CHAPTER 2: I Turned Into a Wolf

Kaia

The library air was suffocating. Silence pressed against my eardrums. I sat across from Selene, my eyes locked on her hands. They were steady as she smoothed a piece of yellowed parchment over the mahogany table. 

This wasn't a fairy tale. It was a cage with better lighting.

Selene’s glasses caught the dim overhead glow as she traced the heavy black lines on the map. She didn't look up.

"Five territories, Kaia," she said. Her voice was flat, like she was reciting a grocery list. "Five packs. Five alphas. All of them answer to one man."

Her finger landed on the center of the map. Kentrikos.

"Your father," she whispered. "Alpha Narcisse. He owns it. All of it."

I stared at the thick ink. My stomach did a slow, sick roll. "He owns it? Like a king?"

Selene’s mouth twitched. It wasn't a smile; it was a ghost of a bitter thought. "We don't have kings here."

"Then why do people call me Princess?" I asked. I tried to make it sound like a joke, but my voice cracked in the middle.

She finally looked at me. The pity in her eyes made me want to scream. "I don't know. There is almost nothing about you in the records."

My heart skipped. I could feel the heat rising behind my eyes. "Almost nothing? So there's something."

She adjusted her glasses, her gaze flickering toward the dark, locked shelves at the back of the room. "Every pack has a ledger. A history. Yours is mostly blank. It says your mother and brother died when you were born. It says you were the only one who lived."

The word felt like a slap. Lived. I wasn't living. I was a science experiment. I thought about the needles they pushed into my skin and the way my bruises faded before I could even cry about them. I was a freak.

"How does he do it?" I asked, my voice coming out as a growl I didn't recognize. "How does he keep them all in line?"

"He controls the Alphas," she said. She leaned in closer, and I caught the scent of old paper and peppermint. "The strongest males. Then the Betas and the Gammas. Your father has warriors in every corner of this country. Watching. Waiting."

I looked toward the library door. A man stood there in a black suit. He looked like any other guard, but now I saw the way his shoulders stayed rigid. I saw the way his eyes never stopped moving.

"The guards," I whispered. "They're his army."

Selene nodded once. "They protect his interests. They protect the White Moon."

"The White Moon," I repeated. The name felt heavy on my tongue. "So he’s the Alpha of the White Moon pack."

"Yes," she said. She tapped the map again, harder this time. "Alpha at the top. Beta and Gamma below him. And the Luna at his side."

I felt a spark of something. Not hope, just a desperate curiosity. "What does the Luna do?"

Selene paused. She looked at me for a long time, her expression turning hard. "She is the mother of the pack. She supports the Alpha. She ensures the bloodline continues."

The blood drained from my face. I felt a cold, sharp ache in my gut. A mother. A mate. A breeder.

"How does a man become Alpha?" I asked. I needed to distract myself from the heat crawling under my skin.

Selene didn't look at me. Her eyes drifted toward the heavy oak door. "Birthright. Or blood."

"Blood?"

"One pack kills the other," she said. Her voice was thin, like a wire about to snap. "They slaughter anyone who stands in the way. They wipe the line clean."

A chill raced down my spine. I thought of my father’s house. The silent guards. The rows of warriors. The total absence of women. It wasn't a home; it was a graveyard where no one talked back.

"And the Luna?" I whispered.

"The mate bond," Selene said. She finally looked at me, her eyes glassy. "It is a tether. You feel their heart inside your own chest. If they bleed, you taste copper. If they die, a part of your soul just goes black."

The weight of it pressed on my lungs. It sounded like a death sentence.

"How are they picked?" My hands were shaking now.

"The Moon Goddess." Selene’s voice turned thick with a kind of sick worship. "She carves your names together before you're even born."

I dropped my head into my palms. My brain felt like it was swelling against my skull. Then, a sharp, white-hot blade of pain sliced through my gut. I gasped, doubling over. It wasn't just a cramp. It felt like something was trying to claw its way out of my stomach.

"Selene," I choked out, clutching my middle. "I-I don’t feel well. I need to go."

She reached out, her face blurring. "Kaia?"

I didn't wait. I pushed off the chair, my legs feeling like lead. I stumbled out of the library, hitting the walls of the hallway as I ran. By the time I hit my bedroom, I was sobbing.

I made it to the bathroom and ripped my clothes off. My breath hitched. Blood. It was everywhere. Dark, thick, and hot. I scrambled into the shower and turned the handle. I sat on the cold tile, watching the red swirls circle the drain. I stayed there until the water turned to ice and my skin went blue.

The curtain pulled back with a sharp snap. Astra stood there. She didn't look shocked. She looked like she’d been waiting for this.

She pressed a glass of water into my hand and four bitter white pills. "Painkillers. Swallow them."

I swallowed the pills. I was too tired, too hollowed out to fight her. Astra wrapped me in a thick towel and tucked me into the sheets like I was still a child. As the dark pulled at me, one thought looped in my brain: Was this the change? Was I finally becoming a monster, or was I just breaking into pieces?

The next morning, I was still just Kaia. No claws. No fur. Just a girl who couldn't punch her way out of a cardboard box.

My father didn't give a damn about my pain. He only cared about the clock. An hour later, I was flat on the gym mats with Cain grinding my face into the rubber.

"How is this helping?" I spat. My mouth tasted like sweat and floor cleaner. "You're just hurting me, asshole!"

"You're holding back, Princess," Cain growled. He shoved his knee harder into the small of my back. "Get up and fight like you actually want to live."

I snarled. The sound was deep, vibrating in a way that didn't feel like me. I threw my weight to the side, rolled, and managed to clip his calf with the heel of my boot. I scrambled up, my lungs burning for air.

"Better," he said. He moved toward me, his face a mask of cold boredom. "Again."

"Give me a sec—"

Cain froze. His whole body went rigid. A low, vibrating thrum started deep in his chest. His eyes bled from brown to a terrifying, electric yellow. The pupils swallowed the iris until he looked like a predator staring into the sun.

"Cain?" I stepped back, my skin prickling. "What's wrong?"

He didn't hear me. He was sniffing the air, his chest heaving with deep, jagged breaths. He spun toward the door.

Selene was standing there. She held a stack of books, her blonde hair falling over her shoulders in a soft mess. She looked vulnerable.

Cain moved faster than my eyes could follow. He was across the room in a heartbeat. He slammed his hands against the doorframe on either side of her head, pinning her there. He leaned in, burying his face in the curve of her neck. He inhaled so deeply his ribs shook.

Selene didn't scream. She didn't run. She let out a small, broken whimper and tilted her head back, exposing the pulse of her throat to his teeth.

"C-Cain, stop," she panted. Her fingers were already buried in his dark hair, pulling him closer even as she told him to quit.

I felt like dirt under their boots. My chest burned with a jealousy I couldn’t put a name to. I was a ghost in the hallway, the girl no one bothered to see. I ducked my head and scrambled past them, my shoulder brushing Cain’s leather jacket. He didn't even flinch. He was too busy tasting her skin.

I slammed the bathroom door and turned the lock. My breath came in ragged bursts. I leaned over the sink and splashed cold water on my face, staring at the girl in the glass. Then it hit me.

A white-hot blade sliced through my brain.

I screamed, but the sound died in my throat. My knees hit the tile so hard I heard them crack. The world tilted, the edges of my vision bleeding into black. It wasn't just a headache. It felt like my skeleton was a cage that had suddenly grown too small.

My humerus snapped first. The sound was like a dry branch breaking in the woods. I arched my back, my spine popping and stretching. I could feel my skin pulling so thin I thought it would burst. Every pore on my body screamed as thick, white fur pushed through the surface.

I was being eaten from the inside out by something stronger than me.

My jaw unhinged with a wet thud. My nose and mouth pushed out into a heavy snout. My teeth sharpened into daggers that sliced through my own gums, filling my mouth with the metallic tang of my own blood. I tried to grab the sink, but my fingers were gone. In their place were heavy paws and curved, black claws that tore deep grooves into the floor.

Then, the agony vanished.

I lay on the cold tile, panting. My heart beat like a war drum. I looked up at the mirror. A beast stared back. I was huge, covered in fur as white as a fresh kill in winter. But it was the eyes that got me. They were a piercing, glowing aquamarine.

'Selah.'

The name vibrated in my skull. It wasn't a thought; it was a roar. She was me, and I was her.

A frantic scratching sound came from the corner. A small goat stood there, tied to a pipe. Its pulse was a rhythmic throb I could see in its neck. The scent of its fear was the sweetest thing I had ever smelled.

Hunger didn't just hurt. It took over.

I didn't choose to move. I was a blur of white fur and teeth. I hit the animal hard, my weight crushing its ribs. My jaws snapped shut over its throat. The hot, copper spray of blood hit my tongue, and I felt a rush of pure, uncut power. I tore into the meat, my instincts screaming for more. This was what I was made for.

"She’s further along than we expected, Sir."

The voice was muffled, coming from behind the two-way mirror. Astra.

"Her body burned through the medicine faster than we thought," she continued, her voice trembling with a sick kind of excitement. "Her wolf is awake."

"She must learn to control it," my father’s voice replied. It was cold enough to freeze the blood on my muzzle. "Her transformation will be confirmed in two nights. The pack ceremony follows in two weeks. Call the other Alphas. I want them here for the first moon."

I froze. A piece of raw flesh hung from my teeth.

They weren't proud of me. They were just taking my measurements. I wasn't a daughter to him, and I never had been. I was a weapon forged for the White Moon. I was a pawn he intended to parade in front of the other Alphas to see who would bid the highest.

I turned back to the mirror, locking eyes with my own reflection. Crimson blood dripped from my white muzzle, staining the pristine fur. My father thought he could own this. He thought he could control the beast. But he didn't feel the liquid fire in my veins. He didn't know Selah.

The girl I used to be was dead. I was a predator now, and I wasn't going to let them put a leash on me.