Chapter 2

He shattered that hope in an instant.

"Don't flatter yourself. I wasn't coming for you. I was running an errand for Celeste. Running into you was just bad luck." He sneered. "And stop pretending to attempt suicide to manipulate me. It's pathetic."

I laughed bitterly inside. I had almost fooled myself into thinking he cared.

But I knew better. My brother was desperately in love with Celeste, enough to fetch and carry for her mating ceremony to another man. Sebastian. The groom.

I remembered how Kael used to bring me wildflowers when we were pups. How he would let me sleep against his flank during thunderstorms. Those memories felt like they belonged to someone else now. Celeste had taken everything. Not just his love, but his loyalty, his trust, his memory of who I used to be to him.

I said nothing. I just turned and walked into the river.

The current was stronger than I expected. It pulled at my legs, hungry and impatient. Kael probably thought I was bluffing. He called out from the bank, mocking me. "Walk faster. If you're going to die, do it quickly. I have things to do."

I did not look back. I kept walking. The water reached my waist, then my chest. The cold was shocking at first, then numbing. My burned cheek stung where the river touched the raw skin. Snow stirred weakly inside me.

Freya, please.

It's okay, Snow. It will be over soon.

I quickened my pace. The water closed over my head.

Finally. Freedom.

The silence under the surface was almost peaceful. No cruel words. No mocking laughter. Just the rush of water in my ears and the slow fade of light. I opened my mouth to let the river in.

But then hands yanked me up. Air slammed back into my lungs. Another slap landed across my already ruined cheek. Pain exploded through my face.

"You actually went through with it? Who gave you permission, Freya?"

He dragged me ashore and threw me onto the rocks. I coughed water and blood. My whole body trembled.

"Your life isn't yours to throw away. Mother gave it to you."

Mother. The only person in this world who truly loved me. I thought of her gentle hands, her warm eyes. She would howl for me when she learned I was gone. I did not want to leave her. But I had no choice. The mission was over. The system had spoken. There was no future for me here.

Despair washed over me, heavier than the river ever could. Even death had been denied. I had to find a place where Kael could not find me, a place where no one would stop me. Because for me, everything was already finished. The mission had failed. There was nothing left.

I turned and walked away without another word. My wet clothes clung to my skin. Each step sent pain through my throat, my cheek, my broken heart.

He shouted after me. "So what if Sebastian has taken a mate? If you really loved him, you would let him be with the woman he truly wants."

Kael would never know. I did not love Sebastian. I just wanted to live. I wanted to go back to my original home. I wanted to wake up from this nightmare that had lasted eighteen years.

But those doors were closed to me now. All that remained was finding a quiet place to say goodbye.

I found a silver dagger in an old weapons chest at the pack house. It had been my father's, meant for putting down rogue wolves too far gone to save. I never thought I would use it on myself.

I walked deep into the Whispering Woods, far from the pack territories. I did not want Mother to find my body. The moonlight filtered through the trees, casting pale shadows on the forest floor. Snow stirred inside me, weak but still present.

Freya, please stop. We can find another way.

There is no other way, Snow. The mission is over. The system has already decided.

I sat down against an ancient oak tree. The silver blade caught the moonlight, gleaming cold and beautiful. Eighteen years. Not long in the life of a wolf, but long enough to suffer.

When I was young, Kael hated me. He thought my birth would steal our parents' love and that my wolf would challenge his status one day. I worked hard to win him over. I gave him the best piece of every hunt, even when I was starving. I stepped into a challenge fight for him when a rival pack member attacked him, taking the wounds myself. I ran beside him through the Blood Moon blizzard to bring him healing herbs when he fell sick with moon fever. I spent two summers tracking and hunting down a rare white stag so he could present its pelt to our father and gain honor.

Slowly, his love for me as a sister grew.

Then Celeste appeared and undid years of work in weeks.

Whatever. Eighteen years. A long nightmare.

I pressed the silver blade to my wrist. The metal burned even before it cut. Silver poison for a wolf's blood. I left a note tucked into the tree bark: "I run now with the eternal moon. Do not weep for me."

My vision blurred. Memories flashed by. Every effort I had made, always stolen by Celeste. Everyone loved her. No one loved me. Snow whimpered once, then went quiet.

I drew the blade across my skin.

The pain was immediate and deep. Silver fire rushed through my veins. I gasped and dropped the dagger. Blood poured from the wound, black in the moonlight. I leaned my head back against the tree and waited.

But then hands grabbed my arm. A voice, sharp and angry.

"Freya! Have you lost your mind?"

I looked up. It was Dr. Marcus Rivers. My former healer. Five years older than me. Another of my assigned targets.

When I was diagnosed with shadow sickness, a wasting illness where the wolf spirit slowly fades and the mind follows, he was the pack healer who treated me. The system told me to pursue him. So I did. We trained together in the fighting ring. He taught me to track wounded prey. We watched the lunar eclipse from the sacred stone circle. He even took me to the old wolf shrine where his ancestors were buried. He said I was the first outsider to ever see that place.

His feelings for me grew fast.

Then Celeste appeared. She ran to him one night, sobbing, her clothes torn, scratches on her arms. "Dr. Rivers, Freya hired rogues to drag me into the Dark Woods. They tore my clothes..."

Marcus held her. "Don't be afraid. I'm here. No one will hurt you again."

Then he turned to me, eyes blazing red, his wolf surging forward. "Get out of my sight. Your shadow sickness was never real. You faked everything. You are nothing but a monster."

Mission failed.