THE ROGUE QUEEN

Chapter 22

I was halfway through morning training when a wolf staggered into the camp, covered in blood, limping, barely awake. He collapsed before he even reached the fire pit.

“Healer!” someone shouted.

Lyra rushed over immediately, checking his injuries. He had deep claw marks on his chest, an arrow in his shoulder, and bite marks on his leg.

“Who is he?” Maya asked, suddenly standing beside me.

“Reed,” one of the scouts said. “He went out yesterday to watch the northern pass. He never came back.”

Reed’s eyes slowly opened. He grabbed Lyra’s arm with surprising strength. “They’re coming,” he choked out. “Early. Not in few days. Tomorrow.”

The whole camp went quiet.

“Who’s coming?” Maya asked, kneeling next to him.

“Garrett. With all his wolves. Twenty, maybe thirty.” Reed coughed, blood staining his lips. “They know where we are. They’re done waiting.”

Maya’s face turned completely serious. “How long until they get here?”

“Sunrise. Maybe sooner.” His voice faded. “I tried… tried to lead them the wrong way… but they tracked me back…”

“You did great,” Lyra said softly. “Just rest.”

But Reed looked past everyone and locked eyes with me.

“You,” he whispered. “They want you. Garrett said… he’d burn the whole camp down to get you.”

Then his eyes slipped shut.

“Is he—” I began.

“He’s alive,” Lyra said, working quickly. “But he’s lost a lot of blood.”

Maya stood up slowly, her face hard and focused. “Everyone, gather. Right now.”

In a few minutes, everyone in the camp gathered together.

Maya didn’t waste time. “Plans have changed. They’re coming tomorrow at sunrise. That means we don’t have a few days anymore, we only have a few hours.”

Fear spread through the crowd.

“We have two options,” Maya said. “We can run and scatter, hoping they won’t follow all of us. Or we can stay and fight.”

“If we fight here, we’ll die,” someone argued. “They’re thirty. We’re fifteen. Those are terrible odds.”

“You’re right,” Maya said. “That’s why we aren’t fighting here.”

Everyone fell silent.

“Explain,” Zara demanded.

“If they arrive at dawn, that means they’re traveling tonight,” Maya said. “So they’ll be tired and less alert. That’s when they’re weakest.” Her eyes were sharp and serious. “We won’t wait for them to reach camp. We attack them on the road. At night. When they least expect it.”

“An ambush,” Kael said.

“Exactly. We choose the battlefield. We make the rules. And we use Selene’s shadows in the dark, her powers are strongest then.” Maya turned to me. “Can you fight at night?”

“I… I think so. My shadows work better in the dark.”

“Good. That gives us an advantage.” She faced the others again. “This isn’t the plan we practiced. It’s more dangerous, more chaotic. But it’s our only chance to survive.”

“What about the wounded?” Lyra asked. “Reed isn’t the only one who can’t fight.”

“We’ll leave a small group to protect the injured. Everyone else goes,” Maya said firmly. “This is all or nothing. If we lose, the camp is doomed anyway. At least this way, we fight on our own terms.”

The silence was filled with fear but also determination.

“I’m in,” Zara said.

“Me too,” another wolf said.

One by one, everyone agreed.

Finally, Maya looked at me. “Selene?”

All eyes turned to me.

Garrett was coming for me. If I left, maybe they’d be safe. But running meant abandoning the people who had protected me.

“I’m in,” I said. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”

Maya nodded. “Then we prepare until nightfall. Gather weapons. Rest if you can. At moonrise, we move.”

The rest of the day felt rushed and stressful.

Everyone was busy sharpening weapons, packing supplies, and changing the plan as things came up.

Maya called me aside.

“I need you to do something,” she said.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Practice taking someone down.”

I froze. “What?”

“You hesitate,” she said. “I see it every time you train. You stop yourself at the last moment. But tonight, if you hesitate, you could die. So we need to fix that.”

She took me to a quiet area where some straw training dummies were set up.

“They’re coming to kill you and all of us,” Maya said. “You understand that, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then prove it. Pretend that dummy is Garrett. Show me what you would do.”

I used my shadows on the dummy—they wrapped around it, but I stopped before doing any damage.

"Again," Maya commanded. "And this time, don't stop."

I tried again. The shadows tightened, began to crush—

I released them.

"Damn it, Selene!" Maya shouted "You're going to get yourself killed!"

"I can't just—"

"Yes, you can! That dummy isn't alive. It can't feel pain. So destroy it."

I stared at the dummy. At its crude painted face that looked nothing like a real person.

But in my mind, I saw the hunter I'd killed. His eyes. The way he'd fallen.

"I don't want to be a killer," I whispered.

"Too late. You already are." Maya stepped closer. "The question is whether you're going to be a killer who survives or a killer who dies because she couldn't commit."

She was right. I hated that she was right.

I called the shadows again. This time, I didn't hold back.

They slammed into the dummy with enough force to tear it apart. Straw flew everywhere. The wooden frame broke.

"Better," Maya said. "Again."

We spent two hours destroying dummies.

By the end, my shadows moved fast and strong. No hesitation. Just action.

“Good,” Maya said at last. "Remember this feeling. You'll need it tonight."

As the evening got darker, Lyra found me sitting alone.

"You okay?" she asked, settling beside me.

"I don't know what I am anymore."

"You're a survivor. A fighter." She paused. "And you're scared. All of those things can be true at once."

"Maya made me practice killing. All afternoon."

"I know. I saw." Lyra's voice was gentle. "And I know it feels wrong. But Maya's right, you need to be able to do it without thinking. Your life depends on it."

"What if I become someone I don't recognize?"

“Then we’ll help you come back to yourself,” she said, gently squeezing my shoulder. “You’re not facing this alone, Selene. We’re here.”

Before I could say anything else, a loud howl echoed across the camp.

The signal.

It was time.

We gathered together under the moon, fifteen of us, all in human form, all carrying weapons.

Maya stood in front. “We’re walking two miles north to the ambush spot. We’ll hide beside the road and wait. When they arrive, we attack quickly and hit them hard. Selene, your shadows will start the fight. You break their group apart, and we’ll finish it.”

“What if there are more than thirty?” someone asked.

“Then we fight harder,” Maya said firmly. “Any more questions?”

No one spoke.

“Alright. Let’s go. Stay quiet. Stay close. And remember tonight, we stop being the hunted.”

We walked into the dark forest.

My heart pounded. Kael walked beside me, steady and calm, even with his injured leg.

“You ready?” he whispered.

"No. You?"

“Not at all,” he said with a small, tense smile. “But we’re doing it anyway.”

The ambush spot was a narrow part of the road with thick trees on both sides, perfect for trapping an enemy.

Maya placed everyone in the best positions, shadows to hide in, places to attack from, escape paths if things went wrong.

Then we waited.

Minutes felt like hours. My legs were stiff from staying still. With my sharp hearing, I noticed every tiny sound: owls hunting, animals running around, the wind moving through the leaves.

Then I heard it.

Footsteps. A lot of them. Getting closer.

They’re here, my wolf whispered.

Maya signaled with her hand. Everyone got ready.

Through the trees, I saw them—wolves in human form, walking in a loose group. Garrett was in front, his grey hair shining in the moonlight.

Twenty-seven. I counted fast. Twenty-seven fighters.

Against our fifteen.

Maya looked at me and raised her hand. Three fingers. Two. One.

She dropped her hand.

I let the shadows loose.

They came out from where I stood, darker and stronger than ever before. They slammed into Garrett’s front line, breaking their formation and throwing them into confusion.

“AMBUSH!” someone yelled.

Then our wolves rushed in from both sides, and the quiet forest turned into battle.