Seraphina's POV
I'm going to die in this forest.
The thought circles my mind as I run deeper into the Veil Forest, my wolf's paws pounding against the earth. Branches whip across my fur, tearing out silver strands. Thorns slice my pads until every step leaves bloody paw prints.
I don't slow down.
Can't slow down.
Behind me, Silver Creek Pack continues their ceremony like I never existed. The sounds of celebration drift through the trees—music, laughter, the happy howls of wolves who just watched their future Alpha reject his mate.
Good riddance to the defective girl.
My wolf whimpers with each step, not from physical pain but from the gaping wound in our chest where the mate bond used to be. It feels like someone reached into my ribcage and ripped out my heart.
Maybe they did.
Kael, my wolf mourns. Why did he hurt us?
"Because we were never good enough," I pant, my wolf form struggling now. "Because we were a mistake."
The trees grow thicker, darker. This deep in the Veil Forest, even moonlight struggles to penetrate the canopy. Rogues hunt here—wolves cast out from their packs, driven mad by isolation and bloodlust.
I should be terrified.
But I'm already broken. What's left for them to destroy?
A root catches my front paw. I stumble, crash hard into the ground, and the impact forces me to shift back to human.
Naked. Bleeding. Alone.
I lay there in the dirt, staring up at the tiny patches of sky visible through the leaves. The full moon mocks me—the same moon that blessed my awakening just hours ago.
Some blessing.
"Why?" I scream at the Moon Goddess. "Why give me hope just to rip it away? Why make me powerful just to cast me out? Why show me my mate just to let him REJECT me?"
My voice echoes through the empty forest.
No answer comes.
Of course not. The Moon Goddess is silent. Maybe she doesn't care. Maybe I really am a mistake—some cosmic error she's too busy to fix.
I curl into a ball on the cold ground, my whole body shaking. Not from the cold, though my skin is freezing. From the agony radiating from my shattered bond.
They say rejected mates sometimes die from the pain. That weaker wolves can't survive having their soul ripped in half.
Please let me be weak enough.
"I can't do this," I whisper to the darkness. "I can't... I can't keep going. There's nothing left."
Fifteen years of being called defective. Fifteen years of making myself useful, valuable, worthy. Fifteen years of believing Kael's promises.
All lies.
My parents died when I was eight. The Lycan King murdered them for stealing from him—at least, that's what Silver Creek told me. I had nothing. Was nothing. Just an orphaned child with no wolf and no future.
Then Kael promised to make me his Luna. Promised that love mattered more than power. Promised I would always have a place beside him.
I built my entire life around that promise.
And tonight, he destroyed it in front of three hundred witnesses.
"I hate him," I sob into my hands. "I hate him, I hate him, I HATE him."
But even as I say it, I feel the phantom ache of the severed bond. Part of me still wants him. Still loves him.
That's the cruelest part. The mate bond doesn't die just because one person rejects it. It withers slowly, painfully, like a plant dying of thirst.
I'm dying of thirst for a mate who chose someone else.
We don't need him, my wolf suddenly speaks up, her voice weak but determined. We're strong now. We awakened. We're not defective.
"Then why did he reject us?"
Silence. She doesn't have an answer.
"Alpha Marcus called us unnatural," I continue, my voice hollow. "Wrong. Dangerous. Maybe they're right. Maybe I am some kind of mistake."
No. My wolf's growl rumbles through my chest. They're afraid. That's different.
"Afraid of what? I just shifted for the first time tonight. I don't even know how to fight!"
But you made them bow. Made wolves twice your age submit without even trying. She pushes forward, and I feel her power stirring. That's not weakness, Sera. That's strength they can't control. That's why they got rid of us.
The realization hits like a physical blow.
They knew.
Somehow, Alpha Marcus knew my wolf would be powerful. Knew I would be a threat.
So he made sure Kael rejected me. Made sure I'd be exiled before I could figure out what I really am.
But why? What could I possibly threaten?
My body finally stops shaking. The sobs quiet to hiccups, then to silence.
I should get up. Should find shelter before hypothermia or rogues finish what Silver Creek started.
But I can't make myself move.
What's the point? Where would I even go?
I have no pack. No family. No home. Just this broken, powerful wolf that everyone fears.
"Moon Goddess," I whisper one more time. "If you're listening... please. Either save me or let me die. I can't stay in this in-between place. I can't keep existing without belonging somewhere."
The wind rustles through the leaves.
Still no answer.
I close my eyes, letting exhaustion pull me under. Maybe I'll just sleep here. Maybe I won't wake up. Maybe that would be easier for everyone.
My breathing slows. The pain dulls to a distant throb.
I'm so tired.
So tired of fighting.
So tired of—
A twig snaps.
My eyes fly open. My wolf surges awake, her senses suddenly razor-sharp.
Someone's here.
I scramble to my feet, ignoring the screaming protest from my torn paws. My wolf pushes forward, ready to shift despite our exhaustion.
Footsteps crunch through the leaves. Slow. Deliberate. Heading straight for me.
Rogues. It has to be rogues. They probably smelled my blood.
Good. Let them come. Let them end this.
But my wolf isn't ready to give up. She snarls a warning, making my human throat vibrate with the sound.
The footsteps stop.
Then a voice—deep, dark, laced with power that makes my wolf's snarl die instantly—cuts through the darkness:
"Found you."
It's not a rogue's voice. Not a wolf's voice at all.
It's something older. Something infinitely more dangerous.
The shadows shift, and a figure emerges from between the trees.
Tall. Powerfully built. Moving with the kind of grace that comes from absolute confidence in your ability to destroy anything in your path.
He steps into a thin beam of moonlight.
Silver eyes that glow like stars. Features too perfect, too ageless to be mortal. An aura of dominance so massive it makes Alpha Marcus feel like a puppy.
My wolf should be terrified.
Instead, she does something impossible.
She purrs.
The sound vibrates through my entire body—loud, unmistakable, undeniable.
No. No, not again. Not after everything that just happened.
But the feeling is already there. A golden-silver thread spinning out from my chest, reaching toward the male in front of me.
The mate bond.
AGAIN.
Horror crashes through me as recognition finally clicks into place.
I know this face. Every wolf in the Northern Territories knows this face from warnings and nightmares.
Theron Nightshade.
The Lycan King.
The immortal beast who rules all packs with absolute power.
The monster who murdered my parents fifteen years ago.
He smiles—sharp and devastating and completely inhuman.
"Hello, little wolf," he says, his voice like dark velvet and distant thunder. "I've been searching for you for a very, very long time."