Writer's POV*
"No." Maeve's voice cut through the panicked voices like a knife. Everyone in the study stopped talking and stared at her. "I'm not running away, and I'm not surrendering."
"Maeve, your mother is dying," Ash said desperately. "We have to do something!"
"We will." Maeve stood up, her hands clenched into fists. "But not the way Kieran expects." She looked around at the shocked faces of the triplets and Liam. "I'm going to the Shadow Pack. But I'm not going as his granddaughter or his prisoner."
"Then how?" Cade asked.
Maeve lifted her chin. "I'm going as the Luna of the Valoran Pack."
The silence that followed was so complete, Maeve could hear her own heartbeat.
"That's impossible," Raiden said quietly. "You can't be Luna without—"
"Without the ceremony," Maeve finished. "Then let's have one. Right now."
Alpha Braden stepped forward, his eyes wide. "Maeve, you can't be serious. A Luna ceremony takes weeks to plan."
"We don't have weeks," Maeve snapped. "We have hours. My mother is dying, and Kieran thinks he holds all the cards. But he doesn't know what I found in that room." She held up the birth certificate. "I'm not just his heir. I'm the rightful Alpha of both packs."
"Even if that's true," Liam said carefully, "claiming that power could start a war bigger than anything we've seen."
"Good," Maeve said fiercely. "Let them all know that I'm not some scared little girl they can push around anymore."
---
Thirty minutes later, the pack hall was full again. But this time, instead of angry shouting, there was stunned silence.
Maeve stood at the front of the room, flanked by the three triplets. Alpha Braden held an ancient book—the ceremonial text used for Luna ceremonies.
"This is madness," Beta Thomas muttered from the crowd.
"This is brilliant," Elder Margaret corrected him, her old eyes twinkling. "The girl has more spine than any of us gave her credit for."
"Are you sure about this?" Ash whispered to Maeve. "Once we do the ceremony, there's no going back."
Maeve looked at him, then at Cade and Raiden. These three boys who had turned her world upside down. Who were willing to fight a war for her. Who made her feel like she was worth something.
"I'm sure," she said.
What happened next had never been done before in the history of werewolf packs.
Alpha Braden began reading from the ancient text. "Do you, Maeve Blackthorne, accept the responsibility of Luna? Do you promise to protect this pack with your life?"
"I do," Maeve said, her voice strong.
"Do you, Ash Valoran, accept this woman as your Luna and mate?"
"I do," Ash said, stepping forward to take her left hand.
"Do you, Cade Valoran, accept this woman as your Luna and mate?"
"I do," Cade said, taking her right hand.
The pack gasped. No Luna had ever been mated to two Alphas before.
"Do you, Raiden Valoran, accept this woman as your Luna and mate?"
"I do," Raiden said, placing his hands on her shoulders from behind.
The moment all four of them were connected, something incredible happened.
Power exploded through Maeve like lightning. But this wasn't the gentle warmth she'd felt before. This was raw, electric energy that made her whole body glow with blue light.
The mate bond didn't just connect her to one of the triplets—it connected her to all three. And through them, she could feel the entire pack. Every heartbeat, every breath, every emotion.
But more than that, she could feel something else. Power calling to power. In the distance, she sensed other supernatural beings turning toward their location. Vampires, witches, other packs—they all felt what had just happened.
A Luna bonded to three Alphas had created something the supernatural world had never seen before.
"By the moon's witness," Alpha Braden's voice was filled with awe, "I present Luna Maeve Valoran."
The pack erupted. Some cheered, some gasped, some looked terrified. But they all bowed.
All except one.
"This is wrong!" Calla's voice rang out from the back of the room. She pushed through the crowd, her face twisted with rage. "She's not one of us! She's Shadow Pack!"
"Calla, enough," her father warned.
But Calla wasn't listening. "You want to know the truth? I've been talking to the Shadow Pack for weeks! They told me what she really is!"
The hall went dead silent.
Maeve felt like she'd been punched in the stomach. "What did you just say?"
Calla's eyes were wild, desperate. "They contacted me first! They knew about your heritage before any of us did. They've been watching you for months!"
"You've been spying for them?" Ash's voice was deadly quiet.
"I was protecting the pack!" Calla screamed. "She doesn't belong here! She never did!"
But as Calla spoke, Maeve realized something horrible. "The night attacks," she whispered. "The wolves with red eyes watching my house. You told them where to find me."
Calla's face crumpled. "I thought... I thought if they took you away, things would go back to normal. Ash would choose me instead."
"You put her mother in danger," Raiden said, his voice like ice.
"I didn't know they would take her mother!" Calla sobbed. "I just wanted her gone!"
The pack was in chaos again. People were shouting, some at Calla, some at Maeve, some at the triplets.
But Maeve wasn't listening to any of them. The power flowing through her was getting stronger, and with it came knowledge. She could sense things she'd never been able to sense before.
"There's more," she said, her voice cutting through the noise. Everyone went quiet. "Calla, what else did you tell them?"
"Nothing! I swear!"
But Maeve could feel the lie. The mate bond was showing her things, true things. "You told them about our defenses. About pack patrol schedules."
Calla's face went white.
"You told them about the hidden passages into the territory," Maeve continued, the knowledge flowing through her like water. "And you told them something else. Something about tonight."
"Maeve," Liam said urgently, "what are you sensing?"
Maeve closed her eyes, letting the power guide her. Images flashed through her mind—Shadow Pack wolves moving through the forest, getting closer. Kieran's scarred face twisted in a cruel smile. And her mother...
Her mother wasn't dying. She was bait.
"It's a trap," Maeve breathed. "The message about my mother—it was fake. Kieran isn't waiting until dawn. He's attacking tonight."
"That's impossible," Alpha Braden said. "Our scouts would have—"
A howl echoed through the night, cutting off his words. Then another. And another.
They were surrounded.
"How many?" Ash demanded, his Alpha instincts taking over.
Maeve reached out with her new senses, counting the hostile presences circling their territory. Her blood turned to ice.
"All of them," she whispered. "The entire Shadow Pack is here."
"That's over two hundred wolves," Liam said grimly.
"Against our sixty," Alpha Braden added.
But as the pack members started to panic, Maeve felt something else through the mate bond. Strength. Determination. The triplets weren't afraid—they were ready to fight.
And so was she.
"Let them come," she said, her voice carrying to every corner of the hall. "I'm done running. I'm done hiding. If Kieran wants a war, he'll get one."
The hall doors burst open. A Shadow Pack messenger stepped inside, his red eyes glowing in the darkness.
"Luna Maeve," he said with a mocking bow. "Alpha Kieran requests your immediate presence. Come alone, or watch your pack burn."
But as Maeve stepped forward to answer, she noticed something that made her blood freeze.
Calla was gone.
And so was the ceremonial book containing all the ancient pack secrets.