Warmth again

Selene’s POV

 It had been days.

 Days of walking with no direction, only the pain in my feet and the cold bite of the wind guiding me forward.

 The nights were the worst. The world turned black, and every sound became a threat. The howls in the distance. The rustling in the brush. The echo of my own heartbeat in my ears as I curled into myself, trying to stay warm. Trying to stay alive.

 I didn’t know where I was anymore.

 Snow had soaked my boots through. My legs were scraped from thorns, rocks, gods-know-what else. My cloak—thin and torn—clung to me like wet paper. I’d passed through forests dense with silence, cliffs jagged and high, and rivers too cold to cross without feeling like death was waiting on the other side.

 But I kept walking.

 Because I had no choice.

 The wildlands… they didn’t welcome you. They tested you. And I was failing.

 I tried finding shelter—small caves, hollowed trees, anywhere I could rest my eyes. But the creatures here were always watching. I could feel them. Some were wolves, feral and mindless. Some were worse.

 And now… now it was night again.

 The moon barely broke through the clouds above as I lay tucked beneath a crumbling cliff, knees pulled to my chest. My whole body ached, my lips cracked from the cold. Hunger gnawed at me like a wild thing.

 I was so tired.

 My eyes fluttered shut. Just for a second.

 That’s when I heard it.

 Crunch.

 Snow. Footsteps.

 Too many.

 My eyes snapped open—and before I could fully sit up, I was surrounded.

 Three figures stepped into the clearing. Rogues. Reeked of rot and blood and something worse. Two women, sneering like wolves in heat, and a tall male whose eyes glinted like knives under moonlight.

 “Well, look what we have here,” one of the women said, stepping forward. Her hair was matted and red, her mouth stretched in a cruel smile. “A little pup, all alone.”

 “She smells like Moonbane,” the second spat. Her boots crunched closer. “Smells like shame.”

 “Exile,” the man chuckled, eyes raking over me like I was something dead. “Or maybe a runaway whore. What’s the difference?”

 I pushed myself up slowly, body trembling, but I wouldn’t beg. Not for them. Not for anyone.

 “Get lost,” I croaked, voice dry and low. “You don’t want to do this.”

 They laughed.

 “Oh, we do, sweetheart.” The man lunged first—too fast.

 I ducked just in time, my instincts flaring to life, my hands moving before I could think.

 I punched him in the side and kicked off the rock wall behind me, sending him stumbling. But the other two were already on me.

 Claws slashed across my arm. A boot hit my side. I screamed, swinging wildly.

 Something snapped inside me then.

 A heat burned in my chest—hot, wild, otherworldly. My vision blurred. Not from pain. From power.

 It exploded.

 For a brief second, the air around me shimmered—crackled with invisible fire. The ground trembled. And then—

 Boom.

 One of the girls was thrown back like she’d been hit by lightning.

 The second tried to claw my face, but I grabbed her arm, felt the bones under her skin… and twisted. She screamed.

 The male snarled, leaping at me again, but this time… I saw him coming. My eyes glowed. I felt it.

 Wolf.

 Witch.

 Something darker. Deeper.

 I threw him into the side of the cliff like he weighed nothing.

 “RUN,” I growled, voice not my own.

 They didn’t wait for me to say it again.

 Bloodied, furious, they fled into the trees—shouting curses and threats—but they didn’t turn back.

 I stood there, chest heaving, snow falling in silence again.

 And then—

 Darkness.

 Pain tore through my abdomen, and I dropped to my knees.

 Bleeding.

 Breathing too fast.

 The fire was gone. Whatever it was… it had vanished as fast as it came.

 I collapsed on my side beneath the cliff, the cold pressing into my skin again like death.

 The baby. My baby.

 I curled around the ache, arms wrapped tight around myself.

 “Hold on…” I whispered. “Please… hold on.”

 And under that broken cliff, in a wildland that showed no mercy, I passed out alone… with only the moon watching me.

 ABOUT MINUTES LATER,

 Darkness.

 It clung to me like frost—heavy, endless, suffocating.

 My body was numb. My thoughts barely formed. Every breath was a battle.

 I thought I was dead. Maybe I was. But then…

 I heard it.

 Voices.

 Low. Muffled. Distant—like echoes across water.

 Then… growling. Not from me. Not feral. Not wild creatures either.

 “She’s breathing, just barely.” A woman’s voice.

 “So? She’s not our problem,” a deeper voice responded, gruff and impatient.

 Boots crunched close to where I lay, hidden in the shallow shadow of the crumbling cliff. My fingers twitched. My lashes fluttered.

 Was it a dream?

 “Look at her. She’s half-dead, Jax. And obviously needs help.”

 “And obviously trouble,” he shot back. “Ronan’s gonna skin us if we drag a stranger into Ashfang. Especially one who smells like… whatever that is.”

 Ashfang?

 What was that?

 I tried to lift my head, but everything inside me screamed. My body wouldn’t move. Not even an inch.

 My lips cracked open.

 “W-Water…” I barely whispered, unsure if they even heard me.

 Silence.

 Then the woman gasped softly, dropping to her knees beside me. I could barely make out her face through blurred eyes—soft features, hair falling into her face, concern written across her brow.

 “We’ll get you water, okay?” she said, her voice warm. Kind.

 Warmth I hadn’t felt in days.

 The man groaned audibly behind her. “Mira…”

 “She spoke. She’s alive. That’s enough for me.”

 Footsteps approached. A pause.

 Then arms wrapped around me.

 Strong. Careful. Warm.

 I wanted to scream in pain but couldn't. I could only sag into his hold like a broken thing.

 “Ronan’s gonna kill us for this,” the man, Ronan I guess, muttered under his breath as he lifted me.

 And just like that, the world faded again—this time into something softer.

 Maybe this was still the wildlands.

 But maybe I wasn’t alone anymore.