my empty house.

I had to get back to Alpha Thorne instantly. This was worse than I'd told him. So much worse.

I grabbed the book and three others, putting them into my old leather bag. My knees complained as I moved, but I ignored the pain. Age was nothing compared to what was coming.

The prophecy was clear now that I could read it correctly. The Luna of Three Souls wasn't just any special wolf.

She was the last of the Moonblood race.

The bloodline that had been hunted to extinction three hundred years ago because they were too strong. Too dangerous.

If Aisla really was Moonblood, then she wasn't just married to three Alphas.

She was powerful enough to control them.

All of them.

I drove to the pack house faster than I'd driven in decades, my old truck rattling with every bump. Alpha Thorne was still in his office when I arrived, moving like a caged animal.

"Did you find anything?" he asked the moment I walked in.

I set the heavy books on his desk with a thud.

"Sit down, Thorne."

"I don't want to sit down. My sons are in danger and-"

"Sit down!" I demanded, using the Alpha voice that I rarely needed anymore.

He sat, his eyes wide with surprise.

I opened the first book to the page that had nearly given me a heart attack.

"The prophecy is real," I said. "And it's not just about a Luna with three mates."

I began to translate the ancient words, my voice getting quieter with each line.

"When the moon bleeds silver and the pack rules bend, the Last Daughter shall rise. Born of lost blood, mated to three as one, she will hold the power to unite the scattered children of the moon or watch them burn in the fires of their own making."

Thorne looked at the page like it might bite him.

"What does that mean? Forgotten blood?"

"It means Aisla isn't just an omega, Thorne. She's Moonblood."

The color drained from his face.

"That's impossible. The Moonblood line died out ages ago. We made sure of that."

"Did we? Or did we just drive them into hiding?"

I flipped to another page, showing him a family tree drawn in faded ink.

"Look at this. The last known Moonblood was a woman named Lyra. She disappeared twenty years ago, right around the time a pregnant omega showed up at your limits."

"Aisla's mother."

"Exactly. Think about it, Thorne. An omega shows up pregnant, refuses to say who the father is, gives birth to a daughter, and then suddenly disappears? That's not normal omega behavior."

Thorne was quiet for a long moment, processing what I was telling him.

"What exactly can Moonblood wolves do?" he asked finally.

I turned to another page covered in warnings written in red ink.

"They can speak straight to the Moon Goddess. They can see the future. They can heal wounds that should be deadly. And most dangerous of all..." I paused, making sure he was listening. "They can direct other wolves. Not just influence them. Actually control them."

"Control them how?"

"Make them do things against their will. Force them to shift. Stop them from moving. Break mate bonds or build new ones."

Thorne stood up so fast his chair fell over.

"Are you telling me that this girl could control my sons? Could make them do whatever she wants?"

"I'm telling you that if she's really Moonblood, she's the most dangerous wolf alive."

"Then we have to-"

"We have to protect her," I interrupted.

"Protect her? She's a threat to everything!"

"She's a threat if she falls into the wrong hands. But if she's on our side, if we help her handle her power, she could be our salvation."

I opened the third book to a page covered in war scenes.

"The prophecy doesn't end with her rising, Thorne. It talks about a war. A fight between those who want to use her power and those who want to destroy it. A war that will determine the future of all werewolves."

"What kind of war?"

"The kind that ends with either all packs united under one Luna, or all packs destroyed."

Thorne sank back into his chair, looking older than his fifty years.

"How do we know which side we should be on?"

"We don't. That's what makes this so frightening."

My phone rang, interrupting our talk. I looked at the number and felt my heart skip.

"It's the Northern Pack," I told Thorne.

"Why would they be calling you?"

I answered with an increasing sense of dread.

"Elder Mora," the voice on the other end was Alpha Kane from the Northern region. "We need to talk. Immediately."

"What about?"

"About the girl. The omega who's mated to the Thorne triplets."

I looked at Thorne, whose face had gone white.

"How do you know about that?" I asked.

"Because every pack within a hundred miles felt it when the triple bond triggered. The power rush was like nothing we've ever experienced."

My blood turned to ice.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that whatever that girl is, she just announced herself to every supernatural thing in the region. And Mora?" His voice dropped to a whisper. "We're not the only ones who felt it."

"Who else?"

"The Hunters."

The phone slipped from my numb fingers and clattered to the floor.

The Hunters. The old enemy of all werewolves. The humans who had spent ages trying to wipe us out.

If they knew about Aisla, if they knew she was Moonblood...

"Thorne," I said, my voice barely audible. "Get your kids back here. Now."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Everything. The Hunters know about her. They'll be coming."

"How long do we have?"

Before I could answer, every window in the pack house burst inward.

Dark figures in battle gear poured through the broken glass, moving faster than any human should be able to move.

But these weren't ordinary people.

These were Hunters strengthened with stolen werewolf blood. Super soldiers created for one reason.

Killing dogs like us.

"GET DOWN!" I screamed, jumping behind Thorne's desk as bullets started flying.

But these weren't normal shots. They were silver, carved with symbols that burned like acid when they hit wolf flesh.

Thorne shifted into his massive Alpha form, roaring his fury as he leaped at the closest Hunter.

"MORA!" he howled. "THE BOOKS!"

I grabbed the prophecy texts, clutching them to my chest as chaos broke around us.

A Hunter emerged in front of me, raising a silver blade that glowed with unnatural light.

"Where is she?" he asked. "Where is the Moonblood?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied.

He smiled, showing teeth polished to sharp points.

"Oh, I think you do. And you're going to tell us everything."

The blade came down toward my throat.

But just before it could touch me, the most powerful howl I'd ever heard shook the entire building.

Not from inside the pack house.

From the woods.

From Aisla.

And with that howl came a wave of power so intense that every Hunter in the room screamed and fell, clutching their heads.

The blade clattered to the floor as the Hunter striking me fell unconscious.

In the sudden quiet, I looked at Thorne, who had shifted back to human form.

"What just happened?" he asked.

I stared out the broken window toward the woods where his kids were fighting for their lives.

"She's awakening," I whispered. "The Moonblood power is activating."

"Is that good or bad?"

"I honestly don't know. But Thorne?" I grabbed his arm as more Hunters started stirring around us. "Whatever your sons do out there, whatever choice they make about her, it's going to decide the fate of every werewolf alive."

Another howl echoed from the forest. This one wasn't just strong.

It was angry.

And it was asking for blood.