Chapter 1 -The Ourtcast of Silvermoon

The moon was swollen and pale that night, hanging low enough that it seemed to press down on the earth.It was the kind of moon that should have stirred the blood of every wolf in Silvbermoon Pack. It should have made us stronger. Faster. Unified.

Instead, it seemed to make them more vicious towards me.

I stood in the center of the training grounds, bare feet sunk in cold mud, rain slicking my hair against my cheeks. A ring of faces stared at me, some openly sneering, others eyes carefully blank, pretending they weren't enjoying this. Not one of them looked at me with anything close to kindness.

Bebta Rowan was the first to speak. "You cost us the hunt again, Selene," he said, his voice loud enough for everyone to hear. "Three deer gone because you couldn't keep up".

My jaw tightened. I kept up. I had run until my lungs burned and my legs felt like they would tear apart. But when the Alpha's daughter had tripped, I'd caught her, and that single moment saving her from snapping her neck had cost me a few strides. And in Silvermoon, you could save someone's life and still get punished if you weren't their favourite.

"I.." My voice caught. My throat felt scraped raw, but i forced the words out. "I didn't slow the hunt. I.."

"Enough"

The Alpha's voice rolled through the space like thunder. Garrick stepped forward from the crowd, and his pesence was as heavy as iron. He was a massive man, his wolf just beneath the surface, power leaking from him like the smell of rain before a storm. His eyes pale and sharp cut through me.

"You've been nothing but a burden since the day your mother spat you out", he said coldly. "Always taking, never giving. Always making excuses. You'll take punishment, as you should."

The words should have stung. Instead, they sank into me like stones into deep water. i'd heard them before, or something close enough that it made no difference.

The pack knew what came next. A ripple of anticipation moved through the circle. The young ones leaned forward. The older ones didn't bother hiding their smirks.

Two enforcers stepped forward, each seizing one of my arms. My feet slipped in the mud as they dragged me towards the whipping post.

The smell of wet earth and wolf musk was strong. My heart thudded once, hard, but i forced it to slow. Fear was something they wanted to taste on me. I would not give them the satisfaction.

They tied my hands to the post. I felt the coarse rope bite into my wrists, the rain running down my spine. The cold air licked across my skin where my tunic was torn open.

The first strike came without warning.

It was fire across my back. Sharp. Hot. Slicing through skin. I clenched my teeth and stared at the tree line beyond the training grounds. The second strike followed, then the third. Somewhere behind me, someone laughed high pitched and cruel. I recognized the sound: Garrick's son, a boy barely older than me but already well-practiced in malice.

The whip bit again.

I counted each lash not because I wanted to know the number, but because it gave me something to hold on to besides the pain. Seven. Eight. Nine.

by twelve, my back was slick with blood, the rain mixing with it and making it feel colder than it should have been.

I did not scream

The pain had gone beyond sharpness now; it was something heavier, spreading like molten metal through my muscles. But pain was a familiar thing. And I had learned that if you could endure it long enough, it stopped belonging to them. It became yours.

When it was over, the ropes were cut, and I stumbled forward, catching myself before i fell face-first into the mud. My knees trembled. My breath came slowly. The enforcers stepped back, and the pack began to disperse, talking among themselves as if they hadn't just watched a child bleed in the rain.

No one offered me a hand.

I straightened slowly, every movement sending a fresh jolt to my back. My hair clung to my face, dripping water. My tunic was ruined, clinging to me in strips.

I walked one slow step after another towards the edge of the clearing. Past the watchful eyes. Past the fire pits. Past the line of crude wooden houses that stank faintly of wet fur.

When the last torchlight faded behind me, I exhaled. My breath fogged in the cold night air.

The forest took me in without question. The scent of wet leaves and moss filled my lungs, softer and cleaner than the stench of the pack grounds. The sound of the rain on the canopy above was steady, rhythmic like a heartbeat that belonged to something bigger than me.

I stopped at the old oak.

It was massive, older than the pack itself. I pressed my palm against its trunk, feeling the deep grooves in the bark. My fingers curled against it, grounding myself. This was the only place I felt any belonging, not among wolves, but here, with roots and branches that didn't care if I was curse-born or unwanted.

I rested my forehead against the bark and let my eyes close for a moment.

The pain was still there, sharp and insistent, but it wasn't the kind that broke me. It was the kind that became part of you. The kind that made walls around your heart without you even realizing it.

I was twelve years old. And already, I had learned the most important lesson a wolf could learn in this world.

Love was not something you could trust.

Love, in Silvermoon, was a weapon. By the time I made it back to the sleeping quarters, the rain had softened to a drizzle. The long wooden barrack smelled of damp fur and unwashed clothes. I moved quietly past rows of bedrolls until I reached my own corner, a thin mat and a threadbare blanket.

I lay on my stomach, the rough fabric scratching my wounds. Outside, the sound of celebration carried in faintly laughter, raised voices, and the clink of mugs. They were celebrating the hunt I had supposedly ruined.

my hands curled into the blanket. The promise burned inside me again, the one I whispered to myself every time they reminded me i didn't belong.

One day, I would leave this place. One day, I would run so far they would never find me. And if they did, they would wish they hadn't.

I didn't know how. I didn't know when. But i knew the moon was listening.

And i knew, in my bones, that it would answer.