THE ROGUE QUEEN

The Night the Shadows Woke

Ten Years Ago

The screams woke me first.

Then the fire.

I was only eight years old, small and trembling beneath my threadbare blanket, but I knew the smell of burning wood and flesh. I knew the sound of wolves tearing into each other, claws ripping through skin, teeth snapping bones.

I knew what death sounded like.

“Mama?” I whispered, my voice shaking in the noise.

The door to our small cabin flew open, and my mother ran in. Her face was covered in blood, and her silver eyes, just like mine—

were filled with fear.

“Selene.” She fell to her knees in front of me, her hands gripping my shoulders so tightly it hurt. “Listen to me. You have to run.”

“No—Mama, I—”

“Listen!” Her voice was sharp and full of panic. “They’re coming for us. For you. They know what you are.”

I didn’t understand. I was nothing. A girl with no wolf in a pack that only cared about strength. I was invisible. Worthless.

"I don't—"

“You’re not wolfless, Selene,” my mother said, her hands shaking as she held my face. “You’re a Shadow Wolf the last one of our kind. And they’ll kill you if they find out.”

I stared at her, confused. Shadow Wolf? I’d only heard that name in old stories about wolves who could control shadows and were hunted until none were left.

But that was just a legend.

“Mama, please—”

Outside, a loud howl filled the night. It was deep, angry, and scary.

My mother’s face went pale. She quickly took off the silver pendant around her neck and pressed it into my hand. It felt warm against my skin.

“This will protect you,” she whispered. “It will keep your wolf hidden until you’re strong enough to handle what’s coming. But when the time comes, Selene, when the shadows call you must listen.”

Tears rolled down my cheeks. “I don’t want to leave you.”

She pressed a shaking kiss to my forehead, her lips soft and cold. “You’re stronger than you think, my little moon. Now go, run.”

She pushed me toward the back window just as the door burst open with a deafening crash.

A huge black wolf stood in the doorway, his eyes glowing red, teeth dripping with blood. Behind him, more wolves rushed in—Council enforcers, their fur marked with the red symbol of the ruling Alphas.

“There!” one of them shouted. “The woman and the child!”

In a blink, my mother shifted into her wolf form, a stunning silver wolf, shadows moving across her fur like smoke come alive. She jumped at the black wolf, her teeth snapping with fury.

“Run, Selene!”

I didn’t want to. Every part of me wanted to stay, to fight beside her, to help her.

But I was only eight. Small. Without a wolf.

Useless.

So I ran.

I jumped through the window, glass tearing at my skin as I hit the cold ground. Behind me, my mother’s scream broke through the night, sharp and painful.

I wanted to turn back.

But I didn’t.

I ran into the forest, holding the pendant so tight it dug into my hand. I ran until my chest burned, until my legs couldn’t move anymore. I ran until the screams were gone, and all I could hear was my own rough breathing.

When I finally fell behind a hollow tree, I pressed my face into the dirt and cried.

I stayed there until morning.

When I went back to the cabin, everything was gone. Burned. Turned to ash.

My mother’s body was missing. The wolves had vanished.

And I was alone.

That day, I buried the pendant deep in the forest, too scared of what it meant. Too scared of what I might become.

For ten years, I told myself the same lie everyone else believed:

I am wolfless. I am nothing.

But the shadows never forget.

And on the night of my eighteenth birthday when my fated mate broke me in front of the whole pack

They woke up.