The forest was nothing like the soft woods near the Silver claw compound.
Here, the trees stood closer together, like sentries with ancient secrets. Their limbs reached low and clawed at Lulu's clothes as she stumbled through brambles and brush, the late spring rain soaking through her cloak. Mud sucked at her boots, and every step felt heavier than the last.
She hadn't eaten in two days. Hadn't slept properly in three.
And she couldn't stop shaking.
Not from the cold.
From everything else.
Her mind kept replaying the rejection like it was some kind of cruel theatre-Kael's voice, the crowd's reaction, the alien girl's delicate hand in his. Her stomach twisted each time, threatening to empty nothing at all.
Her wolf ,her once fierce, confident wolf was silent now. She'd gone still after the bond was severed. Lulu couldn't even feel her at the edges of her consciousness anymore, like she'd curled into some deep cave to nurse the pain alone.
Coward, Lulu wanted to snarl.
But she didn't blame her.
She would've done the same if she could.
The days blurred together in gray light and brittle branches. The forest had no mercy. No comfort. It offered no illusions of healing. It simply endured and forced Lulu to do the same.
Her fingers were blistered. Her lips cracked. She'd drunk from icy streams and eaten bitter roots she could barely identify. The weather had turned colder, and her coat was too thin. Still, she kept moving. There was no direction in her stride anymore just the need to be away from Silver claw. Away from him.
A part of her had hoped she'd find another pack, maybe a kind soul who'd offer shelter.
Instead, she found wolves.
Eyes flashing between the trees at dusk. Snarls in the dark. Not pack wolves but rogues.
She kept her scent masked, stayed low to the ground, moved silently like her mother once taught her. Still, one of them picked up her trail last night. She'd heard the crack of twigs, the growl just behind her.
She ran. Fast. Hard. Until her legs gave out and her knees slammed into wet earth.
Now, her thigh throbbed from the fall. The bruising was deep. Her body screamed for rest, but there was none to be found.
Keep going.
That was all her mind could chant now. A broken mantra. A survival thread.
Keep going.
But by nightfall, even that began to unravel.
Her vision doubled. Her breath turned ragged. And the forest around her tilted dangerously sideways.
She staggered into a clearing and fell to her knees.
Rain lashed her face. Her palms dug into mud and moss. Somewhere in the distance, she heard wolves-low howls, warning notes. Territory markers.
She'd crossed into someone's land. That much she knew.
But her limbs refused to carry her any farther.
"I don't care," she rasped to the sky. "Let them kill me. Just make it fast."
A snap of a branch behind her.
Then nothing.
Her body pitched forward.
And the world went dark.
She was vaguely aware of warmth. Later. Much later.
Warmth and a scent she didn't recognize like something earthy, strong, and distinctly Alpha, but not Kael.
Not him.
No.
This scent was darker. Wilder. Like pine needles and steel.
Lulu stirred but couldn't quite surface from the weight in her limbs. A fire crackled nearby. There were voices, muffled and tense.
"She's from Silver claw."
"I can smell it on her."
"Should've left her where she dropped."
"She crossed the border, Ryker. Passed out within thirty feet of the boundary stone."
A pause.
Then, a voice deep, edged with command.
"She's hurt."
"So? She's one of them."
"She's not anymore."
Silence.
Lulu drifted, like a leaf in wind.
That voice ,Ryker, cut through the fog in her mind, though she'd never heard it before. There was something sharp in it. Dangerous, yes. But not unkind.
She wanted to open her eyes. Ask where she was. Ask if she was safe.
But her body betrayed her again.
And so Lulu Voss, once promised Luna, former daughter of Silver claw, slept beneath a stranger's roof, in a land no longer bound by titles or lies.