Sleep took me against my will.
One moment I was lying rigid on the narrow bed of the isolation chamber, staring at the stone ceiling. The next, the world slipped sideways.
I was standing in moonlight.
Not the training grounds. Not the pack house. This place felt… unreal. Silver mist curled around my feet, warm and alive, as though the ground itself breathed. Above me, the moon hung impossibly close—too large, too bright.
My wolf stirred, alert and uneasy.
"This isn't a dream," I whispered.
The bond answered.
A pull—soft at first, then insistent.
I turned just as the air shifted.
He appeared a few steps away, eyes already glowing faintly. Not fully here, not fully gone. His presence snapped the space tighter, like a thread pulled too far.
"You feel it too," he said.
My chest tightened. "You're not supposed to be here."
"Neither are you."
Another presence flickered at the edge of the mist.
Then another.
My breath caught as the other two emerged, solidifying like shadows given form. All three of them stood there, connected to me by threads of silver light that pulsed with each heartbeat.
"No," I said immediately. "This isn't allowed."
None of them argued.
That terrified me more than if they had.
"This is a dream-bond," one of them said quietly. "It happens when the bond is suppressed too forcefully."
"Or when fate gets impatient," another muttered.
The air vibrated at his words.
"Stay back," I warned. "All of you."
They didn't move—but the bond tightened anyway, responding to emotion rather than distance. Regret bled through first. Then frustration. Then something sharp and aching that wasn't mine.
I pressed a hand to my chest. "Stop sending that."
"We're not," the first said hoarsely. "It's leaking."
I laughed bitterly. "Funny. You had years to say something."
Silence fell heavy.
"I know," one of them finally said. "And we'll carry that."
The moonlight flared suddenly.
Pain rippled through the bond—hot, punishing.
I gasped, dropping to my knees.
"Don't," I whispered. "Please—"
A voice rolled through the space, neither loud nor soft, but absolute.
"You resist what is bound."
The Moon Goddess.
The three of them stiffened instantly, heads bowing without thought. My wolf crouched inside me, trembling—not in fear, but in recognition.
"I didn't ask for this," I said, voice shaking. "I didn't choose them."
"Choice comes after awakening," the voice replied. "First, truth."
The mist shifted.
Images bled into the air—memories not mine.
A training yard. Laughter. Me, younger, standing alone.
I saw it through their eyes.
The moment they noticed the bond stirring years ago.
The fear.
The denial.
The deliberate cruelty meant to smother destiny before it could breathe.
My throat closed.
"You knew," I whispered.
One of them dropped to a knee. "We thought if we broke it early enough—"
"—it would go away," another finished bitterly.
The Goddess's presence pressed harder.
"You cannot outrun fate by becoming its executioner."
The images shattered.
I surged to my feet, shaking. "Get out of my head."
The silver threads flared bright.
Suddenly, the pull reversed.
I felt them—their restraint snapping, their instincts clawing to the surface. Power rolled off them in waves, unstable and raw.
"This is bad," one of them growled through clenched teeth.
The ground cracked beneath us.
"Wake up," I shouted. "All of you—wake up!"
The bond resisted, tightening like a noose.
Then—hands gripped my arms.
Too real.
I froze.
"Don't touch me," I breathed.
He released me instantly—but the damage was done. Heat surged through the bond, white-hot and blinding. The moon above fractured, light splintering across the sky.
"Enough."
The Goddess's voice snapped like thunder.
The dreamscape collapsed.
I woke with a scream.
The chamber was dark, cold stone biting into my back. My heart hammered wildly, skin damp with sweat.
Voices shouted outside.
Footsteps rushed closer.
The door flew open—and the Alpha stood there, fury carved into every line of his face.
"What did you do?" he demanded.
I stared at him, chest heaving.
Before I could answer, a pulse rolled through the pack—felt, not heard.
A howl rose in the distance.
Then another.
Then dozens more.
The bond had awakened something the pack could feel.
The Alpha's eyes widened.
"This," he said grimly, "changes everything."
And deep inside me, my wolf lifted her head—
smiling.