Chapter 2

​​"Stand up, girl," a harsh voice spat, accompanied by the cold metal of a guard's spear poking roughly into my ribs.

 ​I groaned, pulling myself up off the freezing, damp floor of the stone cell. The air down here smelled of rust, mold, and old blood. My throat burned with every breath I took, and the raw skin on my neck throated with a steady, sickening heat.

 ​"Is it time?" I asked, my voice barely a cracked whisper.

 ​The guard didn't answer. He simply grabbed my arm with a iron grip, hauling me out into the dark hallway. Two more guards stood waiting, their swords drawn as if I were a wild beast ready to tear out their throats.

 ​"Keep your head down," one of them growled, nudging me forward. "The High Council is waiting."

 ​They led me up the winding stone stairs, out of the dungeons, and straight into the Grand Hall. The high vaulted ceilings, usually decorated with grand banners for celebrations, felt like a towering cage. Torches flickered along the stone walls, casting long, menacing shadows across the long oak table where the High Council sat.

 ​At the center sat Alpha Ashborne, his face turned to stone. Beside him sat High Priest Lucian, holding a thick leather bound codex.

 ​And standing right behind Alpha Ashborne was Calix.

 ​My heart gave a pathetically desperate flutter at the sight of him. He looked refined, calm, and completely distant in his polished uniform, his eyes staring straight ahead at the marble wall behind me. He wouldn't even look at me.

 ​"Nyx Vale," Alpha Ashborne’s voice boomed, echoing through the empty hall. "Step forward."

 ​I dragged my swollen, bare feet across the cold stone until I stood before the raised dais.

 ​"Are my parents here?" I asked softly, my voice shaking as I looked around the empty gallery. "Beta Marcus? Selena?"

 ​"They have formally severed all ties with you, Nyx," High Priest Lucian replied, his tone devoid of any pity. "You no longer bear the name Vale. You have no family within the borders of Asteria."

 ​The words felt like a physical blow to my chest. "Severed? But... they raised me for eighteen years. I called them Mother and Father!"

 ​"You carry a curse that threatens the very survival of our kingdom!" Lucian countered sharply, slamming his heavy book onto the wooden table. "The High Council has spent the night debating your fate. To protect the Kingdom of Asteria and the future of the Mooncrest Pack, we must act decisively."

 ​"I haven't hurt anyone!" tears burned behind my eyes, hot and bitter. "I didn't ask for this mark! I didn't ask for any of this!"

 ​"Silence!" Alpha Ashborne commanded, slamming his fist onto the table. "You stand before us marked by the Moon Goddess as a harbinger of death! Any Alpha who claims you will bleed out before the next full moon. Your presence alone is an insult to our bloodline!"

 ​I turned my desperate gaze to the young man standing behind him. "Calix... please. Tell them. You know me. We grew up together. You know I'm not a monster!"

 ​Calix didn't flinch. His jaw tightened, but his voice was dead when he finally spoke. "The Council's decision is final, Nyx. Do not make this harder than it already is."

 ​"Harder?" I let out a choked, hollow laugh, tears finally spilling down my dirt-stained cheeks. "Harder for who, Calix? For you? You stood there last night and threw me away like garbage the second things got difficult!"

 ​"I did what I had to do for my pack!" Calix snapped, his eyes flashing with a brief spark of anger before returning to ice. "My duty is to Mooncrest. Not to a cursed orphan."

 ​"You coward," I whispered, the word cutting through the quiet room. "You absolute coward."

 ​"Enough!" High Priest Lucian stood up, raising a long scroll. "By order of the High Council of Asteria, you are hereby sentenced to permanent exile."

 ​He stepped down from the dais, holding a long, silver blade. "You are stripped of your pack emblem, your family rights, and your protection under the law. If you set foot within the borders of Asteria after sunrise, any warrior has the right to strike you down on sight."

 ​Lucian stepped closer, using the flat of the silver blade to slice the silver Mooncrest crest clean off the front of my torn dress. The fabric ripped away, falling onto the dust at my feet.

 ​"Take your belongings and leave," Alpha Ashborne ordered coldly.

 ​A guard thrust a small, frayed canvas bag into my hands. I looked inside. A single canteen of water, a crust of stale bread, and a thin, worn cloak. Eighteen years of my life reduced to a scrap bag.

 ​"Is this it?" I asked, looking at the Council, then at the guards, and finally at the boy who had promised me his heart just twenty-four hours ago. "You're just throwing me out into the wild to die?"

 ​"You should be grateful we are letting you walk away with your life," Alpha Ashborne growled. "Guards, escort her to the northern gate. Before the sun rises."

 ​"Move," the guard ordered, shoving me toward the heavy wooden doors.

 ​I didn't fight them. I didn't scream anymore. I pulled the thin cloak over my shoulders, trying desperately to cover the throbbing silver and black mark on my neck, and walked out into the cold morning air.

 ​The sun was just beginning to peek over the jagged mountain peaks, casting long, orange light across the dirt path leading away from the territory of Mooncrest.

 ​My feet were bare, scraped, and bleeding from the jagged stones on the road. The morning frost bit at my ankles, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the roaring void inside my chest. My wolf remained unnaturally quiet, crushed under the weight of Calix's public rejection.

 ​By mid-afternoon, I reached the outskirts of Oakhaven, a small trading village located on the edge of the border. My throat was dry, and my stomach was twisted into tight knots from hunger.

 ​"Just a little bit of bread," I muttered to myself, clutching my small coin pouch containing the few copper coins I had found in the bottom of my bag. "Just enough to keep moving."

 ​I stepped into the bustling village square. Merchants were calling out their goods, women were carrying baskets of fresh fruit, and children were playing tag near the central stone fountain.

 ​I kept my hood pulled low, shielding my face, and approached a small bakery stall that smelled heavily of fresh yeast and warm sugar.

 ​"Excuse me, sir," I said softly, standing at the edge of the wooden counter. "How much for a small loaf of rye?"

 ​The middle-aged baker turned around, wiping his flour-covered hands on his apron. "That'll be three copper pieces, miss."

 ​I reached into my bag, pulling out the coins. But as I raised my hand to hand them over, the edge of my thin cloak slipped off my shoulder.

 ​The sunlight struck my neck.

 ​The silver thorns surrounding the black crescent moon flared faintly in the daylight.

 ​The baker froze. His eyes widened, fixing entirely on my collarbone. His face drained of all color, and he dropped the wooden spatula he was holding.

 ​"You..." he stammered, stepping back so quickly he nearly knocked over his tray of bread. "You're... you're her!"

 ​"Please," I begged, quickly pulling the cloak back over my neck, my heart hammering in my throat. "I just want to buy some bread. I have the money—"

 ​"Get away from my shop!" the man screamed, his voice carrying wildly across the crowded square. "Get away!"

 ​The bustling noise of the village square came to a sudden, grinding halt.

 ​"What's going on, Barnaby?" a nearby fruit vendor called out.

 ​"It's the Cursed Luna!" the baker pointed a trembling, flour-dusted finger directly at me. "She's wearing the Mark of the Eclipse! The girl from the Mate Ceremony!"

 ​Gasps rippled through the square like a wildfire.

 ​"The Cursed girl?"

 ​"She's here?!"

 ​"Stay back!"

 ​A woman immediately grabbed her two young children by their arms, yanked them behind her skirts, and slammed her wooden front door shut with a deafening bang. One by one, other shopkeepers began hurriedly pulling their shutters closed.

 ​"I'm not going to hurt anyone!" I cried out, holding my hands up, tears blurring my vision as I looked around at the circle of hostile faces forming around me. "I'm just passing through! Please, I just need food!"

 ​"We don't sell to monsters!" an old woman barked, throwing a rotten turnip at my feet. "You bring death wherever you walk! Get out of Oakhaven!"

 ​"Leave! Get out!" a blacksmith roared, holding a heavy iron hammer defensively in front of his chest. "We don't want your plague here!"

 ​"Please..." I choked out, taking a step backward. "Please, I'm a person! I'm human... I'm a wolf just like you!"

 ​"You're not one of us anymore!" a young male villager yelled, picking up a stone from the dirt path and throwing it violently at me.

 ​The stone struck me sharply in the shoulder, sending a spike of pain through my arm. I gasped, stumbling backward.

 ​"Get out! Get out!" the crowd began to chant, throwing dirt, old vegetables, and rocks at me.

 ​"Monster!"

 ​"Death!"

 ​"Cursed beast!"

 ​I turned and ran.

 ​I ran as fast as my bruised legs could carry me, ignoring the sharp stones cutting into the soles of my feet, ignoring the taunts and insults echoing behind me until the village disappeared behind the thick treeline of the forest.

 ​I collapsed against the trunk of a massive pine tree, sliding down into the dirt, burying my face in my knees, and sobbing uncontrollably.

 ​"Why?" I screamed into the empty woods, my voice cracking with helpless rage and despair. "Why me?! What did I ever do to deserve this?!"

 ​Only the wind answered, rustling through the canopy above.

 ​Exile wasn't just losing my home, my family, or my title. It was the crushing realization that I was no longer a person to them. I was a ghost. A curse. A monster to be chased away with stones and hatred.

 ​Night fell quickly over the dense, ancient woods beyond Asteria's borders.

 ​The ambient warmth of the sun disappeared, replaced by a biting, freezing chill that seeped deep into my bones. I huddled beneath a overhang of rock, trying to build a small fire with damp twigs I had managed to gather from the forest floor.

 ​A tiny twig snapped somewhere in the pitch-black darkness beyond my clearing.

 ​I instantly went still, holding my breath. My hands froze over the small, flickering spark of my fire.

 ​"Who's there?" I called out, my voice trembling, though I tried to make it sound strong.

 ​No answer. Only the gentle sigh of the wind passing through the high branches.

 ​"I don't have anything worth stealing!" I yelled into the blackness, reaching down to grab a thick, heavy wooden branch off the ground to use as a makeshift weapon. "Stay away from me!"

 ​For several long minutes, there was absolute silence. I told myself it was just a forest animal—a deer, or perhaps a fox. I forced a deep breath into my lungs, lowering the stick slightly as I turned back to my meager fire.

 ​The heavy, deliberate sound of a footstep echoed from the thick brush less than twenty yards away.

 ​My wolf, though weak and fractured, suddenly jolted awake inside my chest, her ears pinning back in alert. This wasn't a wild animal. The weight of the step was too heavy, too deliberate, too calm.

 ​"Show yourself!" I demanded, standing up quickly and holding the thick branch out in front of me with both hands. "I'm warning you!"

 ​From the edge of the tree line, a dark shape detached itself from the shadows.

 ​It was a tall figure, completely shrouded in a dark coat that swallowed the faint light of my dying fire. I couldn't see a face. I couldn't see clothes.

 ​All I could see were two eyes.

 ​Luminescent, molten golden eyes that burned like living suns through the dark.

 ​I gasped, taking a step back until my shoulders hit the hard rock wall behind me. "Who are you? Did Alpha Ashborne send you to finish me off?"

 ​The golden eyes didn't blink. They didn't hold the murderous heat of an executioner, nor the wild rage of the villagers who had thrown stones at me earlier.

 ​They were cool. Calculating. Piercingly intense.

 ​"If you've come to kill me, just get it over with!" I yelled, my voice cracking with a mixture of fear and exhaustion. "I'm tired! I'm so tired of running! Just do it!"

 ​The figure didn't move an inch. He simply stood at the edge of the shadows, watching me as if reading every single thought written across my face.

 ​A sudden gust of wind blew through the clearing, kicking up sparks from my dying fire and rustling the dark fabric of his cloak. For a fraction of a second, the light caught the edge of a sharp, aristocratic jawline, before the darkness swallowed him whole again.

 ​"Who are you?" I whispered, my heart hammering violently against my ribs.

 ​The figure took a single step backward into the thick brush.

 ​"Wait!" I cried out, taking a frantic step forward. "Don't leave me alone in the dark!"

 ​The golden eyes flashed one last time in the shadows—a blinding, mesmerizing burn—and then, as if dissolved by the morning frost starting to creep over the grass, he vanished into the black wood without making a single sound.

 ​I stood alone in the quiet clearing, the cold wind whipping my cloak around my ankles, staring into the dark woods where those golden eyes had just been, my pulse racing in the dead of night.