Chapter 3: The Autumn Challenge
969 Words
Seren's POV
The announcement comes during breakfast, delivered by Dean Morven with his usual dramatic flair.
"The Autumn Equinox Challenge begins at sunset."
Groans ripple through the cafeteria. The Challenge happens twice a year, a brutal competition that separates the strong from the weak. Students enter the forbidden forest, retrieve tokens hidden throughout the territory, and return before dawn.
Sounds simple.
It never is.
"All students are required to participate," Morven continues, his voice cutting through the complaints. "No exceptions. Teams will be assigned randomly to encourage cross rank cooperation."
I stop chewing my toast. Random teams mean I might get stuck with Alphas who'll use me as bait or leave me behind at the first sign of trouble. Last year, my team abandoned me within the first hour. I spent the entire night hiding in a hollow tree, listening to things hunt in the darkness.
I didn't retrieve a token.
Nobody expected me to.
"Teams will be posted at noon," Morven finishes. "Prepare accordingly."
The cafeteria erupts into excited chatter. For most students, the Challenge is fun, a chance to prove themselves and earn glory. For surrogates like me, it's survival.
Luna finds me after breakfast, her face apologetic.
"I tried to get us on the same team," she says. "But Morven won't let Betas request specific assignments. Says it defeats the purpose of random selection."
"It's fine."
"It's not fine. Last year those assholes left you alone in the forest."
"I survived."
"Barely." Luna grabs my shoulders, forcing me to meet her eyes. "Promise me you'll be careful. Don't try to be a hero. Just stay alive and make it back."
Her concern warms something in my chest. Having a friend, a real one, still feels foreign after so long alone.
"I promise," I say.
The morning drags. Classes blur together, teachers droning about pack formations and hunting strategies. My mind keeps drifting to the forest, to the darkness waiting beyond the academy walls.
Something about the forbidden zone has always called to me. Even the name, forbidden, feels wrong. Like someone decided we shouldn't go there and enforced that decision through fear rather than reason.
At noon, I push through the crowd gathered around the bulletin board. My name appears halfway down the list.
Team Seven: Seren Ashfall, Marcus Thorn, Vera Brightwood, Kade Ravaryn.
No.
No, no, no.
I read it three times, hoping the letters will rearrange themselves into something different. They don't. Kade's name stays right there next to mine, mocking me with its presence.
"Well, well." Cipher appears at my shoulder, grinning like he knows a secret. "Looks like you drew the winning team, Surrogate. Try not to slow them down."
I don't respond. Can't respond. My throat has closed up, my wolf whimpering anxiously inside my chest.
Six hours in the forest with Kade Ravaryn.
This is going to be a nightmare.
Sunset comes too fast. We gather at the forest's edge, forty students divided into ten teams. Dean Morven explains the rules again, though everyone knows them by heart.
Retrieve a token. Return alive. Don't kill your teammates.
That last rule was added after an incident five years ago. Nobody talks about what happened, but the rule stays.
"You have until dawn," Morven says, holding up a silver whistle. "When this sounds, the Challenge ends. Anyone still in the forest after that is disqualified and will face disciplinary action."
He blows the whistle.
We run.
The forest swallows us immediately, ancient trees blocking out the dying light. I follow my team, keeping pace despite my weaker wolf. Marcus leads, his Alpha instincts guiding us deeper into the territory. Vera stays close to him, her small frame hiding surprising speed.
Kade runs beside me.
Not ahead. Not behind. Beside me.
I don't understand it, and I don't have time to think about it. The forest grows darker with each passing minute, shadows lengthening into shapes that seem almost alive.
"There," Marcus says, pointing to a tree marked with three scratches. "Token marker. They hide them near these signs."
We spread out, searching the immediate area. I check under roots and inside hollow logs, my hands scraping against bark and dirt. Nothing.
"Got it," Vera calls, holding up a bronze disk that glows faintly in the dimness.
"One down," Marcus says. "We need two more to place in the top teams."
We move deeper.
The forest changes. I feel it in my bones, in the way my wolf suddenly goes quiet and still. We've crossed into the old growth section, where trees stand like ancient sentinels and the air tastes different.
Wrong.
Right.
Both at once.
"Stop," I say.
Everyone freezes, looking at me with surprise. Surrogates don't give commands. We don't speak up. We certainly don't tell Alphas to stop.
But something is coming.
I smell it before I see it. Rotten meat and wild rage, the scent of a wolf who's lost their humanity and given in completely to the beast.
A rogue.
It crashes through the undergrowth, eyes glowing red with madness, foam dripping from its jaws. Rogues aren't supposed to be in academy territory. The wards should keep them out.
Should.
Marcus shifts immediately, his bones cracking and reforming. Vera does the same. They throw themselves at the rogue, trying to drive it back.
It's not enough.
The rogue is huge, twisted by whatever broke its mind. It tosses Marcus aside like he weighs nothing, its claws raking across Vera's shoulder. She yelps, the sound cutting through me like a knife.
I should run.
I should hide.
That's what Surrogates do.
Instead, I feel something crack inside my chest, something that's been locked away for so long I forgot it existed. Power floods through me, hot and fierce and completely foreign.
My wolf surges forward.
And I let her.
- Writer
