MARKED BY THE ALPHA'S HATE

Selene didn't breathe.

The woman stood still across the stream, the crimson of her cloak bleeding into the dusk. She wasn't quite real something about her shimmered, as if the light bent differently around her. But her presence was undeniable.

"My mother never mentioned a sister," Selene said, her voice hoarse.

"No," the woman replied. She wouldn't have. Because I was the mistake. The one she was told to forget.

The air between them grew colder.

Selene swallowed. "What do you want from me?"

The woman stepped forward, boots silent against the moss. "To show you the truth. Before they twist it."

"You're lying. You could be one of them Victor's witches, a seer, a shifter wearing her face."

"Then test me." Her silver eyes glinted. "Ask me something only a Moonblood would know."

Selene hesitated, then spoke the first thing that came to her. "What's the name of the flower my mother wore when she ran?"

The woman's expression softened. Lunaris. A silver bloom that only opens under the Red Moon. It dies the moment it's plucked. She tucked it into your blanket the night she gave it to your father's kin.

Selene's lips parted.

She remembered it.

The dream she kept having the soft white petals pressed against her cheek, the scent of something ancient and sad.

The woman came closer now, careful and slow.

"They took everything from us, Selene. The Council. The packs. Even the witches. When your mother refused to kill you, they called her a traitor. And when she hid you… They hunted her down."

Selene's chest tightened. She's dead.

She's not, the woman whispered. Not completely. Her blood lives in you. And her voice is still waiting to be heard.

Selene looked away, grounding herself in the feel of her boots on the wet grass. The sound of water rushing behind her. The distant howls meant they were running out of time.

I don't know who to believe anymore, she admitted. Everyone wants something from me.

I don't want anything, the woman said. I came because you were ready to hear what they buried."

Selene turned back. Then speak. Quickly.

The woman reached into her cloak and pulled out a silver locket, the edges stained with dried blood.

This was your mother's. Inside is her seal the crest of the Red Moon, etched with her spell of protection. She bound it to you the day you were born."

Selene opened it. Inside was a small, circular shard of bone, carved with an ancient symbol a crescent pierced by three lines. The moment she touched it, a warmth spread through her palm. Then a voice her mother's soft, cracked with sorrow:

"Forgive me. If you are hearing this, I have failed. But you live. And that means hope is still possible."

The locket snapped shut in her trembling hand.

Selene looked up but the woman was already walking away.

Wait—where are you going?

I can't stay. The Blackfangs are near, and I've broken the law just by standing here."

Then help me fight..

I already have, the woman said, vanishing between the trees. Now find the witch. She'll show you what comes next.

Elsewhere…

The wolf moved like smoke.

Darius cut through the forest, senses sharpened to a razor's edge. He had Selene's scent now washed faintly with river water, tangled with moonroot. She was near. And so was something else. Something older than him. Hungrier.

He slowed as he reached a ridge. Below was the stream. And across it, he saw an imprint in the moss. A woman's boot. The scent was faint but distinct. Red moon magic.

His claws flexed.

Then, a whisper from behind: "You're late."

Darius spun, shifting halfway back into his human form. "Talon."

Talon leaned against a tree, arms crossed. "You're getting sloppy."

"Why are you here?"

"To help. Obviously." His grin didn't reach his eyes. Victor wants her caught alive now. Says she's "valuable."

She always was.

Talon raised an eyebrow. Even when you were supposed to kill her?

Darius didn't respond.

Talon walked past him, looking down toward the river. "You know, I always wondered what would break you. Turns out it's a girl."

Darius's voice dropped. "Leave."

Oh, I will. But before I go there's something you should know. He tossed a small, bloodstained cloth onto the grass.

Darius picked it up. Recognition struck like lightning. Neris's shawl.

She's been taken, Talon said. Or killed. Either way, your witch guide is out of the picture."

Darius's heart pounded. By who?

Not Blackfangs. Something… older. We don't know. But if she's gone, Selene's alone.

Talon leaned closer, voice low. "And she's beginning to remember things she shouldn't."

At the Vault...

Victor stood before a massive black mirror, its surface rippling with unnatural reflections.

Beside him, two of the last surviving elders knelt, hands bound, eyes swollen.

This is the price of silence, Victor said calmly. "You had years to prepare her. You failed."

One elder dared to speak. "She wasn't ready. We were protecting...."

Victor plunged a blade into his throat.

The second elder flinched but didn't move.

Victor wiped the blade clean. "She's awakening now. She's met the girl in the cave. She carries the mark. It's all happening too fast."

Behind him, the mirror flickered then showed a flash of Selene standing at the stream, holding the locket.

Victor's smile faded.

"Call the Oracle Circle," he ordered. "And tell the Blackfangs: if they find her, they bring her to me. Alive."

And if Darius gets to her first? A guard asked.

Victor stared into the mirror.

"Then kill him."

In the forest, under moonlight…

Selene ran again this time with purpose. Neris was gone. The crimson woman had vanished. But something in her had changed. The locket pulsed gently against her chest, and with it, so did the fragments of her mother's voice.

Her instincts weren't just instincts anymore. They were memories waiting to wake.

She stopped in a clearing cold and open to the stars.

And then she felt it.

A hum beneath the earth.

She dropped to her knees and placed her hand against the soil.

A whisper echoed up through her bones: This is where she fell.

She saw it...her mother, bleeding into the earth, hands outstretched, shielding a baby wrapped in mooncloth. Elders screaming. Blood magic is tearing the ground apart.

Selene gasped and fell back, shaking.

This was the place they buried her past.

And someone had been watching it ever since.

A shadow moved in the trees.

She scrambled up, claws extending.

Who's there?

No answer.

Then a figure stepped forward a boy. Young, maybe fifteen, with pale skin and silver eyes.

"You're her," he said softly.

Selene narrowed her eyes. Who are you?

Watcher, he said. That's all we're called. We guard the bloodlines. We wait.

For what?

For the moment you choose.

"Choose what?"

"To burn it all down… or rebuild it."

He stepped back into the dark and disappeared, leaving only one word behind:

"Soon."