When Stacy placed her hands on the disk, silver runes flare white-hot in the air above the disk. The den dissolved into pure light. Every breath she pulled tasted like starlight. Every heartbeat echoed like distant thunder. Then the disk pulled her consciousness into it's truth.
The world didn't fade, it cracked. Each memory was a shard of moonlight, slicing through her mind. demanding to be seen.
Suddenly she wasn't standing, she was floating. A night sky stretched above her, stars streaking toward a distant moon glowing blood-red on one side and silver on the other. A lunar eclipse. Not a normal on. This moon has two faces, one bright as creation, one dark as ruin. It pulsed like a beating heart, sending tremors into the earth.
Below her, a clearing opened in a sacred grove. Her mother knelt in the circle of ancient stones, deep in labor pain. Her father held her hands, whispering reassurance while warriors formed a protective barrier around them. "It's almost time," her father said, voice shaking with awe rather than fear. "She will be extraordinary" her mother whispered.
Leaves rustled. Moonlight descended- not a beam, but a being. Shaped like a flowing silver flame. Her face was warm, radiant, ancient-eyes both kind and terrifying. The Moon Goddess.
She circled the laboring mother, singing a lullaby that made the trees bow toward her. "Born under the Eclipse Moon" the goddess intoned, "the child shall rise in dawn and shadow. Light to heal, shadow to command. A bridge between worlds. A threat to those who fear balance..."
The Luna gasped. Her mother screamed, and a burst of moon fire erupted as the infant-Stacy herself- entered the world wrapped in glowing silver markings along her tiny arms. Runes, not natural ones, divine ones. Her father whispered, choked with emotion "Our daughter..." The goddess bent forward, marking the infant's forehead with a shimmering crescent.
"She will be hunted" the goddess warned "and she will be hidden in plain sight. Only love-and destiny- will return her to her true path." The newborn's cry caused the vision to shatter.
Stacy now stood in a nursery. The air was warm, thick with love. Runes glowed on the walls, protective spells woven by the pack's Shaman. Her mother hummed an old lullaby. Her father bent down and kissed the infant. "She will lead the pack someday" her father whispered "or the world" Her mother smiled adoringly at her father "Only if destiny allows".
The windows shattered. Shards flew like daggers. Shadows spilled across the floor. The traitor stepped in first. A hood pulled low, cloak marked with the pack sigil-a symbol of trust turned into treason. Stacy's throat tightened when the traitor's voice leaked through the hood. "Take the child."
The Shadow Fae commander strode behind him, tall and monstrous, armor carved with living shadow serpents. Her father roared and shifted in a howl of rage. But the traitor threw a powder substance toward her father and a mist quickly formed around him. The Alpha collapsed, aura flickering and broken. Her mother unleashed wolf magic that scorched the air. But the traitor-unseen until now- threw a second powder. A binding dust that weakened her. The commander laughed.
"She is too powerful" he said, lifting the baby. "The prophecy must not be fulfilled". Her mother screamed "She is just a baby! PLEASE!". But the traitor turned his back on her. The vision warped as her infant self was carried into shadow.
The disk dragged her deeper. A mountain interior that was familiar. The same chamber that she had been in earlier, where her parents were being held captive. Her parents hung from ancient pillars carved with spells designed to suppress power. Stacy stepped forward, tears burning down her face. Her mother's head snapped up as if truly seeing her. "My daughter...." her mother whispered into the empty air "you're growing strong. I can feel it...even from here."
Her father rasped, "If you find the disk, do not fear what it shows you." He coughed hard, dark magic sparking weakly from his chest. "They took you to stop the prophecy".
The Beta opened his eyes, whispering: "They took you because you would become...more that any Alpha or Luna before you"
The cavern trembled. The Shadow Commander approached, dragging a glowing chain. "She has awakened the relic," he mocked "Her power grows". Her mother spat at his feet "If she comes for us, you will burn." The fae laughed "Let her try".
The vision flickered.
A council room, candles flickering. The traitor standing proudly with two corrupted council wolves. The Shadow Commander laid a contract on the table. "For the child, we grant you pack power beyond the Moon Goddess's leash."
The traitor smirked "Our Alpha was weak. His daughter would have been worse." The fae leaned in "And when the child reaches maturity, her power would eclipse even mine." The traitor laughed darkly. "That is why I made sure the child survives. She is too powerful to kill." Stacy's heart stopped. They didn't want her dead, they wanted to use her.
Behind the commander sat a cloaked figure-powerful, ancient, and NOT fae. A voice like cracking ice whispered: "She will rise when the moon bleeds. Keep her ignorant. Keep her quiet. When the time comes...she will open the gate for us."
A gate. To what? The disk trembled violently.
The world dissolved- darkness, light, sound, everything fell away. Stacy was suspended in a void of shimmering stardust. Then a figure walked toward her through the swirling silver. A woman-tall, luminous, with hair like moonlight and eyes like a vast star filled sky. Her presence was gentle yet impossibly powerful. A presence Stacy knew. Rhiannon, the Moon Goddess.
The goddess cupped her chin gently, lifting her gaze. "Child of my crescent," Rhiannon murmured, voice like the softest echo of the heavens. "At last you see the truth."
Stacy trembled. "Why? Why me?"
Rhiannon's hand brushed her cheek, warm and comforting. "Because your soul was forged from moon fire." she said "Because you were born to restore what darkness has stolen. Because your bloodline carries magic older than the courts."
Stacy's tears fell freely. "My parents...they're suffering. I saw them."
"They endure because they believe you will come" Rhiannon whispered. Then the goddess's expression darkened.
"But you must understand child- the traitor, the Alpha's very own trusted Gamma, is only the beginning. The pact he forged awakened powers that threaten not just your pack, but the balance between realms."
Stacy swallowed hard. "What do I need to do?"
Rhiannon leaned forward and pressed two fingers to Stacy's forehead, a burst of silver light flared. "Awaken" Rhiannon commanded softly "Your true magic waits"
Stacy felt something inside her ignite- a flame she didn't know she had, brilliant and ancient. "One last warning" the goddess spoke softly "The Shadow Court wants you alive...but not whole. They fear what you will become."
Stacy's knees hit the floor, the disk smoking in her hands. Colt caught her instantly as she gasped for air like she had been drowning. His voice was a life line. "Stacy- look at me. What did you see?" When she met his eyes, her own were glowing with unearthly silver light.
"Everything" she whispered "I saw everything. Rhiannon touched me. I felt my magic awaken"
Her chosen family stared in shocked silence. Colt tightened his hold, speaking softly but fiercely. "We'll save them. All of them, and we'll burn down anyone who stands in our way"
The night was impossibly still. The forest behind the packhouse lay wrapped in a dark hush, as thought the trees themselves were waiting-listening- for the moment when everything would change. Moonlight spilled across the clearing where Stacy sat with her knees drawn to her chest. Stacy, Luna by bond, blood by destiny. Lost daughter of a stolen Alpha line.
She stared at her hands, at the faint shimmer that had begun appearing every night since the discovery of the hidden letters and the disk of her parents' memories. Pale luminescence curled like smoke between her fingers. Uncontrollable, unpredictable, and growing. Devaney's words echoed in her mind, gentle and strong. "Your magic won't wait for you to be ready. You have to choose to master it." She wanted to, she needed to.
Fear, old and bitter, held its place in her chest. If her power was truly moon magic- true lunar heritage, the kind given to royal Alpha bloodlines- why had it slept for so long? What if awakening it made her a target? The Shadow Fae wanted her parents alive for a reason. There were secrets wrapped in her bloodline that she didn't yet understand. Behind her, footsteps whispered through the grass.
"Running from the moon?" Nessa asked, a voice warm, but knowing. The fae woman stepped into view, moonlight glinting in her eyes. She had the ageless look of fae nobility- soft beauty sharpened by centuries of resilience. She carried a small satchel of crystals and runes and wore the faint shimmer of her own magic like perfume.
"I'm not running" Stacy said quietly. Nessa arched a brow. "You're avoiding. Entirely different flavor." Stacy opened her mouth to deny it, then shut it. "It's...a lot".
Nessa joined her in the grass. "Power always is. But yours is waking faster than you are. You felt it earlier today, didn't you?" Nessa continued gently, "If you don't train, it will lash out whenever your heart is stirred. Fear, anger, love...especially love."
"What if I hurt someone?" Stacy whispered.
"What if you save someone you never could have without your magic?" Nessa countered.
Something tightened in Stacy's throat. "You're not ordinary" Nessa said. "Your lineage carries moon fire-raw lunar power capable of healing, guiding, revealing, and destroying. Very few ever wield it, and few survive without training." Stacy swallowed.
"Your parents wanted you to learn it" Nessa added softly. "Before everything was taken from them."
The letters, the disk. Her mother's voice, trembling in desperation.
Another voice joined the night. "I think you should train," Olivia said from the shadows.
Stacy and and Nessa jumped to their feet. Oliva emerged silently from between the trees, her shadow magic clinging to her like a second skin. She looked uncertain, but strong- her blue eyes bright with concern. "You're already powerful," Olivia said, stepping closer. " You're just scared of it. I know...I know what that feels like."