Rejected by the Alpha, Claimed by the Beast
And there, standing atop a pile of concrete rubble and twisted rebar, was Selene.
She didn't look like the sister I had tried to save in the Archive. Her skin was as pale as bone, and her hair had turned a dark, midnight blue that seemed to swallow the light. She wore armor made of solidified shadows—jagged and sharp—and in her hands, she held a crown of thorns that pulsed with a slow, rhythmic red light.
"Selene?" I whispered. My voice felt small in the vast, ruined landscape.
Rowan stepped forward, his body shielding mine. He was limping, his armor cracked, and his face was a map of exhaustion and blood. But his eyes were fixed on the woman on the hill with a lethal intensity.