Chapter 48. The Eclipse Ritual

Beneath her feet, the ground split—even if only by a hairline crack, it felt like the mountain itself was drawing its own breath. From that thin seam, a column of light erupted, slicing through stone in a perfect spiral that twisted outward from her bare toes. The light rose steadily, neither flame nor illusion nor weapon, but something closer to a truth given shape.

Both Alphas took a step back, not because the light burned them, but because it excluded both of them from its center. For a single heartbeat, Lora stood at the very eye of a spiral no wolf could breach.

Above her, the sky shivered in acknowledgment. First, one moon appeared—a silver sliver that hadn’t been there a moment before. Then a second, glowing golden. And between them, a third pale orb, hovering like an unanswered question, awake and waiting.

Kai’s voice drifted to her, a whisper brittle with disbelief: “What have you done?”

Rael, for his part, let slip the faintest of smiles—not one of