2. Drowning again

The room went silent.

Time itself seemed to freeze.

Raya stared, her vision swimming, her heartbeat a distant echo drowned in the wave of betrayal surging through her chest. Her lungs forgot how to breathe. Her fingers curled instinctively, nails digging into her palms, trying to anchor herself to something…anything but real.

“You want me to give her my wolf?” she said at last, her voice hollow, brittle. She was trying to make sure she heard him right.

The words barely made it past her lips. They hung in the air like a curse, a quiet death sentence waiting to be sealed.

Elias nodded. “You’re the only one who could. You have the bond. The power.”

It didn’t make sense. None of it did. Her wolf, the most sacred part of her, the fire in her blood, the echo of her soul, wasn’t something she could just give away. This wasn’t a bandage or a salve. This was her. That's all she has in her life and they want her to give it a away?

She turned to Noah, desperate. Desperate for him to say something. To stop this madness. To be the boy who once jumped into a freezing river to save her life. The boy who once mattered more than fate.

But he just stood there.

Not a word. Not a protest. Not even a flicker of hesitation.

And in that silence, Raya’s heart finally broke.

“Noah,” she breathed, taking a step forward. “Tell me this isn’t happening.”

Her voice trembled like dry leaves caught in the wind. Her eyes begged him for mercy, for remembrance, for love—if even a trace of it had ever been real.

His gaze met hers, flat, unreadable. “It’s the only way.”

Just like that, her worst fear was confirmed.

Her knees buckled slightly, but she didn’t fall. No. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. If they wanted her soul, they’d have to rip it from her standing.

“My wolf?” she repeated, voice cracking. “Do you even know what you’re asking me to do?”

She could hear her own heartbeat now, too fast, too loud, thudding like war drums in her ears. She felt dizzy, her body instinctively retreating as if trying to shield her from the agony already knocking on the door.

“You’ve done more with less,” Elias said, like it was some kind of praise. “We’ve seen it. You’re strong, Raya.”

She blinked, once, twice. Strong. That word again. She was so tired of being strong.

“But that’s different!” she snapped. “I heal. I suffer. But giving someone my wolf? That’s not healing. That’s suicide. I'll die without my wolf!”

She wanted to scream, to shake them until they understood. Her voice cracked as she spoke, but no one reached for her. No one touched her shoulder, no one offered a whisper of comfort.

“She’s the Luna,” someone else whispered. A faceless voice in the growing crowd. “She has to live.”

“Of course she does,” Raya muttered bitterly. “She’s the chosen one.”

“You’re special,” another piped up. “You’ll survive. You always do.”

That was the knife.

“Because I suffer in silence!” Raya cried, fury breaking through the fog of disbelief. “Because no one ever cares what it costs me! You call me special, but what you really mean is useful. You mean disposable.”

The murmurs faded into silence.

Elias’s eyes hardened. “You owe this pack.”

And that was when the last thread snapped.

Something in Raya shifted. Her spine straightened, her jaw clenched. She turned to him, trembling, eyes glowing faintly with the fire of her wolf just beneath the surface.

“No,” she said. “I owe Noah my life and I gave him all I could. But I don’t owe any of you my soul.”

Noah flinched, barely but he didn’t speak.

And that silence was louder than any scream.

It echoed in her bones.

Raya’s breath hitched. She had known, somewhere deep down, that his heart was never truly hers. But to watch him offer her up like this, without flinching, shattered whatever pieces she had left.

“I’m not doing it,” she said. Her voice shook, but her will stood firm. “I choose myself. For once, I choose me.”

She turned to leave. Every step was defiant. Every movement screamed that they couldn't break her.

Then a scream tore through the air…Nora’s.

Raya froze.

Behind her, Nora convulsed in pain, her voice a haunting cry. Her body was twisting, her skin pallid, her energy dimming. Her wolf… gone.

“Noah, she’s slipping!” Elias shouted.

Noah’s command came like a whip. “Guards. Hold her.”

Raya spun around, eyes wide. The blood drained from her face as the meaning of those words sank in.

“No! no, what are you doing?!”

It happened so fast.

Rough hands gripped her arms before she could react, dragging her back toward the ceremonial chamber. She thrashed, her feet scraping against the stone floor, her body jerking in resistance. But it didn’t matter. They were warriors. She was already weak. The healing, the stress, the grief, they had eaten away at her strength like acid on glass.

“Noah!” she cried, her voice cracking like thunder. “Please! Please don’t do this!”

Still, he didn’t look at her.

He didn’t flinch.

The man she had trusted, the boy who had once saved her life, now stood by as others dragged her to her death.

“You don’t understand!” she begged, sobbing now, her chest heaving with panic. “She’ll have my wolf, yes—but I won’t just be in pain. I’ll die! You’ll kill me! You can't do this to me!”

“You’ll be giving your life for the Luna,” Elias said calmly, like that made it noble.

Like it made it right.

Raya’s heart pounded so loud she thought it would burst. Her head spun. The edges of her vision blurred.

“Raya, please,” her own wolf whimpered inside her, the voice faint, frightened, fading. “Don’t let them take me…”

Her knees hit the ground hard as they forced her to kneel. The coldness of the ceremonial floor seeped through her skin, chilling her bones.

A circle was drawn around her, ancient symbols glowing faintly with crimson magic…magic meant for binding, breaking, and transferring what should never be severed.

The air crackled.

Ancient words were spoken.

Raya sobbed, gasping for breath as invisible claws of power dug into her soul, tearing it open inch by inch. She could feel it…her wolf being pulled, like muscle from bone, like her very heartbeat was being scraped from her chest.

Her wolf screamed.

It was unlike anything she had ever felt. The pain wasn’t physical…it was spiritual, primal, a cosmic agony that transcended the body. She felt herself unraveling. Her veins pulsed with white-hot fire. Her bones trembled. Her mind teetered on the edge of shattering.

Her body shook violently, jerking with each pulse of power. Every cell screamed in protest.

“No! No! Stop! Please!”

“I’m sorry,” a soft voice whispered.

Mirela, the pack witch.

The only one who still looked at her like she was human. The only one whose hands trembled with guilt instead of greed.

“I tried to stop them…” Mirela’s cheeks were streaked with tears as she pressed her hand gently against Raya’s back, as if that would somehow soften the pain.

But it couldn’t. Nothing could.

Raya’s skin glowed with searing light as the bond shattered. She screamed…a sound that didn’t even sound human anymore. Her wolf, the part of her that had always been her strength, her fire, her freedom, was being ripped away, cast into another.

It wasn’t just a transfer.

It was a sacrifice.

“Raya won’t survive this,” someone said in horror, voice hushed and shaking.

“She’s fading,” another murmured.

“Then hurry the transfer!” Elias barked.

But it was too late.

Raya’s head slumped forward, her breathing ragged, her body limp in the circle’s glow. She could no longer scream. Her voice was gone. Her fight was gone.

And then came the final blow.

Elias glanced at her crumpled form—barely breathing now, her skin pale, her lips turning blue, her aura hollow.

“What do you want us to do with her?” Elias asked, as if she were already a corpse.

“Throw her by the lake,” Noah said, his voice void of anything human. “Near the border. With Nora’s dead wolf now inside her, the rogues will follow her scent. She’ll draw them away from Nora.”

There was a stunned pause.

“Wait…what…?” one of the guards hesitated, visibly shaken. “You want us to feed her to them?”

“She’s no use to us anymore,” Noah said coldly. “We got what we needed.”

Raya’s mind was fogging fast, her awareness dimming like a flame starved of oxygen. Her fingers twitched weakly, her lips parted, but no sound came.

She was slipping.

Falling.

Drowning again, just like that night in the river.

But this time, Noah wasn’t pulling her out.

This time, he was the one who pushed her in.

Her eyes fluttered shut.

And that was the last thing she heard before everything went black.