THE ROGUE QUEEN

Chapter 9

I dreamed of blood that night.

It ran like rivers through the dark, spreading across the ground, sinking into the earth. And in the middle of it stood a figure made of shadows—tall, not human, eyes glowing like burning coals.

You can’t hide from what you are, it said. You can’t escape the fate waiting for you.

I woke gasping, my heart slamming against my ribs, my skin cold and damp with sweat

The shelter was empty. Lyra must have already left for morning duties.

Outside, I could hear the camp stirring to life but it was different now. Quieter. More cautious. The easy warmth from two days ago had been replaced by tension that hung in the air like smoke.

Davey's death had changed everything.

I forced myself up, ignoring my protesting muscles, and splashed cold water on my face from the basin Lyra kept near her workspace. My reflection in the small mirror looked haggard, dark circles under my eyes, bruises from yesterday's training still healing on my jaw and cheekbone.

I looked like I'd been through a war.

Maybe I had.

"You're up early."

I jumped, spinning around to find Kael standing at the entrance, two wrapped bundles in his hands.

"Sorry," he said, though he didn't look particularly apologetic. "Didn't mean to startle you. Brought breakfast."

He tossed me one of the bundles. I caught it and unwrapped it to find bread, cheese, and dried meat, simple but substantial.

"Thank you," I said quietly.

"Don't thank me yet. We've got a long day ahead." He leaned against the shelter's support beam. "Maya wants you after midday for combat training. But this morning, you're with me."

"Tracking?"

"Tracking," he confirmed. "If assassins are coming for you, you need to know how to sense them before they get close. Your wolf should help with that, but you need to learn to trust your instincts."

I bit into the bread, chewing slowly. "How do you know so much about this? About training, fighting, surviving?"

Something flickered in his expression, pain, maybe, or memory.

"My father was a warrior," he said after a moment. "One of the best in our pack. He trained me from the time I could walk. Said that in this world, strength was the only thing that mattered. That if you weren't strong enough to protect what was yours, you deserved to lose it."

"That's harsh."

"That's reality." His jaw tightened. "And he was right. When the Council came for my pack, the only reason I survived was because I was strong enough to run, to hide, to fight when I had to. Everyone else..." He trailed off.

"I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Don't be. It was six years ago. I've had time to make peace with it." He pushed off the beam. "But that's why I train. Why I learn. Because next time someone comes for people I care about, I want to be strong enough to stop them."

The words hung heavy between us.

People I care about.

Did that include me? After only a few days?

Before I could ask, he gestured toward the forest. "Come on. Finish eating while we walk. Daylight's wasting."

Kael led me deep into the forest, far beyond the camp's borders, to a place where the trees grew so thick barely any sunlight penetrated the canopy.

“This is where I scout most days,” he whispered. “Out here, you learn to pay attention to the smallest things. The forest tells you everything if you know how to listen.”

He knelt beside a fallen log, gesturing for me to join him.

"Look," he said, pointing to a series of marks in the soft earth. "What do you see?"

I studied the ground. "Tracks?"

"What kind?"

I leaned closer. The prints were roughly paw-shaped, but larger than any wolf I'd seen. "Big. Heavy. Maybe a bear?"

"Good guess, but no." He traced one of the prints with his finger. "See how the claws are spaced? And the depth of the impression? This is a shifted wolf. A large one. Male, probably. And he came through here less than six hours ago."

"How can you tell it's male?"

"Weight distribution. Males carry their mass differently. Also—" he pointed to a tree a few feet away, "—scent marking. He was claiming territory."

I hadn't even noticed the tree. But now that he pointed it out, I could see the scratches.

"Your wolf should be able to smell it," Kael continued. "Even in human form, you'll have better senses than a normal human. But you have to learn to pay attention to them. To trust them."

I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply through my nose.

At first, all I smelled was earth and pine and dampness. But then—there. Something underneath, musk, wild, sharp.

Wolf.

"I smell it," I said, opening my eyes.

“Good. Now, without looking at the tracks, tell me which direction he went. Don’t look at the ground. Trust your instincts.”

I closed my eyes and reached for my wolf. She shifted inside me, alert and curious.

There—a small tug. A pull in one direction.

I pointed. “That way.”

Kael smiled. “Open your eyes.”

When I did, I saw the prints leading exactly where I’d pointed.

Pride warmed my chest. “I did it.”

“You did,” he said with a grin. “And the more you practice, the easier it’ll get. Soon, you won’t even have to think.”

We spent the next several hours following the mysterious wolf's trail through the forest.

Kael showed me how to read bent grass, broken twigs, disturbed moss. How to distinguish between old tracks and fresh ones. How to use the wind to carry scents to me instead of broadcasting my own presence.

It was exhausting work. My already-sore body protested every time I crouched to examine something or climbed over a fallen tree. But it was also... fascinating.

I'd spent my entire life in a pack but had never learned any of this. At Bloodfang, I'd been kept away from training, from hunting, from anything that might actually make me useful.

Here, with Kael's patient instruction and my wolf's eager participation, I was finally learning what it meant to be a wolf.

“You’re good at this,” Kael said when we paused by a stream. “Better than most wolves who start tracking.”

"Maybe my wolf is better at it than I am," I said, kneeling to drink from the stream.

"Your wolf is you, Selene. The sooner you accept that, the stronger you'll be." He crouched beside me. "You keep talking about her like she's separate. Like she's something you have to control or fight. But that's not how it works."

"Then how does it work?"

"You're two parts of a whole. She's not controlling you, and you're not controlling her. You're supposed to work together, in harmony. When you fight, when you split, you become weaker. But when you merge..." He smiled. "That's when real power happens."

I thought about that as I splashed cool water on my face.

At Bloodfang, I'd been taught that your wolf was a tool. Something you mastered and wielded. The stronger wolves dominated their animals completely, bending them to their will.

But maybe that was wrong.

Maybe the reason I'd never felt a wolf was because I'd been looking for the wrong thing, for something I could control, instead of something I could become.

“He’s right,” my wolf whispered. “We are stronger together.”

“I’m trying,” I told her. “I’m just scared.”

“I know,” she said. “So am I.”

That surprised me.

“You’re scared?”

“I was caged for eighteen years, she said quietly. Barely alive. And now we’re being hunted. Of course I’m scared. But we’re not alone. We have the rogues. Kael. Lyra. Zara.”

I smiled to myself.

“And Maya?”

“Especially Maya,” my wolf said. “That one knows what it means to fight.”

A sudden snap of a branch made both Kael and me freeze.

He held up a hand, his entire body going still.

Someone was coming.

Not the wolf we'd been tracking—the sounds were wrong. Too deliberate. Too careful.

Hide, my wolf urged.

I looked to Kael, who was already melting into the shadows of the trees, his movements silent. I followed, pressing myself behind a thick oak, my heart pounding.

Three figures emerged into the clearing by the stream.

They looked human, but they were wolf who stayed in human form. All of them were men and each carried a silver weapon

They weren't from our camp.

They were strangers.

"—you sure the trail led this way?" one of them was saying.

"Positive,” the second one answered, “The Shadow Wolf passed through here. I can still smell her."

My blood ran cold.

They were hunting me.

"Council will pay triple if we bring her in alive," another said. "But dead works too."

"I say we kill her. Less risk that way. Shadow Wolves are unpredictable."

The first one laughed. "You scared of a girl?"

"I'm scared of what she could become. The stories say Shadow Wolves could kill with a thought, they control darkness. I'm not taking chances."

They were getting closer to our hiding spot.

I could smell them now—sweat and metal and bloodlust. They'd come here specifically to kill me.

Kael caught my eye and made a quick sign, stay hidden.

But my wolf had other plans.

“They're hunting us,” she snapped. “We should hunt them back.”

“There are three of them. Armed. Trained,” I whispered

“We're stronger.

“We don't know that—”

One of the hunters stopped and lifted his head, sniffing the air.

"Wait," he said slowly. "I smell something. Recent. Female. Wolf."

Shit.

"Spread out," the leader commanded. “Search the area. Find her."

They began moving through the trees, weapons drawn, searching.

It was only a matter of time before they found us.

Kael shifted his weight, preparing to fight. I could see the calculation in his eyes, three against two, poor odds, but he'd do it anyway.

To protect me.

Another person who might die because of what I was.

No.

I wouldn't let that happen.

Before I could talk myself out of it, before Kael could stop me, I stepped out from behind the tree.

"Looking for me?" I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

All three men turned. Their weapons rose.

The leader smiled—cold and predatory. "There you are, little Shadow Wolf. Been looking all over for you."

"Well, you found me." I lifted my chin, refusing to show fear. "Now what?"

"Now?" He stepped closer. "Now you come quietly, and maybe we don't have to hurt you too badly."

"And if I don't?"

His smile widened. "Then we make this hard for you."

Behind them, I saw Kael shifting, his russet wolf form melting out of the shadows.

The hunters hadn't seen him yet.

I just needed to keep them distracted.

"You know what I don't understand?" I said conversationally. "Why the Council is so afraid of one girl. I mean, I'm not even trained. I can barely control my powers. Why send three armed hunters after me?"

"Because you're not going to stay untrained forever," the leader said. "And when you learn what you're capable of, you'll be too dangerous to take down. Better to eliminate the threat now."

"Eliminate." I let the word hang in the air. "You mean murder."

"I mean survival. Shadow Wolves nearly destroyed the Council once. We won't let it happen again."

"Maybe the Council deserves to be destroyed."

His expression darkened. "Brave words from someone who's about to die."

Then he lunged.

And everything happened at once.

Kael burst from the shadows, slamming into the hunter on the right. The shadows erupted from my skin, darker and more violent than ever before. The third hunter screamed as darkness wrapped around his throat.

And I learned something important

When your life is on the line, your body knows exactly what to do.