A dark-haired boy drags me toward the hidden door, my feet stumbling as we flee. Tears stream down my face, blurring my vision until we reach the light at the tunnel's end. Then—stillness. The scene dissolves, and I find myself standing in a meadow of wildflowers, their petals dancing in a gentle breeze that lifts strands of my hair. Nothing looks familiar. "Jade?" I call to my wolf spirit, but silence answers.

A woman approaches through the tall grass, her red hair catching the sunlight. Something about her calms me, as if we've met before. When she draws near, I gasp—her eyes mirror my own. My voice trembles as I ask who she is, though deep down, I already know. Her arms encircle me, warm and secure. "You know who I am," she whispers. The dam breaks, and I collapse against her, sobbing. After all these years, my mother.

"My dear child," she says, her voice like wind through autumn leaves. "Those tingles in your arms? That was me, hugging you from afar." Her fingers brush my cheek. "Raven raised you well. You've become everything I hoped." Her expression darkens. "Listen carefully, I have little time. Your Lycan blood makes you powerful, but your hybrid nature makes people fear you. Guard your secret, even from friends. People fear what they don't understand." She presses something cold into my palm, closing my fingers around it. "Follow your heart to your destiny. We are so proud." Her form begins to fade. "I'm always with you." I jolted awake in my bed, tears streaming down my face. My pillow is damp. Though just a dream, her embrace felt real—like coming home after years of wandering.

Dragging myself from bed, I fill the tub and sink beneath the water's embrace, letting steam curl around my face until the heat dissipates. After washing, I wrap a towel around myself and pad back to my room. I run a brush through my damp hair, pull on leggings and a tank top, and secure my hair in a high ponytail. The garden calls to me a perfect spot for morning yoga and meditation. I tuck Raven's spell book under my arm before heading outside, eager to explore the magical knowledge she's gifted me.

Flipping through the pages, I discover spells contributed by various coven members handwriting I recognize, rituals passed down through generations. This isn't just Raven's gift; it's a piece of everyone who shaped me. Some incantations I've never encountered before, ancient words promising power I've yet to understand. I trace my fingers over the symbols, but restlessness builds in my chest. Yoga suddenly feels too stationary. Jade, sensing my mood, stirs within me my wolf spirit circling eagerly, practically panting at the thought of running wild.

After returning everything to the cottage, I check the time. Dawn has barely broken, and Christa won't wake for a few more hours. I scribble a quick note and slip outside. The transformation comes easily now; I surrender control to Jade, becoming passenger in my own body as we sprint through the forest. Nothing compares to this freedom—wind rushing through my fur, earth yielding beneath powerful paws.

"Faster," I urge Jade, feeling her powerful muscles move beneath me as she launches over boulders and weaves between ancient pines. The forest blurs around us, and exhilaration floods through our shared consciousness.

"This freedom," Jade's voice ripples through my mind, "this is what we needed. Each trail we discover makes this territory more ours." Mid-stride, Jade suddenly stiffens, her pace faltering.

"What's wrong?" I ask. "Rogues," she replies, her mental voice tense. "Their scent carries from the east. We should investigate."

I agree but suggest caution. Jade dips her massive body into a muddy hollow, coating our scent before we slink through shadows toward the source. What we discover surprises me not scattered loners but an organized settlement. Rogues living communally? Before I can process this revelation, Jade's alarm spikes through me. "We've lingered too long," she warns, pivoting sharply. "Run!"

My lungs burn after what feels like hours of running. Jade finally slows, stopping beside an ancient oak. "I need to rest," she pants in my mind. "Can you make it back to the cottage on foot?"

"Go ahead," I tell her. "Rest." As her presence retreats to the depths of my consciousness, I scan the forest floor for anything to cover myself. Behind a fallen log, I discover a large shirt probably left by hikers, it falls almost to my knees. Just as I pull it over my head, a harsh voice cuts through the silence.

"Stop right there!"

Two men and two wolves charge toward me through the underbrush. Panic floods my system. I bolt, searching desperately for familiar landmarks, when something slams into my side. The impact sends me sprawling, knocking the breath from my lungs. Rough hands seize my shoulders, yanking me upright.

"Who are you?" a man snarls, his face inches from mine. "Why did you come here?" I try to speak but my throat constricts, dry as sand. His face looms closer, veins bulging at his temples as he demands answers. "J-Jadon," I finally choked out, the syllables catching like thorns. "I got separated from my path." "Sure, you did," he sneered, "we hear that excuse all the time. So, I'll ask once more why are you really here?" I open my mouth to insist it's the truth, but he cuts me off with a sharp gesture. "Lies," he hisses through clenched teeth. Before I can defend myself, something hard collides with my temple. Pain explodes behind my eyes, then darkness swallows everything.

I hear Heavy footsteps echo in the darkness. My fingers instinctively touch the bracelet still circling my wrist, and relief washes through me at least my Lycan nature remains concealed. A shadow stretches across the floor, growing larger as someone approaches. I retreat until my back meets a cold wall. With trembling hands, I attempt to summon a protective shield, muttering the incantation under my breath. Nothing. I try again, focusing harder, but the magic refuses to materialize. Panic rises in my chest like floodwater. "Jade?" I call silently to my wolf spirit. The absence of her familiar presence leaves a hollow emptiness where her strength should be.

The footsteps halt. I raise my head to see a hulking figure silhouetted against the dim light; it’s a man with a jagged scar bisecting his face from forehead to jaw. "Let me go!" I demand my voice echoing off the stone walls. His laughter comes low and cruel. "Finally awake, I see." Metal scrapes against stone as he unlocks the cell door. I retreat until my back meets the cold wall behind me. He crosses the distance in two strides, his hand connecting with my cheek in a stinging blow that snaps my head sideways. "This is what happens to rogues who cross our border," he growls. Before I can recover, his fist drives into my stomach. Air rushes from my lungs as I double over, clutching my knees, struggling to breathe through the pain.

A metal bowl scrapes across the stone floor toward me. The stench of spoiled meat rises from the gray slop inside. "Eat," he says, lips curling into a smirk. "Your daily feast." I meet his eyes, grab the bowl, and hurl its contents directly at his face. The rancid liquid drips down his cheeks, his expression hardening as crimson floods his features. "You'll regret that," he snarls, advancing. When he's close enough, I drive my foot upward between his legs. His knees buckle instantly. I dart past him toward the open cell door and take the stairs two at a time, heart hammering against my ribs—until I collide with a solid chest. Another guard.

The narrow stairwell offers no escape route. Before I can react, massive hands clamp around my waist, and suddenly I'm upside-down, blood rushing to my head as he carries me back down. My skull connects with the rough stone wall once, twice, three times. Back at the cell, my captor pauses, taking in the sight of his colleague still curled on the ground, whimpering.

The guard tosses me onto the straw pile, then extends his hand to his fallen comrade. As the injured guard staggers to his feet and approaches, I notice his eyes black as moonless midnight. A boot connects with my ribs, the crack reverberating through my body before fingers tangle in my hair, yanking me upright. The sting of his palm across my face is followed by his scream: "You're dead!" The other guard intervenes, restraining him. "You can't kill her before the Beta and Alpha question her."

The scarred guard approaches, brandishing a syringe. Before I can twist away, the needle plunges into my neck. My legs buckle beneath me as the stone floor rushes up to meet my face. Through blurring vision, I manage to rasp, "What did you do to me?" His laughter echoes against the cell walls. "A little nightshade and silver to keep you docile," he sneers as darkness swallows me whole.

I awaken to silence, with no sense of how much time has passed. The cell stands empty save for me. "Jade?" I whisper into the void of my mind, met only with hollow silence. My wolf spirit's absence carves a pit in my stomach. Tears spill down my cheeks as I curl into myself. "Moon Goddess," I plead, "why have you forsaken me?" The sound of approaching footsteps interrupts my prayer, they are lighter, more cautious than the heavy tread of guards.

A shadow moves at the cell entrance a hooded figure beckoning with slender fingers. My legs wobble as I approach the bars. She passes a water bottle and protein bar through the narrow gap, her eyes darting nervously toward the stairwell.

"Why help?" I whisper. She offers no answer, only a fleeting smile and what appears to be a folded burlap sack. When I shake it open, I realize it's a crude dress. The stone floor has leached all warmth from my bare feet, so I pull it over my head immediately.

"Keep your strength," she murmurs before vanishing up the stairs. I examine the water bottle with suspicion, breaking the seal and allowing just enough to wet my cracked lips. When no dizziness follows, I gulp desperately, then devour the protein bar in three bites. Curling onto the straw pile, I force my eyes closed against the chill.

I wake to throbbing temples and limbs that feel encased in concrete. My eyelids flutter against crusted blood before finally parting. This isn't my cell. Rusty stains splatter the walls of this new chamber—arterial patterns telling stories of previous occupants. The metallic reek of old blood mingles with the unmistakable sweetness of decay. Overhead, a single bulb flickers, casting monstrous shapes across the instruments arranged on the far table.

My head lolls upward, revealing my predicament—suspended from the ceiling by thick chains, silver cuffs biting into my wrists. Each breath sends shards of pain through my side where at least one rib must be fractured. A gravelly voice breaks the silence: "Finally awake." A massive figure emerges from the shadows, a leather whip coiled in his grip. Moonlight catches the jagged scar running down his arm and illuminates the mangled right hand with its missing fingers. Before I can speak, he circles behind me. The whistle of the whip splits the air a heartbeat before its metal-tipped lash tears into my back. Warm blood trickles down my spine as I bite back a scream.

Smoke rises from my seared skin, churning my stomach as the lash tears into me again and again. Blood cascades down my spine in warm streams. He circles to face me, lips curled in satisfaction. "Stupid rogue," he spits, driving his fist into my abdomen. "Did you think we'd welcome you across our border? That your pretty face would help you get our secrets?"

His fist connects with my jaw before I can speak, sending a spray of copper-tasting blood across my tongue. I spit a crimson stream onto the floor. "I only came to see your Alpha," I manage through swollen lips. Another blow rocks my head sideways. "As if our Alpha would waste time on a rogue," he sneers, leaning close enough for his breath to warm my cheek. "Even one as pretty as you. Our Beta is coming I've already mind-linked him. Trust me, his methods make mine look merciful." I clench my teeth against the tears threatening to spill as the whip cracks against my legs, slicing through fabric and flesh.

A scream tears from my throat, raw and primal. The room tilts sideways as black spots dance across my vision. Fire races through every nerve ending in my body when his palm cracks across my cheek. Something sharp pierces my neck, and the world begins to dissolve around me, darkness swallowing everything whole. Muffled voices drift through the haze, distant beyond a door I can no longer see. My swollen eyelids refuse to open despite my desperate commands. The hinges creak, footsteps approach. Each shallow breath sends lightning through my shattered ribs. My flesh still smolders where silver touched it. Death hovers, patient and inevitable, waiting for the last of my blood to drain away.

The chains holding me slacken. Cold metal slides from my raw wrists. I strained against the darkness, but my eyes remained shut. Something shifts, my body feels weightless now, cradled against warmth. A voice cuts through the fog, deep and gentle: "I've got you. You're safe now. I'm so sorry this happened."