"The dead may sleep, but the cursed do not."
---
The battlefield still smoked.
Bodies littered the clearing like discarded memories. The stench of blood, ash, and loss clung to the air. Wolves limped through the ruins—some mourning, some searching, some too numb to care. They'd won the fight, but war left no real victors.
Selene stood in the center of the broken field, her cloak torn, her arms covered in the dried blood of Alpha Cael. His corpse had already begun to rot, but she hadn't moved from where she'd ended him.
She hadn't spoken since.
Kai lay propped against a slab of stone, Riven pressing cloth against his wound. His blood seeped through his shirt, but he never took his eyes off Selene.
"She hasn't said a word," he muttered.
"She will," Riven said, though her voice lacked conviction.
"She felt something," he continued. "When she killed Cael. Something changed."
"No," Riven whispered. "Something woke up."
Selene's vision swam, not from pain—she didn't feel pain anymore—but from something deeper.
She could still hear it.
The sound beneath her heartbeat.
A whisper clawing at the edges of her mind.
"We are not done."
---
Night fell fast.
The survivors had built fires and laid their dead in a circle. No one sang. There were no songs for rogues.
Selene finally moved.
She walked to the highest rock, the moon casting silver on her bloodstained skin. The wind tugged at her hair. Her voice was low when she spoke, but every ear turned.
> "Cael is dead. But the Ravenscourge still breathe."
> "This is not peace. This is just the first scream."
A low growl of agreement rumbled through the crowd.
> "I won't ask for loyalty. I won't ask for allegiance. But I will hunt every alpha who spilled innocent blood. I will burn their dens. I will rip their names from the histories they wrote in lies."
> "And if any of you fear that path—walk away now."
No one moved.
The wind howled.
And Selene lifted her head.
> "Then we howl for war."
---
That night, Riven found her alone beside the remains of the enemy's chariot.
"You're not sleeping," Riven said.
"I can't."
"Because of him?"
"Because of what I felt… when I killed him."
Selene turned, her voice raw. "It didn't feel like justice. It felt like hunger."
Riven knelt beside her. "You made a vow. That kind of power doesn't come without a cost."
"What if it's more than power?" Selene asked. "What if I'm becoming something I can't walk back from?"
Riven reached out and placed her hand over Selene's heart. "Then let us be the ones to pull you back."
For the first time in days, Selene exhaled. "Thank you."
Then she whispered, "But I don't know if I want to come back."
---
Elsewhere, far from the battle site…
A chamber of stone.
Lit only by blue fire.
Six alphas stood in a circle, robes dark, eyes gleaming.
A servant entered, bowed low, and whispered: "Cael has fallen."
One of the alphas turned. "Then it begins."
Another, older, spoke: "The girl bears the Old Howl. We must find her before she completes the cycle."
"The Queen must not rise," a third growled.
The flames pulsed.
And somewhere, in the shadows behind them, something ancient opened its eyes.
---
Back in the woods, Selene stood over Kai.
His eyes fluttered open, and his hand reached for hers.
"You came back," he rasped.
"Always."
She pressed her forehead to his. "You almost died."
"You almost broke the world." He coughed. "We're even."
Selene smiled—then kissed him.
Not out of need, not desperation, but fierce, slow certainty.
He responded, pulling her in, blood and breath and heat mingling.
For a moment, there was no war.
Just a girl who had survived hell.
And the boy who had followed her into it.