Chapter 31 – Blood and Ashes
The first scream shattered the stillness of the night.
It wasn’t wolf. It wasn’t human.
It was something colder. Hungrier.
Seren jolted awake in the small hut they had given her, chest heaving, heart skittering like a trapped bird. Her hand instinctively reached for the dagger Lyra had pressed into her palm days ago, though her grip trembled as she rose. The sound came again—piercing, inhuman.
Outside, wolves were already moving.
“Stay inside!” someone barked through the crack of the door. Seren didn’t recognize the voice, but the urgency in it made her freeze for half a heartbeat. Then her blood rebelled against obedience. She had been told to stay hidden too many times in her life.
Not anymore.
She slipped outside.
The village burned with motion—wolv
