Chapter 3: Flight into Shadow

Numbness was a cold shroud settling over the burning agony of rejection. Hands, rough and unsympathetic, hauled me from the Great Hall. No one met my eyes. Former packmates, wolves I’d known my whole life, averted their gazes as if looking at me might invite the Alpha King’s wrath, or worse, contaminate them with my weakness. I saw Kael, the sturdy Beta warrior who’d occasionally offered a gruff word of kindness, standing near the edge of the crowd, his face tight with conflict, but he did nothing. He couldn’t. To defy the Alpha King, especially over a rejected Omega, was unthinkable.

Valerie watched me being dragged away, a triumphant smirk playing on her lips. "Enjoy the wilderness, runt," she hissed, loud enough for those nearby to hear. "Try not to get eaten before morning."

I was thrown out of the back gate, the heavy wooden barrier slamming shut behind me with a thud that echoed the closing of my entire world. The guards posted there looked through me, their faces grim stone. Banished. The word clawed at my throat.

Shaking, driven by a primal need to simply move, I stumbled towards the dilapidated Omega quarters. No one stopped me; no one cared. I grabbed the thin, threadbare blanket from my cot and stuffed the only other possession I valued – a small, smooth river stone my mother had given me before she died – into the pocket of my tunic. It was pitifully little to face the world with.

Under the cold light of the near-full moon, the one that should have blessed my Mating, I fled the Silver Moon pack lands. Every snap of a twig, every rustle of leaves in the biting wind, sent jolts of terror through me. The forest, usually a place of muted familiarity on the edges of our territory, transformed into a menacing labyrinth the moment I crossed the invisible boundary marker. I was no longer under pack protection. I was prey.

Tears streamed unchecked now, freezing on my cheeks. The pain of Rhys’s rejection was a physical ache, a hollow wound in my chest that pulsed with every beat of my terrified heart. Mate. The word was a mockery. He’d looked at me, seen the bond the Goddess forged between us, and declared me unworthy. Too weak. His voice echoed in my mind, each syllable a fresh lash of pain.

Hours passed. I pushed myself onward, driven by fear, putting as much distance as possible between myself and the only home I’d ever known. Hunger gnawed at my belly, and exhaustion pulled at my limbs, but the adrenaline of terror kept me moving. The trees grew denser, the shadows deeper. Strange sounds echoed – the screech of an owl, the distant howl of something wild and unknown, sounds I’d never heard within the relative safety of the pack borders.

Just as the first hint of dawn began to grey the eastern sky, painting the edges of the canopy in pale violet, I heard it. A low growl, different from the sounds of the forest. It was guttural, predatory. My blood ran cold. I froze, straining my ears. Another growl answered it, closer this time.

Rogues.

Cast out from packs, often violent and unpredictable, they were the bogeymen used to frighten pups. And I was a lone Omega, trespassing in unmarked territory. Easy target.

Panic seized me. I broke into a run, stumbling over roots, branches tearing at my thin tunic. Behind me, heavy paws pounded the earth, gaining fast. A snarling shape burst through the undergrowth to my left, cutting me off – a large, mangy wolf with matted fur and crazed yellow eyes. Another appeared behind me. They circled, low growls rumbling in their chests, saliva dripping from bared fangs. Trapped.

Despair washed over me. This was it. Valerie’s cruel wish come true. Eaten before morning. Tears blurred my vision again, but this time, something else mixed with the despair – a spark of fury. Fury at Rhys, at Valerie, at the pack that discarded me, at these beasts who saw me only as meat. No.

As the lead rogue lunged, jaws snapping shut inches from my face, something inside me snapped. It wasn't a conscious thought, not a decision. It was pure, primal instinct erupting from the depths of my being. The shadows around me seemed to deepen, coalescing, rushing towards me not as darkness, but as… power. A cold, electric energy surged through my veins, utterly alien.

I threw my hands up defensively, a choked scream tearing from my throat. The shadows obeyed. They leaped from the trees, from the ground beneath my feet, forming tendrils of tangible darkness that lashed out like whips. One struck the lead rogue across the muzzle, sending it yelping back with a surprised snarl. Another tendril wrapped around the second rogue’s leg, throwing it off balance.

I stared, bewildered, at my own hands. They felt numb, cold, yet thrumming with this strange, dark energy. The rogues hesitated, confused and wary, their predatory certainty replaced by uncertainty. They’d cornered a sheep and found something else entirely.

Taking advantage of their hesitation, fueled by a surge of adrenaline and this bizarre power, I wasn't weak anymore. I moved with a speed I shouldn't possess, ducking under a renewed lunge, the shadows swirling defensively around me, obscuring me, making me a harder target. I didn't know how I was doing it; my body, my instincts, the very darkness of the forest seemed to be responding to my terror and rage. I lashed out again, not with claws or teeth I barely knew how to use effectively, but with these extensions of night itself.

The fight – if it could be called that – was short, chaotic, and terrifying. The rogues, unnerved by something they didn’t understand, finally broke off, snarling and snapping, before melting back into the undergrowth, leaving me alone.

Silence descended, heavy and ringing. The shadows receded, leaving me gasping, trembling violently. The strange energy drained away as quickly as it had come, leaving behind an exhaustion so profound my knees buckled. I collapsed onto the cold, damp earth, my body bruised, my tunic torn, my mind reeling.

I looked at my hands. They were just hands again – scratched, dirty, trembling. But moments ago… they had commanded shadows. They had driven off two rogue wolves. What was that? What was happening to me?

Alive. I was alive. But utterly alone, exiled, and possessed by a power I didn't understand, a power that felt both strangely familiar and terrifyingly forbidden. I lay there, curled on the forest floor, the rising sun filtering weakly through the canopy, illuminating nothing but my own confusion and the uncertain path stretching before me.