Luna's POV
I shouldn't be here.
The thought hammered through my mind as I crouched behind the massive oak tree, my wolf eyes locked on the human village below. My heart pounded so hard I was sure the entire pack could hear it back in our territory. But I couldn't help myself. I'd been sneaking to this spot for three weeks now, watching the humans go about their strange, fascinating lives.
"Luna! What are you doing?"
I spun around so fast I nearly toppled over. Elder Frost stood ten feet away, her gray fur bristling with anger. Behind her, three more pack elders emerged from the shadows like ghosts. My stomach dropped to my paws.
"I... I was just—"
"Spying on humans?" Elder Frost's voice could freeze fire. "Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"
Before I could answer, Elder Stone stepped forward. His massive frame blocked out the moonlight. "This is the third time this month, young one. The third time we've caught you breaking our most sacred rule."
"But I wasn't doing anything wrong!" The words burst out before I could stop them. "I was just watching. They don't even know I'm here."
"That's not the point!" Elder Frost snapped. She shifted into her human form, and suddenly a stern woman with silver hair stood where the wolf had been. "Humans are dangerous, Luna. They hunt us. They fear us. One glimpse of you, and they'll bring their guns and their dogs. They'll track you back to our pack. Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of your brothers and sisters?"
Shame burned through me hotter than any flame. I shifted into my human form too, my fourteen-year-old body suddenly feeling small and weak. "No, Elder. I'm sorry."
"Sorry isn't enough this time." Elder Stone transformed as well, his weathered face hard as granite. "You will report to the Alpha immediately. He'll decide your punishment."
My legs turned to jelly. The Alpha. Our pack leader was fair but strict. Whatever punishment he chose would not be pleasant.
The elders marched me back through the forest, their silence worse than any lecture. Other wolves poked their heads out of dens as we passed, their eyes full of curiosity and pity. My best friend Maya whispered, "Luna, what did you do?" but I couldn't answer. My throat felt too tight.
We reached the Great Den, a massive cave system where our Alpha lived. Elder Frost howled once, a long mournful note that meant "We bring a rule-breaker."
Alpha Kieran emerged from the shadows. Even in human form, he was terrifying—tall, broad-shouldered, with eyes that seemed to see straight through you. He was only twenty-five, but he'd been Alpha since he was eighteen, after his father died protecting the pack from hunters.
"Luna." His voice was quiet, which somehow made it scarier. "The elders tell me you've been watching humans again."
"Yes, Alpha." I kept my eyes on the ground.
"Look at me."
I forced myself to meet his gaze. His expression wasn't angry—it was disappointed, which was infinitely worse.
"Why?" he asked simply.
The honest answer tumbled out. "Because I'm curious. Because they're so different from us, but also kind of the same. They laugh and play and take care of each other, just like we do. I don't understand why we have to hide from them forever."
Several elders gasped. Elder Frost looked ready to explode.
But Alpha Kieran held up one hand for silence. "You think humans are like us?"
"Some of them might be," I said quietly. "If we gave them a chance—"
"My father gave humans a chance." Alpha Kieran's voice turned cold as winter ice. "He tried to communicate with them peacefully. They shot him with silver bullets and left him to die in agony. I watched him suffer for three days before his heart finally stopped. So no, Luna. Humans are not like us. They are predators, and we are their prey."
Tears stung my eyes, but I blinked them back. I'd heard the story before, but never from Alpha Kieran directly. Never with that much pain in his voice.
"I'm banishing you from pack gatherings for one month," he announced. "You'll hunt alone, sleep alone, and stay at least one hundred yards from any pack member at all times. Maybe solitude will teach you why we need each other—and why we avoid humans."
"Yes, Alpha." My voice came out as barely a whisper.
"Dismissed."
I turned to leave, my heart breaking into pieces. One month alone. In the wilderness, that felt like forever. As I walked toward the exit, I heard Elder Frost mutter, "She'll never learn. That curiosity will get her killed."
But she was wrong about one thing.
As I stepped out of the Great Den into the cool night air, something glinted in the moonlight near the forest edge. Something that definitely hadn't been there before. I moved closer, my wolf instincts screaming danger, but my curiosity pulling me forward.
It was a mirror.
Not just any mirror—this one was made of silver that seemed to glow with its own inner light. Strange symbols I'd never seen before covered its ornate frame. And in its reflection, I didn't see myself.
I saw a human girl with my exact face, wearing strange clothes, standing in a bedroom I'd never been in.
She looked directly at me through the mirror.
And she smiled.
Then she reached her hand toward the glass, her fingers passing through it like water, reaching into my world.
I stumbled backward, my scream caught in my throat.
What. Was. That?