The cold morning air bit at Raina's skin as she stepped outside the stone cottage.
Everything was quiet — too quiet. No birds. No breeze. Just the soft crunch of dead leaves beneath her feet and the weight of everything she had lost.
She wasn't supposed to be here.
She should've been waking up as Kael's mate, standing proudly beside him as Luna. But instead, she stood alone, marked and humiliated, in a place she didn't understand, with a man she wasn't sure she trusted.
Theron watched her from the doorway. He didn't say a word.
"I don't belong here," she said, without turning.
"You didn't belong there either," he replied calmly.
His words dug in deeper than she wanted to admit.
"I'm not a queen," she said, finally facing him. "I'm a rejected mate with no pack, no family, no future."
"Then create one," Theron said. "Or let them bury you."
She blinked.
His words weren't cruel — they were honest. And somehow, that honesty hurt more than Kael's rejection.
He stepped closer. "You have two choices, Raina. Return to that pack and stay broken. Or come with me… and become the kind of woman who makes kings kneel."
She scoffed. "Sounds dramatic."
He didn't smile. "It is."
Raina folded her arms across her chest. "What's the catch?"
"Come with me. See the kingdom for yourself. No promises. No binding deals. Just… look."
Her wolf stirred.
Not in warning.
In curiosity.
By noon, they were riding through the frost-covered woods on horseback. Raina sat stiffly, her hands gripping the reins of the gray mare Theron had brought. She hadn't ridden in years, not since her father died in a rogue ambush. Her pack had stopped offering training to girls after that.
Theron rode beside her on a massive black stallion, silent but watchful.
"Why do you even want me?" she asked, staring at the trees. "There must be stronger she-wolves."
"There are," he said. "But strength isn't what I'm after."
"What, then? Pity?"
"Fire," he said. "Raina, you burned even while you were breaking. I've seen strong wolves fall apart under rejection. You're still standing."
"Barely."
"But standing."
They fell into silence again, but this time it wasn't heavy. It felt… balanced. Like the calm before a storm.
After hours of riding, the trees gave way to a rocky cliffside. Below, nestled in a valley of mist and silver frost, stood the Crescent Fortress.
Raina's breath caught in her throat.
She'd never seen anything like it. Towering white stone walls wrapped around a black castle with spires that reached into the clouds. Waterfalls poured from hidden crests of rock, frozen in places, glowing faintly in the twilight.
It didn't look real.
It looked like it had been carved from a goddess's dream.
Theron dismounted. "This is where queens are forged."
She blinked, then slid down awkwardly from her mare.
"This is insane," she whispered.
He looked at her. "And yet, here you are."
Inside the fortress, guards bowed as Theron led her through echoing halls of dark glass and white marble. No one questioned her. No one sneered. In fact, most of them didn't even look surprised.
"Do they know who I am?" she whispered.
"They know who you could become."
The throne room doors opened.
And Raina froze.
A massive fire pit burned in the center. Black stone walls were lined with wolf crests, and at the end of the hall, a raised dais held a single silver throne.
Theron stepped up, but didn't sit. Instead, he turned to her.
"If you choose to stay, you will train. You will bleed. You will lead."
"I'm not ready."
"No one ever is."
Raina stared at the fire. "Why me?"
"Because even after Kael broke you in front of your whole pack, you didn't beg. You didn't chase. You ran into the woods to die… but you didn't."
She said nothing.
Theron stepped closer.
"You have one week here. No chains. No oath. After that… if you still want to leave, I'll take you back myself."
"And if I want to stay?"
"Then your life begins again."
Back in Kael's territory, things were unraveling.
The Alpha stood in the training yard, growling at his beta for the third time that morning.
"Where is she?" he barked.
"We've sent scouts. Nothing. No scent trail after the riverbank."
Kael's wolf howled inside him — wild, erratic, disobedient.
Ever since the rejection, he hadn't been able to shift properly. His claws came out half-formed. His eyes burned all night. His wolf fought him in silence.
And worst of all, he dreamed of her.
Raina. Her scent. Her tears. Her fire.
She was supposed to be forgotten.
But now it felt like something vital had been torn away.
He gritted his teeth. "Find her."
His beta hesitated. "Alpha… what if she was taken by rogues?"
Kael turned, eyes glowing. "Then we kill them all."
Raina stood on the balcony of the guest chamber in Crescent Fortress, staring down at the valley below.
Wind tugged at her hair.
Snow began to fall softly.
And for the first time in days, she didn't feel like she was drowning.
She didn't feel small.
She didn't feel… forgotten.
Inside her, something shifted.
Her wolf stirred — not in grief, but in awakening.
The mark Kael had rejected still pulsed faintly, but it was different now. It didn't burn. It didn't ache.
It felt like it was… fading.
As if the Moon Goddess was preparing her for something new.
Behind her, Theron stepped onto the balcony.
"You're thinking about him," he said.
"Not the way you think."
Theron didn't speak.
She turned to him, eyes clear.
"I'll stay."
His expression didn't change — but his aura shifted. Calm. Grounded. Focused.
"You'll train tomorrow," he said. "You'll be tested. And you'll bleed."
"I know."
She looked out at the frozen valley again.
"But I won't break."