Kael's POV
The rabbit trap snapped shut with a sound that made me jump. My heart pounded as I crawled toward the noise, hoping I had finally caught something to eat.
"Please, please, please," I whispered, pushing through the thick bushes. My stomach hurt so bad it felt like someone was stabbing me with a knife.
When I reached the trap, my heart sank. Empty again. Just a few broken twigs and some scattered leaves. Whatever had set it off was already gone.
I sat back on my heels and tried not to cry. Three days. Three whole days since I had eaten anything bigger than a handful of berries. My hands shook as I reset the trap, but I knew it was probably useless. The animals in the Shadowlands were too smart. Too fast. Too everything that I wasn't.
"Come on, Kael," I said out loud, just to hear a voice that didn't sound angry or disappointed. "You can do this. You've made it this far."
But had I really? I looked down at myself and saw bones sticking out where muscles used to be. My clothes hung loose like I was wearing someone else's things. The scars on my arms from all the times I'd failed to catch prey with my bare hands looked like a road map of failure.
Three years. Three years since they threw me away like garbage. Three years of talking to myself because there was nobody else. Three years of howling at the moon and getting nothing back but silence.
I dragged myself back to my shelter, which was really just some branches and leaves I had piled against a big rock. It kept the rain off, mostly. Sometimes I pretended it was a real house. That I was just camping and tomorrow I would go home to hot food and warm beds and people who cared if I lived or died.
But those were just stupid dreams.
As the sun started to set, I climbed up onto my favorite rock. It was tall enough that I could see over most of the forest. On clear days, I could even see the lights from Silvercrest territory way off in the distance. Tonight was one of those nights.
The lights looked warm and golden. Like tiny stars that had fallen to earth. I wondered what everyone was doing right now. Was Luna having dinner with her family? Was Alpha Magnus telling stories by the fire? Was Finn training with the other young wolves?
Did anyone ever think about me at all?
"Probably not," I said to the empty air. "Why would they? I'm nothing. Just a broken wolf who couldn't even shift once."
The familiar pain hit my chest like it did every time I thought about that horrible night. Standing in front of everyone I had ever cared about, shaking and scared, waiting for my wolf to finally come out.
And then... nothing. Just me, still human, still weak, still wrong.
But the worst part hadn't been the failure. It had been watching Luna stand up and say those words that destroyed everything between us.
"I reject you as my mate. I cast you out of my heart forever."
Even now, three years later, those words felt like fresh cuts across my soul. I pressed my hand to my chest where the mate bond used to live. Now there was just an empty hole that never stopped aching.
"She didn't mean it," I told the darkening sky. "She couldn't have meant it. Luna loved me. She said she did."
But if that was true, why hadn't she tried to stop them from sending me away? Why hadn't she fought for us?
I stood up and took a deep breath. Time for my nightly ritual. The one thing that kept me feeling human when everything else made me feel like an animal.
I tilted my head back and howled.
The sound came from somewhere deep inside me, carrying all my pain and loneliness out into the night. It was the one thing I could do that felt like being a real wolf, even if I could never shift. My howl was strong and clear and sad all at the same time.
I howled for the family that threw me away. For the girl who broke my heart. For the wolf that lived inside me but never came out. For three years of being hungry and cold and alone.
When I finished, I always waited. Hoping that maybe tonight would be different. Maybe tonight someone would howl back and I would know I wasn't completely forgotten.
But there was always just silence.
Except tonight.
Tonight, something answered.
The howl that came back was unlike anything I had ever heard. It wasn't like the normal wolf sounds from Silvercrest territory. This was deeper. Darker. Full of something that made every hair on my body stand up.
It sounded hungry.
And it was close. Much too close.
I dropped down low on the rock, my heart hammering against my ribs. That howl had come from somewhere in the Shadowlands. But that was impossible. Nothing lived in the deep parts of the forest except me. Nothing could survive here.
Could it?
Another howl joined the first one. Then another. Soon the night was full of voices that didn't sound right. They were too big, too scary, too full of things I didn't want to think about.
And they were getting closer.
I scrambled down from the rock and ran toward my shelter, but I could already tell it wouldn't be enough. Whatever was making those sounds could tear through my pile of branches like it was made of paper.
Behind me, I heard something crashing through the trees. Something big. Something that didn't care about being quiet because it didn't need to hide from anything.
My feet caught on a root and I went down hard, skinning my knees on the rocky ground. When I looked back, I saw them.
Their red eyes glowing, moving between the trees like floating coals. There were at least five pairs, maybe more. They were spread out in a line like they were trying to surround me.
This wasn't random. They were hunting me.
I got back up and ran harder than I ever had in my life. Branches whipped across my face and thorns tore at my clothes, but I didn't slow down. Behind me, those horrible howls were getting louder.
My lungs burned and my legs felt like they were going to give out, but somehow I kept running. Up ahead, I could see a thick grove of trees that might give me somewhere to hide.
That's when I smelled something that stopped me cold.
Blood. Fresh blood. And underneath that, a scent I knew as well as my own.
Luna.
She was here. In the Shadowlands. And from the smell of things, she was hurt.
The red eyes were almost on me now. I could hear their breath. In seconds, they would catch up and whatever happened next would be the end of everything.
But Luna was somewhere ahead of me, bleeding and probably scared and maybe dying.
The girl who had rejected me. The girl who had broken my heart. The girl I still loved more than my own life.
For the first time in three years, I felt something besides sadness and hunger.
I felt angry.
"No," I growled, and somehow my voice sounded different, Stronger. "Not her. Not tonight."