Shocking News

The restlessness in my bones wouldn't let me sit still. I paced across my bedroom, hands running through my hair for the dozenth time. Outside my window, darkness had fallen over Silver Moon territory, and the full moon hanging in the sky seemed to mock me with its perfection.

Tomorrow I'd turn twenty-one. The official age when an Alpha heir fully steps into their power.

But instead of feeling excited, I felt... hollow.

"Rhys? May I come in?" My mother's voice came through the door, soft yet commanding as always.

"Yeah," I called back, quickly composing myself.

The door opened, and Luna Cassandra Knight stepped in, elegant even in simple house clothes. Her dark eyes—the same ones I'd inherited—took in my disheveled appearance with quiet concern.

"I brought you some tea," she said, placing a steaming mug on my nightstand. "You seemed agitated at dinner."

I let out a dry laugh. "That obvious, huh?"