Seraphina didn't cry. Not when they painted her feet with ash. Not when the villagers whispered behind cupped hands. And not even when they tied the moonstone necklace around her neck—the same one her mother wore the night she vanished. The Blood Moon hung heavy in the sky, casting a red glow over the forest where no one returned. The crowd gathered like every year, waiting to feed the ancient fear. Seraphina stepped forward, silent, calm, her white gown dragging across cracked stones. She heard them say she was cursed, a girl without parents, too quiet, too strange. But she didn't care. This moment, this night, felt like hers. When the High Priestess asked if she walked into the sacred woods willingly, she said yes without flinching. Even Alpha Kael Storm—the same one who'd rejected her three moons ago—watched her with a face he rarely showed: worry. She passed him without blinking. He'd called her weak. But tonight, Seraphina felt anything but.
The forest swallowed her whole, colder and darker than she imagined. But Seraphina didn't stop. She walked deeper, each step echoing with old stories. No wolves came. No gods. Just silence. Until it happened. A howl, deep and ancient, shook the ground beneath her. In a glowing clearing, a silver wolf—huge, glowing, eyes like twin moons—stood waiting. It didn't speak with words, but she heard it in her mind. You are not a sacrifice. You are an heir. The power rushed into her like fire and light, tearing through her bones, showing her visions she couldn't explain—a woman in armor, wolves bowing, blood on snow, a baby hidden in the dark. When it ended, Seraphina lay gasping, alone, but alive. Changed. She rose, trembling but stronger, her skin glowing faintly, her eyes no longer brown but silver. Something inside her had awakened. Something old. Something royal.
When she stepped out of the woods at dawn, the villagers screamed. The guards dropped their weapons. Seraphina stood tall, bare feet on bloodstained earth, her moonstone necklace glowing like fire. And there he was—Kael. The Alpha who said she was nothing. The man who turned away. Now he stared at her like she was a ghost. Or a goddess. But Seraphina didn't smile. She didn't speak. She just looked him in the eye, and something passed between them—something sharp, unfinished. She'd gone in as a girl they forgot. She returned as something else. But what had she become? And why did it feel like this was only the beginning