Chapter 1
(Aurelia's POV)
The moonstone exploded three seconds before my wolf was supposed to answer.
The blast rattled my bedroom window. Birds scattered from the roof, chirping in alarm, while smoke swallowed the room.
I sat frozen inside the awakening circle, staring at the shattered moonstone pieces scattered across the floor.
"Oops." Smoke escaped with my cough.
The scroll had promised an awakening but had said nothing about explosions. I closed my eyes and finished the final chant anyway, praying it would work.
I waited, but I got no response. Not a growl or a whisper. Not even a tiny flicker of a wolf answering from somewhere inside me.
Just silence.
I collapsed onto my back, ears ringing from the explosion.
"Well, that could have gone better."
My bedroom door slammed open, and Mira Thorne marched through the smoke without covering her nose.
"I swear to the Moon Goddess, Aurelia..."
She stopped.
Her eyes moved slowly around the room, then she sighed.
"...you added another exhibit to your Museum of Failures."
I groaned.
"Attempt three hundred and twenty-seven."
Mira looked down at me.
"So, successful?"
I turned my head toward the smoking moonstone in the center of the ruined circle.
"If my goal was to terrify every bird in Ashmoor and lose another eyebrow..."
I touched the space above my eye.
"Absolutely."
Mira crouched beside me.
"You can joke all you want, but are you hurt?"
"I don't think so."
"You thought so after attempt two hundred and one."
"That was different."
"You drank poison."
"It was only a little poison."
"Aurelia."
"Fine. I read it in an old scroll."
"You read a stupid scroll."
"It claimed the toxins would force my wolf to awaken."
"And instead?"
"I spent three days vomiting."
Mira pinched the bridge of her nose.
"You're personally responsible for shortening my future career as a healer."
She held out her hand, and I let her pull me upright. Another cloud of smoke rose from the broken moonstone.
I waved it away and looked around my bedroom. Calling it a bedroom felt generous.
Every shelf held another failed attempt: cracked moonstones, half-burned scrolls, empty potion bottles, and broken ritual tools.
It looked less like a bedroom and more like a museum dedicated to terrible decisions.
Mira picked up one of the moonstone pieces.
"You know what the entire kingdom would say if they saw you right now?"
"That the former Alpha's daughter has finally lost her mind?"
"That too."
She dropped the piece into the collection.
I labeled it and placed it beside Attempt Three Hundred and Twenty-Six.
Mira smiled.
"Your newest exhibit."
"I really thought this one would work."
"You always think that."
"I always mean it."
"And somehow your museum keeps expanding."
I stared at the shelves.
Three hundred and twenty-seven attempts. Three hundred and twenty-seven failures.
I had tried everything.
Full-moon meditation. Ancient chants. Herbal tonics that tasted like a pig's urine. Ice baths. Fever rituals. Poison. Electrocution.
Yet nothing.
It was as though the Moon Goddess had simply skipped my name.
Mira's teasing expression softened.
"You know..."
"No." I snapped at her.
She blinked.
"I haven't even said anything."
"You were about to tell me to stop."
"...I was." she stuttered.
"I'm not going to,." I said with a tone of finality.
"I know."
A sharp knock sounded downstairs.
"Aurelia!" My mother's voice floated up the staircase. "Are you two alive?"
Mira looked around the smoke-filled room.
"Barely!"
I elbowed her.
"We're fine!"
There was a pause before she continued.
"Should I prepare the burn ointment?"
"Already did!" Mira called.
My mother's laughter drifted upstairs.
"I'll leave it on the kitchen table."
Her footsteps faded.
I looked at Mira.
"My mother doesn't even ask what exploded anymore."
"She has accepted her fate."
"So have the neighbors."
"I'm fairly certain half of Ashmoor uses your room as a weather forecast."
"If there's smoke, don't hang your laundry outside?"
We both laughed.
I glanced around the room again.
One curtain had a suspiciously new patch. Burn marks climbed one wall. The ceiling had never fully recovered from Attempt One Hundred and Fifty-Two.
"It isn't that bad."
Mira slowly turned in a circle.
"Aurelia."
"What?"
"Your bedroom looks like the Moon Goddess declared war on it."
"I prefer to think of it as a fire hazard."
She laughed.
"You're impossible."
"So I've been told."
She headed for the door, shaking her head.
"Clean yourself up before your father sees you've tried to electrocute yourself again."
"I wasn't electrocuting myself."
Mira raised an eyebrow.
"What would you call standing inside a circle of moonstones holding copper rods during a thunderstorm?"
"Creative problem-solving."
She laughed all the way down the stairs.
I followed a few minutes later.
Dad was already at the kitchen table, silently eating breakfast.
Mom had left our portions before heading to the apothecary.
For once, the house was peaceful.
I sat opposite Dad.
"Told you the stones are too powerful" Dad said still eating.
"At least the experiment didn't destroy the house."
He glanced toward the ceiling.
"Give it time."
I groaned.
"Everyone is a comedian this morning."
"You make it easy."
A loud knock sounded at the front door, and Dad's expression changed.
We exchanged a look;, only a few people in Ashmoor dared knock on her door.
Another knock followed. Then three firm knocks.
The humor disappeared from Dad's face.
"Who is it?"
"I don't know."
I pushed my chair back.
"I'll get it."
"Aurelia."
I looked at him.
"Yes?"
"Don't open the door if it's anyone from the Council."
My stomach tightened.
"Why would the Council be here?"
He didn't answer.
I crossed the room and opened the door.
Cain stood on the other side. For a moment, neither of us spoke.
He still wore the dark leather vest he'd worn as Dad's Delta, though the silver insignia of his rank had long been removed.
He wasn't technically Dad's Delta anymore. Not since Dad had stepped down as Alpha.
But some bonds didn't disappear just because titles did.
Cain's eyes moved over me.
"Don't."
He blinked.
"I didn't say anything."
"You were thinking about it."
His mouth twitched.
"I can see why."
I sighed, "Dad, it's Cain."
I called my father, and he appeared behind me almost immediately.
"Cain."
"Rowan."
They clasped forearms.
The greeting was warm, but something in Cain's expression made me uneasy. Dad noticed too.
"What happened?"
Cain looked at me, then back at him.
"I came with a message."
"What kind of message?"
Cain stepped inside and I closed the door.
"The Ashmoor Council met this morning."
My fingers tightened around the edge of the door.
"And?"
Cain looked directly at me.
"The Final Awakening has been scheduled."
The room went silent for a second.
I didn't understand. Then I did, and my stomach dropped.
"No." I gasped.
Cain's expression softened.
"Tomorrow."
Dad went completely still.
"Tomorrow?"
Cain nodded.
"Tomorrow night, at the Moon Altar."
I looked between them.
The Council had finally decided to stop waiting. I swallowed.
"What happens if I fail?"
Neither man answered. That was enough of an answer.
"Cain." Dad's voice was low.
"What exactly did the Council say?"
Cain hesitated.
"They've waited twenty-two years, Aurelia. They want an answer."
His gaze returned to me.
"If you awaken, they'll know the prophecy is real."
He paused.
"And if you don't..."
His eyes dropped.
"They'll finally have a reason to stop fearing you."
My chest tightened.
This wasn't another experiment in my bedroom. This time, the entire kingdom would be watching.
Cain reached into his vest and pulled out a sealed envelope bearing the Ashmoor crest.
He held it toward Dad, but he didn't take it immediately, but looked at me instead.
Something in his eyes made my heart sink.
He finally accepted the envelope.
"We have plenty of time," I said, forcing a smile.
Dad didn't smile back. Because we both knew the truth.
I'd tried for twenty-two years. One night wasn't going to change anything.
I looked toward the window.
The morning sunlight spilled across Ashmoor as if my world wasn't slowly closing in around me.
Hope had survived three hundred and twenty-seven failures.
It had survived four rejected mate bonds.
Somehow, I still couldn't make myself give up.
But for the first time, I wasn't afraid of failing.
I was afraid of what would happen if the Moon Goddess finally answered me.
And I had no idea why.
