The Pit of Shadows

The world slammed into Lena like a fist.

Stone. Cold, jagged stone against her palms, her knees, her chest as she hit the ground hard. She gasped, sucking in the stench of blood and rot that clung to the pit’s air. Her ears rang with the echoes of her fall, but above that — silence.

No Council. No pack. No Kade.

Only her.

And the eyes.

They glowed in the dark, dozens of them, each a malignant spark of red. They blinked in and out of the shadows, moving low to the ground, circling, always circling. The sound of claws dragged against rock.

Her wolf pressed forward, restless, claws scraping inside her ribs. Let me out. Let me fight.

Her human side shook. No. Not yet. Not like this.

A shape lunged.

Lena rolled instinctively, the thing hitting the ground where she’d just been. Her flashlight was gone, but she didn’t need it to see the creature now. Moonlight filtered faintly through the cracks above, glinting off its body — skeletal, mangy, its limbs too long, its mouth full of teeth jagged as broken glass. Not a wolf. Not human. Something in between.

A failed shift.

Her stomach turned. She’d seen it once, years ago, a picture in an old hunter’s journal. A wolf who had tried to fight the bond, to deny it, and had been ripped apart in the process. A beast caught forever between flesh and fur.

The Council had thrown her into a pit with them.

The creature snarled, the sound like metal tearing. Others answered in chorus, their growls vibrating in her bones.

The circle closed.

Lena scrambled to her feet, backing against the stone wall. Her hands stung from the fall, her knees bloodied, but she didn’t dare look down. She forced her breathing steady.

Not prey. Never prey.

The first beast lunged.

Lena ducked low, her fingers wrapping around a rock the size of her fist. She swung with everything she had, smashing it into the thing’s skull. Bone cracked. It shrieked, collapsing in a twitching heap.

But the others surged forward.

Lena’s wolf slammed into her, hot and furious, claws raking at her insides. Pain speared down her spine, her vision blurring at the edges.

Shift. Now.

“No—” she gasped aloud, clutching her side as if she could hold it back. Her body wasn’t ready, her bones weren’t ready—

Another beast struck. Its claws ripped her shoulder, fire searing through flesh. She screamed, stumbling to her knees.

The scent of her blood filled the pit.

The beasts howled as one and charged.

Something inside her snapped.

Not from fear. From fury.

Heat poured through her veins, burning hotter than the Alpha’s bite, hotter than fire itself. Her skin crawled, bones stretching, breaking, reforming. Her scream broke into a guttural snarl. Her nails split into claws, her teeth lengthened, tearing her lip.

Her wolf exploded free.

The world sharpened into brutal clarity — scents, sounds, heartbeats. The beasts’ movements slowed, their snarls deafening in her ears. Her blood still dripped, but it only fed the rage flooding her veins.

The first beast leapt. Lena met it midair, her claws tearing across its throat. Hot blood sprayed, coating her fur. She landed on all fours, snarling, her muscles coiled with raw, terrifying strength.

The others faltered, sensing the predator now among them.

But they didn’t retreat.

They attacked.

Lena met them head-on, a blur of fur and fury, her jaws snapping bones, her claws shredding flesh. Pain lanced through her as claws raked her flank, but it only drove her harder, her wolf exulting in the fight. For the first time, she wasn’t running. She wasn’t prey. She was predator.

One by one, the beasts fell. Broken. Silent.

And when the last one collapsed in a twitching heap, Lena stood over them, her chest heaving, blood dripping from her jaws. Her wolf howled, the sound splitting the pit, wild and victorious.

Above, the Council’s hall shook with the echo.

And Kade, far above the pit, threw back his head and howled with her.

The pit stank of blood and ash.

Lena stood in the center of it, her paws sunk into the gore-slick stone, her chest heaving as her wolf’s howl faded into silence. Her ears still rang with it, the raw sound echoing back like a song she had always known but never sung until now.

She blinked, vision sharpening, the red haze of battle receding. Around her, the creatures lay scattered in broken heaps. Their blood steamed where it touched the glowing runes etched into the floor.

She had survived.

No—she had conquered.

Her body trembled, the shift faltering. Bones snapped, muscles tore, skin split. She collapsed to her knees, gasping, naked and bloodied on the stone. Her fingers dug into the rock as her body tried to remember how to be human.

Above, silence reigned.

The Council watched from their thrones. Their cloaks did not stir. Their faces remained carved of ice, betraying nothing. But Lena felt their eyes on her—assessing, calculating, weighing her like a weapon on a scale.

“Imperfect,” the envoy intoned at last, his voice dropping like a stone. “But alive.”

A ripple of voices followed, layered, ancient. “The wolf is born.”

Lena’s head snapped up, fury sparking through the exhaustion. Born? Her wolf snarled at the word, rejecting it. She had not been made by them. She had not been birthed by their trials. She was Lena Carter, and she had chosen to fight.

Kade’s roar shattered the silence.

“Enough!” His voice thundered through the hall, shaking the very stone. He stood at the edge of the pit, golden eyes burning, muscles coiled like a predator ready to strike. “You throw her into your grave of monsters, you bleed her, you use her—and still you sit there unmoved?” His fists slammed against the railing, stone cracking beneath his strength. “Say the word. Say she is mine. Say she is chosen. Or I will tear down this hall stone by stone and make you choke on your judgment.”

The envoy’s mouth curved in something between disdain and dark amusement. “Careful, Alpha. The Council is not swayed by tantrums.”

Kade leapt into the pit.

The sound of his landing cracked like thunder. He crossed to Lena in two strides, kneeling beside her. His hands, bloodstained from his own stitched wound, cupped her face, gentle despite the fury burning in him.

“You did it,” he growled, low and raw. His forehead pressed to hers. “You fought. You bled. You lived. That’s more than any trial could ever demand.”

Lena sagged into him, her wolf retreating just enough to let her body breathe. His scent—pine and smoke and raw Alpha heat—anchored her, dragged her back from the edge.

“Don’t… let them call it theirs,” she whispered, her voice broken but fierce. “It was me. My choice.”

His eyes blazed gold, molten with pride. “Damn right it was.”

Above, the Council murmured, their voices a ripple of discontent. The woman in white pelts rose, her pale hands lifting to silence the hall.

“The pit has claimed countless lives,” she said, her voice clear, cutting. “And yet this human-turned-wolf emerges. Alive. Blood-marked. Bound to Blackwood’s Alpha.” Her gaze lingered on Lena like a blade. “Perhaps there is truth in the prophecy after all.”

The envoy stiffened but did not contradict her.

The Council’s voices wove together once more, chanting words Lena did not understand. The runes in the pit flared, brighter and brighter until the stone beneath her feet hummed with energy. She flinched, but Kade’s arm locked around her waist, holding her steady.

The light pulsed once—then died.

“The first trial is complete,” the Council pronounced as one. “Six remain.”

Six.

Lena’s stomach dropped. Her body was already a map of pain, her wolf exhausted from the fight, and they dared to speak of six more.

Kade felt her falter. His grip tightened, his voice a growl meant only for her. “We’ll break every trial they throw at us. Together.”

Her eyes met his, and despite the blood, the pain, the weight of the Council above them, her wolf stirred not with fear—but with fire.

She would not bow.

Not here. Not ever.