Chapter 2
658 Words
"CHAPTER 2: INTO THE WILD, INTO THE FLAME
The trees welcomed her like an old friend.
Branches tore at Lyra’s arms, but she didn’t slow down. The scent of ash still clung to her, a burning mark of rebellion. Behind her, the Silvermoor Court would be in chaos—Kael roaring, Isla seething, the guards scrambling for a trail that no longer existed.
They’d never catch her.
Not here. Not in the Wolfwood.
The forest was dense, wild, and deadly. Just like her.
Moonlight broke through the canopy in fractured beams, illuminating her path. Her pulse pounded, not from fear, but freedom. Every step she took was one more toward her old self. Toward the warrior. Toward vengeance.
Toward herself.
“Luna no more,” she whispered, touching the place where the bond used to throb in her chest.
She felt hollow—and yet alive.
The wolf inside her stirred.
And then—something shifted.
The wind.
She stopped mid-step.
A scent.
Masculine. Earth, pine, smoke...and something darker beneath.
Rhion.
Her heart stuttered.
Before she could blink, a blur shot through the underbrush. A hand slammed her against a tree, her own blade drawn and pressed to a throat—only to be met by another blade already at hers.
“Still fast,” a deep, gravelled voice said.
Lyra stared into eyes the color of storm clouds before the rain.
Years collapsed in an instant. The woods. The scent. The burn.
“Rhion,” she breathed.
“Hello, Lyra,” he said, not smiling. “You always did know how to make an entrance. Flames, scandal, betrayal. Quite the show.”
She shoved him back, furious with herself—for freezing, for remembering how he once looked at her like she was everything.
“Get out of my way.”
He let her go. “Kael finally snapped, huh?”
“Kael is dead to me.”
“Good,” he said softly, stepping closer. “Because I’d rather not kill him out of jealousy.”
Lyra’s spine went stiff. “Don’t—”
“You smell like ash and freedom,” Rhion said, voice lower now, rougher. “It suits you.”
“You shouldn’t be here. You’re exiled—”
“I live where no laws reach,” he interrupted, eyes raking over her. “And so do you now, it seems.”
Lyra hated that her body reacted before her mind did. Heat rose in her throat, betraying her calm. The way his gaze lingered on her mouth. The way his voice dropped when he said her name.
Lyra.
A memory slammed into her—Rhion’s hand tangled in her hair years ago, both of them young, stupid, wild, pressed against a cave wall with mouths desperate and unforgiving.
She broke the moment with a sharp exhale.
“I don’t need saving.”
“I wasn’t offering it,” Rhion said. “I’m offering vengeance.”
She looked at him then—really looked.
His jaw bore a new scar. His left arm, inked with sigils that pulsed faintly. His wolf was closer to the surface now, untamed. Powerful.
Dangerous.
He hadn’t just survived exile.
He had thrived in it.
“I’m not here to make a pack,” she said quietly. “I’m here to make war.”
He smiled, slow and sharp. “Then you’ve come to the right Alpha.”
𝘓𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵…
Beneath the stars, as fire crackled between them, Lyra sat across from Rhion, trying not to remember how it once felt to fall asleep in his arms.
She didn’t notice how his eyes traced her collarbone, or how his fingers curled every time she bit her lip.
But Rhion noticed everything.
And when he spoke, it wasn’t just to rekindle the past.
It was a promise.
“You gave everything up for a kingdom that caged you. This time, Lyra... burn the whole thing down.”"
- Writer
