To Break a Wolf

Chapter 13: The Gathering

Mira had no idea what to expect.

She’d spent the afternoon pacing the cabin, her thoughts looping in frantic circles. No matter how many times she tried to make sense of what she’d seen or what they told her, she kept ending up with more questions than answers. Werewolves—no, shapeshifters, as Bastian had called them. Real, not stories or whispered myths passed around in dog-eared books, but real.

It made her question everything she knew, and none of it made sense.

Bastian had given her bits and pieces, carefully curated truths, but always stopped short of the whole picture. Selene had been just as elusive. The others, the ones watching her, who stopped her from leaving, weren’t treating her as if she were a guest. They were treating her as if…

Her stomach turned at the thought, as if she were important. Or worse, dangerous.

A knock at the door cut through the storm in her head. Sharp. Intentional.

Selene stood on the threshold, and Mira almost didn’t recognize her.

Gone was the effortless, lethal grace. Gone were the leggings and boots, the loose braid. In their place stood a woman put together for an highly important ceremony. Selene had twisted her dark hair into intricate braids that spoke of bloodlines and old rites, and the deep green fabric of her dress shimmered as it moved, the slits brushing her muscled calves.

“Ready?” Selene asked calmly, but tightness shimmered behind her eyes.

Mira’s throat dried. “Do I have a choice?”

Selene’s smile was faint. “Not really.”

They stepped into the night.

Cool air kissed Mira’s skin. The sky above stretched wide and endless, stars sparkling across the vast darkness. She followed Selene through the village, feeling nothing short of the stranger and intruder she was. Conversations dipped low as they passed, voices laced with anticipation that prickled against Mira’s skin.

They didn’t head toward the center of the village. They veered deeper into the trees.

The path curved, and then the woods gave way to a clearing.

Silver moonlight flooded everywhere. Mira stopped suddenly as her chest tightened. The space was beautiful, and looked nothing short of sacred. Ringed with torches, the firelight danced over symbols carved into the earth, their soft glow pulsing with life. At the far edge stood a stone altar, tall, weathered, and ominously polished.

Every instinct inside Mira screamed at the sight. Nothing good ever happened on a stone altar, at least, not in the movies.

Then she saw the people.

Dozens, no, hundreds, gathered in hushed clusters. Murmurs spread through the clearing, eyes following her every step. They were waiting specifically for her.

Mira’s pulse kicked. Her stomach twisted. “Okay,” she hissed toward Selene. “What in the actual hell is this?”

Selene’s expression didn’t shift. “The Monashee Gathering.”

“Right,” Mira muttered. “And what exactly are we gathering for?”

Before Selene could answer, the crowd parted, and he stepped forward.

Bastian.

Her breath caught. Something inside her snapped, not from understanding, but from overload: the wolves, the deference, the rituals, the silence, the weight of eyes and expectation. It all slammed into her in shards, not clarity.

This commune wasn’t some secluded, off-grid community. This group truly was a pack, and she stood at its heart.

The altar. The charged air. The bone-deep awareness of him, the Alpha. It all made sense in the most terrifying way. She wasn’t just passing through. Somehow, impossibly, she was part of this. But she didn’t have a wolf buried deep within. No bloodline to claim. No connection to those who stood here. Yet, the way they stared at her… they expected something.

At the center of it all stood Bastian with Selene poised regally and unreadable beside him. Behind her stood a couple, possibly her parents, powerful and unmoving. Mira assumed the stone-faced man was Selene’s father, standing next to a serene and calm woman, Selene’s mother, perhaps. At the altar stood someone who stole Mira’s breath.

She was radiant. Not just beautiful but powerful. Her braid gleamed gold and silver in the firelight, and the crescent moon at her throat glowed faintly, as if in rhythm with Mira’s pulse.

When she spoke, her voice cut through the clearing with clarity, soft yet commanding.

“This night,” she said, “we honor the bond that has guided this pack for generations. We stand beneath the moon, before our ancestors, to witness what fate has written.”

Mira’s skin prickled. This ceremony wasn’t a tradition. It was possibly an ancient ritual—life-altering.

The woman turned to Bastian. “Do you accept your bond, Alpha? Do you claim the one fate has given you?”

Bastian’s gaze lingered on Selene before answering, steady and sure. “Yes, Ellie, I do.”

The words struck Mira as though a sharp blade had pierced her heart. Her breath faltered while something intangible inside her reared in protest.

Ellie turned. “And do you, Selene, accept your bond? Do you accept the fate written in the stars?”

Selene’s gaze didn’t waver. Then, slow and sure, she stepped back.

“No.”

A collective gasp rippled through the clearing.

Selene lifted her chin. “I do not accept this bond. I will not accept a bond forced upon me and the Alpha.”

“Selene—” her father started.

But Selene’s voice rang out, clear and final. “I, Selene Corven, reject the Alpha, Bastian Donovan, as my mate.”

Bastian didn’t flinch. “And I, Bastian Donovan, reject you, Selene Corven.”

The world seemed to stutter, but the backlash didn’t affect the couple; it slammed into Mira.

It ripped through her, invisible and brutal. She gasped as the air squeezed from her lungs, and she clutched at her chest and throat as the earth tilted beneath her feet. She barely registered the cries and confusion because something inside her was breaking open.

A solid beam of light erupted from her chest, streaking through the clearing and shooting straight at someone. The man near her dropped to his knees, trembling. His wolf gone, stripped away.

“She turned him—”

“She stripped him—”

“How is that even poss—”

But Mira couldn’t hear. Couldn’t breathe. A voice whispered inside her. Ancient. Familiar.

You are not what you thought you were.

Her gaze snapped to Ellie, but her lips weren’t moving even though it was her voice uttering the words. Then the world went black.