<h4>Chapter 15: Chapter 15: Memories in Moonlight</h4>


    They found shelter in a forgotten hunter’s cabin deep in the woods. The small wooden building was dusty but safe—hidden by ancient magic that Tobias said would mask their scent from both the pack and the skin-walkers.


    "Rest while you can," Kael ordered, securing the door behind them. "We move again at nightfall."


    ra sank onto a worn couch, her body aching from their escape. The cabin had only one room with a firece, a tiny kitchen, and two doors that led to a bathroom and bedroom.


    "Let me check those bruises," Tobias said, examining the dark marks on her neck where the skin-walker prince had grabbed her.


    While he worked, Ronan paced by the windows, his eyes still shing red whenever he looked at her injuries. The Dire Wolf rage hadn’t fully left him.


    Darian sat quietly in a corner, watching them all with curious eyes. Despite eighteen years of captivity, he seemed calm—thoughtful in a way that reminded ra of Kael, but with a gentleness the eldest triplet oftencked.


    "You should sleep," Darian told her when Tobias finished. "The bond with all three of us is new. Your body needs time to adjust."


    "He’s right," Tobias agreed. "I’ll make something to help."


    He mixed herbs in a cup of water heated over the small stove. The drink tasted bitter but warmed ra from the inside.


    "What about Celeste?" she asked, fighting to keep her eyes open as the medicine took effect. "If she tells the skin-walker queen..."


    "We’ll handle it," Kael promised, his face grim. "Sleep now."


    Ronan stopped pacing long enough to brush her hair from her face with surprising tenderness. "I won’t let anything happen to you."


    Thest thing ra saw before sleep imed her was Darian’s golden eyes, watching her with a mixture of wonder and sadness.


    Then darkness swallowed her, and the dreams began.


    She was running through an unfamiliar forest. The trees were taller, older than the ones around the ckwood Pack territory. Silver moonlight filtered through leaves, showing her the way.


    Ahead, she saw a clearing and arge stone house. Wolves in human form moved around it, their faces serious as they carried weapons and set up guards.


    A woman stepped out onto the porch—tall and beautiful with silver eyes exactly like ra’s. Her stomach was round with pregnancy, and a man stood protectively at her side.


    "That’s enough for tonight," the woman said. "The protection spells are holding."


    "But Alpha—" one of the guards began.


    "Luna," the man corrected firmly. "My mate is Luna of this pack."


    Luna. The same title that was meant for ra with the ckwood Pack.


    The scene shifted. Now ra was inside the stone house. The silver-eyed womany in bed, sweaty and exhausted, a tiny baby wrapped in a moonlight-colored nket in her arms.


    "She has your eyes, Selene," the man said softly.


    "Silver eyes," Selene whispered, kissing the baby’s forehead. "The mark of a true Luna. She’ll be stronger than any of us."


    "Then we must protect her," the man replied. "The skin-walkers will hunt her when they learn of her birth."


    Selene looked down at her child. "My little ra. You are ourst hope."


    ra froze. She was watching her own birth. These were her parents.


    Before she could process this, howls shattered the night—wrong howls, twisted and dark.


    "They’ve found us!" someone shouted.


    The scene changed again. Now mes engulfed the stone house. Wolves fought shadow creatures in the yard. Bodiesy still on the ground.


    Inside, Selene ran with baby ra clutched to her chest. Her father fought off three shadow wolves at once, screaming for his mate to run.


    "Get her to Evelyn!" he shouted. "Go!"


    Selene fled into the forest, tears streaming down her face. Behind her, the stone house copsed in mes. Her father’s howl of pain cut off suddenly.


    ra wanted to scream, to stop this nightmare, but she was just watching, helpless to change the past.


    Selene ran until she reached a waterfall—the same one that had hidden the skin-walkers’ cave. But instead of entering, she ced her palm against the rock beside it. A different entrance appeared.


    Inside waited Luna Evelyn, eighteen years younger but instantly recognizable.


    "Selene!" she gasped. "The Moonstone Pack—"


    "Fallen," Selene said, her voice breaking. "All of them. Jacob... my mate..." She couldn’t finish.


    Evelyn hugged her friend, then looked down at the baby. "She survived."


    "She must continue to survive," Selene said fiercely. "Take this." She removed a ne—not the crescent moon ra now wore, but a full moon pendant. "It contains my power. When she’s old enough, it will help her control the silver fire."


    "I’ll keep it safe," Evelyn promised.


    "And this," Selene added, removing the crescent moon ne from her own neck. "When she’s ready to know the truth."


    "Where will you go?" Evelyn asked.


    Selene kissed her baby onest time. "To face the skin-walker queen. To buy you time."


    "Selene, no! You can’t win alone—"


    "I don’t n to win," Selene said quietly. "Just to weaken her enough that she’ll need years to recover. Years in which my daughter can grow strong."


    She ced baby ra in Evelyn’s arms. "Promise me you’ll protect her. Hide her among your pack as an ordinary wolf. The queen must never know who she is."


    "I promise," Evelyn whispered.


    The scene blurred again. Now ra saw Selene standing alone in a barren field. Across from her waited a beautiful woman with cold eyes—the skin-walker queen in her stolen form.


    "Last of the silver-eyed Lunas," the queen mocked. "Your pack is ash. Your mate is dead. And your child..."


    "My child is beyond your reach," Selene snarled.


    Silver fire erupted from her hands as she attacked. The queen countered with darkness that swallowed the light. They shed like storm clouds, silver and ck, neither yielding.


    But Selene was already wounded, weakened from childbirth and grief. Slowly, the darkness began to win.


    As the queen’s shadows pierced Selene’s heart, she looked up at the moon onest time.


    "Guide her," she whispered. "My daughter. My ra."


    Then darkness covered everything.


    ra woke with a scream, bolting upright on the couch. Instantly, all three brothers were at her side.


    "What happened?" Kael demanded, scanning the room for threats.


    "Are you hurt?" Ronan asked, his hands gentle as they checked her for injuries.


    Darian simply took her hand, his touch calming the storm inside her.


    "I saw them," ra whispered, tears streaming down her face. "My parents. My real parents."


    Tobias moved closer, his expression serious. "Tell us."


    ra described her vision—the Moonstone Pack, her mother Selene, her father Jacob, and their final stand against the skin-walkers.


    "They died protecting me," she finished, her voice breaking. "And Luna Evelyn promised to keep me safe."


    "Which she did," Tobias said softly, "until the queen took her body."


    Something cold settled in ra’s stomach. "She said my mother gave her two nes. I only have the crescent."


    "The full moon pendant," Darian said suddenly. Everyone turned to him. "I saw it. In the queen’s chambers. She keeps it locked away, afraid to touch it."


    "Then we need to get it back," ra said, determination recing grief. "My mother said it contains her power—power I’ll need to defeat the queen."


    "We will," Kael promised. "But first, we need a n."


    As they began to discuss strategies, ra felt a strange tingling sensation behind her eyes. She stood and walked to a small, cracked mirror hanging on the wall.


    Her reflection showed what she already knew—her eyes were glowing bright silver, brighter than they had ever been before.


    "ra?" Ronan asked, concern in his voice.


    Before she could answer, her vision blurred. For a split second, she wasn’t looking at herself in the hunter’s cabin. Instead, she saw the ckwood Pack house. Celeste was running up the steps, panic on her face. At the door waited the false Luna Evelyn, her beautiful features twisted with rage as she listened to Celeste’s news.


    Then the skin-walker queen looked up, as if sensing ra watching. A cruel smile spread across her stolen face.


    "I see you, little moon child," she whispered. "Run while you can. It won’t save you."


    The vision vanished. ra stumbled backward, caught by Ronan’s strong arms.


    "What did you see?" Tobias asked sharply.


    "She knows," ra gasped. "The queen knows we freed Darian. She’sing for us."


    A heavy silence fell over the cabin. Then Kael spoke, his voice hard as steel.


    "Let here. This time, we’ll be ready."


    Darian stepped forward, taking ra’s hand again. The moment their skin touched, something clicked into ce inside her—the third and final mate bondpleting itself.


    Power surged through ra like a lightning strike. The silver light in her eyes spilled out, enveloping all four of them in its glow.


    "Heart, mind, and soul united," she whispered, remembering Luna Evelyn’s words.


    The light formed a glowing web between them, connecting ra to each brother with strands of silver fire. Kael’s strand was steady and strong. Ronan’s fierce and bright. Darian’s deep and unwavering.


    For one perfect moment, they were truly one—four hearts beating in perfect rhythm.


    Then the cabin walls began to shake. Outside, thunder crashed though there hadn’t been a cloud in the sky. The windows darkened as if night had fallen hours early.


    "She’s not waiting," Tobias said grimly, looking outside. "The queen ising now."


    As if to confirm his words, a howl split the air—not a wolf’s cry, but something ancient and terrible that made the very air shiver with dread.


    ra’s new vision showed her what the others couldn’t yet see—a wave of darkness moving through the forest, killing everything it touched. At its center walked the skin-walker queen, her stolen beauty now partially shed to reveal the monster beneath.


    And beside her marched Celeste, her eyes nk and soulless, no longer herself but a puppet for the queen’s will.


    Th


    e storm of darkness wasing straight for their cabin. And it would arrive in minutes.