Page 59 of Once You Go Pack
But he was already turning away, his broad shoulders rigid with dismissal. “Find your way back to Earth, Mila. There’s nothing for you here.”
The vision felt so real she could smell the fear-sweat of the pack members and feel the cold stone beneath her feet. Every fiber of her being screamed that this was happening and that she’d lost everything.
Meanwhile, next to her in this cavern’s twisted reality, Cade faced his own nightmare. Mila lay lifeless in his arms, her golden hair matted with blood, her blue eyes staring sightlessly at the darkened moons above. His claws were extended and bloody—he had done this. His wolf had broken free and had finally hurt the one person he’d sworn to protect.
“I told you this would happen,” his father’s voice echoed around him, cold with disappointment. “You’re too dangerous to love anyone. Too much wolf, not enough control.”
The trial’s magic escalated, feeding their fears back into each other. Mila’s vision shifted—now she saw Cade not as the man she loved, but as a monstrous wolf, his eyes glowing with predatory hunger as he stalked toward her. His growl reverberated through her bones, primal and terrifying.
“Stay back!” she cried, stumbling backward. “I don’t know you like this!”
In his own nightmare, Cade’s wolf watched helplessly as Mila ran away from him into blinding light, growing smaller and more distant with each step. He called her name, but his voice came out as an animalistic growl that sent her fleeing faster.
Their mate bond flickered under the emotional overload, the connection that had sustained them both for the past two weeks growing thin and fragile. The trial was designed to break them, and to prove they weren’t strong enough to lead together.
“Mila!” Cade’s voice echoed again across the void between their visions, but it sounded distorted, more wolf than man.
For a moment, fear overwhelmed her. The sound was alien and dangerous—nothing like the gentle lover who’d held her through the night. She almost didn’t respond, almost let the terror consume her completely.
But then Lyra’s words echoed in her mind:“Anchor to the truth, not the illusion.”
Mila closed her eyes, pressing her hand to her mate mark. The scar pulsed with warmth, real and constant despite the chaos around her. Through it, she felt him and the bond they had forged through fire—it was strained but unbroken, flickering but alive.
The truth,she reminded herself fiercely.What’s the truth?
The truth was that Cade had never once made her feel small or unwanted. The truth was that his wolf had recognized her as his mate before his human side had even accepted it. The truth was that he’d chosen her again and again, even when it would have been easier to walk away.
And suddenly, impossibly, she knew something else—something that had never been spoken between them but lived in her blood, in the ancestral knowledge awakening within her.
“Cade Aldren Kael Dravik!” she called out, her voice ringing with newfound authority.
His full name—one he’d never told her, but somehow she knew it now, felt it burning in her consciousness like a brand. The ancient power in her blood recognized his lineage, his true nature, and his destined sovereignty.
The effect was immediate. The illusions vanished as her voice cut through the magical chaos like a blade of pure will.
There was Cade standing before her, real and human and visibly shaken. He looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. She ran to him and wrapped her arms around him tightly, never wanting to let go.
“You did it, Mila. We beat the Moonfire Trial,” he whispered against her hair.
TWENTY-TWO
CADE
The ancient Moonfire energy responded to their reconnection like a living entity awakening from slumber, recognizing their unity after the fear-based visions had nearly severed their mate bond entirely.
Golden light erupted around them, not harsh or blinding, but warm and encompassing—wrapping them in luminous threads that pulsed in rhythm with their heartbeats. Cade pulled Mila closer against his chest. But the energy didn’t feel threatening; it felt like coming home.
Two souls, one destiny.
The whispered words seemed to echo from the crystalline walls themselves, spoken by voices that belonged to neither past nor present but something eternal. Cade’s breath caught as the golden light intensified, and suddenly they weren’t alone in the cave anymore.
Two spirits materialized before them—translucent but undeniably real. A woman with Mila’s golden hair and determined blue eyes stood beside a tall, broad-shouldered man whose green eyes and commanding presence marked him unmistakably as Cade’s ancestor. The woman wore simple butelegant robes, while the man bore the royal markings of an Ice Moon king.
“Celeste Aylward,” Mila whispered, and somehow Cade knew she was right.
They showed Cade and Mila another vision of a time centuries past—Celeste working alongside the widowed wolf king, building bridges between human settlements and shifter territories. Not as mates, but as partners united by a shared vision of peace. Her compassion tempering his strength, his protection enabling her courage.
She came from Earth, just like you,Cade realized, awe flooding through him.She chose to leave everything behind to build something greater.
