Chapter 3 The Howl Between Worlds

The days that followed Selene's acceptance were unlike anything she had known.

Before, she had walked the halls of Bloodfang Fortress as a shadow, silent, observing, unseen. Now, eyes followed her everywhere. Some curious. Some hostile. And some filled with an emotion she could not name. Respect? Fear? Recognition?

Kade kept his distance. He spoke only when necessary. No more lessons. No cryptic confessions. No stolen glances beneath moonlight. He had become the Alpha again, stoic, disciplined, unreachable.

But Selene had changed.

The circle had burned something into her. She felt it in her skin, in her dreams, and in the way her breath caught whenever the moon rose. Her senses were sharper now. The wind spoke. The stones whispered. And sometimes, in the quiet between footsteps, she could hear the faint, echoing thrum of a heartbeat that was not hers.

She wasn't sure when the wolves began bowing to her. Not a deep bow, not the kind they gave the Alpha, but a nod, an acknowledgement. A sign. She had stood in the Lunaris Circle and survived. That made her part of something older than blood.

The servants whispered.

"She is not like us anymore." "Do you think she will take a mate?" "The Alpha watches her. Even when she does not see."

Selene ignored them.

Until she could not.

The first real test came not from the fortress, but from the border.

Three wolves were found dead near the eastern forest, their bodies torn, not by claws, but by flame.

"Silverfire," Kade said, tossing the charred pelt of one onto the stone floor. "The Howlers of Vell are making their move."

He was surrounded by his council: elders, war-captains, and tacticians. Selene had never been allowed into these meetings before, but now, Kade had summoned her.

"Why am I here?" she asked.

Kade didn't look at her. "Because the bloodline recognises you. And the Sentinels bowed to your howl."

The room fell silent.

One of the captains, a tall, scarred woman named Ryla, spoke up.

"She is untrained. A girl. The bloodline may accept her, but she cannot lead."

Selene met her gaze without blinking.

"I did not ask to lead. But I also didn't ask to bleed. The moon chose. I just stood my ground."

That shut Ryla up.

Over the next weeks, Selene trained.

Not with swords. Not with teeth.

With presence.

Kade assigned her a mentor, an old shaman named Mael, who had once served Elira.

"You want to survive?" Mael asked on the first day. "Then you must understand two things: power is not in the shift. It is in the silence between."

He taught her how to listen. How to command a room with a glance. How to recognise dominance in the way someone breathes. How to speak so others lean forward, not back.

And at night, when the fortress slept, Selene studied the old scrolls, histories of Alpha bonds, moon rites, and the legend of the First Shifter.

One name appeared again and again.

Elira of the Flameborn Moon.

The girl who had saved Kade.

The girl who had died.

And the girl whose blood may now live in Selene.

Kade watched her from afar. She felt it, even when he was cloaked.

She finally confronted him one night after training.

"You avoid me like I carry a curse."

"You do," he replied.

"Then why not cast me out?"

He looked at her for a long time.

"Because you bring it closer."

"What?"

"The end. Or the beginning. I cannot tell which."

Then he walked away.

A week later, the Howlers attacked.

It was dusk when the warning horn sounded.

Selene was in the west garden, studying a map of the outer provinces. When the sound reached her ears, a long, low wail that split the sky, she dropped everything and ran.

Smoke rose over the eastern watchtower. Wolves poured through the gates in their shifted forms. Screams and howls mingled in the air.

Selene found herself at the command hall, flanked by Ryla and Mael. Kade stood over a table, armour half-buckled, issuing orders.

"Flank from the southern ridge. Do not engage unless you have confirmation of their full numbers. Ryla, take ten and sweep the north tree line."

He looked at Selene.

"You stay."

"No."

"Selene"

"I can help. Let me fight."

Mael touched her shoulder. "Then you must bind. Tonight."

Kade went still.

"She is not ready."

"She does not have a choice," Mael said. "You bonded with Elira too late. She died. You bond with Selene now, or she will."

The Bonding Rite

They stood in the Temple of the Blood Moon.

Two circles. One of ash. One of salt. Kade stepped into one. Selene, the other. A shallow bowl of shared blood was placed between them.

Mael began the incantation. Ancient words. Words from before language.

Kade sliced his palm. Selene did the same. They let the blood drip into the bowl.

"By blood, by breath, by bone," Mael intoned, "let the bond be known."

The wind rose.

The torches died.

A force surged between them.

Selene gasped. Her heart was no longer hers. She could feel Kade's heartbeat. His pain. His power.

And for the first time, he saw into her memories.

The fire. Her mother's scream. The ash.

And she saw his.

Elira.

The day she died.

The way he begged the moon.

The way it said: Not enough.

When the Rite was done, they collapsed.

Mael whispered, "It is done. You are no longer two."

The Howlers were pushed back by dawn.

But Bloodfang had changed.

Kade and Selene were now bound.

The wolves could feel it.

So could the northern wing.

That night, the sealed gate throbbed with silver light.

And it whispered a name:

Selene.