CHAPTER 3
1586 Words
SELENE
I’m making dinner in Kael’s kitchen while I hear him chopping wood outside.
I sigh and turn, moving closer to the door.
It’s been two days since we got married, and I don’t feel so strange about it anymore.
I don’t know much about him, but I sense he won’t tell me anything just yet.
I blink, watching his muscles flex as he holds the axe.
I bite my lip, remembering our night together.
My husband.
“You’re going to burn the soup,” he says, turning and smiling at me.
My eyes widen, caught staring at him for too long.
I jump a little, laughing awkwardly.
“It’s not soup.”
“Smells like revenge, well seasoned.”
“You have a talent for dramatizing everything, you know that?”
“I’m an exiled werewolf married to the ex-fiancée of the man who destroyed my life. Drama is my specialty.”
The moment almost feels light. Almost. But then, my phone vibrates on the table. An unknown number. The vibration continues. And my body freezes.
I answer.
“Hello?”
“Selene.”
The voice drips with venom.
It’s Celeste.
“You really thought you could just marry that… exiled beast and no one would find out?”
I stay silent for a second. Kael notices and comes closer but says nothing.
“You’ve completely lost your mind. Do you know what the packs are saying about you? That you laid with a cursed killer. That you’re a freak.”
“You’ve always called me that,” I murmur. “It’s nothing new.”
Celeste laughs—dry and cruel.
“Jasper never loved you, Selene. You were just what was left when he couldn’t have me. He still wants me. And I’ll use him however I please.”
“You’re delusional.”
“Oh yeah? Then tell me why he accepted my order to hunt down your precious monster.”
I swallow hard. Kael’s hand curls into a fist. He’s listening to everything.
“He’s going to kill your husband, Selene. Or maybe… you both.”
“You won’t destroy us,” I reply firmly. “Not anymore.”
“You still don’t know anything. Where you came from, who you really are… But you will. Soon. You’ll understand you were never one of us.”
The call drops.
The silence that follows is heavy.
Kael looks at me. His eyes are changing—darkening.
“Selene…” he starts, but we don’t have time.
I run to the window and see men running through the forest, shifting into wolves.
“Stay inside and don’t come out, do you understand?”
“I…”
“Let me handle this, Selene.”
I watch him run out the door.
I see when Kael leaps into the air and, for the first time, I see him in his wolf form—and it’s like nothing else.
Because of his ancient bloodline, he’s much bigger and stronger than all of them.
He becomes a massive dark-furred werewolf.
Kael tears them apart.
I watch. I witness. Not because I enjoy it—but because I understand. He’s fighting for us.
When he returns, I see blood dripping from his body, and his fists are still clenched.
I feel anger—toward Celeste and everything.
“She needs to get what she deserves.” I say, stepping out the door.
I hear Kael yelling my name over and over, but I don’t stop running.
The mansion where I grew up looks different.
I enter unnoticed, the hood covering my face. Shadows pass through the halls, too busy to notice who I am. But I go straight to what matters.
“Where is Celeste?” I ask a maid—my old nanny. She stares at me, pale, and points upstairs.
“She… left. But…”
I run. I climb the stairs like my life depends on it.
I enter Celeste’s room, and for a moment, everything seems untouched. But then I notice.
The scent.
Something’s wrong.
On the floor near the vanity, shattered glass. Bottles with dark liquid. I kneel.
One of the bottles has an ancient symbol—a disguise spell.
The other… sends a shiver down my spine.
A powerful poison, used by ancient witches to paralyze blood.
Celeste tried this before. She’s going to try again.
She went after Kael.
“No… No…” I whisper, standing so quickly I stumble.
I run. I fly down the stairs, ignoring the shouting behind me.
I burst out the mansion’s front door like the moon itself is pushing me forward.
It can’t be too late.
I get into one of the cars and drive as fast as I can.
I fight my transformation, feeling my sharp fangs inside my mouth.
Thinking of my sister trying to tear me down again makes all my self-control vanish.
It can’t be too late.
The sky is dark, covered in heavy clouds, as if the moon had purposely hidden to avoid witnessing what’s to come.
My chest burns. My werewolf side growls inside me. Celeste’s words, the poison, the bottles on the floor… everything points to the same thing.
She came to kill him.
And maybe worse.
The cabin appears between the trees like a beacon.
I run. My feet kick up mud and wet leaves. I burst through the door with a crash, my heart pounding so loud I can barely hear my own breath.
“CELESTE!”
No one answers.
I climb the wooden stairs and push the bedroom door open hard. It slams against the wall. My eyes take a second to process what I’m seeing.
Kael is on the bed. Naked. Motionless.
His chest rises slightly, but his eyes are closed. Kneeling over his body is Celeste.
She holds a curved dagger, black as night, above his chest.
“KAEL!”
My scream echoes off the walls.
She turns her face, surprised. But only for a moment.
“You’re too late, little sister.”
I lunge, but she tries to plunge the blade.
With a scream, I throw myself at her, grabbing her wrist at the last second. The dagger trembles in the air, stuck between us.
“You’re insane!” I yell, forcing her arm away.
“You don’t understand anything, as always!” Celeste spits.
“He’s already dying. I gave him the poison while he thought he was touching me. Want to know how he moaned my name while using me? It was so easy…”
My hand flies, and the slap I give her echoes sharply.
Celeste stumbles and falls back against the wall. I rush forward and straddle her, pressing the dagger now against her throat.
She laughs.
Even with blood dripping from her split lip.
“You think you’ve won, Selene? You’re so pathetic…”
“Stay away from him! If you touch him…”
“I did touch him. In every way possible.”
“SHUT. UP!”
I scream, my voice torn, filled with pain.
But Celeste is like poison that never stops dripping. With a swift motion, she pushes me off with her knees. I lose balance. The dagger slips from my hand and slides a few inches away.
She throws herself on me, eyes filled with animalistic fury.
“You are nothing!”
She tries to stab me. I grab her arm with all my strength. Our faces are inches apart, breaths hot and furious. The blade dances in the air, inches from my chest.
“You were never strong enough!” she screams.
The power of my werewolf blood pulses through my veins. With a roar, I flip our bodies and pin her beneath me. The blade is now in my hand.
She stops struggling.
She stares at me.
And then she says:
“You think you’re one of us?”
I freeze.
“You’ve always been a freak. Always. The Council never knew the truth because our mother lied. But me? I always knew. Want to know why you feel so attracted to that… thing?”
“Celeste… what are you saying?”
She smiles. That victorious, venomous smile.
The one she always wore when she knew she was about to destroy someone.
“Your precious monster didn’t tell you? He knew, Selene. From the beginning.”
“Tell me what?”
“You’re a bastard.”
I don’t understand. The word hangs in the air—strange, heavy.
“You’re not a true daughter of the Silver Moon pack. You never were. You’re like him. A freak. A Blackwood.”
My world spins.
“You’re lying.”
“I’m not. Your mother was a Blackwood. She fled, pregnant with you. Our father accepted you out of pity. Because she threatened to leave. But you were never one of us. You belong to the forgotten bloodline. The cursed bloodline.”
My hands tremble.
“No…”
“Yes. That’s why he wanted you. Because you’re like him. You were never chosen, Selene. Just used.”
I get up, stumbling.
The dagger falls from my hand. The metallic sound cuts through the silence.
Celeste watches me from the floor, her eyes filled with cruel satisfaction.
And I…
I don’t know who I am anymore.
Kael groans behind me, his body still limp.
But I can’t move.
Her words repeat in my head like an endless echo:
“You’re a Blackwood. Like him.”
“You’re a freak.”
“You were never one of us.”
- Writer
