CHAPTER 4

The scent of blood lingered in the air as I stepped into the clearing. The remnants of a battle stretched before me—wounded wolves staggering to their feet, the earth stained with the evidence of their struggle. My eyes swept over them, dismissing their injuries as trivial. They weren’t my concern. Her scent hit me next. It was faint, hidden beneath the metallic tang of blood and the dampness of the forest floor, but it was unmistakable.

Selene.

I followed the pull of it, cutting through the stunned silence of the wolves around me. They froze at my approach, their eyes wide with a mixture of fear and disbelief. Good. They remembered me, even after all these years. When my gaze landed on her, I stopped. She was kneeling beside a wolf—no, a man, his body shifting back as his wounds healed unnaturally fast. Her hands hovered over him, her expression one of pure confusion. She didn’t understand what she had done. But I did.“Selene,” I said, my voice slicing through the quiet. Her head snapped up, her wide eyes locking onto mine. The recognition wasn’t there, not yet, but something flickered in her gaze—something buried deep, a fragment of the woman she used to be.

“I’m not Selene,” she said, her voice shaking but firm. “You’ve got the wrong person.”I strode closer, the weight of my presence enough to make the other wolves shrink back. “You can deny it all you want, but I know who you are. You can’t run from it.”Her lips parted, but no words came out. She stood slowly, her hands clenched at her sides. There was fear in her posture, but there was also defiance. That spark of fire was something no one could take from her—not even me.“I don’t know who you think you are,” she said finally, lifting her chin, “but you can’t just walk in here and—”“Enough.” My tone was sharp, cutting her off. “You don’t know what you’ve done, do you?”Her brows furrowed, confusion flashing across her face. “What are you talking about?”I glanced at the man she had just healed, still dazed but alive. “Your blood,” I said, stepping closer. “It healed him. That isn’t normal.”She flinched, her eyes darting to the man before snapping back to me. “It was an accident.”

“There are no accidents, Selene,” I said, my voice softening just slightly. “This is who you are. Who you’ve always been.”“I’m not Selene,” she insisted, her voice rising. “I don’t even know who that is!”“You will.”Before she could respond, a low growl rumbled behind me. I didn’t bother turning to look.“Who the hell are you?”The voice belonged to a man, his tone filled with anger and authority. The acting Alpha.“I don’t answer to you,” I said without looking back.“You’re on my territory,” he snapped. “You will answer, or you’ll leave in pieces.”

I finally turned, my gaze locking on him. He was big, his muscles coiled with tension, his stance challenging. But I saw through it. He was young, inexperienced. Unworthy.“This isn’t your territory,” I said, my voice steady. “It’s mine. It always has been.”The murmur of the pack grew louder, uncertainty rippling through them.The acting Alpha’s lips curled back in a snarl. “You left. You abandoned us.”“And yet I’m still the Alpha,” I said, taking a step forward. “You think you can challenge that?”He didn’t hesitate, shifting into his wolf form in an instant. His claws tore into the ground as he lunged at me, his teeth bared.Foolish.

I sidestepped his attack effortlessly, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck and slamming him into the ground. The impact reverberated through the clearing, silencing the murmurs of the pack.He growled, thrashing beneath me, but I didn’t let him up. I pressed my weight into him, my claws digging into his flesh just enough to make my point clear.“You don't stand a chance,” I said coldly. “Yield.”His growls turned to whimpers, and I released him, stepping back as he shifted back into his human form.The pack stared, their eyes bouncing between me and the defeated Alpha. They knew what this meant. They understood the hierarchy.I turned back to her—Selene, Alice, whatever name she wanted to go by. She was staring at me, her defiance still there but now tempered by something else.“You have questions,” I said, my voice softer now. “And I have answers. But not here.”Her lips parted as if to argue, but the words never came.Before I could say more, a roar shattered the silence.

A man emerged from the shadows, his presence as commanding as my own. He was tall, his features sharp, his eyes burning with anger as they locked onto her.“Alice,” he said, his voice filled with a possessive intensity.I stepped in front of her instinctively, my body blocking his view. “Who are you?”“I’m Darius Storm,” he said, his tone dripping with authority. “And she’s my mate.”The words hit like a thunderclap, the weight of them settling over the clearing.“No,” I said, my voice low and dangerous. “She’s not.”Darius’s eyes narrowed, his hands clenching into fists. “You don’t get to decide that. The bond is already there. She’s mine.”I felt her step closer behind me, her presence a steadying force against the clash that was bound to happen.“She doesn’t belong to anyone,” I said, my voice like steel. “Least of all you.”The tension between us crackled, thick and suffocating. The pack watched, their breaths held, their gazes darting between us.Darius took a step forward, his eyes blazing. “If you think I’ll let you take her, you’re mistaken.”I matched his step, my claws extending as the wolf within me stirred. “And if you think I’ll let you claim what isn’t yours, you’re a fool.”The clearing seemed to shrink around us, the air charged with the promise of violence.

And then she spoke, her voice cutting through the tension.“Stop.”We both turned to her, our gazes locking onto her like magnets.“I’m not a prize to be fought over,” she said, her voice trembling but firm.Her words should have been enough to stop me. They weren’t.Darius growled low in his throat. “You don’t understand, Alice. The bond—”“Don’t talk to her,” I snapped, my voice rising.He didn’t back down.The fight was inevitable.The moment stretched, a fragile thread ready to snap.And then it did.