Chapter 2: Marked as Unworthy
1182 Words
POV: Nixie
I didn’t sleep.
How could I? Trixie’s words echoed in my mind like a curse spoken straight from the shadows.
"Tomorrow, your death will look like an accident."
She had smiled when she said it—like it was a gift.
I clutched the pendant tighter beneath my nightdress as the moonlight poured through the window, casting pale streaks across the wooden floor. It had grown hot against my skin, as if it could sense the threat wrapped in silk and poison just outside my door.
Sleep never came. Instead, I watched the sky lighten slowly with the promise of morning and a reckoning I wasn’t ready for.
By dawn, I’d already dressed in black. Not mourning black—armor black. My hair braided back, knife sheathed under my boot, pendant hidden beneath layers. I wasn’t ready for death, but I wouldn’t meet it unarmed.
The scent of herbs and wood smoke filled the halls of the main house as I made my way to the gathering room. Today was the Blood Oath Ceremony—the day new warriors pledged fealty to the Alpha, and the Luna was supposed to anoint them.
Me.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and entered.
The room stilled.
Dozens of eyes turned to me. Some cold. Some curious. Most doubtful. Hunter stood near the altar, robes clinging to his form, a golden sash draped across one shoulder. He looked powerful. Dangerous. Every inch the Alpha.
And beside him—Trixie.
In red.
The color of victory. Of mating. Of blood.
She shouldn’t have been standing there. That was my place.
Hunter’s gaze flicked to me, unreadable, then turned away just as quickly.
“Luna Nixie,” Beta Colton called, voice formal, too polished. “You are late.”
I walked forward slowly, holding my head high despite the glares. “Not late. Just. precisely on time.”
Colton didn’t smile. He stepped aside, allowing me to stand beside Hunter. He didn’t look at me. Not once. Even when our arms brushed.
The ceremony began. One by one, young warriors stepped forward, kneeling before the Alpha. They spoke their vows, and I dipped my fingers in the ceremonial ash to mark their foreheads.
Until the fifth warrior.
I reached forward to mark him, but Colton stopped me.
“Alpha Hunter has decided only wolves who bear both strength and a worthy bond will be marked by the Luna.”
A murmur rippled through the room.
I blinked. “Excuse me?”
Colton turned to me, loud enough for all to hear. “Only a Luna with a wolf can complete the sacred marking. Otherwise, it is symbolic only. Decorative. Nothing more.”
I froze. “Hunter?”
Still, he wouldn’t look at me.
Trixie smiled.
The final blow wasn’t shouted. It was whispered into silence.
“The Elder has confirmed the decision,” Colton said. “Until your wolf awakens… your role in this rite is suspended.”
Suspended.
Just like that.
As if I hadn’t bled for this pack. As if I hadn’t stood beside Hunter when no one else dared. As if I was. unworthy.
My chest burned. I turned to Hunter.
“Say it.”
He flinched.
“Say it,” I demanded, louder. “Tell them I’m not your Luna. Tell them I’m not good enough because I don’t howl at your command.”
Silence.
Then—
His voice: quiet. Brutal.
“Maybe the Moon Goddess made a mistake.”
My knees buckled.
The words sliced through bone. Through spirit. I stared at him, at the man who had once kissed me like I was made of stars and fury, and now. now he looked at me like I was nothing.
A whisper passed through the crowd like smoke.
“Wolfless.”
I stepped back. And then again. And then I ran.
---
The woods swallowed me whole.
Branches clawed at my arms. My braid loosened. My breath came in ragged bursts. I didn’t stop until I reached the edge of the territory.
Where the trees grew too thick.
Where sunlight didn’t touch the ground.
Where the Elder said my truth waited.
The Forbidden Forest.
No guards stopped me. Maybe they thought I’d lost it. Maybe they hoped I wouldn’t return.
Good.
Let them.
I slipped between the trees like a ghost.
The moment I crossed the invisible boundary, the air shifted. Colder. Older. It wrapped around me like a cloak of thorns, whispering secrets in a tongue I didn’t understand.
I clutched the pendant around my neck.
“Please,” I whispered. “If you’re there. if you’re real. come to me.”
But nothing answered.
I pressed forward, deeper into the woods. Hours passed. Or maybe just minutes. Time didn’t move right here.
My fingers brushed an ancient tree, and it pulsed under my palm.
Alive.
Then I saw it—a stone circle, half-covered in moss, bathed in silver light that didn’t come from the sun.
I stepped into the center.
And screamed.
A pain unlike anything I’d ever felt tore through my chest. I collapsed to my knees. My body convulsed. My vision blurred. Something inside me clawed and burned, begging to be freed.
“Let me in,” a voice growled—deep, feminine, wild.
My wolf.
But why now? What had triggered this?
Blood.
The Elder had said I would bleed.
I looked down. My hands—torn from the thorns. My arms—scratched raw.
The pendant glowed, hot against my chest.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
“Not just wolf. Not just Luna. You are the mark of something older. Something forbidden.”
The earth trembled beneath me. The trees whispered louder. I felt her then—my wolf. Pacing. Raging. Not asleep. Not absent.
Bound.
And something had broken that bond.
Trixie?
The spell?
I didn’t know. But I knew this—
I wasn’t weak.
I wasn’t unworthy.
I was not wolfless.
Just as I began to rise, a shadow moved at the edge of the clearing.
Not a wolf.
Not a rogue.
Tall. Hooded. Cloaked in dark smoke.
“Who’s there?” I called.
The figure stepped into view. His eyes glowed like coals.
“You’re early,” he said, voice low, inhuman.
I backed away, heart pounding. “Who are you?”
He smiled. Fangs gleamed.
“You can call me Kael.”
A name like a blade.
“What do you want?” I whispered.
He tilted his head. “You. The one born of two bloodlines. The one whose wolf was stolen.”
My blood froze. “What do you mean stolen?”
But he was already walking forward, slow, deliberate.
“Come with me, Luna. Or they will kill you before the sun rises.”
I should have run.
But something inside me—something primal—stood still.
“You’re not pack,” I said.
“No,” Kael whispered. “I’m something. older.”
He extended a hand.
And in it—
My pendant glowed brighter.
Matching the one around his neck.
- Writer
