Chapter Two – Into the Woods
1079 Words
The forest closed around Selene like a living thing, branches clawing at her arms as she stumbled deeper into the dark. Her breath came in ragged bursts, her chest still burning from the bond’s brutal outcome.
She clutched her ribs as if she could hold herself together. Rejection wasn’t just pain—it was annihilation. Her heart felt as though Lucian had reached inside her chest and torn it apart piece by piece.
But beneath the agony, beneath the hollow ache, the fire still burned.
It pulsed in her blood, hotter with every step. Silver sparks tingled at her fingertips, lighting the path for fleeting moments before vanishing into the night. Her skin prickled as though her wolf paced just under the surface, restless and wild.
What’s happening to me?
She staggered to a stop by a fallen tree, bracing herself against the bark. Her reflection glowed faintly in the stream running nearby, and when she glanced down, she gasped.
Her eyes weren’t their usual storm-gray. They glowed with liquid silver, like twin moons.
Selene jerked back, heart hammering. She’d seen wolves shift mid-battle, felt their power bristle in the air, but this… this was different. The glow wasn’t a wolf’s power. It was something older. Something raw.
The same red-tinged moonlight that had marked her birth spilled over the trees, bathing her in its glow. She thought she heard a voice in it, faint but unmistakable, brushing like a whisper against her ears.
Rise, Eclipse-born.
Her knees buckled. She pressed her hands to her head, trying to drown out the phantom voice, the endless pounding in her blood. But when she squeezed her eyes shut, she saw visions. Wolves bowing before her. Lucian on his knees. The Council burning to ash.
“No,” she rasped aloud. “I don’t want this.”
A branch cracked behind her.
Selene whipped around, claws half-sprung, her wolf surging instinctively to defend.
Lucian stepped out from behind the shadows.
The sight of him pierced through her worse than the rejection itself. His tall frame radiated power, his black cloak fluttering around him like smoke, his aura pressing down on the forest like a storm. His eyes gleamed with that ruthless silver ring, fixed entirely on her.
“You shouldn’t be here,” she spat, her voice raw and shaking.
“And yet you knew I would follow.”
Her lips opened, but no words came. He was right. Some part of her had felt him even before he revealed himself—the bond, broken though it was, still pulsed faintly between them like a half-healed wound.
Selene turned away, forcing strength into her spine. “You’ve done enough damage for one night, Blackthorne. Go back to your Council and your legacy.”
“Not until you tell me what that was.” His voice was low, dangerous. Not a question. A command.
Selene stiffened. “What what was?”
“The light,” he said, stepping closer. The moon caught the sharp line of his jaw, the flicker of restrained hunger in his gaze. “The power that poured out of you. I’ve seen wolves bleed, shift, rage. I’ve never seen anything like… that.”
“I don’t know what it was,” she snapped, though the lie tasted bitter on her tongue. The truth was clawing at the edges of her mind, whispering from the shadows. Eclipse-born. Chosen. But she’d be damned before she gave Lucian that satisfaction.
His nostrils flared. He circled her slowly, a predator studying prey, though the tension in his shoulders betrayed something else. Unease. Curiosity.
“Do you still feel it?” he asked.
Selene bit the inside of her cheek. Because yes—she did. The fire hadn’t died down. If anything, it was spreading, licking through her veins with every breath. She could barely control it.
But she lifted her chin. “All I feel is the echo of rejection.”
Lucian flinched—barely, but she caught it. His jaw tightened, and he looked away for a beat, as though her words had cut deeper than he’d expected.
“I didn’t do it lightly,” he said at last, voice quieter now, stripped of its earlier venom.
Selene barked out a humorless laugh. “Oh, forgive me. Should I thank you for humiliating me in front of every Alpha and elder in the territory?”
His eyes snapped back to hers, sharp as knives. “Claiming you would have been worse.”
The words gutted her. For a moment, she almost wished he’d stayed cruel instead of pretending it was mercy.
“Why?” she whispered, though she hated herself for asking. “Why reject me?”
Lucian’s gaze flickered—away, then back, like a man at war with himself. “Because you don’t understand what it means to be bound to me. To my bloodline. To the enemies I’ve made. You think the whispers about your curse are heavy? They would destroy you.”
Selene’s throat ached. “Maybe the Goddess thinks I can survive it.”
“Or maybe she’s playing a cruel joke.”
They stood in silence, the forest alive around them, the bond’s ragged threads buzzing faintly between their hearts. Selene hated that even now, with her chest still aching from rejection, her wolf strained toward him, aching for what he’d torn away.
Finally, she pushed past him, brushing his shoulder with deliberate force. “Stay out of my way, Blackthorne. Next time, I won’t stop my claws.”
His hand shot out, catching her wrist. Heat flared at the contact, the bond sparking violently. Selene sucked in a breath, every nerve screaming at the touch.
Lucian’s voice dropped, a whisper of smoke and steel. “I don’t know what the hell you are, Selene. But mark my words… the Council will want your head for it. And if they don’t, I may have to.”
Her eyes burned silver as she yanked free. “Try me.”
She vanished into the shadows, leaving him alone by the stream.
Lucian stood there for a long time, jaw clenched, chest heaving. He’d rejected her to keep her safe, or so he told himself. Yet the sight of her power, the fire in her eyes—it stirred something dark and hungry in him.
Not even rejection could sever the bond fully. And he knew, with a sinking certainty, that Selene Eclipse-born was going to be his ruin.
- Writer
