2.
537 Words
The pain didn’t fade.
It echoed.
Even after the ceremony ended… even after the laughter died down… even after Kael Draven walked away like I was nothing more than a mistake the moon briefly made.
My body still remembered the break.
I stumbled through the outer edge of the pack grounds, one hand pressed against a tree trunk just to stay upright. Every breath felt too sharp. Too loud. Like my body didn’t belong to me anymore.
My wolf was still there.
But she wasn’t responding the way she used to.
“Why… aren’t you healing?” I whispered hoarsely.
Silence.
That silence scared me more than the rejection.
A patrol passed somewhere behind me, voices faint.
No one followed.
No one cared.
Good.
I forced myself deeper into the forest.
Away from them.
Away from him.
The trees thickened, swallowing moonlight. The deeper I went, the quieter the world became, until even the sound of the pack felt like a distant dream.
My legs finally gave out.
I collapsed onto cold soil.
And for the first time since the rejection—
I let myself break properly.
Not quietly.
Not politely.
My breath hitched as tears finally came, hot and humiliating.
“I didn’t even get a chance…” I choked out. “I didn’t even do anything wrong.”
My wolf didn’t comfort me.
That was wrong too.
Everything was wrong.
The mate bond was supposed to complete you.
Not leave you hollow.
A sharp crack echoed somewhere in the forest.
My head snapped up instantly.
Instinct screamed.
Danger.
Something moved between the trees.
Slow.
Heavy.
Not human.
My body went rigid as a low growl rolled through the dark.
Rogue.
My heart slammed.
No pack protection out here. No alpha command. No link. Nothing.
Just me.
A shadow stepped into the moonlight.
Its eyes were wrong—too yellow, too hungry.
It circled me like I was already dead.
I tried to stand.
My legs failed.
The rogue lunged.
⸻
And then—
Something inside me reacted.
Not fear.
Not panic.
Something deeper.
Hot.
Violent.
The silver light in my veins flared without warning.
My head snapped back as pain ripped through my spine—
Bones shifting.
Skin burning.
My scream tore through the forest—
And the rogue froze mid-air.
Because my wolf… wasn’t weak anymore.
My body hit the ground—but it wasn’t a fall.
It was a change.
Power surged upward like a tide breaking containment.
My vision sharpened.
My senses exploded.
I could hear the rogue’s heartbeat now.
I could feel its fear.
My claws hit the earth.
Not mine.
Not fully.
Something else had answered.
The rogue backed up slowly.
Confused now.
Afraid.
And for the first time tonight—
I wasn’t the one trembling.
My head lifted.
Eyes glowing faint silver in the dark.
The air around me changed.
Even the forest went quiet.
I took one step forward.
The rogue whimpered.
It tried to run.
But I moved faster.
Too fast.
Too sure.
And when I spoke, my voice wasn’t mine anymore.
It was lower.
Layered.
Wrong in a way that made the forest itself seem to listen.
“Wrong choice,” I whispered.
Then I moved.
- Writer
