Chapter Two

Alia’s POV

The cold woke me before the pain did.

My body was numb from the cold, my back felt stiff, and my mind felt foggy and slow. Then, like a flashback, everything came rushing back — the betrayal, the alpha judgment, Cole’s voice telling me I was nothing, Sophie's face mocking me.

A sharp ache tore through my chest. I curled in on myself, clutching the side where it hurts.

The moon was at its peak today, filtering brightly through the trees, bright but distant.”The moon goddess must have taken pity on me” I thought aloud.

I must’ve blacked out for hours. My lips were cracked, my throat dry.

I tried to move, but my legs felt heavy. I managed to drag myself toward a tree and leaned against it, breathing hard. Every breath stung like fire.

For a while, I just sat there lost in thought. The forest was alive around me, whispering through the leaves, as if mocking me for being weak. I had always loved the woods as a child. Now they felt like a cage.

I pressed my forehead against my knees. My thoughts spiralled.

Cole’s face. Sophie’s smirk. Uncle Hayden’s cold eyes. Lydia’s wicked smile.

Everything played over and over in my head, trying to remember everything.”I must not forget, I must remember everything I said to myself.

“Why wasn’t I enough?” I whispered again, my voice breaking. “I did everything… everything, I lived the way they wanted me to, I always obeyed,” I said as tears flooded my eyes. I didn't hold it in. I cried, my shoulders shook as I finally allowed myself to break down and let the emotions out.

My wolf whimpered inside me, Kayla.. I felt her pain; she was weak. We let people step on us all our lives, and we were called weak and helpless.

Kayla was quiet. She didn’t speak, but I could feel her sadness too.

We had lost everything.

---

At some point, I must’ve drifted in and out of sleep. I woke up to the sound of wolves howling loudly in the distance. It was deep and powerful. My chest tightened in fear, my heart beat loudly so that I could hear it. I knew it wasn’t my pack, it couldn't be. This howling was different; it carries a different rhythm. Much stronger.

I forced myself to stand. My legs wobbled, but it didn't stop me, I had to hide. I had no direction, no plan, only one thought — survival.

The woods were thick and uneven. Every step I took sent sharp waves of pain through my body like an electric current. I grimaced in pain as dry sticks cut through my skin.

Suddenly I caught a musty smell of dampness somewhere nearby, then I heard a stream trickle faintly.

Water.

I stumbled toward it, my eyes bulging out, eyes set on the water, scared that if I looked away, it might vanish. I walked fast, limping in pain as my feet had gone sore from walking barefoot. I dragged my swollen feet. I fell to my knees and drank greedily, the cold liquid relieving the dryness in my throat.

I caught my reflection in the water, my face bruised, my lower lip split, my eyes swollen from crying. My hair was tangled with leaves and dry blood.

I paused, looking at my reflection closely. I couldn't recognise her, she was strange.” How did I get here I whispered, touching my face. “This isn't me.”

But it was.

The heir of the Duskwatch Pack — the daughter of an alpha that everyone called a witch, weakling, unworthy — was now nothing more than a rejected outcast.

---

The next day, hunger gnawed at me like a beast. I walked, eyes bent to the ground, searching for anything to quench my hunger. — I found nothing but dry leaves and bones from dead animals, “or humans,” I thought as I scanned around in fear. I tore strips from my dress, tying up my wounds to stop the bleeding, to avoid being smelled by rogue wolves. They wasted no time in tearing down any lone wolf. I shivered in fear.

Night came fast, and I camped under a tree, praying to the Moon Goddess for warmth. But no answer came. Only silence and the sound of distant crickets chirping in the darkness.

The loneliness hit harder than the pain.

For years, I begged to be seen, heard— to be loved. Now, I have no one. Not even the Moon seemed to care.

I closed my eyes, thinking of my father — Alpha Rowan. His laugh. His stories about strength and honour. His eyes twinkle with joy and pride when he looks at me.

“I need you, Dad. I miss you so much” My heart ached as tears flowed down my cheeks again. I hated how easily they came.

But somewhere in the middle of my grief, something shifted. A quiet thought. Small, but sharp.

If they want me gone, I’ll live just to spite them.

My wolf stirred at that, in approval” We'll get our revenge, Alia”, she said for the first time since the incident. I smiled” Yes we will”

“I’ll survive,” I whispered into the wind. “I’ll come back for all of them. Cole. Sophie. Hayden. Lydia. Every single one of them.”

The longing for revenge burned in my chest, stronger than pain, stronger than fear.

---

The cold hit harder that night. I tried to fight it, but darkness crept in. My breathing grew shallow, my heartbeat slow. My last thought before I blacked out was of the moon, ever so bright but distant, watching.

When I opened my eyes again, everything was hazy. Strange Voices surrounded me, low and unfamiliar. Boots crunched against the ground.

“She’s bleeding out,” a man’s voice said. “Should we leave her?”

“No,” another voice replied, but deeper and more commanding, it was cold as steel. “We take her. Now.”

I parted my lips to speak, but no words came out. The dryness in my throat hurts badly.

The last thing I saw before everything went dark again was a shadow walking closely— tall, broad, dangerous.

And then, darkness.