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Morrigan turned and motioned for me to follow, leading me through an opening concealed by shadows which led to a long passage.

Each step echoed with the past, relentless and haunting.

Morrigan's presence was the only tether to now, a specter with roots sunk into the marrow of time itself. The dark and narrow tunnel seemed to go on forever, until we reached a chamber so ancient it felt like we walked inside the mountain’s very soul.

Runic symbols glowed faintly on the walls, pulsing in time with my heart.

They told a story of stones that fell from the heavens, of a betrayal older than memory.

I followed her deeper into the chamber, the walls narrowing and the air heavy with secrets too vast to comprehend. Crystal formations jutted from the ground, casting spectral lights that danced with our movements.

She gestured to the runes that adorned the walls, each symbol alive with its own eerie glow. “Do you see, Tristan? This is where your fate was forged, where it begins and ends.”

I reached out, my fingers brushing the surface of each rock. They were cool, electric, a living history that jolted me with every touch. “Tell me,” I said, my voice swallowed by the vastness of the space.

“Centuries ago, these stones fell from the sky,” Morrigan began, her words weaving a tapestry of cosmic consequence. “A gift from the lunar eclipse, meant to empower those who would honor them.”

“The Stormvale wolves,” I murmured, piecing together the fragments of a story I’d known only as a bedtime fairytale.

She nodded, the light flickering over her silver hair. “Yes. Embedded within this mountain, they became the source of your pack’s strength and its bond to the celestial.”

“And Serena’s ancestors?” I pressed, feeling the knot of destiny tighten around me.

“Entrusted with the secret, sworn to protect it. But greed... betrayal... led to the curse that haunts her bloodline. They stole the stones, and for that they paid the price.”

The enormity of it settled in, a mantle I was unprepared to bear. “They were cast out,” I said, understanding now the depths of the legacy that bound us.

“Their betrayal severed the trust. But not the power.” Morrigan’s eyes locked onto mine, charged with the full weight of prophecy.

“The birthmarks you share mark you as the pair foretold. The ones who can mend what was broken. These stones have quietly fueled the mountain’s power, and your pack, for centuries. They were dormant…until she arrived.”

“There has to be a way to free her,” I said, my voice cracking with frustration. “Tell me how.”

Morrigan stepped closer, placing a cold hand over my mark. “The answer lies not in magic, but memory. Love will guide you to the wound—but blood must pay the toll.”

“Whose blood?”

Her silence filled the chamber more than any wind could.

A chill passed through me, cold and searing at once. My mind spun with the implications, each one a thread pulling me further into a web I couldn’t escape. “Morrigan, tell me,” I demanded, my thoughts slipping into the fear I dared not voice.

She hesitated, and in that moment I saw the truth she hadn’t yet spoken. “To free her is to risk all you know. The mountain’s gifts come with a cost, Tristan. Keep the curse, and it will devour you both from the inside out,” Morrigan warned. “Break it, and you will be free.”

“You told me I had to find the cursed wolf who could ruin this pack, and that I would find a mate. You didn’t tell me they would both be the same person,” I shot out.

My heart thundered in my chest, a storm of emotion I could barely contain.

The bond I felt with Serena was real, as tangible as the stone beneath my fingers, but so too was the duty I had to my pack.

They had relied on me, trusted me. How could I choose between them and the woman whose touch lit a fire I could not quench?

They would never accept an enemy in our ranks.

“You have feelings for her,” Morrigan said, the accusation gentle and undeniable.

“I don’t have the luxury of feelings,” I snapped, though my own words sounded hollow.

“But you do.” Morrigan’s gaze softened, and in it I saw an understanding that cut to the quick of me. “Your soul bent toward hers like the moon bends the tides. The mountain felt it. I felt it.”

The truth. It was a concept that felt as slippery as the future I once thought was certain. Every second spent in this chamber stripped away my certainties, leaving only raw need and fear.

A quiet filled the space, a silence rich with consequence. It was a silence I knew well, the same one that had settled over me when I left Serena standing in my room, the silence of an unspoken question too large to answer.

I turned to leave, the weight of prophecy trailing like shadows. Morrigan’s voice stopped me cold, her final words a chilling whisper that cut to the bone. “Beware the betrayer who walks among your ranks, Alpha. One of your most trusted seeks to claim the stones for himself.”

A fresh surge of fear gripped me, mingling with doubt. “Who?” I demanded, but the question was futile.

Her eyes, clear and ancient, gave no answer.

“If the stones are stolen…” Morrigan hesitated, “If your enemies wield them first…then the curse will become a weapon. You won’t just lose your pack.

You’ll lose the balance of everything. The mountain will scream, and no one will survive its rage.

The moon will soon be full, and choices must be made. ”

I turned, leaving her standing in the center of her chamber like the eye of some cosmic storm. Her eyes followed me, piercing and eternal, and I knew she saw more than she said. She always did.

As I walked from the chamber, the urgency of her warning pressed in on me from all sides.

Someone within the pack sought to fulfill an ambition that could undo everything.

The full moon, the time when my power and my vulnerability would be greatest, was coming fast. I could feel its approach like the tide, pulling me toward decisions I wasn’t ready to make.

Morrigan’s words echoed long after I left. “One of your most trusted…” Ewan’s voice rang in my memory, sharp with challenge, with fear. I shook my head. No. It couldn’t be him… could it?

The mountain’s heartbeat pulsed beneath my feet. The full moon was coming. So was the reckoning.