The clearing was silent again.
Not the peaceful silence of the forest, but the heavy silence that comes after something impossible has happened.
Every Lycan was staring at Elara.
The silver glow around her had begun to fade, but her eyes still shimmered faintly in the darkness.
Lucien stood beside her, tense and alert.
"The Moonborne," he repeated slowly.
The rogue leader pushed himself to his feet, brushing dirt from his clothes. He didn't attack again.
Instead, he watched Elara with something close to admiration.
"You really don't know, do you?" he said.
Lucien growled low in his chest.
"Speak carefully."
The rogue smirked.
"Your precious girl is not just another supernatural creature, Alpha." He gestured toward Elara. "She's something older."
Elara's voice was quiet but steady.
"What does that mean?"
The rogue's yellow eyes gleamed.
"Before the Lycans. Before the hunters. Before the wars that shaped this world…" He paused. "There were beings connected directly to the moon itself."
Gamma frowned.
"Legends."
"Not legends," the rogue corrected. "Truth."
He pointed again at Elara.
"The Moonborne."
The name hung in the air.
Lucien's jaw tightened.
"They were wiped out centuries ago."
"Almost," the rogue said.
Elara felt the weight of every gaze in the clearing.
"You're saying I'm one of them?"
The rogue shrugged.
"The last one, most likely."
Lucien shook his head immediately.
"No."
But the doubt in his voice was impossible to hide.
Gamma looked at the broken pieces of the pendant on the ground.
"That seal…" he murmured. "It wasn't just hiding her power."
Lucien understood.
"It was hiding her existence."
The rogue leader smiled again.
"Now you're catching up."
Elara felt a strange chill crawl down her spine.
"If this is true… why is everyone hunting me?"
The rogue's expression darkened slightly.
"Because whoever controls the Moonborne controls the balance of power."
Lucien stepped forward, placing himself firmly between Elara and the rogue.
"No one controls her."
The rogue laughed softly.
"You say that now."
Then his eyes shifted toward the red moon hanging above the forest.
"But the blood moon has already risen."
A distant howl echoed from somewhere deep in the trees.
Not from the rogues.
Something else.
Something larger.
The rogue's smile slowly faded.
"Well… that's unfortunate."
Gamma's ears twitched as he listened carefully.
"That wasn't one of ours."
Lucien's expression hardened.
"No," he said quietly.
"It wasn't."
The forest around them suddenly felt alive.
Branches rustled.
Leaves trembled.
And from the darkness beyond the trees—
A massive shape began to move.
The rogue leader stepped backward slowly.
"Looks like we're all about to have a much bigger problem."
Lucien's glowing eyes narrowed.
"What did you bring with you?"
The rogue shook his head.
"This time, Alpha… it wasn't us."
The trees at the edge of the clearing snapped loudly.
Something enormous was pushing its way through the forest.
And whatever it was—