Chapter 16: Chapter 16

CHAPTER TITLE: The Traitor's Confession

Luna's words hung in the air like smoke from a dying fire. Liam sat up slowly, water dripping from his matted hair, his chest still raw with the mark of his bloodline.

"Say that again."

"Your father's mate." She didn't flinch. Didn't look away. "I was bonded to Alexander Kane twelve years before you were born."

Liam's laugh came out broken. "That's impossible. Marcus said—" He stopped. What had Marcus said? That Alexander had a mate. That she vanished. That no one knew what happened to her.

"You're the one who disappeared."

"I ran." Luna knelt beside him, her silver hair brushing the stream's surface. "When the Rogue King's assassins came for me, I ran instead of fighting. I left Alexander alone." Her voice cracked on the name. "He died because I was a coward."

Something cold settled in Liam's chest. Not anger. Not pity. Something between the two. "Then why are you here now?"

"Because you're his son. Because the prophecy is real. And because I've spent twelve years learning how to kill the thing that took him from me."

She reached into her jacket and pulled out a blade. Not silver. Not steel. Something darker. Obsidian, maybe, or bone. It hummed with a frequency that made Liam's teeth ache.

"What is that?"

"Volcanic glass," she said. "Tempered in the blood of an Alpha. The only thing that can kill a Rogue King permanently."

Liam stared at the blade. It shouldn't have been possible. Rogue Kings were legendary—monsters that had lived for centuries, their power so absolute that ordinary silver couldn't even slow them down. The Council had spent three hundred years trying to exterminate them. They'd failed.

"If that exists, why hasn't anyone used it?"

"Because making it requires an Alpha's sacrifice." Luna's eyes met his. "A willing sacrifice. The blood has to be given freely, or the enchantment fails."

"No."

"I'm not asking you to—"

"No." Liam stood. His legs shook. His head spun. But he stayed upright. "I'm not dying for you. I'm not dying for anyone. I have seven days to master the Wolf King's power, and I'm going to use every single one of them."

Luna's expression shifted. Something like pride flickered across her features. "You sound like him."

"Don't."

"He said the same thing when they came for his throne. 'I won't die for anyone. I'll live for everyone.'" She sheathed the blade. "He was wrong. But he was also the bravest man I ever knew."

Liam turned away. The forest stretched around them, dark and endless. Somewhere out there, the Rogue King's pack was hunting him. The Council was hunting him. Every wolf in the state wanted a piece of the Wolf King's heir.

"I need to find the Moonlit Temple," he said. "Marcus said it would teach me to control the shift."

"It will. But it's not just a place. It's a trial." Luna stepped beside him. "The temple only opens to those with the bloodline. And even then, it tests you. If you fail, you'll be trapped inside forever."

"What kind of test?"

"I don't know. No one who's passed has ever spoken of it. And no one who's failed has ever returned."

Liam looked at her. In the moonlight, she seemed younger than he'd first thought. And older. There was a weight in her eyes that spoke of decades of pain.

"Why should I trust you?"

"Because I loved your father. Because I failed him. And because I won't fail you." She held out her hand again. "I can get you to the temple by dawn. After that, you're on your own."

He took her hand.

---

The motorcycle roared through the back roads, cutting through fog that clung to the asphalt like fingers. Luna drove like someone who'd spent years running—fast, reckless, always checking the mirrors.

Liam held on to her waist. The wind tore at his face. His wounds still burned, but they were healing faster now. The mark on his chest pulsed with each heartbeat.

"You know how to use that?" Luna shouted over the engine.

"The mark?"

"No. The instinct."

"I don't have instincts. I was human three days ago."

"Bullshit." She swerved around a fallen branch. "You took out five Rogues in that alley. You tracked me by scent from a mile away. You're not human anymore, Liam. Stop pretending."

He wanted to argue. But she was right.

The urge had been growing in him since the transformation. A constant pressure behind his eyes. A voice that whispered in a language he almost understood. The wolf was always there now, pacing just beneath his skin.

*She's stronger than she looks,* Alexander said. *Listen to her.*

*I thought you said to trust no one.*

*I said to trust carefully. There's a difference.*

Liam pushed the voice away. He didn't have time for cryptic advice from a ghost.

"What happens when I pass the trial?" he asked.

"The Wolf King's power fully awakens. You'll be able to shift at will. Control the instincts. Access Alexander's memories and abilities."

"And if I fail?"

Luna was silent for a long moment. "Then you'll join the others. Trapped in the temple's heart, your soul bound to the stone until someone else claims the throne."

"Comforting."

"I didn't say it would be easy. I said I wouldn't let you fail."

The road curved sharply. Luna downshifted, the engine screaming as they took the turn at sixty miles per hour. The forest opened ahead, revealing a cliff face covered in ancient carvings. Wolves. Moons. Symbols that seemed to move in the darkness.

"The temple's inside the mountain," she said. "The entrance only appears when the moon is right."

"And is it right now?"

She looked up. The moon hung directly overhead, full and silver, casting no shadows.

"Perfect."

She killed the engine. The sudden silence was deafening. Liam dismounted, his legs numb from the ride. The cliff loomed above him, the carvings seeming to pulse with a life of their own.

"What now?"

Luna walked to the base of the cliff. She pressed her palm against the stone and closed her eyes. For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the stone began to shift.

It didn't crack or crumble. It *flowed*, like water moving against gravity. The carvings rearranged themselves, forming a spiral that twisted inward until it opened into a tunnel.

The air that came out was cold. Ancient. Filled with the smell of dust and something metallic.

"The temple welcomes you," Luna said. "But it won't welcome me. I'm not bloodline."

Liam stepped toward the tunnel. His heart pounded. The mark on his chest burned so hot he could see it glowing through his shirt.

"One more thing," she said. "Inside the temple, time moves differently. A day outside could be a month inside. Or a year. Don't let it break you."

"How do I keep track?"

"You don't. You just survive."

He looked at her. The woman who'd loved his father. Who'd run when she should have fought. Who'd come back to save his son.

"If I make it out," he said, "I'll help you kill the Rogue King."

Her eyes glistened. "Finish your trial first, Wolf King. We'll worry about revenge later."

Liam nodded and stepped into the tunnel.

---

The darkness swallowed him instantly.

Not the darkness of a cave, where your eyes adjust and shapes emerge. This was absolute. Complete. Like being blindfolded in a room with no windows.

He reached out. His fingers brushed stone walls that felt strangely smooth. Warm. Almost like skin.

*Keep walking,* Alexander said. *The trial won't come to you. You have to find it.*

"How do you know this place?"

*I passed it. Thirty years ago. That's how I became the Wolf King.*

Liam kept walking. The tunnel curved, then straightened. His footsteps echoed in ways that suggested a massive space ahead.

Then the light came.

Not gradually. All at once, like someone had flipped a switch. Liam blinked, raised an arm to shield his eyes, and found himself standing in a vast chamber.

The ceiling was impossibly high, disappearing into darkness. Pillars of black stone lined the walls, each carved with scenes of wolves fighting, howling, dying. In the center of the chamber stood a single object.

A throne.

It was made of bones. Thousands of them. Femurs. Skulls. Rib cages fused together into something that should have been grotesque but was instead majestic. On the seat sat a figure.

A man. Old. Gray hair down to his waist. Eyes that glowed silver in the dim light.

"You're late," the man said.

Liam's blood ran cold. He knew that voice.

"Marcus?"

The old man smiled. But it wasn't Marcus's smile. It was something else. Something ancient and cruel wearing Marcus's face.

"Surprised, boy? You shouldn't be." He stood, and his bones cracked like breaking branches. "Did you really think a god would let his vessel die that easily?"

"I watched you die. I held your body."

"You watched my body die. The flesh is temporary. The spirit is eternal." He stepped down from the throne, and the bones shifted beneath his weight. "I am the Keeper of the Temple. I have been for three thousand years. And every generation, I take a new vessel to guide the Wolf King's heir."

Liam's hands shook. Not from fear. From rage. "You used Marcus. You used his death to manipulate me."

"I used Marcus's *love* to guide you. There's a difference." The Keeper stopped a few feet away. "His death was always going to happen. I just made sure it served a purpose."

"Get out of his body."

"I can't. The vessel only releases when the trial is complete." The Keeper tilted his head. "And the trial hasn't even started yet."

The chamber rumbled. Cracks appeared in the floor, spreading outward from the throne. Something was rising from beneath.

"What's happening?"

"The first test." The Keeper smiled with Marcus's lips. "You have to kill your greatest fear."

The floor shattered.

Liam fell.