All Chapters of Beneath the Howling Pines: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The full moon rose like a glowing wound over the treetops.Elena stood at the edge of the ceremonial clearing, her heart rattling like a caged thing inside her chest. All around her, members of the Ashfang Pack gathered in a slow, reverent hush. The earth pulsed with old magic. Drums beat low in the distance. Pine smoke curled in the air.She couldn’t stop her hands from trembling.Mara squeezed her wrist, eyes steady. “Breathe, okay?”Elena tried. Her lungs felt too small. “What if he’s not here?”“He will be.”“What if he is—” she swallowed, “—but he doesn’t want me?”Mara didn’t answer at first. Her silence said enough.The full moon ceremony was sacred. For those coming of age, it was the night the Moon Goddess would unveil fated bonds — an invisible thread pulling one wolf to another. For some, it happened instantly. For others, it struck hours later, days even. But when it happened, there was no denying it.Your wolf would know.Nyx stirred inside her, nervous and alert. Stay op

ElenaThe first light of dawn was soft, almost hesitant, slipping through my bedroom window and casting pale shadows across the floor. But inside me, a storm raged. I lay tangled in the sheets, heart hammering against my ribs so fiercely it felt like it might break free.The night before—the full moon ceremony—was supposed to be the moment everything changed. The moment my fate would be sealed. Instead, it shattered. Darian’s rejection echoed in my mind, sharp and cold, slicing through me like ice.I couldn’t forget the way he looked at me. Not surprise. Not confusion. Not even regret. But something colder—like I was a mark to be avoided, a mistake to be erased. The word no had fallen from his lips with the weight of a death sentence.I swallowed hard, the lump in my throat thick and stifling. “Why?” I whispered into the empty room, my voice barely audible. Why me?Nyx stirred beneath my skin, restless and uneasy. My wolf howled silently, her sorrow matching mine. She had felt the bon

The next morning, the forest seemed less like a sanctuary and more like a cage. The trees that once whispered comfort now stood like silent sentinels, watching, waiting. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something ancient had awakened beneath their roots, and it was reaching for me.I moved through the woods with cautious steps, Nyx prowling inside me, her senses sharpened and ready. The pack was restless too — whispers of the curse fluttered through the camp like dry leaves in the wind. No one said it aloud, but the tension was thick enough to taste.I clenched my fists, trying to push the doubts away. I wasn’t just Elena Blackthorne, the girl who got rejected by her mate. I was a daughter of the Ashfang Pack, a wolf who carried the blood of ancestors who had fought and survived far worse than this.But the question still lingered, gnawing at me: How do you fight a curse you can’t see?Mara met me near the edge of the clearing, her eyes dark with worry. “There’s been word from the el

The sun had barely risen when I woke, the remnants of dreams clinging stubbornly to my mind. Whispers—half-heard warnings from the moon goddess, the elders, and the shadowed past of my bloodline—swirled in my thoughts like fog drifting through the pines. Nyx stirred inside me, her presence a restless pulse beneath my skin, as if she could sense the approaching storm long before I could.I pulled on my jacket and slipped out of my small cabin, the cold morning air biting at my cheeks. The forest was eerily still, as though holding its breath. The tall pines stretched overhead, their needles shimmering faintly in the early light, casting long, wavering shadows across the mossy floor.The camp was quiet, save for a few early risers preparing for the day. Mara sat on a fallen log, sharpening her claws on a stone with slow, deliberate strokes. Her usually fierce gaze was softened by worry, her brow furrowed as she looked up when I approached.“Did the elders say anything more?” I asked sof

Elena’s scent clung to my skin.Even after she stepped away from the altar, I could still feel her warmth brushing against me, like a flame I’d gotten too close to and couldn’t forget.She didn’t know it yet, but the bond had started to awaken—slow and steady, coiling through both of us like smoke through a hollow tree. Dangerous. Beautiful. Ancient.And it terrified me.I watched her from a distance as she studied the runes on the altar stone, her brows furrowed in quiet concentration. Moonlight filtered through the pines, dusting her dark hair in silver. There was strength in the line of her jaw, and a sadness in her eyes she tried to hide. I knew that sadness all too well.She reminded me of my mother.Too brave. Too young to carry the burden of fate on her shoulders.The wind shifted, and the forest whispered her name.Elena.The sound of it curled deep into my chest and wrapped around a part of me I hadn’t touched in years. Not since the first mate bond burned out in my veins lik