The wolf Wakes

Chapter 2

The forest was dark and cold, but I kept running.

Branches scratched my legs. My pink dress tore. My feet bled. But I did not stop. I could still hear Mia's laughter in my head. I could still see Kaden's face - that look of disgust when he realized I was his mate.

My chest burned. The rejection pain was like fire inside me. Every rejected wolf feels it. It feels like dying. Like someone has cut the bond with a hot knife and left you bleeding inside.

Then I fell.

I tripped over a root and crashed to the ground. I could not get up. I was too tired. Too broken. My tears mixed with the dirt on my face.

"Leave me here," I whispered to the night. "Just leave me. I have nothing left."

No.

That voice again. The voice from the ceremony.

Get up, Zara. You are not weak. You never were.

"Who are you?" I cried, holding my chest. "Why are you talking to me? I don't have a wolf. Everyone said so. For eighteen years, everyone said I was wolfless."

Everyone lied. Or they were too blind to see. My name is Nyx. I am your wolf. And I am not like other wolves.

Suddenly, heat rushed through my body. My bones cracked. My skin burned. It hurt, but it was a good hurt. Like I was finally becoming who I was meant to be. Like I had been locked in a small box for eighteen years and someone had finally opened the door.

I screamed as my body shifted for the first time in my life. My hands became paws. My hair became fur. My bones stretched and changed.

And when I opened my eyes, I was not human anymore.

I was a wolf. But not a normal wolf. My fur was pure white, glowing silver under the moonlight. My eyes were violet, shining like gems. I was bigger than any she-wolf I had ever seen. Bigger than even some Alphas in Silver Moon Pack.

See? Nyx whispered in my mind, her voice proud and strong. This is why they feared you. This is why the Moon Goddess hid me until tonight. You are not wolfless. You are a Moon Wolf. The last of our kind.

A Moon Wolf. I had heard stories when I was a child, sitting by the fire with the old pack members. White wolves blessed by the Moon Goddess herself. Stronger, faster, able to heal wounds in seconds. Wolves that Kings and Alphas would kill for. Wolves that had disappeared hundreds of years ago because everyone wanted their power.

And I was one.

For the first time in my life, I did not feel weak. I felt powerful. I felt like I could run to the end of the world and back.

Tears fell from my wolf eyes, but these were not sad tears. These were tears of freedom.

Now run, Nyx said. Run to the city. Run to a new life. Kaden rejected a servant girl. Let him meet the Queen when she returns.

So I ran. Not away in fear this time. I ran toward my future. My paws hit the ground fast, faster than I ever thought possible. The wind rushed through my fur. The forest that had scared me before now felt like home.

Behind me, Silver Moon Pack was celebrating without me. They thought they had thrown away trash. They thought Mia would be their new Luna. They thought Kaden had done the right thing by rejecting me.

They had no idea they had just lost their greatest treasure.

As I ran, Nyx showed me things. She showed me how to use my senses. I could hear a rabbit from far away. I could smell a river three miles away. I could see in the dark like it was daytime.

"Nyx, where will we go?" I asked her in my mind.

To the human city, she answered. There, no one knows about packs or Alphas. There, we can be safe. We can grow strong. And one day, when we are ready, we will return.

"Return to do what?" I asked.

To make him regret it. To make all of them regret it. Kaden Blackwood will beg on his knees for the mate he threw away. And you will have the power to decide if you forgive him... or destroy him.

I liked the sound of that. For eighteen years, I had been quiet. I had cleaned their floors. I had washed their clothes. I had taken their insults and smiled.

No more.

The new Zara was not going to cry in a corner. The new Zara was going to build an empire. She was going to become rich, powerful, and untouchable. And when she returned to Silver Moon Pack, she would not come back as the rejected girl.

She would come back as their Queen.

Three years later, they would find out.

And Kaden Blackwood would learn what it truly means to lose a mate.