Elowen's POV
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My footsteps echoed through the underground corridors of Hollowveil Castle, where the scent of old dust and dried blood hung thick in the air. In my hand, I held the rusted iron key Kael had given me last night. He said only I could unlock the final door of this ancient archive chamber.
My heart had been racing for hours—too fast for a night this silent. But it wasn't fear that swallowed me whole. It was something heavier. A knowing. A pull in my chest that screamed: tonight, the answers will come.
The lantern in my hand trembled, casting flickering shadows across the rows of wooden drawers that formed the room's walls. Each one labeled in faded ink. Piles of old documents lay wrapped in seals of black wax—marked with the Hollow Court's sigil.
"Am I... one of you?" I whispered to the silence.
Kael had warned me not to open the large wooden chest in the far corner. Said whatever was inside had lost its meaning long ago. But I knew—what they try to bury always holds the most meaning. And my curiosity had grown into a quiet rage.
I lifted the lid of the chest with shaking hands. Its creak echoed like a scream from the grave.
Inside, there were no treasures. No gold. Only stacks of blood-stained letters, maps, and aged official documents. But one blood-red folder caught my eye—stamped with the symbol of a split moon.
As I held it, the moon outside the window seemed to crack in tandem. As if everything I'd known was fracturing.
The name on the folder read:
"Eloria Nox Lyra—Direct Descendant of Alpha Aurien."
I froze.
Eloria Nox Lyra… my mother. A name sealed away in werewolf history. Branded a traitor witch, not an Omega.
I opened the folder, and every page felt like a dagger to the chest. Birth records, medical reports, ritual documents—all of it pointing to one truth: I was never an Omega.
My blood—wasn't discarded blood. It was forbidden blood. A blend of ancient Alpha and the Moonblood line, the rarest of lineages capable of triggering soulbonds without forced rituals.
"This… can't be," I whispered. "Then why… why was I raised like filth? Why did they hide this from me?"
The last document in the pile cut the deepest.
Decree of the Hollow Court, Year 1201
"The blood of Eloria Nox Lyra and her descendants shall be erased from history. Moonblood must not be inherited. For the balance of the Pack and the Blood Accord, the line must be exterminated."
My hands shook as I read the final stamp:
SIGNED—KAEL RAVENHALL, Heir to the Hollow Court.
My blood boiled.
He knew.
Kael… had known all along.
---
I stumbled out of the chamber, the world tilting around me. The moonlight outside felt too bright—like claws tearing through my skin from the inside out.
Kael stood at the end of the corridor, backlit by pale light, his face hidden in shadows.
"Elowen," his voice was low, heavy with knowing.
"You knew who I really was," I said, barely above a whisper. "You knew I wasn't an Omega. You knew I—"
"I've known since the moment you stepped into Hollowveil," he said, still not facing me. "I knew your blood would destroy the system. And I knew you'd search for the truth."
"Then why… why did you still bind me to you?" My voice cracked with the weight of betrayal. "Why lock me into a soulbond?"
He turned, his face cold but his eyes… wounded.
"Because if I hadn't, the Court would've sent an executioner that same night. The soulbond was the only way to protect you," he murmured. "And… the only way I could stay close to you."
His words hit me like a storm, but they couldn't undo the bleeding wound they had exposed.
"You saved me by owning me. You're no different from the rest of them," I choked. "You caged me with emotion, Kael."
He stepped closer and pulled me into his arms. And for a heartbeat—I hated that my body still longed for his warmth.
"I'm not like them. I protected you the only way I knew how. And I'm sorry."
I looked at his neck—at the faint scar beneath his collarbone. The one I thought I'd left there during the soulbond ritual. But it was deeper than any fresh mark.
"Why… does this feel familiar?"
Kael stiffened.
"That isn't from the other night," he said.
"What do you mean?"
He gripped my hand tightly.
"You gave me that scar years ago. Before your memories were erased. Before your bloodline was sealed. You… were once part of the Court."
The world split beneath my feet.
I staggered back.
"You're lying," I whispered.
"I'm not. We were together in a life erased by the Court. Under names that no longer exist."
Tears fell before I could stop them.
The emptiness I'd always carried—it hadn't come from lack. It came from loss.
"Do you know what it feels like to lose your identity?" I asked.
"I live it every night, Elowen."
---
The day blurred into dusk. Night crept in like a secret. But my soul… was no longer the same. Among the documents I had found earlier, one old scroll had been tucked inside Eloria's robes. I hadn't read it—until now.
As I unfurled it, black blood-ink began to move, forming a symbol that made my skin crawl.
It wasn't a family tree.
It was a blood contract.
An accord between the Moonblood clan and the Hollow Court—a pact to create a new heir who would one day destroy the Pack system when the world begged for change.
That heir… was me.
Time cracked inside my head.
Voices of the past whispered. Memories that weren't mine—yet felt carved into my bones.
Screams. Fire. Betrayal. Blood.
Eloria was burned for choosing love—love for a Court Alpha who defied their laws. And I… I was born of that betrayal.
"I am the result of a forbidden accord," I whispered to the dark. "And they fear me because of it."
My feet led me to the old courtyard where Kael often sat at night. But tonight, he wasn't there.
Only a single letter sat on the stone bench, written in his unmistakable hand.
> If you're reading this, the truth has already unraveled.
I'm going to the Court tonight. Alone.
They won't let you live if they learn what you found. But I can erase your trail—if I act now.
Forgive me… for once again hurting you to protect you.
I crushed the letter in my fist.
Kael had gone… to sacrifice himself. To save me from those who swore to erase my blood.
I had to stop him.
I ran.
Through hidden corridors, ancient stairwells, past the night gates that opened only to forgotten spells—spells that now flowed from my tongue as if I'd spoken them a thousand times.
My blood was awakening.
I was no Omega. No one's pawn.
I was the last Moonblood. And I… would make them pay.
When I reached the edge of the Court's sanctuary, they were already waiting.
Dozens of Alphas stood in a circle, draped in blood-red robes. In the center—Kael, his head bowed, wrists bound, blood trickling from his throat.
"Traitor," one of the elders hissed. "Our heir has chosen love for the curse. And he must pay."
I stepped forward, power blooming from my skin like silver fire. My voice shattered the air:
"I am not a curse. I am legacy."
All eyes turned to me. Some stepped back. They knew—the true Moonblood couldn't awaken without a sacrifice made in love.
And tonight… Kael's blood had awakened me.
I unleashed the power like a storm. The sky cracked. The moon bled.
Kael looked up at me, a faint smile tugging at his bloodied lips.
"You're finally awake," he whispered.
I pulled him into my arms as the elders trembled where they stood. But just when I thought we had won, one of the documents Kael had carried slipped from his pocket—unfurling at our feet.
And there, in ancient ink, a single line tore through my soul.
> Final Decree: In the name of the oldest law, the Hollow Court declares—the Moonblood line shall be erased from reality. All bound to it will be wiped from time.
I stared at Kael.
"What does this mean?" I asked.
Kael parted his lips slowly… but before he could speak, the entire sanctuary trembled.
The sky fractured.
And a voice not of this world echoed:
"Your blood has been sentenced… to vanish."