The night felt heavier than usual, as if the very sky was bearing down upon the pack lands. Ember couldn't sleep. Her skin tingled with an invisible current, as though the fire buried in her blood had started to stir in ways she couldn't control.
Her dreams were no longer dreams. They were memories, echoes of battles she had never fought, of voices she had never heard, of flames devouring not just forests but the very fabric of reality.
She awoke gasping, her bedsheets damp with sweat, the room dimly lit by the amber glow pulsing from her pendant. The scar on her chest burned with heat that wasn't from the fever or nightmare. It was something older.
Downstairs, Ronan stood shirtless in the training yard, striking the post with an almost rhythmic precision. His chest was damp with sweat, muscles tense, his breath controlled. Focused. Calm.
But when Ember stepped outside, the calm shattered.
Their eyes locked.
The connection surged between them, wild and unforgiving. Her pulse quickened. His eyes burned not silver, not gold, but a strange molten mix that seemed to reflect her own flame back at her.
He dropped the staff he'd been using. "You've been dreaming."
She froze. "How do you know?"
"Because I see them too. I feel the fire. The screams. The way the world burns and rebuilds itself around you."
She walked toward him slowly, her arms crossed, more for comfort than defiance. "So you've been spying on me in my sleep now?"
Ronan looked away. "It's not spying. It's... part of the bond. The deeper it roots, the more our minds bleed into each other."
Ember stopped inches from him. She could feel the warmth radiating off his skin. Her wolf stirred again, not with fear, but with longing.
"You don't act like a mate. You act like a weapon waiting to be used."
His jaw tensed. "That's exactly what I was trained to be. But being around you... changes the edge of the blade."
There was a silence then, thick with tension. Not anger. Not hatred. But something raw and undefined. Like the crackle before lightning.
Ember lifted her hand and placed it against his chest. His heart beat hard beneath her palm.
"You said you were sent to kill me. Is that still your purpose?"
Ronan took a shaky breath. "It was. Until I saw your eyes."
She looked up at him, lips parting slightly. "What about them?"
"They carry fire but not destruction. They carry the kind of fire that gives life. That reshapes the world without burning it down."
Her throat tightened. She didn't know what to say.
He bent his head down, his forehead brushing against hers. "And when you looked at me... I didn't see a target. I saw home."
Her breath hitched. For a moment, they were both still, wrapped in something bigger than the bond, something ancient and undeniable.
Then the pendant around her neck blazed like a flare, and a surge of heat exploded between them, knocking them both backward.
Ember hit the ground hard, rolling to her feet with a snarl. Her eyes glowed orange, pupils slitted like a beast. Her fingers were licked with living fire.
Ronan stood opposite, eyes wide. He hadn't touched her. The power had done that on its own.
"What... was that?" he asked, breathing heavily.
Ember shook, trying to rein in the blaze. "It wasn't me. At least, not all of me. It felt... ancient. Alive."
He nodded slowly. "We need answers. Real ones. Not just what your parents tell you."
She knew he was right. Kael and Aria had shielded her from truths for years. She couldn't be protected anymore. Not when her very presence might burn the world to ash.
They agreed to leave that night. Quietly. No goodbyes. Only purpose.
The Whispering Hollow lay deep in the Northlands, hidden from both the council and the wild packs. Ronan knew of it through his mother's journals, a place where the first Flamebound wolves were said to have met the Moon Goddess.
"If we want to understand what you are," Ronan said as they rode under the cover of twilight, "we need to hear it from those who remember."
Ember didn't look back. She couldn't. Not now.
As the moon rose above them, no longer cursed but full and pale, Ember felt something inside her unravel.
Ronan reached for her hand. "You're not alone in this. I'm with you. Flame and all."
Her lips curled slightly, fire dancing behind her eyes.
"Then let's burn the truth out of the shadows."
---
What lies buried in the Whispering Hollow... and will it welcome the moonborn heir or tear her apart?