Chapter 1 — Why are you here?
Remi POV
“You should have told her….You skipped it.”
Manuel’s voice. From the front of the group.
“I didn’t skip it.” Mitch Slightly defensive. “I categorised it under secondary implications and prioritised the primary data points which were the Olandria bloodline connection and the creature origin sequence and—”
“Mitch.”
“The secondary category was clearly labelled—”
“It’s not secondary.”
“In my organisational system—”
“MITCH.”
Silence.
I looked between them from the back of my horse. We’d been riding for three hours. The Moonstone palace was far enough behind us now that I could feel the distance in my chest. That specific stretch. Like something being pulled.
“What did he skip?” I asked.
Manuel turned in his saddle. Looked at me with the expression of a man who had been trying to have this argument quietly and had failed.
“Tell her,” he said to Mitch.
Mitch adjusted his clipboard. Cleared his throat.
“The creatures,” he said. “Their original creation. From my research into the cave records and the rune sequences.” He paused. “They were created on a blood moon.”
I waited.
“A specific blood moon,” he continued. “The configuration is rare. Every several years. The magic required for the original creation was tied directly to the lunar cycle.” He looked at his notes. “The next blood moon is tomorrow. Midnight.”
I stopped moving.
The horse kept going. I just. Stopped.
“Say that again,” I said.
“Blood moon. Tomorrow. Midnight. The same lunar configuration under which the creatures were originally activated. Based on the pattern in the records there is a statistically significant probability that something will happen tonight connected to the original—”
“Mitch.” I looked at him. “Why didn’t you tell me this before we left the palace?”
He blinked. “I assumed you knew.”
“How would I know?”
“It was in the category two documents. Sub-section four. The lunar correlation data was clearly—”
“MITCH.”
He stopped.
“I should have said it first,” he said quietly. “I acknowledge that.”
“Yes.” I looked at the road ahead. “You should have.”
Manuel was watching me. “It doesn’t change the plan. We need the answers your family has. Whatever happens tonight happens whether we’re at the palace or here.”
“Nero is at the palace.”
“Nero is the most powerful wolf in the region.”
“Nero has venom in his bloodstream and a curse that gets worse on full moons and you just told me this is a BLOOD moon—”
“Remi.” Manuel’s voice was steady. “We’re three hours out. Turning back now means we learn nothing. Your family has answers we need to stop whatever’s coming.” He held my eyes. “Trust him. He can handle one night.”
I said nothing.
Because he was right. I hated that he was right.
I looked at the road. At th]e horizon. Tried to feel something through the bond.
Faint. The way it always was with distance.
But there. Still there.
It hit me an hour later.
Not a thought. A physical thing.
Like a fist to the place just below my ribs where the bond lived.
I grabbed my saddle. Hard.
“Remi?” Manuel turned immediately.
“Nero.” I could barely get the word out. “Something’s wrong. He’s in pain. I can feel it.”
The bond was screaming.
Not words. Not images. Just. Pain. His pain. Feeding through the connection like heat through metal.
“He’s fighting something,” I said. “Or something’s happening with the venom or the curse or—”
“Remi. Look at me.”
I looked at Manuel.
“You can’t go back,” he said. “Not from here. Not in time.” He held my gaze. “But you can reach him. Through the bond. You’ve done it before.”
I had. Future Remi had shown me.
I closed my eyes.
Found the thread. The specific warmth of it. His specific presence at the other end.
Fight, I said into it. Not out loud. Just. Into the bond. Into wherever he was.
Whatever it is. Fight.
I didn’t know if it worked.
Then I felt it.
A surge. Like something unlocking. Energy I didn’t have a word for flooding back through the connection.
And then. Quiet.
The pain stopped.
I exhaled.
“He’s okay,” I said. More to myself than anyone. “He’s okay.”
Manuel watched me for a moment.
Said nothing.
Turned forward.
We rode.
My family home looked different.
Not completely. The shape was the same. The garden. The front path. The tree my brother Broody had fallen out of seven times and kept climbing anyway.
But the door was new. Solid. Good wood.
The windows had proper shutters now.
The garden had been cleared and replanted. Things growing that hadn’t been there before.
I stood at the gate and looked at it.
“Someone sent things, Nero Perhaps,” Manuel said quietly beside me.
I didn’t answer.
We went in.
My mother came out of the kitchen when she heard the door.
Stopped when she saw me.
“Remi.” She looked behind me. At Manuel. At Mitch. Back at me. “Why are you here? Did you offend the Dark Alpha? What did you do? Please tell me you didn’t do anything that would—”
“Mum.”
“Because we can’t afford to lose this arrangement and your father is—”
“MUM.”
She stopped.
“Can you hug me first?” I said. “Please. Just. Hug me first and then ask the questions.”
Something shifted in her face.
She crossed the room and held me.
Properly. Both arms. The way she had when I was small and things were simple.
I held on for a moment.
“I’m sorry,” she said into my hair. “I just worry.”
“I know.”
“You’re okay? You look. Different.”
“I’m fine.”
She pulled back. Looked at me the way mothers look. Head to toe. Checking.
“Your face is fuller,” she said.
“Palace food.”
“And your—”
“Palace food Mum.”
She pressed her lips together. Filed it. Moved on.
“Alpha Manuel.” She turned. Pulled herself together. “Welcome to our home. I’m sorry it’s not—”
“It’s a good home,” Manuel said simply. “Thank you for having us.”
My mother blinked. Like she’d expected something else from an Alpha.
Mitch was already looking at everything. Cataloguing. His eyes moving from corner to corner. Measuring things I couldn’t identify.
“Your family is a lot,” he said to me quietly.
“We haven’t met half of them yet,” I said.chap
