Three Hours Earlier

CHAPTER 4

“Three times you have stood beneath the moon. Three times you have called for your wolf. Three times you have failed.”

Alpha Thorne’s voice cracks through the silence like thunder. Every wolf flinches, even the ones pretending not to care.

The words stab into me over and over. I kneel in the dirt, bare knees aching, white ceremonial robe clinging to me like a funeral shroud.

“Alpha Thorne—” I start, but his glare shuts me up.

“Silence, Sera Nightshade.” His tone is final, absolute. “You’ve been given every chance. Private training. Elder guidance. Yet here you kneel here unchanged and unshifted.”

The crowd murmurs, low and cruel.

“Still human,” someone mutters.

A laugh follows.

I clench my fists, nails digging into my palms.

Alpha Thorne lifts a hand, quieting them. “By pack law, a wolf who fails three Lunar Awakenings cannot remain among us. You are a risk—to our bloodline, to our identity.”

My chest burns. “I didn’t choose this!”

He ignores me completely. His eyes flick to my father—Elia's Nightshade, Beta of the Nightshade Pack. The man who hasn’t looked at me in weeks.

“Elias,” Alpha Thorne says, “before the exile, your family has a right to speak.”

My father steps forward. The crowd parts for him like water around a stone.

“Father—” I whisper.

He doesn’t meet my eyes. “Alpha Thorne,” His voice is cold, clipped, and deliberate. “I stand before you to sever my blood bond with Sera Nightshade. She bears my name, but she is not my kin. Her failure dishonors my lineage.”

The air leaves my lungs.

He keeps going. “From this moment, I disown her. She carries no claim to the Nightshade bloodline.”

“Father, please,” I manage, voice cracking. “Don’t do this—”

He doesn’t even blink. “My decision is final.”

Laughter ripples through the crowd—ugly, eager.

Alpha Thorne looks around. “Does anyone speak against this severance?”

The silence crushes me.

“Elena?” I whisper, locking eyes with the healer who once comforted me. She drops her gaze.

“Marcus?” My old training partner stares at the ground, jaw tight.

Nothing. No one.

Even Luna Thorne—the woman who used to call me child—keeps her eyes fixed ahead, expression blank.

Alpha Thorne nods. “Then it is done.”

Two omegas approach with a gleaming ceremonial blade.

“By the moon’s decree,” Thorne says, “you are stripped of the Nightshade name. You will leave our lands by dawn. Take only what you can carry.”

The nearest omega kneels, offering the blade.

My hand trembles as I stare at it. My throat burns. “You want me to cut my palm and bleed for you one last time?”

Thorne’s eyes narrow. “It’s tradition.”

“Tradition,” I echo, laughing hollowly. “You mean humiliation.”

Gasps ripple through the pack.

“Careful, girl,” Thorne warns.

I lift my chin. “What more can you do to me?”

Elias’s eyes flick toward me at last—sharp, furious. “You will take the blade and end this properly.”

“I’m not ending anything for you,” I spit.

“Then you’ll end it for the Goddess,” he growls.

“Maybe she doesn’t want me to,” I shoot back.

The crowd murmurs again—half scandalized, half thrilled.

Alpha Thorne steps forward, voice deep with command. “Take the blade, Sera.”

I stay still.

“Sera!” My father barks my name like it’s filth. “Don’t make this harder.”

“It’s already hard enough watching my own father disown me.”

He grabs my arm roughly. “Do it!”

I jerk free. “No!”

The pack gasps. You don’t defy a Beta. Not here.

“Enough,” Thorne snaps, raising his hand. “Force her if you must.”

Two warriors move toward me.

“Don’t touch me!” I scream, scrambling to my feet.

They hesitate for a split second—then one lunges.

I twist, ducking under his reach. The other grabs my arm. Pain flares as he yanks me back.

“Hold her,” Thorne commands.

I thrash. “Get off me!”

“Stop fighting,” Elias hisses.

“Stop pretending you ever cared,” I snap, shoving him.

The crowd gasps again.

His hand flies before I can react. The slap cracks across my face, loud and final.

The sting burns down to my bones.

I taste blood.

Alpha Thorne steps closer. “Enough theatrics. Take the blade, or I’ll have them mark you by force.”

I look up at him, one cheek throbbing. “Do it, then. Show them how merciful their Alpha truly is.”

His expression hardens. “Very well.”

He nods to the omegas.

They approach. One grabs my wrist, the other raises the blade—

“Wait.”

The word slices through the air.

Everyone freezes.

A voice—low, commanding, unmistakably male.

Kade.

He stands just beyond the circle, shadows clinging to him like armor. The crowd parts instinctively.

Alpha Thorne’s brow furrows. “You have no standing here, Kade Virel. This is a Nightshade matter.”

Kade steps into the circle, ignoring him. “Correction—it’s a pack matter. And what you’re doing isn’t law. It’s cruelty.”

Thorne bristles. “Watch your tone, rogue.”

“I’m no rogue.” Kade’s eyes flick to me, dark and unreadable. “Not yet.”

The tension is suffocating.

“Leave,” Thorne orders.

“Not until she’s safe.”

I stare at him, stunned. “Safe? From them?”

He nods once. “You’re not dying here.”

My father snarls. “You dare interfere in Nightshade affairs?”

Kade doesn’t even flinch. “You dare call yourself a father?”

The crowd collectively inhales.

Elias takes a threatening step forward. “You have no idea who you’re talking to.”

“Oh, I do,” Kade says. “A man hiding behind titles because he’s afraid of his broken daughter.”

Elias’s eyes flash gold. “Careful, boy.”

Kade smirks. “I’m not the one trembling.”

Before anyone can react, Elias swings at him.

Kade catches his wrist mid-air and twists, forcing him to his knees with a grunt.

The crowd erupts in shocked whispers.

“Enough!” Alpha Thorne roars, his aura flaring through the clearing. “Release him or I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” Kade interrupts. “Kill me? Then everyone here will see what kind of Alpha needs a crowd to punish one girl.”

Thorne’s eyes burn. “You’ve overstepped.”

Kade releases Elias and straightens, calm and composed. “Then exile me too. I’ll leave with her.”

“What?” I breathe.

He glances at me. “You heard me.”

“You’d leave your pack for her?” Thorne asks, incredulous.

Kade’s tone is ice. “I already have.”

Silence. The air hums with disbelief.

Thorne glares between us, fury boiling under the surface. “Fine. Take her. But when she destroys you too, remember this moment.”

“Gladly.”

He turns toward me. “Sera, let’s go.”

I hesitate, staring at my father. He still hasn’t stood up. He won’t look at me.

“Go,” he mutters. “You’ve already done enough.”

Something inside me breaks cleanly in two.

I lift my chin, spit the blood from my mouth, and step toward Kade.

The crowd parts again, whispers following me like shadows.

Kade leads me past the stone archway marking the pack’s border. No one stops us.

When we’re far enough, he finally says, “You shouldn’t have looked back.”

“I wasn’t.”

He glances sideways, smirking faintly. “Good.”

The moonlight hits his face—sharp jaw, unreadable eyes.

“What now?” I ask.

He looks ahead. “Now? You survive.”

“And after that?”

He pauses, turning to me fully. “After that… we find out what the hell you really are.”

My heart stutters.

Before I can speak, a howl splits the night—long, sharp, furious.

We both turn.

Through the trees, a line of glowing eyes appears—wolves, dozens of them, racing toward us.

Kade curses. “They’re coming.”

“For me?” I whisper.

“No.” He grabs my hand, pulling me into the forest. “For both of us.”

The moon blazes overhead. The forest swallows us whole.

And behind us, my father’s voice rises in a single, chilling command,

“Don’t let them leave alive.”