The screaming started at dawn.
Not human screaming, though there was plenty of that, too.
This was something older, more primal.
The sound of a small throat pushed past its limits, howling rage and terror and pain into the cold morning air.
It had been going on for 3 days.
I pressed my hands over my ears in my tiny servant’s chamber and tried not to hear it.
Tried not to feel the way it clawed at something deep in my chest.
tried to ignore the sick certainty that something was very, very wrong in the palace.
But the sound wouldn’t stop.
And beneath it, another sound.
Heavy boots running, men shouting, metal clanging.
The particular chaos that came when the royal guard, the most elite warriors in Seven Kingdoms, couldn’t control something.
A door slammed open somewhere below my chamber.
Get the chains.
But the iron ones, they won’t hold.
He broke the last, then get stronger chains.
More screaming, a sound like metal rending.
Then a voice I recognized.
Cold, controlled, absolutely terrified beneath the ice.
Alpha King Rowan.
Someone stop him before he hurts himself.
I don’t care how.
Just stop him.
The screaming reached a new pitch.
Something shattered.
A man cried out in pain.
I shouldn’t have gone down there.
I was nobody.
An Omega servant so low in the pack hierarchy, I barely registered as alive.
The daughter of traitors.
The last of a bloodline the court had tried very hard to forget existed.
I scrubbed floors, emptied chamber pots, made myself invisible.
I did not interfere with royal business.
But that screaming, that screaming sounded like a cub.
And I’d never been able to ignore a cub in pain.
I I grabbed my shawl and ran.
Chapter 1.
The beast.
The royal barracks were in absolute chaos.
I’d never seen anything like it.
Elite guards, men who’d fought in wars, who’d trained since childhood to protect the Alpha King, were scattered across the stone floor like broken toys.
Some were bleeding.
Some were unconscious.
All of them looked terrified.
In the center of the room, surrounded by shredded iron chains and splintered wood, a cub, not a normal cub.
This one was maybe four years old in human terms.
But he’d shifted into wolf form, and something had gone catastrophically wrong.
He was huge, far too large for his age.
His black fur was matted with blood, some his own, most from the guards who’ tried to restrain him.
His eyes were wild, feral.
No recognition in them.
No humanity, just animal rage and fear.
So he lunged at another guard.
The man barely got his shield up in time.
The cub’s claws, impossibly long, impossibly sharp, tore through the metal like paper.
“Fall back!” someone shouted.
Everyone fall back.
The guards retreated.
The cub stood in the center of the destruction, chest heaving, lips pulled back in a snarl and watching from the doorway with an expression of absolute anguish.
Alpha King Rowan.
I’d seen the king before.
From a distance, always distant, always cold, always perfect.
This man looked nothing like that king.
This man looked destroyed.
His hands were shaking.
His eyes were red.
And when the cubs snarled again, the king flinched like he’d been struck.
“Kieran,” he said quietly.
“Please, it’s me.
It’s Papa.
Please remember the cub.
” Kieran lunged at him.
The king didn’t move.
A guard threw himself between them at the last second, taking claws across his chest that should have killed him.
“Your majesty, get back.
” But the king didn’t move.
He just stared at the snarling cub with eyes full of so much pain I had to look away.
He doesn’t know me, the king said.
His voice was hollow.
My own son doesn’t know me.
The fever damaged his mind, Majesty, one of the guards said gently.
The healers said, “I don’t care what the healers said.
” The king’s voice cracked.
“Fix this.
Someone fix this.
” Another guard approached the cub carefully.
Easy, little prince.
We’re not going to hurt you.
Kieran attacked.
Blood splattered across stone.
I couldn’t watch anymore.
I stepped into the room.
Every head turned toward me.
Who the hell are you? Someone demanded.
No one, I said quietly.
So my voice shook.
I’m no one.
But may I try? Silence.
Then the king.
you.
I forced myself to look at him, to meet those ancient, exhausted eyes.
Please, your majesty, let me try.
You’re an omega.
He said it like a fact.
Not an insult, just recognition.
You have no authority here.
No training.
No, I know.
My hands were trembling.
But your guards have tried force.
They’ve tried chains.
They’ve tried everything strength can accomplish, and it hasn’t worked.
I looked at the cub, at Kieran, at the small, terrified creature buried underneath all that feral rage.
Maybe what he needs isn’t strength, I said softly.
Maybe he needs something gentler.
He’ll kill you, the king said flatly.
Probably.
I took a step forward.
But he’s a cub, and I can’t I can’t watch a cub suffer when I might be able to help.
Why? The king’s eyes were burning into mine.
Why would you risk your life for a child you don’t know? Because I knew what it felt like to be lost.
To be terrified.
To have everyone around you see a monster instead of a person.
But I didn’t say that.
Because someone has to, I said simply.
The king stared at me for a long moment.
Then he stepped aside.
If he kills you, he said quietly.
I’m sorry.
I walked toward the cub.
Every guard tensed, hands on weapons, ready to intervene.
But they didn’t stop me.
Kieran watched me approach with those wild, feral eyes.
His lips pulled back from teeth too sharp for a cub his age.
A warning growl built in his chest.
I stopped 10 ft away and I started to sing.
Want to know what happens when an outcast omega sings a forbidden lullabi to a feral prince? Stay with me because what happens next will change everything you think you know about this kingdom.
Chapter 2.
The lullabi.
The song came from somewhere deep.
Somewhere I’d buried years ago when my parents died and the court declared their bloodline tainted.
It was old.
Older than the kingdom.
Older than the current royal line.
My grandmother had sung it to me when I was small.
Before the accusations, before the executions, before I became the invisible ghost haunting the palace corridors.
Hush now, Moonchild, lay down your fight.
The stars are singing to call you tonight.
The words were in the old tongue.
The language that had been spoken before the kingdom split as before the war that created the current power structure.
A language that was supposed to be dead, forbidden, forgotten.
Close your eyes, little wolf.
Your battle is done.
The moon will protect you till rise of the sun.
Kieran’s growling stopped, his head tilted.
Those wild eyes fixed on me with sudden intense focus.
I kept singing, kept my voice soft, kept every movement slow and non-threatening.
Sleep now in safety.
Sleep now in peace.
The old blood will guard you till sorrow shall cease.
The cub took a step toward me.
Behind me, I heard guards shifting, preparing to intervene.
Don’t move, the king said quietly.
Nobody move.
I knelt down, made myself smaller, less threatening, held out my hand.
Moonchild, you’re precious Moonchild.
You’re mine.
The ancient ones claim you.
By blood and by line, Kieran whimpered.
Not a growl, not a snarl, a whimper.
The sound of a small, frightened child who’d been lost in the dark, and finally heard someone calling him home.
He took another step, then another.
His eyes were changing.
Still gold, that perfect royal gold that marked the king’s bloodline.
But less feral, more aware, more there.
I kept singing.
Rest now, heart’s treasure.
Rest now, souls light.
The moon holds her children, safe through the night.
Kieran walked right up to me, pressed his small wolf nose against my outstretched palm, and shifted.
The transformation was instant, painful looking.
His small body convulsed as bones realigned.
Fur receded.
Claws became fingers.
Then a naked where a blood streaked four-year-old boy collapsed into my arms.
“Mama,” he whispered.
My heart stopped.
“I’m not I’m not your mama, sweetheart,” I said gently.
“But I’ve got you.
You’re safe now.
” “Where’s Mama?” His eyes, those beautiful gold eyes, were full of tears.
I want mama.
Where did mama go? I looked up at the king.
His face had gone absolutely white.
She’s His voice broke.
Your mama had to go away, Kieran.
But I’m here.
Papa’s here.
Kieran turned toward his father’s voice.
Recognition flickered across his small face.
Papa? Yes.
The king was moving forward slowly, like approaching something that might shatter.
Yes, it’s Papa.
I’m right here.
Kieran reached for him.
The king dropped to his knees and pulled his son into his arms with a sound that was half sobb, half prayer.
Thank the moon, he breathed.
Thank the moon.
You’re back.
You’re back.
Kieran clung to him.
I was lost, Papa.
I was lost in the dark and I couldn’t find the way back and everything hurt.
And Shh, I know.
I know, but you’re safe now.
The king rocked him gently.
You’re safe.
I started to stand to slip away before anyone remembered I was there.
Wait.
The king’s voice stopped me.
He was looking at me over Kieran’s small head.
His eyes were wet.
How did you do that? I I just sang to him, your majesty.
A lullabi my grandmother taught me in the old tongue.
It wasn’t a question.
Yes, your majesty.
A language that’s been dead for 300 years.
Yes, your majesty.
A language, he said very quietly, very carefully, that was spoken by the moon priests before they were hunted to extinction.
My blood turned to ice.
Every guard in the room had gone silent, staring at me.
Your majesty, I What’s your name? Mera, your majesty.
Your full name.
I swallowed hard.
Meera Silver Moon.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Silver Moon.
The king repeated.
His eyes were burning.
As in the last of the Moon Priest bloodline.
Yes, your Majesty.
My voice was barely a whisper.
My parents were executed 15 years ago for practicing the old magic, for trying to preserve the ancient ways.
The court declared our line extinct, but you survived.
I was eight, too young to be considered a threat.
I looked at the floor, so they let me live.
As long as I stayed invisible, as long as I never spoke the old tongue, never practiced the old ways.
He never reminded anyone that moon priest blood still existed.
Until today.
Until today, I agreed quietly.
The king stood still holding Kieran.
His eyes never left my face.
Do you know why your lullaby worked when everything else failed? No, your majesty.
Because Kieran isn’t just my son.
His voice was very quiet, very controlled.
But I heard the pain underneath.
He’s the queen’s son.
Queen Liria, who died three days ago.
The room spun.
Queen Liria, the beloved queen who’d died suddenly of a fever, who’d been a moon priest.
The secret the court had kept for six years.
She sang him that lullaby every night, the king continued in the old tongue, teaching him the language, teaching him the old ways, against every law, against every prohibition.
his jaw tightened.
And when she died, Aka when the fever took her, Kieran lost himself in grief.
Couldn’t find his way back.
His wolf form took over.
We thought the healers thought the trauma had broken his mind permanently.
He looked at his son, at the small boy who’d finally stopped crying and was watching our conversation with intelligent, aware eyes.
“But it wasn’t trauma,” the king said.
“It was grief.
He was calling for his mother in the only language she’d taught him to use for comfort.
And no one in this palace speaks it anymore.
No one could hear what he was asking for.
He turned back to me except you.
I didn’t know what to say.
Papa.
Kieran’s small voice broke the tension.
Is this the moon lady? The moon lady? Mama said she’d send me a moon lady if I ever got lost.
Kieran looked at me with those perfect gold eyes.
She said, “Moon ladies sing the old songs.
She said they help lost cubs find their way home.
” My throat closed.
“Your mama was very wise,” I managed.
“Can the moon lady stay?” Kieran asked his father.
“Please, I like her singing.
” The king’s eyes were still locked on mine.
“Can you,” he asked quietly.
“Stay? Help him.
Teach him the old ways his mother wanted him to know.
Your Majesty, I’m an Omega.
I’m nobody.
I have no training.
You brought my son back from madness by singing a lullaby.
His voice was rough.
You did what 20 elite guards couldn’t do.
What royal healers failed to accomplish.
What I He stopped, swallowed hard.
What I couldn’t do for my own child.
He took a step closer.
I don’t care if you’re an Omega.
I don’t care if you’re a servant.
I I don’t care if the court throws a fit.
His eyes were blazing.
You’re a moon priest.
The last moon priest.
And you just saved my son’s life.
I just sang.
You did more than sing.
You saw what he needed when everyone else saw a monster.
You risked your life to give him comfort.
He shifted Kieran in his arms.
Stay.
Please be his teacher.
Help him remember his mother’s songs.
Help him heal.
The court won’t allow it, I said quietly.
They barely tolerate my existence as it is.
If I start openly practicing the old ways, let me worry about the court.
Your majesty.
Rowan.
His voice was soft.
When we’re alone, you call me Rowan.
Not your majesty.
Not sire.
Just Rowan.
I stared at him.
Why? Because you saved my son.
Because you risked everything with nothing to gain.
He paused.
Because you’re the first person in six years who didn’t look at him and see a political asset.
You saw a frightened cub.
And you helped him.
Kieran was falling asleep in his father’s arms, exhausted from three days of terror.
Will you stay? Rowan asked again.
Please.
I thought about the tiny servants’s chamber I’d been living in for 15 years.
I thought about being invisible, being nobody, being the shameful reminder of a bloodline the court wanted erased.
I thought about the way Kieran had called me moon lady like it was something precious.
I’ll stay, I said quietly.
You think you know where this story is going? You think the secret ends with the cub? Wait until you hear what the queen whispered to the king before she died.
Wait until you discover why the moon priests were really hunted to extinction.
So stay with me because this secret goes deeper than you can imagine.
Chapter 3.
The truth.
They gave me chambers in the royal wing, not servants quarters.
Actual chambers with a bed that didn’t sag.
with windows that looked out over gardens, with tapestries and rugs and furniture that didn’t smell like must.
I stood in the center of my new rooms and tried to understand how my life had changed in the span of an hour.
A knock at the door.
Come in.
Rowan entered alone.
No guards, no attendants.
Just the king in simple clothes with exhaustion written across every line of his face.
He’s sleeping, he said quietly.
Finally, the healers checked him over.
A few cuts and bruises, but nothing serious.
He’ll be fine.
I’m glad.
He asked for you before he fell asleep.
Yeah.
Asked if the moon lady would be here when he woke up.
What did you tell him? I told him you would.
That you’d teach him his mother’s songs.
That you’d help him remember.
Rowan’s eyes found mine.
That was a promise I made on your behalf.
I apologize if I overstepped.
You didn’t.
I sat down carefully on the edge of the beautiful bed.
I meant what I said.
I’ll stay.
I’ll help him.
Rowan crossed to the window, stared out at the gardens.
Liria would have liked you, he said quietly.
Your majesty.
Rowan.
Rowan, I corrected carefully.
You don’t know me.
You can’t know if your queen would have she would have.
He turned to face me.
She spent six years trying to preserve the old ways in secret.
Teaching Kieran, teaching me, trying to keep the Moon Priest traditions alive.
His jaw tightened and the court hated her for it.
They knew.
They suspected.
There were incidents.
Times when her healing was too effective, times when she knew things she shouldn’t have been able to know.
times when Kieran showed abilities that normal cubs his age didn’t possess.
He moved back toward me.
The fever that killed her wasn’t natural,” he said quietly.
“I can’t prove it, but I know someone poisoned her.
Someone in this palace who wanted the Moon Priest bloodline truly extinct.
My blood ran cold.
” You think I think there are people in this court who were very happy when your parents were executed, who were very glad when the moon priests were hunted down and killed, who see the old magic as a threat to their power.
He sat down beside me on the bed.
And I think, he said very quietly, those same people just realized they missed one.
a young, untrained moon priest who should have been easy to overlook, who they thought was too broken to ever be a threat.
I’m not a threat, I said.
I don’t even know how to use the magic.
My parents died before they could teach me.
All I have are a few songs, and you calmed a feral cub with a lullabi.
You did what royal healers and elite guards couldn’t accomplish.
His eyes were intense.
You think that’s not magic? That was just I just sang to him.
That’s not the old tongue has power, Mera.
Real power.
It’s why the moon priests were hunted.
It’s why the court wanted them dead.
He took my hand.
It’s why someone killed my wife.
And it’s why you’re in danger now that everyone knows what you are.
I wanted to pull away, to run, to hide.
But his hand was warm in mine, and his eyes were desperate.
“I can’t protect Kieran alone,” he said quietly.
“The fever damaged something in him.
He’s not stable yet.
He could lose himself again.
And if he does, if I can’t bring him back, they’ll declare him unfit.
They’ll say he’s mad.
They’ll lock him away or worse.
” His grip tightened.
But you brought him back once.
You can do it again.
You can teach him the old songs.
Help him control what’s happening to him.
Keep him safe in exchange for what? Protection, status, whatever you need to stay alive and help my son.
And when the court objects, they won’t.
His voice went hard.
Because I’ll make it very clear that anyone who threatens you threatens the crown prince’s only chance at survival, and threatening my son is treason.
I looked at our joined hands.
You’re asking me to step back into the light, to stop being invisible, to claim my heritage openly.
Yes.
That could get me killed.
I know.
He met my eyes.
And I’m asking anyway because I’m desperate.
Because I’ve already lost my wife.
Because I can’t lose my son, too.
There it was.
The raw truth.
A king begging an Omega to save his child.
“If I do this,” I said slowly, “if I openly claim Moon Priest blood and teach Kieran the old ways, the court will come for me.
You know they will.
Let them try.
” His eyes were burning.
You’ll have my protection, the crown’s protection.
Anyone who touches you answers to me.
“That might not be enough.
Then I’ll make it enough.
” He raised my hand to his lips, pressed a kiss to my knuckles that sent electricity through my entire body.
“Please, Meera, save my son.
I I’ll give you anything.
Everything.
Just please don’t let him disappear into the dark again.
” The mate bond snapped into place.
I felt it like a physical blow, like something grabbing my chest and yanking hard.
Rowan gasped, dropped my hand like it had burned him.
“Did you?” Yes, I breathed.
I felt it.
We stared at each other.
That’s not possible, he said.
I’m already mated.
The bond doesn’t It can’t.
To who? To Lia.
My wife.
My queen.
The bond doesn’t just transfer.
When he stopped, his eyes went wide.
Unless.
Unless what? Unless she knew.
His voice was barely a whisper.
unless she planned this.
He stood abruptly, paced to the window and back.
Three days before she died, Liria made me promise something.
She said, “If I don’t survive this fever, you’ll find another mate.
You’ll know her when you see her.
Trust the moon’s choice.
” He looked at me.
I thought she was delirious, rambling.
But what if what if she knew someone was going to kill her? I said slowly.
What if she knew I existed? What if she What if she chose you? Rowan’s eyes were blazing.
A moon priest to replace a moon priest.
Someone who could protect Kieran when she couldn’t.
Someone who could teach him what she wouldn’t live to teach.
That’s impossible.
How would she even know about me? Moon priests know things.
He crossed back to me, took my hands.
Liria knew things all the time.
visions, prophecies.
She saw the future in ways I couldn’t understand.
He pulled me to my feet.
And she chose you.
I’m sure of it now.
She chose you to be Kieran’s teacher, to be my mate, to finish what she started.
I can’t replace her.
I’m not asking you to replace her.
I’m asking you to honor her choice, to help her son, to stand beside me as Luna.
His voice dropped.
to let me protect you the way I failed to protect her.
The mate Bond was singing now, demanding undeniable.
This is insane, I whispered.
Probably, he smiled slightly.
But I’ve learned that the moon’s plans usually are.
The court will never accept an Omega Luna, especially not a moon priest.
Then the court can learn to adapt.
His thumb stroked my hand.
I’m done letting them dictate who matters, who has value, who deserves protection.
He pulled me closer.
Liria loved me despite the court’s objections, despite the danger, despite everything.
His forehead touched mine.
She was brave, fierce, absolutely unstoppable when she decided something mattered.
I’m not brave.
You walked into a room full of armed guards to sing to a feral cub.
You claimed moon priest blood knowing it could get you killed.
His eyes found mine.
You’re the bravest person I know.
Rowan.
He kissed me, gentle, questioning, full of grief and hope and desperation.
I kissed him back and felt the mate bond lock into place.
Perfect.
Right.
Inevitable.
Say yes, he whispered against my mouth.
Say you’ll stay.
Say you’ll be his teacher.
Say you’ll be my mate.
Say you’ll help me change this kingdom into something better.
Yes, I breathed.
Yes to all of it.
Epilogue.
6 months later.
The coronation took place under the full moon.
The court was scandalized.
An Omega Luna.
A moon priest openly claiming her heritage.
A king who’d taken a new mate.
only months after his queen’s death.
They whispered, they plotted.
They objected.
Rowan ignored them all.
I stood beside him in silver robes embroidered with moon symbols.
The Luna’s crown, Liria’s crown, sat on my head.
She’d asked for this, planned this, chosen this.
I was honoring her wishes.
Kieran stood at our feet in formal robes, singing the old lullabi in a clear, perfect voice, teaching the court the language they’d tried to erase.
The language that would never die now.
Not while Kieran lived.
Not while I taught others.
After the ceremony, Rowan pulled me aside.
Thank you, he said quietly, for saving him.
For staying, for being brave when I needed you most.
Thank you for seeing me.
for giving me a voice, for making my bloodline matter again.
He kissed my forehead.
Yria would be proud, he said.
Of both of us.
I hope so.
I know so, he smiled.
Because she visits my dream sometimes.
And last night she told me, “You chose well.
Protect her.
Love her.
Let her change the kingdom.
” Tears stung my eyes.
I’ll try to be worthy of that.
You already are.
Kieran ran up and grabbed both our hands.
Can we go see the moon garden, Mamra? Papa said we could if the ceremony didn’t take too long.
Mama Mera, I would never get used to that.
Never stopped feeling the fierce joy of being claimed by this small, perfect cub.
Of course, moonchild, let’s go.
We walked together through the palace gardens.
A king, a Luna, and a small boy who carried two moon priests blood in his veins.
The court would adapt, or they would learn what happened when they threatened a moon priest’s family.
Either way, the old ways were back, and this time they were here to stay.
