Chapter 3: Into The Silver Forest

The iron door of the cellar didn't just slam shut; it cut off the last trace of heat in my world.

I sat on the frozen dirt floor of the dungeon, clutching my chest where the severed bond still burned like a fresh branding iron. Every breath felt like inhaling ground glass. My wolf was dead silent now, curled tight in the back of my mind, bleeding from a wound no medicine could touch.

You are a mistake, Selene.

Kael’s words replayed on a loop, sharp enough to bleed me dry. He had felt the bond—I knew he had. His eyes had burned with the same fire that had nearly brought me to my knees. Yet he had looked at me, looked at my silver eyes, and thrown me away like trash.

Before the cold could numb the pain completely, heavy footsteps rattled the iron stairs. Metal scraped against metal, and the heavy cellar door swung open. Beta Thomas stood in the doorway, flanked by two armed border guards holding thick silver chains.

"Get up, curse," Thomas spat, tossing a torn woolen cloak onto the dirt beside me. "The Alpha wants you off Mooncrest land before the sun hits the tree line."

I forced my hands to press against the damp wall, pushing myself up despite the fierce throb in my ribs. "Banished..." My voice was barely a rasp. "Without a trial? Without supplies?"

"You're lucky he didn't order your throat slit," Thomas sneered. He grabbed the back of my collar, dragging me out of the cell and hauling me up the narrow stone steps into the dark morning air.

The courtyard was deserted now, the sacred fires from the ceremony reduced to dying gray embers. The cold wind howled down from the peaks, whipping my thin dress around my legs as the guards marched me toward the northern perimeter gates.

Little Toby’s mother stood behind a wooden shutter, holding her son tight to her side. Toby watched me with wide, terrified eyes as I was dragged past. I kept my head low, swallowing the lump of hot salt in my throat. I didn't want the pup to remember me like this—beaten, broken, and thrown out into the wild.

The heavy wooden gates groaned as the guards pushed them open. Beyond the iron-tipped wooden stakes lay the Silver Forest—a dense, uncharted expanse of towering pine and sharp ridges that separated Mooncrest from the rogue territories. No banished wolf ever survived three nights in those woods. Between the winter frost and the starving rogue packs, it was a slow death sentence.

Thomas shoved me hard across the border line. I stumbled into the freezing mud, scraping my hands against sharp pine roots.

"If your boots touch Mooncrest soil again," Thomas warned, resting his hand on the hilt of his silver blade, "the guards won't drag you to a cell. They'll leave your head on a spike at the gate."

The heavy gates slammed shut behind me, the massive iron bolts sliding into place with a sound that ended my life as I knew it.

I was alone.

The silence of the Silver Forest swallowed me whole. The trees here grew thick and dark, their towering branches blocking out the faint pink light of dawn. Fog clung to the damp moss, thick as smoke, smelling of pine needle and old rot.

I pulled the ragged cloak tight around my shoulders, my body shaking so violently my teeth chattered. Every step away from the pack territory made the severed bond ache with a strange, unnatural weight. It felt as though an invisible rope was pulling at my spine, trying to drag me back toward Kael, while my feet forced me forward into the mist.

Why did his eyes flash silver? The question burned in my mind through the fog of pain. He rejected me... so why did his eyes turn the same color as mine?

I walked for hours, my bare feet bleeding against jagged stones and frozen dirt. By mid-morning, the temperature dropped further, and dark rain began to slick the pine needles beneath my feet. My knees buckled under my weight, and I fell against the base of an ancient, hollowed-out oak tree.

I squeezed my eyes shut, resting my bruised forehead against the damp bark. I can't go any further, I thought, tears slipping down my cheeks. Maybe this is where it ends. Just lie down and sleep.

Then a low, dangerous growl rattled through the quiet woods.

My eyes snapped open.

Ten yards away, emerging from the dark fog, three massive wolves stepped onto the trail. Their fur was matted and filthy, their ribs sticking out sharply against their sides. Wild, bloodshot eyes locked onto me, saliva dripping from their yellowed fangs.

Rogues.

My heart slammed against my ribs. I scrambled backward into the hollow oak, my fingers searching the cold dirt until they closed around a jagged, heavy stone.

"Stay back," I breathed, my voice trembling as I raised the rock.

The lead rogue, a gray beast with a scarred muzzle, let out a wet, guttural snap. He took a slow, deliberate step forward, his ears pinned back. They smelled my weakness. They smelled the blood on my hands and the reek of a freshly severed bond. To starving strays, an injured, rejected female was easy meat.

The gray wolf lunged.

I screamed, throwing the stone with all the strength left in my arms. It clipped the side of his jaw, but it didn't slow him down. He slammed into my chest, knocking me flat onto my back against the muddy roots. His sharp claws tore through my cloak, pinning my left shoulder to the earth while his snapping jaws snapped inches from my throat.

I grabbed his thick neck with both hands, straining with everything I had to keep his teeth off my windpipe. The foul stink of rot washed over my face. My arms trembled, my strength fading fast.

Is this it? I prayed desperately to the sky. Goddess, please... not like this.

Suddenly, the air went deathly still.

A blinding, icy wind swept through the clearing, blowing the mist back in a violent wave. The lead rogue froze mid-snarl, his ears twitching as a deep, terrifying pressure flattened the forest around us. The other two rogues whined, dropping their tails between their legs and taking frantic steps backward.

A massive shadow fell over the clearing.

From the deep fog stepped a beast unlike anything I had ever seen.

It was a giant wolf—nearly twice the size of Alpha Kael’s beast. Its fur was brilliant, unblemished white, glowing like fresh snow beneath the gray sky. Ancient geometric runes, etched directly into its flesh, burned with a faint, pulsing silver light along its shoulders and ribs.

The white wolf didn't roar. It didn't growl. It simply took one heavy step forward, its glowing silver eyes fixing on the gray rogue pinning me to the dirt.

The rogue let out a high-pitched, terrified yelp and let go of my shoulder. He scrambled backward in the mud, trying to flee, but the white wolf moved like a strike of lightning.

With one swift, brutal snap of its jaws, the white wolf crushed the gray rogue’s neck, tossing his lifeless body into the brush like a broken twig. The remaining two rogues turned and sprinted blindly into the fog, their panicked whimpers fading into the distance.

I lay frozen in the dirt, clutching my bleeding shoulder, unable to breathe.

The giant white wolf turned slowly toward me. It stepped over the bloody mud, its heavy paws making no sound against the earth. It stopped right above me, its massive head lowering until its warm, ozone-scented breath washed over my face.

Its silver eyes locked straight onto mine.

Then, a voice echoed inside my mind—soft, maternal, and ancient, vibrating straight through my bone marrow.

"Hold fast, child of the moon. The blood of the Silver Lunas will not perish in the dark."

Before I could speak, the glowing runes on the wolf's fur flared with brilliant, blinding light. A wave of soft silver energy rippled outward, sinking deep into my chest, instantly numbing the agonizing tear of my severed bond.

A heavy, dark tiredness crashed over my brain. My eyelids felt like lead. As my vision faded into complete blackness, I heard the snapping of dry branches nearby and the crunch of approaching, heavy boots.

And right before I lost consciousness, a harsh, familiar voice growled through the fog:

"Get away from her!