Chapter One: Broken vows

 Lily’s pov

“Run…Run…”

Elder Jones' voice echoed in my ear as I ran through the woods.

My stomach turned, tears streamed down my cheeks, vision split apart as if torn by unseen hands, my world blurred. I hid myself behind a large tree, peeping, my heart kicked against my ribs. Fast, sharp, merciless as the whistling arrow tore through the air.

Gaya and Blake started looking around, and I hurriedly returned to my position. Covering my mouth to reduce my breath volume.

Someone yanked my hair. "There you are!" Antonio's voice came sharp and cold.

Elder Jones echoed in my brain, Run…

I picked a small rock and hit it on his legs and started running.Thorns bit into my bare soles, sharp stones carving fresh wounds with each desperate step. Cold mud squelched between my toes as I stumbled over gnarled roots, my feet leaving crimson prints on the wet leaves.

"Who am I fooling?" The words tasted bitter on my tongue. Blake, my father's Beta, his best friend, is now hunting me like prey. Antonio, who once promised to stand beside me, now stood beside Gaya, both wearing matching gold bands that caught the moonlight. And Gaya... Gaya who smiled with too many teeth, who'd always lingered at the edges of my life, neither friend nor enemy, now closing in with the others.

I struggled to breathe, my head pounding as they surrounded me. "Please spare my life," I begged desperately, while tears gushed like an ocean.

I was cornered by Blake, Gaya and Antonio.

  “Did you even know another method to choose the next Alpha exists? It is a combat between the Beta and Gamma. You dummy.” Gaya said mockingly.

  “Your blood is needed for the completion of the oat. Norms, it is a pinch but why spare you? When your death is more fruitful”. Antonio added

  “Please, take my blood but spare my life. I promise not to return. I won't fight for the throne”. I said

  “Fight for the throne? Who would choose a cursed, damned, wolfless bitch as their leader?” Gaya asked spitefully.

  “Here is my wrist”. I said stretching it forward. Please for the friendship between you and my father. I said tears hooshes down my cheek, my throat hurt as I pleaded desperately.

 “Your wrist? Nope,... Not too fast…Why did you stop running?” Blake snarled. “Jump up!” He growled. 

  I crawled, right hand on the earth, my left placed on a rock, pulling my weight up, I winced in pain, staggered while running, looking for an escape route. 

  They smiled, laughed while enjoying the euphoric adventure. My predicament became a game and entertainment for them. Covered in bruises, my legs aches, I found my way to the woods.

  “Spread out!” Blake commanded while watching how far I could run.

  I dragged my wounded leg that had been pricked with the tree thorns, blood trickles, forming a trail of My footsteps.

  As if my warmblood is an intoxication, they encircle fermented by the scent of my blood, moving closer, gently, taunting my surviving instincts, my heart ached in despair.

  I hit my back on a tree bark, a dead end, the wolves snarled, tears slid down my cheeks as my lips trembled vigorously and the salty taste lingered on my lips.

 Then I saw them.

  Two men stood at the edge, backs to the stone, surrounded by soldiers. Closed in from all sides, too many, too fast.

 “That’s Gavin Frost Moor “ Antonio hissed behind me, his voice dripping with malice. “And his Gamma, Marrok.”

  “The frost moor pack alpha” Gaya added, a cruel smile in her voice. “Trapped like rats”

  Blake chucked darkly . “Gaya, draw her blood and finish her off”

  One man’s sword flashed, Blood sprayed. He stumbled, caught himself against the rock.

  The other roared something I couldn't hear. His blade took down two men, but three more pressed forward.

  They were going to die.

  Something inside me pulled. Not physical. Deeper than that. Like a rope wrapped around my ribs, yanking me forward.

 Toward the bleeding man, Gavin..

  "No." The word ripped from my throat before I could stop it.

  I ran. My lungs burned. My legs screamed.

  Behind me, Antonio scoffed. "What is she…?"

  "Let her go . Blake barked. She’s running straight into marcus blades. She’ll be dead in seconds. No point in dirtying our claws."

  Gaya laughed . "Stupid girl, she just saved us from trouble."

  Their paws thudded as they turned, jumping off the alley, retreating into the shadows

  Gavin fell to one knee. A soldier raised his axe…

  Something snapped inside me

  Like a chain wrapping around my soul. Binding me to him. Him to me. Unbreakable. Undeniable.

  Heat exploded through my veins. Not just heat, power. Wild and ancient.

 My bones shifted like a lock turning. Like a door I'd never known existed suddenly flying open.

  I gasped or tried to. The sound came out deeper. Animalistic tone.

  My hands hit the ground, but they weren't hands anymore. Paws. White fur. Claws digging into earth.

  “What…”

 No time to think. No time to process.

 I launched forward.

  The world sharpened. Colors bled away except for movement, heat, threat. I could smell blood,Gavin's blood and copper-sharp.

  I hit him mid-swing.

  My jaw closed around his throat. Bone crunched. Blood flooded my mouth hot, bitter. I released and he fell, gurgling.

Another soldier turned toward me. His eyes went wide.

  I didn't give him time to scream.

  Claws raked across his chest. He went down. I was already moving fluid, faster than I'd ever been as human. My body knew what to do even though my mind didn't understand.

 A blade came at me from the left. I twisted. It missed by inches. My fangs found the soldier's wrist. He screamed. Dropped the sword.

  I left him bleeding and charged the next.

 Three soldiers surrounded Marrok. He was slowly wounded, exhausted. One of them drove a spear toward his back.

  I slammed into the man's side. We rolled across the ground in a tangle of fur and armor. His fist caught my ribs. Pain exploded through my side.

  I bit down harder. Felt his collarbone snap between my teeth.

  He stopped moving.

  I stood, panting. Blood dripped from my muzzle.

 That's when I felt it.

  A second power rising beneath the first. Different. Colder. Like ice crystallizing in my veins.

 The air around me began to shimmer.

  I looked down. My white fur was glowing, not bright, but visible even in the darkness. Silver light traced along my body like lightning frozen mid-strike.

  One of the soldiers stumbled backward. "What…what is that?"

  I didn't know.

 But I could feel it building. Pressure in my chest. In my skull. Wanting out. Demanding release.

  A soldier charged me with a spear.

  I opened my mouth, not to bite, but to exhale.

  What came out wasn't breath.

  Silver mist poured from my jaws. It spread fast, rolling across the ground like fog. Where it touched the soldiers, they froze.

  Ice crystallized on their armor. On their skin. Their movements slowed, then stopped entirely. One man tried to run. Made it three steps before his legs locked. He toppled forward, rigid as a statue.

  The mist kept spreading. Creeping. Hungry.

  "STOP! Marrok’s voice cut through the haze. “You'll freeze us too!"

  I tried to pull it back. I tried to stop. 

  The mist hesitated. Wavered.

  Then slowly, so slowly, it began to retreat. Drawing back toward me like smoke being inhaled. It disappeared into my chest, leaving frost patterns on the ground where it had been.

  The frozen soldiers remained. Trapped in ice. Still breathing, but barely. Their eyes moved, frantic with terror.

  Silence fell.

  I stood there, four legs trembling. My wolf form felt both completely natural and utterly foreign. The power hummed beneath my skin, waiting, coiled, ready.

  And underneath it all, that bond. Pulsing. Alive. Connecting me to…

  "What are you?" He looked at me with surprise 

  I turned.

  Gavin was staring at me. Blood ran from a cut above his eye. His sword hung loose in his hand.

 Our eyes met.

  The bond flared. Heat and light and something so intense it nearly drove me to my knees.

  He felt it too. I could see it in his face, shock, confusion, and underneath it all, recognition.

  "The Night root," Marrok breathed, looking around at the frozen soldiers. "It's killing them."

 Gavin took a step toward me, his gaze never leaving mine. "You saved us."

 I sucked at shifting back. “Is this how transformation is painful for first timers”? I muttered as my bones cracked, reforming. I collapsed onto the ground, naked and shaking, my white hair splayed across the frost-covered earth.

  He moved closer. For a moment, I thought he might thank me. Help me.

  Instead, his expression hardened.

  "Seize her," Gavin commanded coldly.

  Marrok hesitated. "But Alpha, she…"

  "I said: Seize her." His voice cut like ice. "A wolf with that kind of power, unclaimed, untrained? She's too dangerous to roam free."

  Soldiers moved forward. Chains rattled.

  I tried to crawl away, but my body was t

oo weak, too drained from the transformation.

  "Please," I whispered. "I saved you."

 Gavin crouched beside me. His eyes, cold, calculating met mine. The bond thrummed between us, but he ignored it.

  "And now you belong to me."