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Chapter Twenty Nine!
Chapter Twenty Nine
The dream came quietly–like moonlight slipping through the cracks of a shuttered window.
I was standing in a meadow drenched in silver. Wildflowers glowed at my feet, and in the distance, the stars shimmered low enough to touch. The air held the scent of lavender and old magic. I knew this place.
This was where she came to speak.
“Selene.”
The Moon Goddess appeared as she always did–formless, radiant, both mother and mystery. Her voice wrapped around me like a lullaby and a command.
“You have done what no Luna before you has dared.“}
My heart thudded. “We haven’t finished. There’s still-”
She raised a hand, and silence fell like snow.
“You reclaimed your child. You shattered blood oaths. You awakened a divine fire no Alpha has touched in a thousand years. But the war was never the point. What comes next is.”}
The air trembled.
Two paths bloomed before me. One bathed in silver and blue–the sigil of Stormclaw etched in the stone. Familiar. Heavy with tradition. The other was wild. Overgrown with ivy and flame lilies. At its center stood a single banner, black with a phoenix rising.
“A choice,” she said, “must be made.“}
=༤༤༨=ཤའ༤;
I looked from one path to the other.
“Stormclaw still needs an Alpha,” I whispered. “There are people there who would follow me, who deserve to be led with justice.” “And yet,” the Goddess murmured, “Stormclaw is not broken. It simply needs healing. Others will rise to lead it.“}
I turned toward the untamed path. “But this… this is something new.”
“A sanctuary,” she confirmed. “A haven for the discarded, the rogue, the rejected. You are not merely a leader of one bloodline, Selene. You are the beginning of all bloodlines that have been forgotten.”
A pause. A weight.
“You cannot be both.”
I woke with the dawn.
-0
The fire in the main hall crackled low. Garrick stood at the window, arms folded, dressed in his advisor’s leathers rather than his warrior’s armor. He’d known. Of course he had.}
“You saw her again,” he said without turning.”
I sat beside the embers, fingers curled around a cup of bitterroot tea. “She offered me a choice.“>
“Stormclaw or something greater.”}
“Yes.”
He faced me then, face lined with age and fire. “You’ve already made it, haven’t you?”
“I want to fight for Stormclaw,” I admitted. “I want to tear down its broken laws and give it back to its people.”>
“But?” he prompted.
“But that would be like repaving the same cracked road. This new path…” I looked at him. “It’s terrifying, Garrick. No structure. No alliances. No guarantees. Just wild wolves and broken hearts–and a dream.“}
His lips twitched into something like a smile. “Then it’s the right choice. Stormclaw will heal. But those who’ve never had a place to return to? They need you.”
I reached for his hand, the oldest tether in my life. “Will you come with me?“}
“Until my last breath.”
<-0
Keiran found me just as the sun crested the trees, his cloak billowing behind him like the shadows that once haunted him. He didn’t speak–just watched me with those storm–gray eyes, waiting.”
“I saw her,” I said.”
He nodded once. “And?”
“She gave me a choice.”
“I figured.” His voice was calm. “Stay in the world that wronged you. Or build the one you needed.”
My eyes burned. “I don’t want to do this alone.“}
“You won’t.” He took my hand and pressed it to his chest. “Where you go, I go.“W
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Even if I’m not a Luna anymore? Even if I’m something else entirely?”
He smiled then–slow, fierce, free. “Selene, I never wanted a Luna. I wanted you.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Even if I’m not a Luna anymore? Even if I’m something else entirely?”
He smiled then–slow, fierce, free. “Selene, I never wanted a Luna. I wanted you.”
The wind rose around us, carrying a scent of frost and flame lilies. Somewhere behind the camp, Ayla’s laughter rang out–clear and wild % Hope.
Freedom.”
A future that had never existed before now.”
I stepped back, lifting my chin. “We’ll call it Sanctuary. A haven for the broken. A home for the ones who were never given one.”
Keiran bowed his head, the Rogue King kneeling not to me, but to the dream I now carried.”
“To Sanctuary,” he said.”
And I felt it–like fire in my bones and moonlight in my chest.
The last chain had broken.
The real beginning had arrived.”
Twenty Nine
