I was bitten twice in my life. The first time I was seven hours old and I didn't cry. The second time I was eighteen years old, and the thing that bit me knelt. My mother always said I was born under a curse. She only told the story once a year, on my birthday, and she whispered it like the wind would punish her for remembering. "It was the night the second moon came, Aria Vale," she would say, touching the small blue crescent scar behind my left ear. "The sky had two moons. One white like bone. One blue like a bruise. No one had ever seen the blue one before. The elders said the Goddess made a mistake. That night something came down from Blackthorn Mountain. It went into the valley and bit seven human babies in their cribs. Seven. Six died before sunrise. You lived. You didn't even cry. Don't ask me again." The scar was small. A perfect blue crescent, hidden by my thick dark hair. It never hurt. Until tonight. Tonight is my eighteenth birthday. And the second moon is back. I saw it from my window. Everyone saw it. Our normal moon was big and silver. And right next to it, smaller, brighter, was the blue one. Too close. Too wrong. The dogs stopped barking at the same second. The chickens went silent. In the forest beyond the river, the wolves who always howl on full moons went completely silent. The world held its breath. And my scar started to burn like fire. I pressed my palm to it. It was pulsing like a second heartbeat. Like it was beating in time with the blue moon. "Don't go out, Aria!" my mother screamed when I grabbed my coat. "They said the biter returns when the second moon returns!" I should have listened. But the burn was too much. I needed cold water. I have always been human. Weak human. In a valley where half the men shift into wolves on full moons and can run faster than horses, I was nothing. I couldn't shift. I couldn't heal. I was the girl who survived the bite, which made everyone think I was tainted, cursed. No pack would ever want me. No boy would ever kiss me. So I ran to my river. My secret place. The forest was wrong tonight. Too quiet. The air smelled like ozone and wet fur. The moonlight was not silver. It was blue. Everything it touched turned blue - the leaves, the moss, the water. Beautiful and terrifying. And I felt it. Something watching me. Something that had been waiting eighteen years. I turned slowly. It was standing at the tree line. It was not a normal wolf. It was taller than a man on all fours. Black fur that drank the moonlight. Eyes that were silver-white and too intelligent. Too old. This was the thing from my mother's stories. The thing that bit babies. It looked at my neck. At my scar. Then it moved. One second it was twenty feet away. The next its teeth were on my neck, in the exact same place as my scar. I expected pain. I expected to finally die like the other six babies. Instead, light exploded behind my eyes. My blood didn't feel like blood. It felt like ice and fire and moonlight all at once. My back arched off the moss. My mouth opened but no sound came out. Only blue light. Brilliant, blinding blue light poured out of me. My heart stopped. Then started again, but different. Slower. Stronger. Like a drum. Like a wolf's heart. When the light faded, the creature was still holding me. But it was shaking. Trembling. I saw my reflection in its silver eyes. My eyes were no longer brown. They were glowing blue. Pure, luminous, terrifying blue. Like the second moon itself had fallen into them. They glowed so bright they lit up the whole clearing. "What did you do to me?" I whispered. My voice sounded strange. Like two voices at once. And then the most impossible thing happened. The creature, an Alpha larger than any wolf in our valley, larger than any wolf in the Northern Territories, slowly lowered its massive head. And knelt. It bent its front legs. It put its head down in the moss at my feet. A whimper left its throat - not anger, but submission. Worship. I knew wolves. One law every human and wolf knows: Alphas do not kneel. Ever. They would rather die. Kneeling is death for an Alpha. "Stop," I said without meaning to, just to see if I was dreaming. It stopped breathing instantly. My hands flew to my mouth. "No! Breathe! Please breathe!" It gasped and started breathing again, still kneeling. Oh Goddess. The stories were wrong. I wasn't cursed because I survived. I survived because the bite was meant for me. It was waiting for me to grow up. A twig snapped behind me, loud as a gunshot. The kneeling creature spun, snarling, putting its huge body between me and the sound. Protecting me like a queen. From the shadows, a man walked out. No. Not a man. I had never seen him close but every girl in the valley knew his name and whispered it like a prayer and a warning. Alpha Kael Blackthorn. He was shirtless despite the cold, black pants low on his hips, tattoos covering his chest and neck - marks of all the Alphas he had killed. His hair was black and long, his eyes amber, his face beautiful like a knife. Sharp and merciless. He was twenty-four, the most ruthless Alpha in the north. He had sworn to never take a Luna because his mother, a human, was murdered by humans. He hated humans. His wolf had never chosen a mate. He had never bowed to anyone, not even the Lycan King. He looked at the creature kneeling at my feet. Then at me. His nostrils flared. He scented me. And his amber eyes turned black. His wolf was coming forward. "You," he said, his voice low and rough. "What are you?" I couldn't answer. My glowing blue eyes were locked on his. For the first time in his life, Alpha Kael Blackthorn felt his knees get weak. His wolf, the wolf that had never bowed to anyone, whispered one word in his head that made his blood run cold and hot. Mine. "Mine?" Kael growled out loud, angry at his own wolf. "She is human. Nothing." The creature at my feet growled back at him, possessive. Kael took one step closer through the blue moss. Then another. The blue moonlight made his tattooed skin glow. He was close enough that I could see the small scar on his bottom lip. Close enough to smell pine and smoke and Alpha power. He reached out and grabbed the kneeling creature by the scruff and threw it aside like it was nothing. The creature yelped and ran into the trees, whimpering, but stayed at the edge, watching me. Now it was just me and him. And I was still glowing. "Your eyes," he said. "Humans don't have eyes like that. Humans don't make Alphas kneel." "I'm human," I whispered, but I didn't believe it anymore. He inhaled again, his gaze dropping to my neck, to the fresh bite mark that was glowing blue, bleeding light instead of blood. "No," he said softly, dangerously. "You are not." His large hand shot out and grabbed my chin, tilting my face up to the second moon. His touch burned like ice. "Do you know what you did?" he whispered, his amber eyes searching my glowing ones. "Do you know what you made him do? Do you know what that means?" "He knelt..." "Alphas do not kneel," he snarled. "Ever. We die first. So tell me, little monster, what are you that makes Alphas kneel with one word?" I didn't know. But my mouth opened and a word came out that wasn't mine. A word in a language I had never learned, old and powerful and blue. It sounded like wind and wolves and bells. A word of command. Kael's entire body went rigid like he was struck by lightning. His amber eyes flared wide. His knees buckled violently. And Alpha Kael Blackthorn, the ruthless Alpha who had never bowed to anyone in twenty-four years of ruthless life, who had sworn to never take a Luna, whose wolf had never chosen - Fell to his knees in the blue moss at my feet, his head bowed, his big hands fisted on the ground, submitting to me completely. The forest was silent. The second moon was bright above us, watching. I could hear both our hearts pounding - his fast and furious, mine slow and powerful and new. He looked up at me from his knees. His black eyes were full of shock, fury, awe, and something else that terrified me more than fury - something like unwilling love. Something like fate. His voice was broken, hoarse, reverent, and furious when he said the words that would haunt us both forever. "Command me again, little Second Moon, and I will have to kill you before you make me love you. Because if you make me love you, I will never let you go. And the six Alphas who were bitten with you as babies? They are already coming for you. They remember your scent. They want what I want. And I found you first. You are mine now, whether you want to be or not. Say you understand".

I didn't say I understand. I couldn't. My throat was glowing too bright to speak. My blood was blue light now, running in rivers under my skin. My whole body was shaking, not from cold, from power. Kael was still on his knees at my feet, his head bowed, his big tattooed hands fisted in the blue moss. The most ruthless Alpha in the north was kneeling for me, and his wolf was purring. Yes. Purring. I could hear it in his chest. "Kael," I whispered, terrified. "Get up. Please." "You commanded me," he said, his voice low and broken, not looking up. "You used the old tongue. The Luna Vox. No one has spoken it in a thousand years. The second moon language." "I don't even know what I said!" "You said _kneel_," he snarled, and finally looked up at me. His amber eyes were black at the edges. "In a language that makes Alphas obey. Do you have any idea what you are?" "No!" He stood up in one violent movement and grabbed my chin again, tilting my face to the second moon. The blue light made his face look like a god's. "Then listen, little human who is not human anymore. That thing that bit you as a baby - it wasn't a curse. It was a choosing. Seven babies were bitten. Six boys. One girl. You. The six boys didn't die. The bite turned them. They became the first second-moon wolves in a thousand years. They were taken to the mountains. Raised as Alphas. And they have been waiting for you to turn eighteen. For the second moon to return. Because the legend says the second moon is female. It only gives its power to a female. A Queen who can command Alphas." My knees went weak. "Six?" "Six Alphas who share your blood. Who remember your baby scent. Who felt you awaken tonight when you made me kneel. The power you used - it went through the bond. All second wolves are connected. They felt their brother kneel." As if to prove his words, the wind shifted. And I smelled them. Six scents, from six different directions in the forest. Pine and blood. Smoke and ice. Leather and storm. All Alpha. All coming closer. All hunting. I gasped and stumbled back. Kael caught me. "You smell them now, don't you?" he whispered against my ear. "Your wolf is waking up. She smells her brothers." "I don't have a wolf!" "You do now." The blue light on my neck was spreading. Down my chest, down my arms. My veins were glowing blue. It hurt. Goddess, it hurt like my blood was boiling and freezing at the same time. I cried out and grabbed Kael's arms. "It hurts! It burns!" His face changed. The fury left. Real fear came in. "The light is killing you," he said. "Your human body can't hold it. The first bite marked you. The second bite woke it. But you haven't finished the change. If you don't shift or get turned fully, you will burn by sunrise." "Turned? Like... turned into a wolf?" "Or die human." I looked at his amber eyes, tears of blue light falling down my cheeks. "Will you help me?" He stared at my glowing tears for a long second. Then he did something I didn't expect. He picked me up. One arm under my knees, one around my back, like I was his bride. "Hold on, Second Moon." And he ran. I have never felt speed like that in my life. The forest became a blue blur. Trees became streaks. He jumped over a fallen log ten feet high. He jumped over my river in one leap. His bare feet made no sound. He was so fast my eyes watered, and I was glowing in his arms like a lantern, lighting his way. We broke through the tree line and I saw Blackthorn for the first time. It wasn't a village. It was a mountain fortress. Huge black stone walls built into Blackthorn Mountain itself. Fires everywhere. Wolves on the walls, howling. Not the scared silent wolves of my valley - real, huge, alive wolves. Hundreds. And men, big tattooed men with amber eyes, stopping to stare at their Alpha carrying a glowing girl. "ALPHA!" someone shouted. "What is that light?" "Get Mara! Get the witch! NOW!" Kael roared, not stopping. The gates opened before he even reached them. He ran through the crowd, through the staring pack, into the biggest stone house at the center. His house. He kicked open a heavy wooden door and put me down on a huge bed covered in black furs. The room smelled like him - pine and smoke and Alpha and man. I was shaking badly now. The blue was everywhere on my skin. "Kael," I whimpered, grabbing his hand. "Am I going to die on my birthday?" "No," he said fiercely, kneeling beside the bed - this time because he chose to, not because I made him - and holding my glowing hands in his hot ones. "Not while I'm breathing. You are mine to protect now. Even if you hate me for it later." The door slammed open. An old woman walked in, blind, white eyes, face covered in blue tattoos. She smelled like herbs and old magic. "What did you bring me, Kael Blackthorn, that glows so bright even my blind eyes can see it from the kitchen?" she croaked. "A second moon girl, Mara. The legend. Bitten twice. She made me kneel." The old woman went completely still. Then she moved fast, too fast for an old woman, to the bed. She touched my glowing face with cold hands. And she gasped and fell to her knees too. "Moon Goddess," she whispered. "The Queen has returned after a thousand years." "Mara, help her! The light is killing her!" Kael snapped, but he didn't let go of my hands. Mara leaned close to my ear, her blind eyes reflecting my blue glow, and whispered so only I could hear: "Child, you are not dying. You are shifting. For the first time in your life. And if you shift here, in his bed, under the second moon, your first howl will call all six of your brothers to this mountain. And they will burn Blackthorn to the ground to get to you. Because the first female second wolf in a thousand years does not belong to one Alpha. She belongs to all Alphas who share her blood. Or she belongs to none. And that boy holding your hands? He already thinks you belong to him. He is wrong." My eyes widened. Kael looked at Mara, then at me. "What did she say to you?" Before I could answer, it happened. From outside the fortress walls, from the dark blue forest, from the mountains, from six different directions - Six howls. At the same time. Long, deep, powerful Alpha howls that made the stone walls shake. That made every wolf in Blackthorn go silent and bow their heads. They had smelled his claim on me. They had smelled me shifting. They were coming. Kael stood up slowly, his hands still holding mine, his amber eyes turning black, his wolf rising to protect what was his. "They are fast," he whispered. "They will be at the walls before midnight." Mara looked at me, her blind face terrified. "Then, child," she said, "you have one hour to decide if you want to be their Queen... or their war."

I opened my mouth to scream and blue fire came out instead. It wasn't fire. It was light, but it burned like fire. It hit the stone ceiling of Kael's room and cracked it. The black furs on his bed started to glow where I lay. My back arched so hard I thought spine would snap. Kael grabbed me. "Mara! Do something!" Mara was already chanting, blind white eyes rolled back, blue face tattoos glowing. She threw white powder and it turned blue touching my skin. "She is shifting! First shift! Hold her down!" "I'm trying!" Kael shouted. He pinned both wrists above my head, body over mine. He was heavy, hot. Wolf fully out, amber eyes black, claws digging into headboard. "Don't look at me!" I cried. Teeth sharpening, nails turning to claws. "Look at me," he commanded, forehead to mine. "Aria, look at my eyes only." I looked. Amber. Only color not blue. "Tell me what you feel." "Like dying! Every bone breaking!" "You're not dying. You're becoming. I felt same at thirteen when I first shifted. It ends. I promise." "Will I be monster?" I sobbed. Tears blue. "No," he whispered. "You will be wolf. My kind of monster." Mara slammed cold wet cloth smelling like mud and moonflowers onto my neck, over bite bleeding light. I screamed and blue light came from eyes, nose, mouth at once. Room went white-blue. Then silence. Light sucked back into me, like moon inhaled. I collapsed, soaked in sweat glowing faintly. Kael let go slowly. Big hands shook. "Aria?" I opened eyes. Still blue, but deeper, luminous, like second moon trapped inside. And I could hear everything. Wolves on walls three floors down. Heartbeats of twenty men outside door. Kael's heart pounding like war drum above me. Mara's old slow heart. And something else. New heartbeat inside chest. Not one heart anymore. Two. One fast, human. One slow, powerful, wolf. Beating together. "Oh Goddess," Mara whispered, touching face. "She did it. Survived first shift without shifting skin." "What do you mean without shifting?" Kael asked hoarsely. "She is second moon wolf, Kael. Your wolves shift skin to fur, man to beast. Hers shifts inside. Kept human skin but has wolf inside now, fully awake. Feel pulse." Kael put tattooed hand on chest, over heart. Eyes widened. "Two hearts." "One girl, one wolf," Mara said. "Both awake. That is why bite didn't kill her as baby. Born to hold two souls." I sat up slowly. Body lighter, stronger, sharper. Could see cracks in stone across room. Could smell Kael clearly - pine, smoke, blood, something sweet underneath just for me. "What am I?" I whispered, voice echoing like two voices. Mara knelt. Not because I commanded. Because she wanted to. "You are what we thought extinct, child. Before first moon, before first Alpha, there was second moon every night. It made wolves who could command, not dominate. Wolves who were queens, not lunas. First moon Alphas like Kael feared them. Luna obeys Alpha, but Queen makes Alphas obey. So first Alphas hunted them, killed every female second wolf - mothers, daughters, babies - until only male line remained. Six boys, cursed to be Alphas but never have Queen. And you are first daughter born in thousand years. You are Mother of Second Wolves. You can make new second wolves with bite." I stared. "I can turn people?" "You turned Kael's Beta last month without knowing, didn't you, Kael?" Mara said quietly. Kael went rigid. "That was accident. He cut hand-" "And her glowing tear fell into his blood at river. Now eyes flash blue when angry. Yes?" Kael didn't answer, jaw tight. I looked at hands. Normal, but faint blue veins pulsing underneath. "I made someone like me? With tear?" "You are contagious, little Queen," Mara whispered. "Blood, tears, bite, command - they carry second moon. You don't know how to control any yet. That is why six are coming. Not just because you smell like sister, like blood. They want you because you can give them sons who are real second wolves, not just cursed Alphas. You can give them pack that never kneels to first moon Alphas or Lycan King again." Kael growled low. "She is eighteen. She just shifted five minutes ago. She is not giving anyone sons." Mara smiled sadly. "You say that because you already feel it, Alpha. Possessiveness. Madness. Second moon bond makes Alphas obsessed, more than normal mate bond. You marked neck with teeth an hour ago. You think she is yours. You would kill brothers for her." "I marked her as prisoner!" Kael snapped, but hand went to neck, gentle. "So others know she is in Blackthorn territory." "It doesn't matter what head calls it," Mara said. "Wolf calls it claiming. Wolf stronger than head now." Outside, six howls came again, closer. Window rattled with blue light. My new wolf ears heard each distinct voice. Six brothers. Kael went to window, back tense, tattoos flexing. "They are at river. Twenty minutes to gates." "What do we do?" I asked, pulling furs around me. "We do not open gates," Kael said. "Blackthorn never fallen. We never lost battle in three hundred years." "They are not coming for battle," Mara said. "They are coming for her. Keep her locked like prisoner, they will burn mountain to get her. They waited eighteen years for sister." Kael turned, looked at me in his furs, glowing faintly, blue eyes wide, dark hair messy, lips parted, neck glowing with his mark and old bite. For first time since meeting him in forest, I saw more than ruthless Alpha. I saw boy. Boy who was Alpha since sixteen. Boy who never had anything soft and scared of losing first soft thing he found. "Do you want to go to them?" he asked quietly. "I don't know them! I don't know you!" "I know," he said. "But they share your blood, curse, second moon. They will understand what is happening inside you better than I do. Better than Mara. They are like you. They have two hearts too." "And you?" I whispered. He walked back, knelt - on purpose, slowly, giving submission as gift, not forced - and took glowing hands. "I am Alpha who hates humans and you are no longer human. I am Alpha who swore never take Luna and you are not Luna. You are Queen. And my wolf has waited for Queen to kneel to since born. So I will not give you to them. Even if they burn mountain." He leaned, whispered against glowing mouth, not kissing, just breathing: "So command me to protect you. One more time. In language only you know. Give permission to fight six Alphas for you. If I do without command, pack thinks I mad for girl. But if Queen commands... then it is war, and war is honorable." I looked at mouth, amber eyes, scar on lip. My wolf inside - new second wolf - pushed forward, hard. She didn't want whisper. She wanted howl. She wanted claim. I opened mouth, and blue word came out, clear, ancient, powerful. Louder this time. Not just kneel. It was protect, fight, mine, forever. "Varkai Sora!" Kael shuddered like struck by lightning. Eyes rolled black then amber then black. Claws shot out. Tattoos glowed faint blue where tears touched before. "Yes, my Queen," he breathed, voice two voices - his and wolf's, both submitting. He stood, threw open heavy door, roared to entire fortress, whole pack, voice shaking mountain: "BLACKTHORN! WEAPONS! SIX ALPHAS COME TO STEAL OUR LIGHT! WE HOLD GATES! FOR SECOND MOON! FOR QUEEN!" Fortress exploded with answering howls. Not scared. Battle howls. Hundreds ready to die for Alpha's command. Mara grabbed arm, blind eyes wide with terror and awe. "Child, you just started first war with three words." Outside, six howls answered his roar with one united howl louder than all Blackthorn combined, howl that made blue moon pulse brighter. And I - still glowing in black furs, two hearts beating wild - realized I wasn't scared anymore. Human fear gone. I was angry. Wolf angry. They thought I belonged to someone. To Kael. To six brothers. To anyone. I belonged to no one. I was Queen they hunted to extinction. I was back. The blue moon outside pulsed with my anger, brighter, wilder, answering my wolf. The wind smelled like pine and battle and blood and destiny. Kael's hand tightened on mine like his wolf recognized its queen fully for the first time and would never let go ever again tonight. My power was no longer curse I feared but weapon I would learn to wield ruthlessly against anyone who dared claim me now. And I was going to make them all kneel, one by one, under second moon forever.