The forest swallowed me whole.
Each step away from the pack lands felt heavier, the cool night air turning colder, sharper. The trees stretched like shadows, their branches clawing at the sky. I didn't know where I was going. I just knew I couldn't stop.
By dawn, I'd be marked as a rogue. And rogues don't last long.
A low growl rumbled through the dark. My pulse quickened. I wasn't alone.
Yellow eyes glimmered between the trees, then two more pairs—rogues, drawn to the scent of weakness. My wolf whimpered inside me, still raw from Kael's rejection, her strength frayed. I shifted, fur rippling across my skin, but my movements were clumsy, sluggish.
The first rogue lunged. I barely dodged, claws scraping my shoulder, white-hot pain searing down my side. I stumbled, breath coming fast. Another lunged from behind, slamming me into the ground.
Claws dug into my back. My vision blurred. My heartbeat slowed.
Is this how it ends? Tossed aside, ripped apart by scavengers?
Somewhere, deep in the fog of pain, a sound whispered. Not the howls. Not the growls. Something… older. A hum, low and thrumming, like the earth itself was calling my name.
A silvery glow bled through the trees, washing the forest floor in pale light. The rogues froze, ears flattening, whimpering as the glow grew brighter. My wolf stirred, not in fear… but in awe.
The light formed a circle around me, etching glowing runes into the dirt. My wounds stopped bleeding. The air vibrated, thick with energy, as a figure materialized above the circle.
A woman cloaked in silver light. Her eyes like twin moons.
"Aria Rivers," her voice was soft yet commanding, echoing in my bones. "You have been cast aside, but the threads of fate are not yet severed. You will not die here."
I tried to speak, but no sound came. My body was weightless, suspended in the glow.
The figure raised her hand. A searing heat surged through me, filling every nerve, every vein, every breath. It was power—wild, overwhelming, nothing like the magic of wolves I'd ever known.
"You will carry a gift… and a burden," she whispered. "But power demands a price. Will you pay it?"
The forest dissolved. I screamed, not from fear, but from the burning fire that tore through my veins. The glow shattered, darkness swallowing me whole—
And then I woke.
The rogues were gone. My wounds were healed. My reflection, in a pool of moonlight, showed my irises glowing faintly silver.
And deep in my chest, beneath my wolf's heartbeat, something new pulsed.
Something alive.