Chosen by the Monster, Crowned by the Alpha

Chapter 3: Banished Blood

The next morning , the pack decided to finally open up to Mary, we all went to her little hut and called out Mary , Mary , she didn’t respond.

Huh! Who could that be? Why are they screaming my name? They came to hurt me , they found me. Hey, who's there ? Listen “If you came to finish me off, don’t bother. I already did the worst thing I could.”

Mary, listen my name is Lizzie and I’m with my pack , we aren’t here to convict you of your actions , the way she had spoken earlier, I felt emptiness , Her voice was hoarse. Seems like she’s used her voice too much for crying and not for living. I didn’t badge into her hut, instead I said , Mary, listen I’m not here to finish you and not to challenge you either.

“Then what are you here for? I asked Lizzie, while my brain was still trying to get hold of what might be going on here , I don’t plan to go out to see them because what if they tie me up and take me away or what if they are undercover guards.”

“I came to help you," Lizzie said.

Ha! I laughed and scoffed, “ Help? I don't need help, I need a cage.”

“Mary, everyone needs help, why would you think you don’t , you have your whole life ahead of you , yes we know you killed Kaia but I think she would want you to live for her, You need someone to remind you that you’re still worth saving.”

I guess I can go outside now , I said , I mean if they had wanted to hurt me they wouldn’t have engaged in a conversation with me , they could have just badged into my little hut , I mean it’s not even strong, I went outside , i saw Lizzie , she’s about 5 foot tall, blonde hair, deep blue eyes and had the most gorgeous smile almost same as Kaia , thinking about Kaia made me hurt at that moment.

“Mary , can you tell us what happened ? Lizzie asked.”

I stared at Kaia’s grave again, my voice breaking when I told Lizzie “I didn’t mean to kill her , I loved her.”

“I know .” Lizzie said.

“It just… happened. One second I was human. The next, I wasn’t.”

“That’s the curse.” Lizzie said softly.

“It waits in your blood. Dormant. Until the day you spill innocent blood.” Mary looked like she might throw up. Or cry. Maybe both.

“It was my birthday,” i whispered. “We were watching a movie. Then the fog came, and I couldn’t breathe, and then… she tried to help me. And I—”

My voice cracked like glass when I said, “ I remember her scream.”

That’s when I finally walked closer. Sat beside her. Let the silence stretch between us like a wound we were both staring into. I thought in my head should I go ahead and share my own trauma and I decided I should.

Mary let me tell you something I’ve never told anyone, “I lost my sister the same way too, I said. Except I wasn’t the one who turned. A rogue did. She was just twelve.”

Mary’s eyes flicked to mine, shocked. But I didn’t flinch.

“You don’t forget their scream,” I told her. “But you can decide what happens next.”

She looked at me. Truly looked.

And maybe she saw something real in my eyes—something that made her believe I wasn’t lying. Or maybe she was just too tired to keep pushing me away.

I felt so sorry for her when she opened up to me about her sister, true we had kinda trauma bond lol, but either way I asked Lizzie “so what’s next.”

“We train,now we train,” Lizzie said.

Mary had shifted once in front of me—just for a second. It wasn’t graceful or controlled. Her bones cracked mid-sentence. Her eyes glowed that eerie silver, and for a breathless moment, I saw something monstrous flicker behind them.

But she didn’t lose herself.

She came back.

Shaking. Crying. But human again.

“You’re strong,” I told her, bandaging the scrapes on her hand. “You just don’t know it yet.”

“I don’t want to be strong,” she muttered. “I want to be dead.”

“Well, tough luck,” I said with a small smile. “You don’t get to die until you’ve made peace with the person you’ve become.”

She didn’t smile back, but I caught the way her lips twitched.

Progress.

We continued training each day, Lizzie also showed me around the forest , days went by after that.

She came back everyday, rain or shine, sometimes with bandages, other times with food. We mostly hunt together but for a few days she’s been wanting to go alone, once she brought a blade and said, “ Let’s see if that beast inside you can learn some discipline.”

We trained in silence most days. I liked it better that way.

This hut just keeps falling apart, I said in frustration, I mean it’s been more than just a shelter, I had built from fallen logs and moss, the hut was a graveyard, a prison, and a quiet rebellion against the world I’d been thrown out of. Against the people who whispered behind their hands. Against the part of me that still dreamed Kaia might walk through the trees, laugh, say it was all some kind of sick joke.

Or I’d wake up and find out I’ve been living in a dream, I’d see that mom is still home, Kaia’s alive and maybe just maybe dad would be present too, ouch I pinched myself for the one thousandth time to make sure I was dreaming but turns out this is my reality now, a lonely stray omega wolf .

Kaia can’t move around again, she would never make it to see her parents .

She never would again.

I screamed a lot in those early training days. Not from pain, but from guilt.

Lizzie never told me to stop. She’d just wait. Sometimes she’d scream with me.

She taught me how to hold a blade. How to listen to the wind. How to feel the energy shift in the earth when someone—or something—was near.

But no one talked about the Ceremony anymore.

No one mentioned how I’d shattered the sacred circle.

Or how the moonlight hit my face the moment I shifted—and how Kaia’s blood painted the stones.

I can’t even look at myself in the mirror without sighing in disgust, every time Lizzie handed a mirror over to me to just look, like it was nothing , I didn't want to. I said a part of me wanted to just do it so I picked it up. Slowly. My reflection stared back, almost like she didn’t recognize me either.

Sunken eyes. Scar across my collarbone. Lips cracked from too many sleepless nights. My hair was tangled like roots from a cursed tree. But what really got me was the shadow behind my pupils. That wildness that never used to be there. Something… watching. Waiting.

“I hate her,” I said, voice trembling.

“Then change her,” Lizzie replied.

We fell into something weirdly normal after that.

She brought herbs that numbed the transformation pain. Taught me pressure points to focus on when I felt the shift creeping up. She made jokes about my clumsy footwork, and I made fun of her tiny arms that looked like they could barely carry a bow, even though I’d seen her kill a shadowhound with a single arrow.

And sometimes, when the fire burned low and the stars were bright enough to pierce the thick trees overhead, I talked about Kaia.

How she used to paint dumb little suns on her shoes. How she hated bananas but loved banana bread. How she used to say things like “bad vibes don’t pay rent” and “never trust a man who doesn’t believe in astrology.”

Lizzie never interrupted. Just listened.

Maybe she knew that if she did, I’d stop.

I started growing a soft spot for Lizzie, the pack made me feel a bit loved too although I still hear whispers about how different I am but I never heard Lizzie whisper about that. We kept on training , “you’re getting good at this.” Lizzie said .

Well that’s just my way of trying to escape the past events and deal with the death of Kaia. I feel channeling my energy into the training program you set up for me each day has really helped.

Later that day, we both went to hunt , normally Lizzie does the hunting while I wait and watch but today she tried to get me to transition and hunt with her , I didn’t know if I could do it as I still see myself as a monster but the perks about this is that we werewolves don’t remember anything during the transition so I wouldn’t even know how I butchered the poor animal I’d be hunting for. Just as I tried transitioning, I started feeling strange like something was about to happen again, I passed out .

“Wake up , Mary , wake up , oh no , Cain! Cain! Get the pack over here along with some water , sprinkle it on her .” Lizzie said.

Coughing! Coughing!

Continue guys , sprinkle more water , we are almost there, Mary are you okay ? If you can hear me fight this.

Oh she’s coming back , thank goodness Lizzie said as Mary started coughing. The pack felt relieved.

Then came the trial.

Not the pack’s. The universe’s.

The day the mist came again.

I woke up with a pressure in my chest like someone was sitting on me.

The wind had gone still. Not calm—dead. Like the forest had inhaled and forgotten how to breathe back out.

I stepped out of the hut, barefoot. Damp leaves clung to my toes. Fog crept through the trees, curling low and thick, swirling like it had a mind of its own.

And it brought with it… him.

I didn’t see him at first.

I just felt him.

My skin prickled. My pulse skipped.

And then he stepped out of the mist.

Not a wolf. Not human.

His eyes glowed gold. His hair hung like smoke around his face, black and shimmering and wrong. No heartbeat. No breath in the air around him. He was like a memory that never belonged to me.

“Stay back,” I warned, backing up slowly. My hands instinctively clenched, waiting for the shift. The ache stirred in my spine, ready to split open my ribs.

But he didn’t come closer.

He just tilted his head.

“You carry the blood of the beast,” he said, voice as soft as fallen ash. “That’s why you weren’t chosen.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” I snapped. My hands shook.

“You don’t belong to them,” he said simply. “You never did. That ritual was a lie. The wolves can’t claim what was never theirs.”

“What am I then?” I asked, even though I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer.

He gave the saddest smile I’d ever seen.

“Something old. Something angry. Something that was never meant to be born.”

My heart dropped into my stomach.

“What are you?” I whispered.

But he was already fading, mist curling around him like hands pulling him back into the veil.

He looked at me one last time.

“They’ll hunt you now. All of them. Even the one who trains you. Especially him.”

Him?

Who’s him?

And then he was gone.

I didn’t have time to breathe before I heard it.

Fwip.

A sound like a bird wing cutting through the air.

Then—

Thwack.

The bark exploded near my face. A long, black arrow quivered in the tree trunk inches from my cheek,like it was purposely dropped directly onto me.

My breath caught in my throat.

Then I heard the voice. A weird strange voice that got me trembling and my heart racing , I felt strange.

The sound came from somewhere behind the trees.

Low. Almost amused.

“She awakened. Too soon.”