Chapter 8 THE GODDESS’ WARNING

Silence.

That was the first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes.

Not the forest. Not the pain. Just… silence.

It wasn’t the kind of silence that brought peace. It was heavy, absolute—like the whole world had forgotten how to breathe.

I wasn’t lying on the forest floor anymore. I was floating—suspended in a void of silver and starlight. The air, if it could be called that, shimmered like water. My hair drifted around me in slow waves, every strand glowing faintly white.

Above me, moons hung shattered and bleeding light. Their pieces floated across the endless sky like shards of broken glass, each one pulsing with a heartbeat I could almost feel in my chest. My body felt weightless, yet every breath was heavy like I was breathing through centuries.

I didn’t know if I was alive.

Then her voice came again.

The Moon Goddess.

It wasn’t like hearing. It was like remembering something I’d never been told. The sound existed somewhere between thought and soul, vibrating through my bones, clear and cold as forged steel.

“Power without control will consume what you love.”

Each word carved into me, deep enough to hurt.

I tried to speak, but my voice broke apart, soundless in the cosmic air.

“Please… what does that mean?” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure I still had a mouth to speak with.

In answer, the stars around me began to move.

At first, slowly—like dust swirling in a sunbeam. Then faster. Faster. The constellations twisted into shapes, and from their light came visions—burning, vivid, alive.

I saw Kael first.

He was on his knees in the Great Hall, the golden throne behind him shattered, the banners of SilverMist torn and scorched. His silver eyes—those eyes that once looked at me with both love and pride—were hollow now. Empty. His hands trembled, slick with blood. My blood.

Behind him, the Hall burned. The carved wolves on the doors melted into black ash. I could hear screaming—the sound of my pack, my people—ripped apart by something unseen.

“No…” I shook my head, backing away even though there was nowhere to go. “That can’t be real. It can’t.”

The vision changed before I could breathe.

The scene widened. Packs clashed beneath a crimson moon, their howls mixing with the sound of tearing flesh. Wolves fought wolves. The earth split open, and rivers of molten silver poured through the battlefield, swallowing everything—fur, fire, bone.

Then came the last vision.

The moon itself split in two, bleeding light into the void like a dying heart.

The sound it made wasn’t thunder. It was heartbreak—loud and endless, echoing in every corner of the nothingness.

I reached for it, desperate to hold something solid, but my hand passed through air. The stars dimmed. The cold grew heavier.

And then the Goddess’s voice came one last time—closer now, sadder than before.

“The gift you bear is not mercy. It is balance. The light burns brightest before it destroys.”

Her presence began to fade. The constellations unraveled. The moons shattered further, spilling silver tears across the void.

Panic surged through me.

“Wait! Don’t leave me—please! Tell me how to stop it!”

But only a whisper lingered in reply.

“Control your heart, or lose it all.”

The words struck through me like lightning.

A wind—cold and wild—rose out of nowhere, spinning me violently. The starlight fractured. Gravity returned with a vengeance. I was falling—through stars, through memories, through fire. The visions shattered around me like glass, slicing across my skin with the sting of truth.

Then—

I gasped.

Air slammed into my lungs as my body hit the forest floor. The impact rattled my bones.

The Shadow Woods glowed faintly around me, every tree humming with quiet silver light. The mist that once seemed suffocating now felt alive, pulsing in rhythm with my heartbeat.

My mark—still faintly warm—throbbed against my chest. The veins of light beneath my skin shimmered softly, restless, like something inside me wanted to wake again but was waiting… watching.

I tried to sit up. My body felt foreign, too light and too heavy all at once. My senses sharpened—every rustle, every heartbeat, every flicker of moonlight suddenly too loud.

And then, softly, I heard her.

My wolf, Astra.

“Selene…”

Her voice brushed against my mind, low and reverent. It trembled not from weakness, but awe.

“We are not the same anymore.”

The truth of her words sank deep. I pressed a trembling hand to my chest. The faint glow beneath my skin pulsed in answer, a heartbeat not entirely my own.

She was right. Something sacred—and dangerous—had taken root inside me.

The forest seemed to know it too. The leaves bent subtly toward me, the air heavy with power and fear. In the distance, a wolf howled once, then went silent—as if even the night itself was uncertain of what I had become.

I dragged myself to my knees. The ground beneath my palms was warm, though frost glittered across the roots nearby. Where my tears had fallen, the soil hissed and smoked, tiny silver sparks fizzling into the air.

I caught my reflection in a puddle beside me. My eyes… they weren’t gold anymore. They gleamed faintly white, rimmed with silver fire. The sight made my stomach twist.

Who was I now?

I could still feel the Goddess inside me—like a shadow, like a heartbeat that wasn’t mine. Her last words echoed, louder now that I was alone.

“Power without control will consume what you love.”

The phrase looped in my mind, sharp and cruel.

What if that meant Kael?

What if it meant the pack I had once called home?

What if it meant me?

I curled my fingers into the dirt, breathing hard. The mark at my chest pulsed again—slow, steady, alive. It felt like a reminder. Or maybe a threat.

Above, the moon hung whole again, calm and distant. Its silver glow bathed the forest in stillness. For now.

But I knew peace was a lie. The visions had shown me enough to understand that.

Something was coming. Something old, vast, and inevitable.

And if the Goddess’s warning was true, then the fire inside me wasn’t just meant to protect—it was meant to judge.

The balance she spoke of demanded sacrifice.

I didn’t know whose it would be.

But as I stood beneath that watchful moon, silver light flickering across my skin, I made myself a silent promise.

I would master this power. I would control it.

Or die trying.