Prologue

The night smelled of betrayal.

Selene stood at the heart of the clearing, her breath ragged in the frozen air, her chest aching with every inhale. The cold gnawed at her exposed skin, but it was nothing compared to the searing pain burning through her chest. Around her, the pack stood in silence, their eyes turned away, their judgment like a heavy fog, suffocating her.

At the front of the group, Alpha Damien stood like a shadow carved from the darkness, his golden eyes distant and cold. Once, those eyes had been the ones she trusted, the ones she had looked to for strength. Now, they held nothing but disdain.

“You are no longer my mate,” Damien’s voice cut through the stillness, steady and unfeeling, as if the bond between them had never existed. “You are no longer part of this pack.”

His words were sharp, laced with finality, and they cut deeper than any claw could have. Selene’s heart thudded painfully in her chest, but she refused to flinch. She wouldn’t let him see her crumble. Not in front of them. Not in front of him.

Behind him, Lyra stepped forward, a sleek figure draped in the confidence of a woman who had taken everything Selene had held dear. The scent of another—the scent of Damien—clung to Lyra like a brand. It was unmistakable, the mark of a new bond already forming in the place of the one Selene had lost.

Selene’s fists clenched at her sides, nails digging into her palms until she felt the sting. “You’ll regret this,” she whispered, her voice hoarse but resolute. She had no strength left to carry out that promise, but she couldn’t leave it unspoken.

Damien didn’t even flinch. A smirk curled his lips, and he took a step back, as though her words were nothing more than a passing breeze. “Take her away,” he commanded.

Two warriors, silent and brutal, moved in. Their hands gripped her with a strength that matched the pain already radiating through her, dragging her through the dirt with no regard for her dignity. She didn’t fight them. What was the point? Her strength had already been drained by the betrayal that now pulsed through every fiber of her being.

Exile. Death. They were the same in the end.

As they hauled her past the boundaries of the pack’s land, the bond that had once tethered her to Damien snapped with a sickening finality. It was as though an invisible cord, woven through years of love and shared history, had been severed in one cruel, decisive moment. The agony that followed was a raw, ripping thing that tore through her chest, leaving her gasping for air.

They threw her into the woods like a discarded thing, her body sinking into the mud. The weight of rejection pressed down on her, an invisible force that squeezed the breath from her lungs.

The forest around her was silent, the trees towering like silent witnesses to her downfall. The moon above, a pale witness to the night’s cruel events, offered no solace. It was cold, distant, just like him.

For a long moment, Selene lay there, broken and empty. The world seemed to stretch around her, vast and uncaring. But she didn’t weep. No, not for him. Not for them. She was done crying for things she couldn’t control.

But then, deep in the shadows of the forest, something stirred. A presence, faint but undeniable, lingered just out of sight. Two eyes watched her from the darkness, unblinking, unwavering.

Selene didn’t know who it was. She didn’t care. Not yet. But she could feel them. Waiting. Watching.