Chapter Two — The One Who Was Almost
966 Words
(Idris’s POV)
Everyone thought it would be Salma.
For as long as I could remember, the future had already been written for me by other people’s expectations.
Alpha’s son.
Gamma’s daughter.
Two bloodlines woven together long before either of us had a say.
We trained in the same yard, ate at the same table, sat side by side during lessons. The elders used to smile whenever they saw us together, as if they were already watching a story reach its ending.
Even I believed it.
Not because I loved her.
But because I had never been taught to imagine anything else.
Salma was beautiful. Sharp. Ambitious. She knew how to speak, how to move, how to command attention without raising her voice. She fit perfectly into the image of a future Luna.
And I… fit into the role of the Alpha who would choose her.
It was simple.
Too simple.
---
Our shifting ceremony was supposed to be sacred.
The night the Moon revealed truths no one could hide from.
When my wolf finally surfaced, it felt like fire under my skin power, instinct, dominance. Indra roared inside me, proud and alive.
The pack cheered.
Then Salma stepped forward.
She shifted beautifully. Elegant, controlled, silver fur glinting under the moonlight.
Everyone waited.
So did she.
So did I.
But nothing happened.
No pull.
No instinct.
No recognition.
Indra(my wolf) didn’t even lift his head.
The silence that followed was worse than any scream.
I saw it in Salma’s face first the way her confidence cracked, just for a second. The way her eyes searched mine, desperate, as if I could force something to exist just by wanting it.
But I couldn’t.
Our wolves stood meters apart, strangers under the same moon.
That night, I found her alone in the training yard, sitting on the cold stone steps, her knees pulled to her chest.
She didn’t look at me when I sat beside her.
“So,” she said quietly. “That’s it?”
I swallowed. “It doesn’t mean anything is wrong with you.”
Her laugh was soft. Hollow.
“It means everything is wrong with me.”
I shook my head. “We’re not mates. But we’re still us. You’re still important to me.”
She finally looked at me then.
And for the first time, I understood something I hadn’t seen before.
She wasn’t hurt.
She was afraid.
Afraid of becoming irrelevant.
---
A few days later, we trained together like nothing had happened.
Sparring. Running. Fighting until our lungs burned.
At one point, she pinned me to the ground, her blade at my throat, smiling.
“You’re holding back,” she said.
“Maybe,” I replied.
“Or maybe you’re distracted.”
I frowned. “By what?”
She hesitated.
Then said, almost casually,
“Do you ever think about her?”
“Who?”
“My replacement.”
The words hit harder than any strike.
“There is no ‘her’,” I said slowly.
“Not yet,” Salma replied. “But there will be.”
She leaned closer, her voice lowering.
“And when you find her… what happens to me?”
I didn’t answer.
Because I didn’t know.
And because part of me already sensed that whoever my mate was…
She wouldn’t be someone Salma could compete with.
Not in power.
Not in fate.
Not in my heart.
---
After that, I started taking missions.Searching for the Moon’s Choice
Not because I wanted distance.
But because I needed air.
Border patrols. Rescue operations. Allied pack visits. Anywhere that wasn’t Silver Claw. Anywhere I didn’t feel like I was living inside a prophecy someone else had written.
I told myself I was searching for my mate.
The truth?
I was running from the one I didn’t choose.
Salma stayed.
She didn’t chase me.
She didn’t protest.
She simply… waited.
And slowly, she began to position herself where a Luna should stand.
At my side during councils.
Beside my parents at ceremonies.
Speaking for me when I was absent.
The pack filled in the gaps on their own.
They wanted her there.
So she made sure they never imagined anyone else.
---
One evening, the elders called me into the council hall.
“You are twenty now, Idris,” Elder Rafiq said.
“The pack needs stability. A Luna. An heir.”
I didn’t need to ask whose name they meant.
“I won’t take a chosen mate,” I said calmly. “Not yet.”
The room froze.
“I will finish my training. Complete my Alpha duties. If the Moon hasn’t given me my mate by then… I will choose.”
Fair. Reasonable. Honest.
But when I left the hall, Salma was standing in the corridor.
Waiting.
“You rejected me,” she said softly.
“I rejected the idea of choosing anyone.”
Her eyes darkened.
“You’re just afraid to commit.”
I met her gaze. “I’m afraid to lie.”
She smiled.
Not kindly.
Not warmly.
“I won’t let someone else take what’s supposed to be mine,” she said.
I laughed, trying to lighten the moment.
“You can’t fight the Moon, Salma.”
She didn’t laugh back.
“I can fight anything that stands between me and what I want.”
---
third person pov
The Promise no one Never Heard
That night, salma stood alone under the moon.
Not praying.
Not crying.
Deciding.
“If fate won’t give you to me,” she whispered,
“I will take you myself.”
And far away, in a quiet pack Idris had never visited…
The girl who would one day destroy everything he thought he knew
was still sitting in a library, unaware that his world was already bending toward hers.
- Writer
