Page 55 of Luna's New Reign
>>> Come to me, little wolf.
I drop the spoon with a soft clatter, my fingers trembling faintly as the whisper grows louder, wrapping itself around my thoughts like a vice. My magic stirs against my skin, crackling faintly at my fingertips as if responding to something it shouldn’t.
“Sweetie?”
River’s voice is soft in my ear, but I can’t focus on him. I can’t focus onanythingas the voice sinks deeper, deeper—pulling, tugging,demanding.
>>> Obey.
“Stop,” I whisper, my hands curling into fists against the table as my body tenses. “Stop it.”
The buzz of conversation halts instantly, the air around us shifting. I can feel my mates react—their bodies going still, their gazes snapping to me—but it’s all muted, distant, compared to the cold voice echoing in my mind.
My magic surges before I can stop it, rushing outward like a wave, flickering against my skin in tendrils of pale light. I gasp, my vision blurring as power spills from me—unstable, unrestrained, hungry.
“Neph!” Mateo’s voice cuts through the haze.
But it’s too late.
The world shifts before I realize what’s happening. One moment, I’m at the diner, surrounded by the warmth of my mates, their voices wrapping around me like a shield. The next, I’m plunging intodarkness. Cold and heavy, suffocating, pulling me under.
I blink, but there’s nothing. Just black. Black so thick it presses against my chest, crawling along my skin like somethingalive. Itry to move, to breathe, but the air is thick, every sound muted like I’m underwater.
And then Iseehim.
He emerges from the dark, his figure massive and terrifying, like something pulled straight from a nightmare. He doesn’t step forward—helooms, as though the shadows themselves are his limbs. A wolf, monstrous and towering, shifts in and out of his form, melding flesh and fur, his eyes burning like molten gold through the black.
The air grows colder, sharp and biting, as his voice rolls over me like thunder.
>>> You’ve finally come, little wolf.
The sound is guttural,wrong. A rumble so deep it shakes through my bones, vibrating in my chest like it’s trying to tear me apart from the inside out. I stumble back a step, the shadows beneath me moving like liquid, but there’s nowhere to go.
I lift my chin, forcing my voice to stay steady. “Who are you?”
He doesn’t answer right away. He onlygrins, his teeth jagged and gleaming in the void. Then he steps closer, the weight of his presence crushing the air out of my lungs.
>>> I am the First Alpha.He growls, his voice echoing in a way that makes the dark ripple. >>>The true Alpha. The beginning.
I shake my head, bile rising in my throat as I glare at him. “No,” I snap. “You’re not the beginning. You’re nottrue. You’re a bastardization of Mother Nature—science mixed with magic. You’veruinedwhat was pure.”
For a moment, silence. And then the creature laughs. It’s a deep, hollow sound like the world itself is splitting apart.
>>> Mother Nature made me.He says, his voice dripping with venom.>>> And you, little wolf? You are a piece of me. A fragment of something greater.
“No,” I whisper, but he doesn’t stop.
>>> You feel me, don’t you? The darkness inside you. The whispers. I have touched you and you obey.
“I don’t obey anyone.” My magic flares instinctively, ready to respond even if I have no idea how to control it.
The First Alpha doesn’t flinch. He only watches, his glowing eyes narrowing, calculating.>>> Not yet.
His words are like claws dragging down my spine, something ancient andwrongdigging deeper into me. I take another step back, desperate to keep space between us, but the shadows ripple again, pulling at my feet.
The First Alpha tilts his head, his form shifting, wolf bleeding into man and back again as he lifts a hand—a hand that stretches and elongates like claws—andbeckonsme closer.
>>> Come.