The dawn broke slow over Shadowpine, the sky streaked with soft pinks and greys, like the world itself was hesitant to wake after the chaos of the night before. The Hollow was still heavy with silence, the kind that presses down on your chest and makes you catch your breath.I stood at the edge of the clearing, watching as the pack gathered, tired faces, bruised bodies, eyes that held stories of pain and survival. Some were nursing wounds, others just stood, lost in thought. The air smelled of smoke and earth, and the heavy scent of loss lingered like a shadow no sunlight could chase away.Kade came up beside me, his usual armor of discipline softened by exhaustion. He didn’t say much, just let his presence settle next to mine. For a long moment, we stood like that, two halves of something broken but still whole enough to fight.“I keep replaying it,” I finally said, voice low. “The fight. How fast it spiraled out of control.”He nodded. “It’s the price we pay when old laws and new t
The night was thick with tension when an unexpected visitor appeared at the pack’s edge, a figure from Kade’s past, someone who knew the old wounds better than anyone.“I thought you left this world behind,” Kade muttered under his breath as the stranger approached.Shea’s heart pounded. The pack held its breath.Because some secrets refused to stay buried.The visitor carried news that threatened to unravel everything, the truth about Alpha Titus’s darkest decisions, and the sacrifices made to keep the pack “pure.”Kade’s jaw tightened. “This changes everything.”Shea’s eyes met his, fierce and steady. “Then we face it. Together.”But as the shadows lengthened, the pack’s fragile unity teetered on the edge of collapse, and the real war for Shadowpine had only just begun.The Hollow was alive with whispers by dawn.The visitor’s words, Alpha Titus’s darkest secrets, the lies about purity and bloodlines, spread like wildfire.Pack members gathered in small groups, faces twisted with an
The news of my bloodline didn’t stay secret long.By the next dawn, whispers crawled through the Hollow like wildfire.Some wolves looked at me with new respect, others with suspicion sharp as knives.Kade stayed close, but even he couldn’t shield me from the weight of their stares.At the council meeting, voices rose. Old pack members questioned if I was truly one of them.“They call me outsider,” I told Kade later, voice tight. “But I’ve earned every step.”He squeezed my hand. “You’re more than that.”But the truth was clear: the pack was divided.And Luna Marisol’s defeat only fueled the fire.“Not everyone wants a human-born Alpha,” Kade warned.I clenched my jaw. “Then they’ll have to face what I am.”The fight wasn’t over.It had only just begun.The moon was just a sliver when I slipped through the forest, heart pounding like a drum.Kade had warned me: not everyone accepted what I was. Not everyone would stand quietly while the pack shifted beneath us.I wasn’t about to let f
The dust hadn’t even settled when the Elders stepped forward.Marisol lay on the edge of the circle, heaving, fury in her eyes but defeat in her body. She didn’t speak. She didn’t rise. Her pride bled more than her skin.Kade rushed to me first, hands on my shoulders, eyes scanning me for bruises, cuts, breaks.“I’m okay,” I said, though my ribs ached and my hands trembled. “I didn’t shift. I didn’t even come close.”He looked both proud and terrified. “You could’ve killed her.”“I didn’t.”“That’s what makes you stronger,” he murmured.The oldest Elder, his silver beard glowing pale in the moonlight, stepped between us. His voice rang out like thunder in a storm.“Shea Carter has completed all three Trials: Instinct, Control, and Past.”The pack fell into absolute silence.“She has survived the fire. She has resisted the shift. She has faced the blood of the Old Law and stood her ground.”Another Elder added, “And shown mercy in victory.”They always said the Trials were tests of wor
They gave me until moonrise.That was it.One full turn of the sun to rest, to prepare, to decide if I was willing to bleed for this bond.I stood by the river with my boots off and my toes in the cold water, trying to stop the panic rising in my throat. The trees whispered around me like they knew something I didn’t. Like they’d seen girls like me walk into this kind of challenge and never walk out again.Kade stood behind me, his shadow tall and quiet.“You don’t have to do this,” he said softly, like he already knew it wouldn’t matter.“I do.”“Shea, this isn’t a sparring match. Marisol isn’t just fast. She’s trained. She kills.”I turned slowly. “And I’ve survived things I never trained for.”That made him pause. His jaw tightened like he was holding in a hundred things at once, fear, pride, frustration.“She’s not doing this to prove anything to the pack,” he said. “She wants to kill you. She’s jealous. She’s angry. And she’s cornered.”“Then maybe it’s time someone reminded her
I barely had time to breathe after the third trial before the whispering started.It began with a single voice, one of the younger Elders, tall and sharp-featured, his silver hair pulled tight at the nape of his neck. I didn’t know his name, but I didn’t need to.The way the others turned to listen told me everything.“She’s too calm,” he said, voice just loud enough to carry. “Too controlled. No one touches the fire without shifting, without pain. And yet she walks out… stronger?”One of the older women narrowed her eyes. “You suggest she’s something else?”“I suggest she’s not just a mate,” he said coldly. “She could be a potential Alpha.”That hit the Hollow like a lightning bolt.Even Kade flinched beside me.“She’s human-born,” another Elder hissed. “That’s not possible.”“But her wolf came late,” the first one argued. “And look at how she endures. How she chooses not to shift, even when everything in her body demands it. That’s not human stubbornness. That’s Alpha discipline.”I