Chapter 2 INTO THE UNKNOWN

The wind was cruel outside the pack's border It bit at Aria's skin, sliding through the thin sweater she had managed to throw on in her haste. The towering trees of the forest loomed above her, their branches whispering secrets to the sky. She hadn't looked back-not once-as she crossed the invisible boundary that separated the Moonstone Pack from the wild unknown.

She didn't need to stay back

There was nothing left for her there.

Her heart beat painfully in her chest, each step forward feeling like she was dragging her shattered soul along with her. Her wolf was quiet-too quiet-as if mourning the bond that had never fully formed. Damon's rejection had torn a hole so deep inside her that she could hardly breathe.

Yet somehow, she kept walking.

Hours passed. Maybe more. Her feet ached, blistered and bleeding, but she didn't stop. Not until the forest thickened into darkness, and exhaustion pulled her to the forest floor. She curled up beside the base of an old pine tree, clutching her bag to her chest, and let the tears fall again-quiet this time, mournful.

She had no home. No pack. No mate.

Just a body used and a soul discarded.

"Why would the Moon Goddess do this to me?" she whispered into the night. "Why would she give me a mate who rejected me?"

No one answered. Not the stars. Not the trees. Not her own wolf.

It was the first night she had ever felt truly alone.

Morning came with a growl. Not from her, but from the creature watching her.

Aria's eyes fluttered open, her limbs stiff. Across the clearing, a rogue wolf stood tall, brown fur matted and eyes gleaming with hunger-not the kind for food, but power. He bared his teeth, and her heart skipped.

"Easy," she whispered to herself, slowly rising.

The rogue circled her, sniffing the air. He sensed her weakness. Smelled her pain.

"I don't want to fight you," she said aloud, backing away slowly.

But her wolf stirred then-finally-and growled deep in her chest.

The rogue lunged.

Instinct took over. Aria shifted mid-air, her white wolf emerging in a flash of fur and fury. Though smaller, she was fast-graceful. She dodged the rogue's snapping jaws, slashing at his side with her claws.

Pain lanced through her as he caught her shoulder, but she didn't stop. She couldn't. Her wolf surged with a kind of primal rage born not just of instinct-but of heartbreak.

With one final leap, she struck his throat, and the rogue yelped, stumbling back before fleeing into the woods.

She didn't chase him.

She collapsed into the grass, panting, blood seeping from her wounds.

But she was alive.

She had survived her first night as a rogue... and won.

-

The days blurred together after that.

Aria wandered far from the Moonstone territory, searching for food, stealing bits of clothes and supplies from abandoned cabins. Her body grew leaner and her senses sharper but her soul remained fragile.

Nights were still the hardest. The loneliness, the ache in her chest, the constant memory of Damon's voice saying she was not enough.

She often touch her stomach due to the pain she feels sometimes which she did not understand why at first Until the nausea, dizziness and strange flutter in her belly.

"No," she whispered, standing at the edge of a stream one morning, staring at her reflection. "It can't be..."

She dropped to her knees and splashed cold water on her face. Her hands shaking as she pressed them against her flat stomach.

Her mind fought the truth, but her body already knew.

She was pregnant.

With Damon's child.

Tears sprang to her eyes again-not of sorrow this time, but of fear. What was she supposed to do? She was alone. Rogue. Hunted. With no allies, no shelter, and now carrying a life inside her?

Her wolf whimpered inside her, a sound of mourning and protection all at once.

Aria curled into herself, sitting on the river bank, and cried harder than she had since the night she had been rejected.

But when the crying stopped, something inside her shifted. She had someone to protect now. Someone who depended on her.

She wouldn't die out here.

Not for Damon, not for any pack.

She would live, survive and become stronger for her child.

Weeks passed.

Her pregnancy progressed faster than expected-werewolf genes accelerated everything. The faint swell in her belly began to show, and with it came a new strength. Her senses heightened beyond normal. Her energy returned in surges. Her wolf began to speak again, whispering not sorrow, but determination.

On one rainy evening, she stumbled into a valley hidden by illusion-a place cloaked from rogues and hunters.

A woman stood at its entrance, Tall, silver-haired, eyes glowing with wisdom far beyond a normal wolf.

"I've been waiting for you," the woman said, smiling. "Come, child. You and the little ones growing inside you have much to learn."

"Who are you?" Aria asked, soaked and breathless.

"A guardian of the wild. And perhaps... your salvation."

The valley accepted her.

The woman-Elaria-was no ordinary werewolf. She was a descendant of the Moon Priestesses, ancient shifters blessed with powers beyond comprehension.

And she had seen Aria's future in a dream.

"You were cast out," Elaria said as they sat by firelight one night. "But you are not broken. You were rejected, yes... but you were also chosen."

"By who?"

"The Goddess herself."

Aria stared into the flames, hands resting over her growing belly. "Then why does it hurt so much?"

Elaria smiled softly. "Because before you rise, child... you must first fall."