The Past

They thought they could corner me.

I stood alone in the clearing, the moon casting a cold, pale light over the trees. Shadows moved around me—werewolves from another pack, circling like vultures, their growls deep and threatening. I could feel their hunger for a fight, their confidence in numbers. Fools.

I didn’t move. I didn’t need to. My aura wrapped around me like ice, sharp and untouchable. I saw it in their eyes—the flicker of hesitation, the creeping doubt. They could feel it too. I was no ordinary threat.

“If you want to save yourselves,” I said, my voice slicing through the tension, “leave this place instantly. I will not hesitate to kill you all.”

For a heartbeat, silence. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath. Then I saw it—their bravado crack, the first ripple of fear. 

“I said fucking leave this place if you don't want a bloodshed here!”

One stepped back, then another. Cowards. I stayed perfectly still, watching them retreat, my eyes cold and unwavering.

“You're a fool!"

"You’ve always been so weak-minded!"

"I now declare you banished from this pack!"

The words echoed through my mind, sharp and unforgiving, slicing deep every time they returned. No matter how hard I tried to push them away, they always found a way back—taunting, haunting, relentless.

My fists clenched at my sides, nails biting into my palms, the familiar burn of rage flaring up once more. It started as a spark—a flicker of anger—but every time I heard those voices, it grew. Like a fire that begins in a small house, unnoticed at first, but eventually swallows an entire city in its flames.

My father, proud and strong, the Alpha who had led us all. My brother, brave and determined, next in line to be Alpha, the future of our pack. And then me—the girl who failed them both. The day they died was the day my world collapsed. I couldn't save them. I didn’t save them. 

My pack turned their backs on me. My own mother—the woman who once looked at me with love—now stared at me with nothing but rage and disgust.

Her words cut the deepest.

"This is your fault! They died because of you!"

But standing here now, surrounded by enemies who thought they could intimidate me, I felt something shift. Their fear, their hesitation—I could taste it in the air.

I was no longer that weak, broken girl.

I stood still for a long moment, listening, but there was nothing. No growls, no footsteps, no wolves left to challenge me. Only silence.

Good.

I turned and made my way through the dark forest, every step bringing me closer to the one I had been waiting for—the one who had wronged me the most.

Alpha Carlos.

The Alpha of the Solmere Pack. The man I had once loved more than my own life. The man who had betrayed me so deeply that the wound still bled inside me every single day.

I found him in the house where it all began. Or maybe, where it was all meant to end.

The place looked like a storm had ripped through it—walls cracked, furniture shattered, the scent of blood heavy in the air. Carlos was there, leaning against the wall, breathing hard. He was already damaged from our last fight earlier, the one that hadn’t finished. His wolves had arrived just in time to pull him out and help him escape.

Tonight, there would be no one to save him.

I stepped into the room, and his eyes snapped up to meet mine. For a second, something flashed across his face—surprise, maybe even regret—but it was gone in an instant, replaced by that cold, guarded look I’d come to hate.

“Laura,” he said, his voice low and rough.

I said nothing. This was the man I had once trusted with everything. The man who had shattered me.

I took a step closer, my eyes locked on his, unblinking.

“Well, well,” I said, my voice laced with venom, “my dear Alpha Carlos. How does it feel to see me again? The she-wolf you once thought was the weakest you’d ever met?”

He winced, shifting his weight as if my words hit harder than any wound. His breathing was ragged, and for the first time in a long while, I saw fear flicker in his eyes.

“Laura, please…” His voice was hoarse, broken. “You don’t have to do t-this.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “Don’t I? After everything you did to me?”

Slowly, I sank to my knees in front of him, my gaze never leaving his face. I wanted us eye to eye—no barriers, no escape. I stared deep into those gray eyes, the ones that had once made me fall so helplessly, so deeply in love.

But now… all they did was remind me of betrayal.

"Leave now, Laura! Leave!”

My brother’s desperate shout, the last time I saw him alive.

"Honey, please, go home. Ask for help. Find the Beta—"

My father’s voice, steady even in struggle, his final command to me before everything went dark.

Their voices echoed in my mind, layering over the bitter present. My heart clenched, torn between the girl I used to be and the wolf I had become.

I blinked back the sting of tears, my jaw tightening as I forced myself to stay in control. 

“Look at me,” I whispered coldly, my eyes burning into his. My hand shot up, gripping his neck tightly, my fingers digging into his skin. I felt him weaken.

"Do you know how painful it is to lose a brother and a father?" I hissed, my grip tightening. My voice shook with rage. "Too bad you’ll never feel that kind of pain… because I already killed them." I leaned in closer, my smile sharp and cruel. "Too bad it didn’t happen right in front of you."

His eyes widened in horror, his mouth opening in a gasp. “Laura… please… don’t…” he choked out, tears welling in his eyes, his pride finally shattered.

But I felt nothing. No pity, no remorse. My heart was stone now.

Suddenly, my senses flared. I stilled, my head snapping toward the corner of the room. I wasn’t alone with him. There was someone else.

Without hesitation, I snatched the nearest thing I could find—a silver fork glinting on a broken table—and in one swift, brutal move, I plunged it deep into Carlos’s leg. He cried out in agony, collapsing and pinned in place.

I was already gone, moving faster than a whisper of wind.

It didn’t take long to find her.

Carlos’s Luna. His wife. Bethany. 

I grabbed her without mercy, my claws locking around her arm as I slammed her against the wall, pinning her in place. Her eyes were wide with terror, her lips quivering as she stared at me, too stunned to scream.

I pressed in close, my voice low and deadly. “Well, well. Looks like the queen of the pack was hoping to escape unnoticed.”

A loud cry suddenly broke through the thick silence—a sharp, high-pitched wail from the corner of the room.

My smirk deepened as my eyes stayed locked on Bethany, her entire body trembling violently. Her eyes darted to the sound, and she let out a broken sob, shaking her head desperately.

“No… Laura… no, please… not my son…spare my son… please…”

Her voice cracked, raw with terror and grief. Tears streamed down her face, and she tried to pull away, but my grip was like iron.

Before she could finish pleading, I twisted my hand in her hair and snapped her head to the side, making her gasp in pain.

Carlos’s enraged growl rang out behind me, wild and desperate, his pain and helplessness filling every corner of the shattered house.

“Laura!” he roared, his voice thick with agony. “Fuck it! Bethany!”

I turned my cold gaze toward him, my face emotionless, my heart hardened like stone.

They were finally feeling it—the helplessness, the fear, the unbearable loss that had destroyed me.

Without a word, I moved again, swift as the wind. In the blink of an eye, I was right in front of Carlos. His eyes widened, too slow, too weak to stop me now.

I drove the silver fork straight into his chest, piercing his heart with a brutal, final push.

He gasped, choking on his own breath. His eyes locked onto mine, and for a fleeting second, I thought—maybe now he’ll say it. Maybe now he’ll regret it.

Maybe he did really love me…

But his last, broken words were nothing but a whisper.

“My… son…”

Not even I’m sorry, Laura.

He collapsed, lifeless, and the room fell into a crushing silence.

It was over.

But as the quiet pressed in, it was deafening. It echoed in my skull, louder than any scream. My hands trembled. My breathing hitched.

And then it hit me—harder than any wound.

I fell to my knees, a raw, guttural cry tearing from my throat, echoing through the broken walls. My wolf inside me roared in agony, clawing, raging, howling with grief. All this death, all this blood—hundreds of wolves destroyed by my own hands.

But still… nothing.

The hollow ache inside me stayed, the empty void where my father and brother used to be.

No amount of revenge could fill it.

And I was left alone, drowning in the wreckage of what I’d become.

The sharp cry of the baby cut through the heavy silence, piercing straight into my chest.

My head snapped toward the sound, eyes narrowing as I stared into the corner where the noise came from. Slowly, almost mechanically, I stood and walked forward, my footsteps echoing across the broken floor.

I saw the table now—the weak attempt to hide him.

With one effortless push, I shoved it aside. The table splintered and shattered instantly, the sound of breaking wood sharp and final.

And there he was.

The baby wolf, so small, so helpless, curled up and wailing, his tiny fists shaking in the air. His little gray eyes—those gray eyes—locked onto mine, wide and innocent.

I dropped to my knees slowly, staring blankly at him, my heart pounding in my ears. I leaned in closer, my eyes cold and empty, my breath shallow as I studied him.

Those eyes.

The same gray eyes that once made me fall so deeply in love.

“I don’t want the child of another woman to have the eyes of the man I’ll never forget.” That was the last thing I said before I killed the last wolf of Carlos' bloodline.

I killed their son. Brutally.