The alpha's howl shook the dungeon stones. Keth felt it in their teeth, in the marrow of their bones. The wolf girl Rhis tightened her grip on their arm, claws pricking through their sleeve.
"Move," she snarled.
They ran.
Torchlight blurred as Keth stumbled through twisting passages. The howls multiplied, bouncing off wet stone walls. The Mark on their chest burned with each step, pulsing in time with their racing heart.
A fork in the tunnel. Rhis yanked them left.
"You're slowing me down," she hissed.
Keth twisted free. "I didn't ask for this."
Rhis's eyes flashed gold. "The moon chose you. That's curse enough."
Behind them, the sound of splintering wood. Something heavy hit the ground. Then laughter—cold, familiar.
Valtheris.
Rhis shoved Keth forward. "Run or die."
The tunnel opened into a cavern so vast the ceiling vanished in darkness. Moonlight poured through cracks in the ancient stone, painting the gathered wolves in silver. Dozens of them, some in human form, others half-shifted, all watching Keth with hungry eyes.
The alpha stood at the center, his moving tattoos now swirling like storm clouds. "The Bloodkeep's prisoner becomes our guest." His smile showed too many teeth. "Let the hunt prove if they're prey... or something else."
A horn sounded.
The wolves surged forward.
Keth ran.
The forest outside was a nightmare of shadows and grasping branches. Their lungs burned. The Mark seared hotter with each pounding step, the voice in their head now screaming.
Left. Jump. Duck.
They obeyed without thinking.
A wolf's jaws snapped where their neck had been. Another lunged from the right. Keth rolled, coming up with a fallen branch in hand. It shattered across the first wolf's muzzle.
The second wolf hit them from behind.
They went down hard, the wolf's weight crushing the air from their lungs. Hot drool dripped onto their neck.
Then—silence.
The wolf stiffened. Its body went rigid, then collapsed. A dagger protruded from its eye.
Valtheris stepped from the trees, wiping blood from his hands. "Disappointing. I expected you to last longer."
Keth scrambled back. "You set this up."
"Of course." Valtheris flicked his fingers. The remaining wolves melted into the trees, whining. "The Mark must be tested. And you... you interest me."
He crouched, gripping Keth's chin. "The voice in your head. What does it call itself?"
Keth froze.
Valtheris smiled. "Ah. So it's begun speaking already."
The Mark erupted in white fire.
Keth screamed as visions tore through their mind—a city drowning in blood, a woman with crowns for eyes, a door carved from a single massive bone.
Through the pain, the voice whispered a name.
Their name.
The one they'd forgotten.
Valtheris's grip tightened. "What did it say?"
Keth looked up, their eyes no longer entirely their own.
"It said I'm going to kill you."
The forest exploded in crimson light.