Chapter 7 The Moon's Secret Heir

Selena’s hands trembled as she held the pendant against her chest, the silver emblem warm under her fingers. She could still feel the echo of Damian’s fury from last night—the flash of teeth, the glint of fear behind his anger. He had been a storm, controlled yet feral, and somehow, in that brief moment, he had been scared of her. And now, that fear haunted her.

“Selena.” Damian’s voice broke through her spiraling thoughts. He emerged from the shadows of the study, his presence heavy, magnetic, impossible to ignore. His eyes, dark and stormy, were fixed on her. “We need to talk.”

She braced herself, trying to steady her racing pulse. “About what?” she asked cautiously, though she knew the question was futile. Whatever was coming, it wasn’t going to be simple.

“The truth,” he said, stepping closer. “All of it. No more lies, no more half-truths.”

Her stomach knotted. She had begged for answers before, had demanded explanations, and each time he had deflected, avoided, or dismissed her. Now, the air between them crackled with something volatile, something neither of them could fully control.

Damian’s gaze dropped to the pendant. “That belonged to your mother,” he said softly, almost reverently. “I thought it lost forever. I didn’t think anyone would carry it—especially not you.”

Selena stiffened. “My mother? What does she have to do with… any of this?”

He sighed, a sound heavy with memory and regret. “Everything,” he admitted. “The curse… my curse, it began the night the Frost family disappeared. The night the Moonline was almost lost to the world.”

Selena’s breath caught. Moonline? She had heard whispers in the old journals she had found—fragments of stories, tales of a rare bloodline said to hold extraordinary power over the beast, over the moon itself. She had dismissed it as legend, as old wives’ tales, but now…

“You’re saying…” Her voice was barely a whisper. “…I’m… part of this Moonline?”

Damian’s expression softened, a flicker of something almost tender behind the storm in his eyes. “Yes. Your blood carries what they called the ‘suppressed power.’ That’s why you appear… wolfless. What everyone else sees as weakness is actually a form of control. You’ve been suppressing something… something dangerous".

Selena staggered back, the weight of the revelation pressing down on her. Her mind spun with lots of questions, fears, and a strange spark of recognition. Her “weakness” had always felt like a cage, a void she couldn't explain. But if this was true—if her blood truly held such power—then she wasn’t powerless at all. She was a vessel of something ancient, something formidable.

“I want out,” she said firmly, her voice steady despite the tremor in her hands. “Lift the contract. Let me go.”

Damian’s brow furrowed. “I can’t,” he said bluntly. “Releasing you… it could unleash what’s inside. It’s not safe—not for you, not for anyone else.”

Selena’s eyes widened. “Unleash? What are you talking about?”

He shook his head, frustration flashing across his features. “You don’t understand yet. The Moonline was sealed for a reason. Your power—it’s volatile. Without guidance, without control, it could… destroy everything."

A very tense silence fell between them, broken only by the distant echo of the wind rattling the mansion’s shutters. Selena’s mind raced, a troubling storm of disbelief, fear, and a strange, developing excitement.

“I’ve been afraid of it my whole life,” she admitted softly. “And now… you’re telling me it’s not weakness? That I might be… dangerous?”

Damian took a cautious step closer, and the air seemed to vibrate with the intensity of his presence. “Dangerous… yes. But also vital. You are not what they say you are. You are the key, Selena. And if we don’t act carefully… the key could turn against us.”

A strange, almost electric energy seemed to pulse between them, as though the very air around them recognized the connection forming in the moment. The moonlight slanted through the tall windows, brushing against Selena’s skin and making the pendant shine with an otherworldly light . She could feel it resonating—not just with her, but with him, with something deeper, darker inside him.

“Selena,” Damian said, his voice dropping to a growl, a warning laced with longing, “do you feel it?”

She swallowed hard, her body reacting before her mind could catch up. Sparks of heat and light flared along her arms, running under her skin like a current. Damian’s own aura, shadowed and powerful, pulsed in response, and the tension between them snapped like a live wire. His cursed side—a beast he had fought to contain—stirred violently, responding to hers, reacting to the pendant, to the moon, to her very existence.

Her eyes widened in alarm. “What’s happening?” she whispered.

He shook his head, lips tight. “It’s… me. It’s my curse. It’s reacting to you.”

Before she could ask more, a surge of energy burst from the pendant, flooding her veins with heat and light. The mansion’s walls seemed to shiver, the chandeliers trembling, the glass in the windows quivering. Damian’s body tensed, fangs glinting as his growl rolled low in his chest.

“Selena,” he warned, “don’t—”

But it was too late. The pendant flared, brighter than the moonlight, and the force of it threw them both off balance. Damian’s eyes glowed with an unnatural hue, his beastly instincts clawing at the surface, struggling for control. He lunged instinctively, catching her by the shoulders and pressing her back against the study wall.

Selena’s breathed sharply, panicked gasps, but amidst the fear, a strange clarity emerged. The pendant wasn’t just a relic. It wasn’t just a symbol. It was alive, like a conduit of power that responded to her very heartbeat. And somehow, somehow, it was linked to Damian—the beast, the man, the storm in his chest.

“Damian—” she began, voice trembling, but even as she spoke, another wave of energy crackled through the room, a surge of light and sound that shattered the calm night. Books toppled from the shelves, glass rattled and fractured, and the air thickened with tension so sharp it felt like it could cut.

He pressed close, fangs brushing her collarbone, eyes locked on hers with a ferocity that made her heart stutter. “Selena, listen to me,” he growled, voice strained. “You have to control it—or it will control you!”

Her fingers clenched around the pendant, the glow responding to her fear, her defiance, her instinct to survive. And in that moment, she understood—her power wasn’t just latent. It wasn’t just dangerous. It was alive, and it demanded acknowledgment.

A shiver ran through the room, a violent crescendo of energy that threw them apart. Glass shattered across the marble floor, chandeliers swayed perilously, and for a heartbeat, the world seemed suspended between chaos and clarity.

Selena’s chest heaved as she stared at the glowing pendant. Damian’s beast side roared, a sound that shook the walls and resonated in her bones. And in that roar, in the luminous flare of her mother’s heirloom, Selena realized the truth that had been hidden for years: she was not powerless, she was not ordinary, and the Moonline’s secret had awakened inside her .

And as the mansion trembled, as shards of light and shadow collided around them, the air was thick with the pulse of unbound magic, the final realization struck her: nothing—and no one—would ever be the same again.

The pendant shined brighter, casting their faces in silver light, and Damian’s roar tore through the air, a mixture of warning and wonder. Selena’s eyes met his, wide with fear and exhilaration.

The night held its breath. And then, the mansion’s lights shattered completely, plunging them into a chaotic symphony of sparks and roaring fury.

Selena’s heart pounded. And in the silence that followed the storm of power, one thing was certain: the Moon’s secret heir had revealed herself.

Selena’s pendant glows, and Damian’s beast side roars as the mansion lights shatter around them.