Aezrel:
The cold mist clung to my skin, sticky as breath. Every exhale felt heavier, every heartbeat louder like the rogues could hear it from miles away. The forest was still, but it wasn't quiet. It was holding its breath.
Luna moved ahead, her silver hair like a shard of moonlight cutting through the dark. She didn't speak, but I could feel her tension pulling at me, sharp and magnetic. Her wolf was awake. So was mine.
The first howl split the air low, guttural, and far too close.
"They're early," I murmured, my voice more growl than words.
"They're desperate," she said without turning. "Desperate wolves don't care about rules."
The ground shifted under my boots as we moved, every step syncing to the drumbeat of danger closing in. The rogues weren't just hunting. They were herding us.
I caught it then the scent of another wolf, layered beneath the rogues' stink. It was clean. Sharp. Familiar.
Luna must have caught it too because she slowed, her head tilting just slightly toward me.
"Another Alpha," she whispered.
The realization hit like claws to the chest. This wasn't just an attack. This was a stage. And someone was pulling the strings from the shadows.
We broke into a run. My wolf slammed against my skin, begging to be let out, but I kept control. For now.
A shape lunged from the fog a rogue, jaws snapping for my throat. I caught it mid-air, bones cracking under my grip before it hit the ground. Another came, then another, their eyes glazed, movements almost… rehearsed.
Luna fought beside me, shifting mid-strike, her silver wolf tearing through fur and flesh. Blood sprayed warm against my cheek. And still, that other Alpha's scent lingered. Watching. Waiting.
"Behind you!" Luna's voice ripped through the chaos.
I spun too slow. Something heavy slammed into me, driving me to the ground. But it wasn't a rogue. It was bigger. Stronger.
A voice, deep and cruel, rumbled in my ear.
"Run, little heir. Make it fun for us."
Then teeth sank into my shoulder, and the world went white.
.....
The forest was breathing with us each inhale a whisper of pine, each exhale a warning I could taste in the air. The rogues had changed their rhythm. No more random circling. No more scattered trails. This was a hunt now… their hunt.
Luna's shoulder brushed mine as we crouched behind a fallen oak, her silver hair catching the faintest spill of moonlight like a blade's edge. She was calm too calm but her eyes… her eyes were molten, scanning the dark for movement.
My wolf wanted out. Not to run. Not to kill.
To claim.
And it chose now of all times.
Focus, Aezrel.
"They're herding us," I murmured, my gaze locking on the shadows tightening around us.
Her voice came like smoke. "Then we make the herders bleed."
She moved before I could answer sliding through the trees like the dark itself had made room for her. I followed, every sense stretched so thin I could feel my own heartbeat in my teeth.
The ground changed beneath our feet looser, softer. A ravine. My gut twisted. Steep walls, narrow exits. The perfect place to vanish. Or be buried.
And then I heard it one sound that didn't belong.
A footstep heavier than the rogues. Slower. Measured.
I caught Luna's wrist, low growl in my throat. "This isn't—"
She yanked free, her eyes flashing at me, wild and defiant.
Then the trap closed.
Two rogues at the far mouth of the ravine. Two more at our back. A fifth landed in front of Luna with a growl that shook the ground.
Instinct burned through me. Bones snapped, skin tore, my wolf ripped forward before I could think. Luna's shift followed, faster, cleaner, her fur a blaze of silver under the thin moonlight.
The fight wasn't a fight. it was a storm. Claws tore through muscle, teeth cracked bone, and blood steamed in the cold air. But beneath the rage, something else was happening.
Every time her wolf brushed mine, a surge of heat cut through the haze. The battle fed it like the chaos itself was binding us tighter.
Then through the copper stink of blood I caught it.
A scent that didn't belong to the rogues.
An Alpha.
But not one I recognized.
It was wrong. Twisted. Like it had been… altered.
It wasn't coming closer.
It was moving away.
Realization struck like a blade in my spine. This wasn't about killing us. This was to keep us here while something someone went for the pack's heart.
I was about to call out to Luna when the forest itself seemed to darken. A shadow stepped through the treelinebnot rushing, not even breathing hard, just watching.
I couldn't see its face. Only the eyes.
Not gold. Not silver.
A deep, unnatural crimson that pulsed like they were alive.
And then, without moving its mouth, I heard my name inside my skull.
...
The voice in my head was cold. Not angry. Not mocking.
Just… certain.
Aezrel.
It didn't echo, it rooted itself, deep and solid, like it had always belonged there.
Luna's wolf growled low, ears flat, but she didn't advance. She could sense it too—the thing in front of us wasn't just flesh and blood. It carried something older. Something dangerous enough to make my wolf hesitate.
I stepped forward, claws half-curved, forcing my breath steady. "Show yourself."
The shadow tilted its head, the crimson glow of its eyes pulsing once, slow… deliberate.
> You've been busy, it said—no movement, no sound. Too busy to notice what's rotting in your own den.
The words landed heavier than claws. My wolf bristled, not at the threat at the truth under it.
I could feel Luna's gaze on me. She didn't know. She couldn't.
Not yet.
The rogues didn't attack. They stood still now, eyes glazed, muscles locked like puppets waiting for the string to twitch.
The shadow took one slow step forward. The ground beneath it didn't crunch or bend. it was like it wasn't really touching the earth at all.
"You sent them," I said, my voice low, the growl barely restrained.
The crimson eyes pulsed again.
I sent nothing. They came because they are mine.
Behind me, Luna's wolf shifted back flesh replacing fur in a flash, breath steaming in the cold. She stood naked in the moonlight, blood streaking her skin, but her stare was as sharp as any blade.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
The shadow ignored her. It took another step toward me, and the air between us thickened, every inhale like swallowing smoke.
> Tell her, Aezrel, the voice murmured in my mind, silk over steel. Tell her why you really came back.
My chest tightened. My claws curled so deep into my palms I felt the skin split.
I wasn't going to give it that satisfaction.
The shadow's crimson eyes narrowed not in anger, but in something closer to amusement.
"Then I will."
It lifted its head toward Luna, and I moved too fast for thought, my wolf roaring in my chest.
And just as I lunged, the shadow vanished. No blur, no shimmer.
Gone.
The rogues collapsed where they stood, lifeless, blood pooling fast into the soft dirt. The silence that followed was thick, broken only by Luna's sharp breath.
Her eyes burned into mine. "Aezrel… what the hell aren't you telling me?"
I opened my mouth—
then the night split open with a single, distant howl.
Not from the forest.
From the pack's heart.
And it was a warning.
....
I didn't want to admit it, but Aezrel had me exactly where he wanted—pinned between the jagged cliff wall and his presence, a presence that felt more like a cage than a comfort. The night air was damp, the mist curling around us like something alive, hiding whatever prowled in the darkness beyond.
"You're holding back," I told him, my voice low but sharp. My fingers twitched at my sides, itching to shift, to tear through the truth I could feel in my bones but couldn't see yet. "And I'm done being kept in the dark, Aezrel."
His eyes didn't flinch, though I caught the faintest flicker like the moment before lightning splits the sky. "There are things you don't understand yet, Luna. Things that—"
"That what? Could shatter me?" I stepped closer, so close my breath brushed against his jaw. "I've already been broken. My father's gone, my mother stripped of her place, my name dragged through the mud since I was a child. You can't scare me with secrets."
The tension between us was electric, and it wasn't just anger. His scent was everywhere, musky and sharp, the kind of smell that makes you forget the danger outside the circle you're standing in. And I hated that part of me wanted to lean into it.
Something snapped in the forest behind us a twig, deliberate, not the clumsy stumble of a deer. My gaze flicked toward the sound, but Aezrel didn't move. He was still watching me, still holding me in place with those eyes.
"They're closer than you think," he murmured, and for a heartbeat, I couldn't tell if he meant the rogues… or my answers.
"You're not going to protect me from this, are you?" I asked, feeling my pulse slam against my ribs.
"No," he said simply. "I'm going to make you face it."
Before I could demand more, the shadows shifted and a scent hit me like a punch. It wasn't just rogue. It was… familiar. Painfully familiar.
Aezrel's hand brushed my arm, almost grounding me, but his words weren't soothing.
"Careful, Luna. This isn't just a hunt anymore."
Somewhere beyond the mist, a low growl rippled through the night. And my stomach turned as the realization settled in whoever was coming wasn't here to kill me.
They were here to claim me.
.....
The mist thickened until it felt like breathing through a veil, every inhale laced with damp earth and danger. My wolf stirred beneath my skin, restless, ears pricked to the sound of soft footfalls circling us.
Aezrel shifted his stance, not looking at me, but I could feel the ripple of his tension. "Stay behind me."
I almost laughed. "You really think that's going to happen?"
The growl came again, closer now, threaded with something that made my hackles rise not pure rage, but hunger.
Then, the attack.
A shadow lunged from the fog, all claws and teeth, and Aezrel met it mid-air, his body a blur of violent grace. I didn't wait for permission I shifted, my wolf tearing through the thin membrane between skin and fur, muscles snapping with the rush of power.
The world sharpened.
The mist no longer blinded me; it became a canvas where every movement painted itself in sound and scent. I dove for the second attacker before it reached Aezrel's flank, catching a flash of pale fur—too pale for a rogue. I sank my teeth into its shoulder, felt the hot burst of blood in my mouth, but it twisted away with a strength that made me stumble.
They didn't fight like rogues.
They fought like trained wolves.
Aezrel must have realized it too, because his growl wasn't one of victory it was one of recognition.
We drove them back, not killing, just forcing them into retreat. They didn't push past the treeline, just melted into it, their eyes gleaming in the mist before they vanished completely.
I shifted back, chest heaving, skin slick with sweat. "Why didn't they finish it?" I demanded.
Aezrel wiped the blood from his jaw with the back of his hand. His voice was low, almost unreadable. "Because they weren't sent to kill you."
The echo of that familiar scent hit me again, stronger now that my pulse had slowed. My wolf bristled, the recognition threading itself into my gut like barbed wire.
"Then why—" I began, but Aezrel stepped closer, his shadow swallowing mine.
"To remind you," he said, "that whoever's pulling their strings… already knows exactly who you are."
The trees whispered as if something was still watching us.
And deep in the fog, unseen, I felt it eyes I knew, fixed on me, unblinking.