Snow exploded beneath Selara's boots as she twisted away from Eris's dagger, the blade slicing a lock of her hair clean off. Panic roared through her chest, but beneath it simmered a fury older than blood.
Her twin's betrayal burned hotter than the Alpha's bond.
"Eris, stop!" she shouted, stumbling back across the frozen riverbank. "You don't understand"
"I understand perfectly." Eris lunged again, dagger flashing. "You were always the weaker one, Selara. Always soft, always dreaming of peace. But peace dies in fire. Only power survives."
The words struck like blows because they weren't entirely untrue. Selara had always been the healer, the one who mended wounds instead of creating them. Eris had been the fighter. But now, staring into her twin's violet eyes, Selara saw not strength but hunger. A hunger that could devour them both.
Selara raised her own dagger, parrying the next strike. Steel shrieked against steel. The vibration jarred her bones, but she forced her grip tighter. Their blades locked between them, faces inches apart, their mirrored features twisted by strain.
"You'd kill me?" Selara panted, her voice breaking.
Eris's smile was sharp as glass. "If that's what it takes to claim what's mine."
The bond pulsed in Selara's chest then, flaring like a wound reopened. Kaelen. He was near. She could feel him through the tether, his presence like a storm drawing closer. Her wolf quivered, caught between terror and anticipation.
Eris must have felt it too, because her eyes flicked over Selara's shoulder to the trees. Her grin widened. "Ah. Speak of the devil."
Selara spun, heart in her throat.
Kaelen stepped from the shadows, flanked by two of his wolves. He was shirtless despite the cold, blood still smeared across his shoulder from her earlier strike, muscles taut with restrained fury. His silver eyes locked onto her, then flicked to Eris.
Two Moonveil twins. Identical.
One his fated mate.
One her reflection.
Selara's breath hitched. She expected rage, violence, a command to tear her apart. But instead, Kaelen stood very, very still, like a predator deciding which prey to take first.
"Which one of you is Selara?" his voice was low, lethal.
Eris laughed. "Does it matter?"
Selara's heart hammered. She knew what Eris was doing. Confusion was a weapon. If Kaelen chose wrong if he bound himself to the wrong twin the prophecy would twist, and everything would burn.
"Kaelen, it's me," Selara blurted, stepping forward, dagger lowered. The bond burned hotter, proof enough, but would he feel it as she did? Or would Eris's poison sway him?
Eris mimicked her step, dagger dropping just the same. "No, Alpha. I'm Selara. She's the imposter."
For a heartbeat, silence thickened like ice between them. His wolves snarled, uncertain. The forest itself seemed to hold its breath.
Then Kaelen moved.
In a blur, he crossed the space, his hand shooting out not to kill, but to seize Selara by the throat. His grip was iron, lifting her off the ground, her dagger clattering into the snow. His silver gaze burned into her violet eyes, searching.
The bond flared. A searing pull.
Recognition.
Undeniable.
Her wolf cried out, Mine.
Kaelen's jaw clenched. He dropped her suddenly, as if the touch burned him, and spun toward his wolves. "This one lives. The other…"
But when he turned, Eris was gone.
The trees swallowed her like smoke, her laughter echoing through the forest.
Selara scrambled to her feet, panic clawing her throat. "You let her escape!"
Kaelen rounded on her, silver eyes blazing. "I let you live. Don't mistake it for mercy."
His words were a blade, sharp and cold. But even as he spoke them, the tether between them thrummed with a truth neither could deny. He hadn't killed her. He couldn't.
Selara's chest heaved, torn between fury and relief. "Why?" she demanded. "Why not end it now, if that's what you want?"
Kaelen stepped closer, his towering frame blotting out the weak morning light. He leaned down, his voice a growl that scraped against her bones.
"Because you belong to me."
The words ripped the breath from her lungs. She hated them. Hated him. But her wolf shuddered with something dangerously close to surrender.
Kaelen's hand shot out, clamping around her wrist. His grip was firm but not cruel, his heat searing her skin. "You'll come back with me," he said, the finality of his tone brooking no argument.
Selara wrenched against him. "I'd rather die."
"Then die in my walls," he snapped. "Not out here where my enemies will make a feast of your bones."
She opened her mouth to spit defiance, but the sound of distant howls cut her off. Not Bloodfang. Rival wolves. The enemy packs had caught her scent.
Kaelen's eyes narrowed. "They come for you."
Selara froze. If they caught her, they wouldn't care about bonds or prophecy. They would tear her apart, use her blood as a weapon against Kaelen.
The Alpha's grip tightened. "You have two choices, Selara Veyne. Stay, and be ripped to shreds. Or come with me, and live."
The howls drew closer, a chorus of hunger and violence. Snow shook loose from the trees as the rival pack closed in.
Selara's throat tightened. Her mother's warning echoed again: The Alpha's heart will be your undoing.
But undoing or not, she couldn't outrun them all. She had no choice.
Her lips trembled as she hissed, "I'll come."
Kaelen's silver eyes darkened not with triumph, but with something she couldn't name. He hauled her closer, his arm snaking around her waist as he barked an order to his wolves.
"Back to the fortress. Now."
They sprinted, snow spraying underfoot, Selara dragged in his iron grip. The howls followed, closer, closer. She risked one glance back and saw glowing eyes in the shadows dozens of them.
But worse than the rival wolves was the echo of her sister's laughter, still haunting the trees.
Eris had escaped.
Eris knew the truth.
And Eris would come back for what she thought was hers.
Selara's heart pounded as Kaelen dragged her deeper into the forest, into the mouth of his fortress, into the jaws of fate itself.
And all she could think was that she had walked straight into a trap.
Selara is forced into Kaelen's fortress for survival, realizing she's walking into the Alpha's trap. Meanwhile, Eris has escaped, and the rival packs are closing in setting the stage for power struggles, betrayal, and deeper entanglement.