Chapter 5

Elara Thorne POV:

The warriors dragged me from the square and back through the packhouse, their grips unforgiving. They didn't speak, their faces grim and set. They half-pushed, half-threw me into my room, the same room I had locked myself in just hours before.

"You have one hour," one of them grunted, his voice rough. "Then the transport leaves."

He slammed the door shut, and I heard the heavy bolt slide into place from the outside. I was a prisoner once more.

For a moment, I just stood there in the center of the small, familiar space. The silence was a stark contrast to the chaos in the square. My public declaration, my vow of vengeance, echoed in my mind. It had been an act of pure, desperate instinct. Now, in the quiet, the reality of my situation crashed down on me.

I was being sent to die.

My knees felt weak, and I sank onto the edge of my lumpy mattress. My gaze fell on the small, cluttered nightstand. There, amidst a few worn books, sat a small wooden wolf.

I picked it up, its familiar weight settling in my palm. I had carved it myself when I was ten, sitting under the great oak by the river. While other children were learning to connect with their inner wolves, I was trying to create one from a block of wood. The carving was clumsy, the lines uneven, but I had poured all my childish longing into it. It was my only companion on nights when the loneliness felt like a physical weight.

I traced the rough-hewn ears with my thumb. A wave of self-pity, hot and sharp, threatened to overwhelm me. I could curl up on this bed and cry. I could scream and beat my fists against the locked door. I could give in to the despair that clawed at the edges of my mind.

That's what they expected. That's what Seraphina would do, if our roles were reversed. She would weep and rage and wait for a savior.

But no one was coming to save me.

The thought was not terrifying. It was liberating. For the first time in my life, I was completely and utterly on my own. My survival depended on me, and me alone.

I stood up, my movements now filled with a calm, cold purpose. I placed the wooden wolf gently back on the nightstand, then turned to my meager wardrobe. A few faded tunics, a pair of patched trousers, one threadbare cloak. I ignored the impulse to choose something to be buried in. Instead, I chose the sturdiest trousers, the warmest tunic, and my most well-worn boots. I was dressing for a journey, not a funeral.

Next, I knelt by my bed and slid my hand under the mattress. My fingers closed around the cool, hard handle of a small, sharp knife. I'd stolen it from the kitchens years ago, after a pack member had gotten drunk and cornered me in a hallway. It had lived under my mattress ever since, a secret security blanket. I strapped the leather sheath to my calf, pulling the leg of my trousers down to conceal it. The slight weight against my skin was reassuring.

I found a small canvas satchel in the bottom of my wardrobe and began to pack. I was ruthlessly efficient. A small pouch of dried meat and hard bread I'd squirreled away. A full waterskin from under my bed. A tinderbox. And, after a moment's hesitation, the small wooden wolf. I wrapped it in a spare piece of cloth and tucked it into the bottom of the bag.

My eyes fell on my small writing desk. On it sat a single, framed photograph. It was the last family picture we had ever taken, years ago. Alaric and my mother stood in the center, Seraphina beaming at their side. I was on the very edge of the frame, a small, shy girl with downcast eyes, looking like I was about to be pushed out of the picture entirely.

I picked up the frame, my thumb brushing over the glass that covered my mother's smiling face. For a moment, a memory surfaced-her hand in mine, the scent of lavender and sunshine, a feeling of safety that had been gone for so long.

A single tear traced a path through the dust on the glass.

Then, with a deliberate, steady hand, I turned the photograph face down on the desk. That family was a lie. That home was a prison. I would not carry their ghosts with me to my grave.

I walked to the window and looked out. Below, in the training yard, warriors were sparring, their movements fluid and powerful. I could see the faint shimmer of their inner wolves guiding their limbs. For my entire life, I had watched them from this window, a spectator to a world I could never truly join. I remembered once, as a child, trying to mimic their training exercises. I'd tripped and fallen, scraping my knees and hands raw. My father hadn't comforted me. He had berated me for trying to be something I wasn't. "A wolfless girl has no place on the training ground," he had said, his voice laced with disgust.

The memory didn't hurt anymore. It was just a fact. A piece of data. Weakness was a sin in their world. My very existence was an insult.

Fine.

I would learn to make my weakness a weapon. I would use the mind they had all dismissed to survive where their strength would fail.

"Live, Elara," I whispered to my reflection in the dusty glass. My pale green eyes stared back, no longer haunted, but sharp and focused. They looked like chips of ice, like a winter sky before a storm. "Whatever it takes. Live."

The heavy bolt on the door scraped open. "Time's up."

I took a deep breath, slung the satchel over my shoulder, and turned to face the door. I gave the room one last, fleeting glance. Eighteen years of quiet misery were contained within these four walls.

I felt no nostalgia. No regret.

I walked out of the room without looking back and into the long hallway. The warrior waiting for me took an involuntary step back, his eyes widening slightly at my calm, composed expression. He had expected tears. He had expected a broken girl.

He did not get what he expected.

I walked past him, my steps even and measured. The light from the packhouse entrance beckoned at the end of the corridor. It was the light of my execution, the light of my exile.

It was the light of my new beginning.

I did not turn back. Not even once.