Chapter 4

The heat clawed at my lungs before I even opened my eyes.

Smoke pressed down on me like a fist, curling into my throat with every breath.

I was on the floor, struggling to move. Wood cracked and splintered above me. Somewhere close, glass shattered. The scent of burnt fabric and scorched hair wrapped around me like a death shroud.

Was I dying?

My world was crumbling before me, burning in flames.

I tried to move but couldn’t. My leg felt twisted, and my dress was still smoldering. I patted it down with trembling hands, the pain biting deep.

I tried to whisper for help, but nothing came out. The smoke only sank deeper into my lungs.

I rolled to my side, coughing hard enough to taste blood. Firelight flickered just beyond the shelves, dancing across the store walls. My sister’s face flashed in my mind—her smile, the day she had saved me and burned in my place.

Now I knew how she must’ve felt.

I gritted my teeth and dragged myself forward. I had to live, I had to survive. Not for them—but for me. For everything they tried to strip from me.

A groan escaped my lips as I reached the back door and forced it open with a surge of strength I didn’t know I had. I tumbled out into the snow, smoke billowing behind me, flames roaring as the building collapsed inward.

The cold slapped me hard.

I rolled onto my back, coughing and shivering, my skin blistered and my eyes wet.

Footsteps crunched in the snow.

I blinked through the haze, and my heart froze again.

Nathan stood at the edge of the flames, his silhouette outlined by the inferno behind him. His expression wasn’t anger or regret.

It was relief.

He thought I’d died.

When our eyes met, he didn’t run. He didn’t speak. He simply turned and walked away.

********

I woke up hours later in the hospital. The painkillers dulled everything—everything except the memory.

“Who found me?” I croaked, my throat like sandpaper.

The nurse hesitated. “A guard, passing by. Said he saw the fire and pulled you out after you’d already dragged yourself into the snow.”

“Not Damien? Not Nathan?”

The nurse looked away.

“No one came,” she whispered.

No one came. Not even to check if I was alive.

A tear slipped from my eye. I had given too much to this family, and it was time to let go.

By morning, the rumors had spread faster than the flames.

“Luna Alice went mad and tried to burn down the memorial store.”

“Envy made her do it—she wanted to erase the memory of the real Luna.”

“She poisoned herself for sympathy.”

Every lie was worse than the last. I was labeled a psychopath, a jealous freak.

I sat on the bed, bandaged and bruised, listening through the window to the voices of the pack as they passed by.

“She’s not right in the head. She should’ve left long ago.”

“How can she even think of taking the position of her sister?”

Beta Zane visited briefly.

“They’ve called a council meeting,” he said quietly. “They want you stripped of your title and exiled. Damien pleaded that you still stay.”

I furrowed my brows, staring at him, confused. “Damien really did that? For me?”

Beta Zane raised his head and looked at me. “But on a condition.”

“And what’s that?”

“You apologize to Nathan and every member of the pack,” he replied.

I laughed, my voice dry and bitter. “Of course, he would say that.”

I turned my face sideways, my lips trembling as tears came rushing down. I shook my head, breathing in deeply. Then opened my eyes and shot Beta Zane a fierce look. “I want you to tell Damien and those shameless elders this: I will never beg them, even if it depends on my life.”

Beta Zane nodded and placed something on my lap before he left. A tiny, charred piece of green jade—what was left of my necklace.

I thought I had lost it in the fire. I held it tightly in my palm.

That night, I left the hospital. I couldn’t stand it anymore—the insults and rumors.

Luckily, I hadn’t sustained much injury from the fire, except for my left arm, which got burned and left a rough scar—a memory I would never forget.

I stood before the council.

They looked at me like a disease. Like a ghost they couldn’t wait to bury.

“We hereby declare that you, Alice Rivers, are unfit to remain Luna,” Elder Rider announced. “Effective immediately, you are banished from the Silverclaw Pack. If you return, it will be treated as an act of war.”

I nodded once.

I didn’t beg like they expected me to. Like I would have years ago.

I returned home to take my belongings. They were already thrown out. I stared down at them, then looked up at the room that belonged to the child I cherished for five years.

Nathan was staring down at me with disgust.

“Oh, you forgot this,” he said, and dropped the shoe directly on my head. He laughed heartily and shut the window forcefully at me.

Damien didn’t even come to see me—not that it mattered. He must be with his new lover now.

Days later, after I left, a messenger arrived at the packhouse, breathless and pale.

“The Red Fang Alpha,” he stammered. “He’s marching toward Silverclaw. Says he’s reclaiming what’s his.”

Damien frowned. “What does that mean?”

The messenger trembled. “He says… the Luna you cast out carried his bloodline.”

Chapter 5

I continued to walk deeper into the woods. The weight of betrayal clinging to my bones. The snow gnawed at my burns, red beneath the bandages. My breath fogged the air in front of me, shallow and ragged but I didn’t stop.

I couldn’t.

They had thrown me away. Branded me insane. Banished me like some rabid dog. And still, the thought that clung to my chest like a second heartbeat wasn’t hate.

It was grief.

Not for the title. Not even for Damien. But for the years I gave, for the child I raised and for the home that had never truly been mine.

A crunch of twigs behind me snapped my attention back to the present.

I spun, my heart leaping. There was nothing but shadows between the trees. But something or someone was following me. I could sense it. I quickened my pace.

By dusk, I reached the ravine. I knew this place. My mother and I had camped here once when we were being chased. There was a shallow cave tucked beneath the ridge. I collapsed inside it, shaking, finally letting myself exhale.

The last of the herbs Beta Zane gave me were gone. The pain flared with renewed fury. My vision blurred. I pressed a hand to my side and it was wet with blood.

Damn it.

The fire had seared deeper than I realized.

I should’ve rested and stitched the wound. But sleep pulled me under too fast. I had fallen before I even realized it and with it came the dreams. Not the soft kind, though.

These were full of smoke and screams and Damien saying, “You made him terrified. You should apologize.”

Of Nathan lighting the fire with a smile on his lips.

I woke with a scream caught in my throat and a blade at my neck.

“Move, and I slit your skin from throat to navel.”

The voice was low, cold, and unfamiliar. My eyes flew open to find a man crouched beside me, his dagger poised.

He was a rogue.

“Who are you?” I whispered.

He leaned closer. “The question is, who are you, pretty little burn victim, sleeping in a rogue territory with no fear?”

“I’m no threat,” I said quickly, my chest heaving.

His gaze narrowed. “You smell like Silverclaw.”

“I was banished.”

He smirked. “Of course you were. They always say that.”

“I was their Luna.”

That made him pause.

He pulled the blade away slightly but didn’t sheath it. “That’s a hell of a claim for someone bleeding out in my cave.”

“I didn’t come to claim anything,” I muttered. “I just needed shelter. You can have your cave.”

I tried to push myself up. The pain made my vision dim. I collapsed again, my teeth clenched.

The rogue sighed, swore under his breath, and sheathed the blade.

“You’re lucky I hate them too,” he muttered. “Stay. But if you bleed on my food, I’ll toss you to the wolves.”

I gave a dry laugh. “You think they haven’t already had their bite?”

********

By morning, my fever had spiked. The rogue, whose name, I learned, was Kael reluctantly helped clean my wounds. He wasn’t gentle, but he wasn’t cruel either.

“You shouldn’t be alive,” he said, wrapping a fresh bandage. “What did you do to get kicked out like that?”

“Nothing,” I whispered. “Except survive.”

Kael tilted his head, studying me. “That’s enough reason for some Alphas. Especially Damien.”

I looked up sharply. “You know him?”

Kael gave a bitter laugh. “Everyone knows the Silverclaw Alpha. Most of us have scars because of him.”

He turned away, his face unreadable. I decided not to press further, perhaps it was a memory I shouldn’t have reminded him of.

That night, the storm hit. Winds howled through the trees like mourning wolves. We huddled in the cave. Kael tossed me a thicker cloak from his pack and muttered, “Don’t die. I hate cleaning up corpses.”

I smiled faintly. “You’re very charming.”

“Don’t get used to it,” he growled.

*******

Three days passed.

My strength returned slowly. Kael taught me how to trap small game. I learned he once belonged to the Crimson Vale Pack—until Damien ordered them to surrender their borders, and Kael’s sister was killed in the raid.

I remembered the incident. It had caused a fight between Damien and my sister. But he promised to provide the affected with every means of living he once took from them.

I guess they were just empty promises.

I also shared what they did to me. Every bitter truth. Every betrayal.

He didn’t interrupt once.

But when I finished, his voice was low and fierce. “You shouldn’t be crawling away from that kind of injustice. You should be crawling back. With a blade.”

“I wish I could” I murmured.

Kael looked at me for a long time. “Do you want to?”

We both shared an eye contact for a while with no one saying anything.

******

On the fourth morning, Kael burst into the cave, his face pale.

“They’re coming.”

I sat upright, my heart pounding. “Who?”

He held up a scroll, sealed with the Red Fang crest.

“A scout just passed. Word’s spreading like wildfire: the Red Fang Alpha claims you're of his bloodline. Says the Silverclaw Pack banished royalty.”

I froze. “That can’t be true.”

Kael dropped the scroll in front of me.

“You better hope it isn't. Because the Red Fang is the largest pack.”

I stared at the scroll, my heart pounding.

My sister never told me much about our past. I had no father.

Just my mother—who died because of the same Red Fang Pack.

Chapter 6

I never wanted to be Luna.

Not truly.

Not the way my sister was—regal, commanding, effortlessly adored. Helena was everything I wasn’t. Tall, composed, a natural-born leader with the kind of voice that made wolves bow without a command. Me? I was content staying in the shadows, gathering herbs and healing wounded pups.

The night she chose to die for me, she didn’t hesitate.

“Go,” she’d said, as the building tore in different directions. “Don’t argue, Alice. Just go.” She pushed me out, knowing she would get stuck.

I remember the smoke curling through the roof, the sound of wood falling as the flames swallowed her. I remember when Beta Zane came to me—to take care of Nathan and take her place. I agreed to all of it because I owed her my life.

Then I became a body to warm Damien's bed.

A name to wear beside his at ceremonies.

A placeholder for a woman they all still mourned.

Even Nathan, fresh from the womb, seemed to sense it. He never cried for me. Only for her.

And I… I convinced myself love could be built with patience. That if I just tried harder, smiled wider, worked longer, they’d see me.

I was wrong.

*******

Kael handed me a steaming cup of tea laced with bitter herbs.

“You keep frowning in your sleep,” he muttered, sitting across the fire.

“Memories,” I whispered.

“Good ones?”

I laughed softly. “Are there any good ones for people like us?”

He said nothing.

“I once had a mate, like you.” He sniffed staring up. “It sounds crazy but she was also a rogue, not from my pack though. She was really tough.” He chuckled sadly.

“What happened to her?” I asked.

“She was killed,” he muttered and my heart dropped. I never expected him to share something so deep with me.

“I'm sorry.”

“Hey, don't give me that pitiful look.” He pointed and I smiled. “It's been five years already.”

No one said anything, the cave was silent except for the crackle of firewood and the distant howl of wind echoing through the trees.

“How long have you known about the Red Fang?” I asked.

Kael stretched his legs, his arms crossed behind his head. “Long enough to know they don’t make idle claims. If their Alpha says you’re of his bloodline, he believes it.”

I stared into the fire.

“My mother never mentioned anything. Where we came from, or about my father. I used to live in the woods with her—until the day I noticed strange visitors from the Red Fang pack. I had no idea what they wanted. But the moment they left, my mother told me we needed to go. She told me where my sister was, in case anything happened to her. I didn’t understand what she meant… not until she was killed by rogues, and I went to meet my sister at Silvercrest.”

Kael shook his head. “Wolves like you don’t come from nowhere.”

That thought clung to me the rest of the day.

I traced the broken jade in my palm, feeling its edges bite into my skin. My mother's last gift. The only piece of her I had left.

What had she been hiding?

What truths had she buried to keep me safe?

*******

That evening, Kael returned looking tense.

“They’ve crossed the mountain pass,” he said. “Red Fang warriors. They’re moving fast. They’ll reach Silverclaw in two days.”

My heart raced. “Are they planning war?”

“They’re planning something. No one knows why they’re moving, just that their Alpha keeps saying one thing—‘Bring her back.’”

Me.

They were coming for me.

But why now?

Why not when I was Luna—humiliated, ignored, scraping through every day with a smile that didn’t reach my eyes?

Kael saw the worried look on my face.

“You’re not safe here,” he said.

“I’m never safe anywhere,” I replied.

He dropped something on the table—a tattered map. “There’s an old neutral territory five miles east. Used to be a healer’s camp. It’s abandoned now. You can rest there.”

“You’re leaving me?”

“i can't come with you. I need to make sure they don't find you.”

I blinked. “You’d do that?”

Kael’s voice dropped, almost too soft to hear. “I’ve watched too many good wolves fall because they didn’t have someone to believe in them. You survived Silverclaw. You survived your own fire. That makes you worth protecting.”

Something twisted in my chest. I nodded with a fragile smile.

******

By morning, I was on the trail.

The path east was rough, tangled with roots and lined with wolf traps—most long disarmed. My limbs ached. My back screamed. But I moved, hour after hour, because resting meant remembering.

And remembering made me bleed in ways no wound ever had.

I reached the healer’s grounds by nightfall.

It was quiet. Covered in moss. The old tents were mostly torn, but a small wooden lodge remained. I pushed the door open. Dust scattered in the air. The silence inside was sacred.

I built a small fire. Spread Kael’s extra furs on the ground. Lay down and stared at the ceiling.

And that’s when I saw it.

Above me, burned faintly into the wood, was a crest.

A fang, wreathed in flame.

My pulse slowed… then quickened all at once.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the jade shard. Turned it over. On the back, scratched into the surface so faintly it was nearly invisible—was the same crest.

The Red Fang sigil, etched into the last thing my mother had ever given me.

Just as I walked forward, my leg hit something, making me stumble. I looked down to see a letter hidden beneath the floorboards. Old, yellowed, sealed with dried wax.

I picked it up and stared at it, my hands trembling.

My name was written on it. It was my mother's handwriting.